To wonder why it's so hard to find a decent hairdresser these days!

[EmeraldThief]

One who will:

Listen to what I say and do what I want
Not act like they are dong me a favour by doing my hair
Had good people skills
Actually cut it properly!

That's a real problem these days. Cutting. They can't seem to cut my hair properly! I have thick wavy hair, and whilst I appreciate it might be a chore to cut and style when I'm paying for a service I expect to bloody well get it! And why are they so fucking obsessed with razor scissors these days? They make my hair flyaway!

For the past two years or so I've been going to a salon near me, after having a bad experience at a posh place in town. They are OK but the girl who does my hair always stops what she's dong to phone her husband, or go to the loo or whatever she feels like doing. Well today she spent the whole time she was doing my hair moaning that she was hungry and that she couldn't wait for her lunch, and it made me feel like I was imposing on her. There's no way I'd let any of the other stylists do hy hair, and the trainee who washed it today had long acrylic nail extensions and scratched my scalp to bits! Just why?!

She doesn't do a bad job of my hair, but she's not good either. I've had it coloured as well, and while the colour is nice she's not washed it off properly and when I got home Ive had to wipe my face and ears with a baby wipe to get rid of excess colour!

I don't know what to do. I just want to find a decent hairdresser! Why is it so fucking hard these days? And why are there so many people in the profession who are shit at it?

[AllKnickersNoFurCoat]

I can't get a hairdresser to give me an all over tint. I don't want highlights. I want it blonder ALL over, and then when the roots appear, I want the roots tinted a less light colour. so that the next roots aren't as obvious as the first sset, but overall, my hair is blonde.

BUT can i get a hairdresser to do this?

NO.

And I'm not dark btw, it's not that the hairdresser is trying to save me from looking ridiculous. I see jennifer lopez with blonde hair. and beyonce.

[42andGaffaTape]

I have really curly hair, I have given up with hairdressers. They can't cut it, they can't even dry it. I always look like a afro poodle when I walk out.

Last time I made them wash it again and had to walk home with sopping wet hair.

Never again.

[Tokelau]

I can't get a hairdresser to give me an all over tint. I don't want highlights. I want it blonder ALL over, and then when the roots appear, I want the roots tinted a less light colour. so that the next roots aren't as obvious as the first sset, but overall, my hair is blonde.

Where do you live? My hairdresser does this! Actually this is not what I want any more, I've managed to convince her to let me have my dark blond hair grow naturally, and all i want is a few lighter blond bits on top that will blend in. I used to have the all over tint, then I had it tinted darker with a few highlights on top. It still wasn't the right colour for me, so I've had my hair tinted darker again, with a few highlights on top. I want to get to the point where I don't have my hair tinted, I just want the highlights! I can't get her to do this though!

My hairdresser is lovely, but we have different tastes, so it's hard to get her to do what I want. I like the natural look with a little bit of make-up, and a smart hairstyle, but nothing too dramatic or complicated. She likes the bleached blond look, with lots of make up and accessories, and very bright clothes. Lovely for her, but I want my hair to be the way I like it!

[BackforGood]

Personally, I've never found it to be a problem.
Surely if you don't like the service in this salon, then take your business elsewhere. Are you particularly isolated / very rural or something to make that not an option ? (I realise I'm posting from the pov of living in a City)

[fatlazymummy]

I have thick wavy/curly hair as well. A lot of hairdressers don't really understand that type of hair. They think everyone wants straight hair.
I found a nice hair dresser in my Tesco extra. She cut it into a good style (even though I didn't really know what I wanted) that actually suited my hair type and I can look after and style myself . She was also very nice and gave me some helpful advice, so I'm going back there.
Hopefully she hasn't left though, which happened to me before when I found a good hairdresser.

[AuntyMag10]

I think taking a picture of a style that you really like helps. A good hairdresser will be able to discuss with you if it works, or if they are able to do this exactly. At least you will have something to compare to if it doesn't turn out how you wanted it.

[Koalafications]

I'm fed up of saying "trim, please - just neaten up the ends, I don't want a lot off" and this translating somehow to "please take off 3-4 inches - I don't know what I want, so please just go ahead and do whatever you think is best" "A bob? Fabulous, that exactly the look I was going for when I asked for my bra strap length hair to be trimmed - thanks ever so much."

[Pedestriana]

I haven't been to the hairdressers in years. I usually do my hair myself but wanting to lighten it enough to make the next colour (semi-perm, non-ammonia) I popped into a local salon to ask if they could bleach my hair.

Three of the staff faffed about looking at it (It's been coloured, but that was months ago and it's grown out), and in the end they suggested stripping out the colour, then putting a tint on. For £80. I declined their offer and will now do it myself at home. I don't want a tint, I need it bleached to get the colour to take. I didn't think I was asking the impossible.

[magimedi]

In the past I moved 14 times in 25 years & had to find new hairdressers.

I found the best way was to spot a woman with hair similar to mine, that looked well cut & go up to her & nicely ask her who her hairdresser was. No one ever objected & were often please dto be asked.

And, at a risk of getting flamed & drummed off MN, the best hairdressers I have ever had have always been men.

[ifgrandmahadawilly]

YANBU.

It always seemed to me that hairdressers gave you the haircut they wanted to give you rather than the one you have asked for.

However, can I take this opportunity to boast that I have been lucky enough recently to find a hairdresser that actually listens, doesn't give me their 'nterpretation' of the haircut I've asked for, is incredibly cheap, cuts well and doesn't make me chat too much. It's like the holy grail of hairdressers! I've been there twice now.

[ItsTricky]

I do my own hair now, in a sort of long shaggy version of the ponytail cut. I spend the money I save on lovely conditioning treatments. It's never looked better. Ponytail cut only really works well on hair that is curly or wavy though.

[Wagglebee]

And why are they so fucking obsessed with razor scissors these days? They make my hair flyaway!

Fecking amen to this! Even when specifically asked not to use them.

I also have thick wavy hair. I found a great hairdresser once. He then vanished. A hairdresser who can cut thick wavy hair so it falls nicely without being straightened appears to be a rare beast. Maybe they're all in the cities but rurally you've no hope.

[6cats3gingerkittens]

If Kirsten is reading this, please go back to work at the salon, l need you.

[annielouise]

I cut my own but wouldn't recommend it unless you've got curly hair. The last cut I did, last week, I've never had such a good cut - ever (friend said it's layered at the back and the curls look good). I've modified the MN haircut through trial and error. I hate going to the hairdressers. As someone said, they give you the cut they think you should have. Few can cut curly hair well so I might as well do it myself. They want to give you a cut that works on straight hair but I don't have time or the inclination to straighten it every day.

[Dionysuss]

The hairdresser I used to see was fab. I loved the way she cut my hair, she was easy to talk to and she also used to do 2dds hair.

One day she vanished. The salon refused to tell anyone what salon she had moved to. Lots of people we upset, it was a salon inside a country club, so lots of regulars were suddenly without a hairdresser.

I booked in with another girl there. She left my roots bright ginger and always seemed to be in a bad mood.

So I tried a different salon, as it would have been awkward to ask for a different person. The colour come out well, but I was left sitting at the sink with toner on for ages. I was forgotten and had to ask someone to rinse it out.

I have found another and finger crossed so far it's looking good. One lady does my colour perfectly, and another suggested a new style which really suits me and is low maintainance.on my second appointment there they both remembered me. I bet next week when I go one of them would have left, that would just be my luck.

[2rebecca]

My hairdresser is fine. One thing I've found is that the price of a haircut doesn't correlate with how well they do what you want and more expensive cutters can have stronger opinions and see me more as their muse. My hairdresser is a local lass in a small salon and does a great job for £30. I was paying a similar price in London 20 years ago.

[gottachangethename1]

I'm having a similar problem. Loved my hairdresser to start with, but now feel I've let her get too comfortable with me. 3.5 hrs to highlight my t-section last time! She was so busy telling me her woes that by the time it had all been done I felt physically weak.
Asked for lighter shades and was told 'we don't wanna go down that route'. Then asked about going shorter and was told my face was 'too wide' for that. Then I had to hand over £130 for the priviledge . Now decided to go elsewhere. Shame as I finally thought I'd found a good un.

[MagratGarlik]

Another one who finds they can't seem to cut thick, wavy hair without the use of straighteners. I hate straighteners, I don't suit ultra-straightened hair, but they seem to insist on getting them out each time, which means my hair doesn't sit nicely when left to dry naturally the rest of the time.

[helenahandbag]

I've never found a hairdresser that I'm totally happy with and I rarely visit the same one more than twice. I've tried mobile hairdressers, small local salons, swanky £40-for-a-trim salons and I never leave 100% happy.

I have very curly hair but it's quite fine. I'm growing out my fringe and I have to fight them just to trim it, not to cut it back into a side fringe. One kept shaping it too much at the front so it looked even thinner because I was missing the front bits, one made my layers really short and blunt (read: MULLET)... I'm really not asking for much but no-one gives me a cut that I like!

[Damnautocorrect]

It's the ones where you pay for a cut and blow dry. They rough dry it then get the straighteners out - I don't want it straightened I want a decent blow dry so it doesn't need washing tomorrow

[cleanmyhouse]

I once had half a haircut from a hairdresser who refused to cut off as much as i wanted her to as she said "i want to show you that you can trust me so you'll come back" after i told her to cut off a few inches.

While she was cutting my hair she told me about losing her virginity when she was 15.

I never went back and my hair looked shit.

[maroonedwithfour]

I'm with you. Its took my nearly four years since moving her to find a keeper fingers crossed ive only been once to her, she has a room in her house layed out as a salon but at home prices. Shes lovely and the colour was fab!

I did go to a posh place in town but it was soo bloody expensive and didn't feel very friendly.

[OrangeVase]

Mine is fab, Understands what is right for my age and hair type. Can cut my teen DD's hair which is super thick, wavy and v long - and she is happy with it.

But I agree it can take some finding.

[EmeraldThief]

I had a similar experience to you Dionysuss. Managed to find a great hairdresser after being treated really badly by a more upmarket place (booked me in, then when I turned up they had no record of me. Luckily I had my appointment card to prove it, offered to do another day with discount as a gesture of good will. Then on the day denied any knowledge of the discount...)

So I found this other stylist in a small, backstreet type place. Think the sort of place wherw old ladies go for shampoo and sets. She was great. My hair. was like straw from years of bleaching peroxide, and she a manged to get get it back to my natural colour almost immediately. The upmarket place had always said I'd have to do it gradually.

Anyway one day I went to make an appointment and she'd left and they also wouldn't tell me where she'd gone. So that's when I got lumbered with the one I've got now.

I think part of the problem is that so many of them do courses in college cutting synthetic hair on those girls world type of plastic head things, rather than actually learning on the job in a salon.

My DM has a good hairdresser but she only works week days and is so booked up is hard to get in with.

[Sunny67]

I'd started to dread going for my hair doing because of the odd way all the hairdressers I went to cut it. Mine is wavy and they all cut it so the layers didn't blend in, I liked like I has a curly cottage loaf
I went to one who I told I wanted it drying bouncy and not straightened who looked horrified. But I have to use the straightness to check the cut she said. She couldn't seem my point that if I didn't do my hair like that then maybe that cut wasn't going to be right. She did it straight and low and behold when I did it my self it was back to the crap none blended layers.i
I have now found a hairdresser that I like and she knows exactly what to do as her hair is similar to mine