Creativity tip: go to the hairdresser

This week I went to the hairdresser.

There is not much you can do while someone washes, cuts, tweaks and blow dries your hair…

I realized that a few stepping stones of creativity were reunited here:

• I had some free time
• I was in a somewhat unfamiliar environment
• I was relaxed and not thinking about my TO DO list

So I started looking around. And here is what I wrote down on my Trigger list.

1. They had a TV high up on the wall so that people getting their washed could watch Fashion TV.
2. They kept asking me whether the water was at the right temperature.
3. They were all dressed in white. It looked clean.
4. There were only women clients.
5. They put a number tag on my handbag when they put away my coat.

And such a list is precisely there to trigger some new ideas, whether immediately or in two weeks.

Here’s a few immediate triggers I got:

1. Could they have put something more creative up than a tv? (Interactive) art maybe?
    
2. Why hasn’t someone come up with a tap that automatically puts the water at the right temperature (whatever that is)?
3. Where else could people dress in white to make the place look spic and span? The garbage people? -maybe too extreme.
    
4. Did they have a special ‘woman’s day’? Where else (unusual) could you introduce such a day? The gym for example?
5. Instead of giving you a number to identify your coat, they could have lend me a cuddly bear, a colored scarf around my waist etc. Where else would we prefer not to be a number?

So next time you go to the hairdresser, make sure you use it to be creative and record your observations and ideas.