To find a new hairdresser?

[redlittlesquirrel]

Myself and my partner were going away for a week so I booked a hair appointment about a month before for the morning we were going away. I try to space appointments as far as possible (cost) and because because we were going away, I'd waited longer than I would so it would look nice/be manageable while we were away, which meant it REALLY needed doing. A few days before, I called to double check the appointment time as I was worried that I'd got the time wrong. He confirmed the time was 9:45am.

The day of the appointment comes, I'm running a bit late as I'm having one of those mornings where everything seems to take longer than it should, so I literally run to the salon (luckily not too far from my flat). I arrive on time, the salon owner tells me to take a seat. After 15 or so minutes, the salon phone rings and the owner answers it. It's for my hairdresser (I'll call him C) and the owner says that C isn't in yet but is due in at 10, looks at the time, sees it's past 10 and says it's "typical C", kind of laughs and says that he's spoken with C this morning and that he should be in any minute. At this point I'm a little miffed about the "due in at 10" thing as my appointment was before 10, but thought he'd obviously not looked at C's appointments and that's probably just his usual time on a Saturday.

Another 15 minutes passes and the owner apologises, says he doesn't know where C is and checks his phone...only to see a text from C asking him to cancel his appointments as he's not coming in.
The owner apologies, explains that he's fully booked so can't fit me in and says that C definitely owes me a haircut.
I end up managing to get squeezed in by another salon nearby that do walk in appointments after I explain the situation.

I have no problem with an appointment being a few minutes late (it's happened a couple of times - last time because he was giving his friend a haircut as a favour) and do get on with him well, but I am really annoyed that he has been so unprofessional and I feel like he's taking advantage of the relaxed salon by messing around his clients probably because of a hangover.

I absolutely hate having to find a new hairdresser and I love how he does my hair but AIBU to not bother going back to him? I can't decide whether it would be unreasonable of me to not give him a second chance.

Sorry for the long post!

[NiceCuppaTeaAndASitDown]

If you were booked in for 9.45, they might have expected one of the staff to spend 15 minutes washing and conditioning your hair, so I don't think it's unreasonable for C to be scheduled to start work at 10.

However, I'd be a bit miffed at the owner saying he'd spoken to C and that he'd be in soon as clearly that isn't true. I wouldn't blame C for that though.

I do t think it's unreasonable not to go back, but it may be cutting off your nose to spite your face if C is a good hairdresser.

[redlittlesquirrel]

It's a small salon, only a couple of hairdressers so they tend to wash/condition their own client's hair. They did have an apprentice for a while so he'd do it as and when necessary, but that was last year.
At the moment, I think there is only two of them, 'C' and the owner. When I first started going there, I had a different hairdresser but she left at the beginning of the year to change careers. There was another hairdresser there for a while but didn't see her so I don't know if she just wasn't in or if she doesn't work there anymore.

It's also a 'rent a chair' kind of set up so they basically set their own hours - which means, to me at least, that if I'm booked in for an appointment at 9:45, then that is when he is scheduled to start. If he'd just been running late, I would have been fine about it. It's the fact that at some point he decided he was going in but made minimal effort to do anything about it. He knew he had an appointment at 9:45 so he should have either sucked it up and gone in for the appointment (and cancelled the others if necessary while he was there) or made contact in plenty of time so the client isn't just sat there waiting unnecessarily.

I do believe the owner spoke to him earlier that day because of his reaction when he saw the text - he was trying to stay calm but I could see that he was really annoyed. He said that when he'd spoken to him 'C' had definitely said he would be in, and as he is the owner it reflects badly on him too so I don't think he would have said that if he hadn't actually spoken to him.

Funny you should say about cutting off my nose to spite my face, that's exactly what came to mind to me too, hence why I'm not sure if I'm being unreasonable. It isn't the first time he has been unprofessional though and now I'm constantly going to be wondering if I will actually end up with a haircut or not!

[NiceCuppaTeaAndASitDown]

If that's the case then I'd be tempted to look elsewhere. You're not being unreasonable at all

[Nanny0gg]

Find another hairdresser.

And tell 'C' and the salon owner why. Cancelling that late is very poor customer service.