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Original poster

Worst Hair Salon Experience...

55 replies

Mplpurple · 22/12/2023 23:11

I'll start. My normal hairdresser called in sick last Christmas Eve and the salon had to accommodate their clients. I was so grateful, but...
My head got scalded at the backwash. My earring was ripped and blood went everywhere.
My hair wasn't styled at all, just blowdried and dry snipped. It looked so flat, like I'd been out in the rain with a centre part and all even though I'd gone in with a side part.
And all that took FOUR hours.

I was at least able to salvage it when I got home but I tend to enjoy feeling like a million dollars having spent a lot for a hairdo.

Anyone else had a disaster?

OP posts:
GreenPencil · 23/12/2023 16:22

@christmaspawpaws do you mind me asking which curly hairdresser you use? I’m so tempted by Nuala Morey in Bristol!

Piggypiggyoinkoink · 23/12/2023 16:41

Last Saturday before Xmas a few years ago, hairdresser had obviously overbooked so was working three chairs. I was in for a cut and colour. To get my hair ice blonde required two applications of bleach before the colour. I wasn’t really paying attention at first but eventually realised I’d been sitting under the first bleach for about 40 minutes (scalp was a bit tingly). That got washed off, second bleach went on, same thing happened. She did say as she dried it “your scalp is a bit pink”. By the time I got home my scalp was scarlet, it took weeks for it to get better - crusted over and everything 🤢

in true British fashion I kept going back until she moved salons 🙈

Christmasmug · 23/12/2023 16:42

I hate hair salons (I'm autistic so they're a difficult environment for a number of reasons) but had screwed up the courage to book an appointment at one which came highly recommended on the local FB group. There's only one stylist and when I arrived (less than 5 minutes before my appointment time) he was curled up on the sofa knitting. He told me to sit at one of the stations and that he had one more person before me (how when I was on time for my appointment and no one else was there?!!) and carried on knitting for about 10 minutes until the other customer turned up. He then stopped knitting and while chatting to her proceeded to open the back door (directly off the salon itself, no back room) and stand half in half out while he had a cigarette with the smoke wafting in! When he'd finished smoking he went straight to the other customer (no handwashing btw) and started doing her hair. I'd been there half an hour by now and he hadn't so much as asked what I wanted doing so I left, have found a lovely mobile hairdresser now and will hopefully never set foot in another salon. Still wonder how on earth he had so many good reviews Confused

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Beauty
Nottodaty · 23/12/2023 17:02

I have curly hair and a few disasters….

Worse they cut it too short and- it was y11 photo day the week after and my Mum put that photo up. A couple of years later met a boy who came over and said I didn’t realise you had a brother.

Not the first time the hairdressers cut it to short with so called layers! I saved up once and went to a high end hairdresser ended up with streaky highlights that looked cheaply done and too short. My husband who was my boyfriend at the time thankfully didn’t run for the hills and was polite about it….worse I realised I had the same hairstyle as the 50 year old work colleague ( who was lovely but very traditional mumsy look) I was 22.

I have had two trusted hair dressers for 22 years now - my current hair dresser is getting to expensive but I’m too scared to try anywhere else!!

Pizdietz · 23/12/2023 17:19

I took a photo of Kate Bush to the local hairdresser, when I was a teenager. I have very straight hair and imagined that a perm could give me lovely wavy hair like hers. They put in tight rollers and tons of chemicals, and forgot about me for a good couple of hours. When they took the rollers out, half of my hair broke off at the roots, and the other half was frizzed like Bride of Frankenstein. I was too shortsighted to evaluate the damage clearly till I got home, so I thanked them and tipped them. To be honest, I'm such a wanker, I'd probably have done that even if I could see properly 😔

Snowflakecookie1989 · 23/12/2023 17:32

Having an old lady die in the salon chair when having a perm. I was an apprentice at the time :(

FizzyStream · 23/12/2023 18:43

I went to Toni and Guy in about 2000 and spent £104 for them to turn my hair yellow. They knew it was wrong because at the end they said it'll look brighter in daylight.

I went home and cried. I was only 19 so didn't have the balls to complain. My mum took me straight to her hairdresser who fixed it.

Bearing in mind this was 23/24 years ago and I was so young so only earning about £5 an hour, it was a hell of a lot of money to waste!

christmaspawpaws · 23/12/2023 18:54

GreenPencil · 23/12/2023 16:22

@christmaspawpaws do you mind me asking which curly hairdresser you use? I’m so tempted by Nuala Morey in Bristol!

Hairking Callum in Manchester Smile

Pizdietz · 23/12/2023 18:58

Snowflakecookie1989 · 23/12/2023 17:32

Having an old lady die in the salon chair when having a perm. I was an apprentice at the time :(

That puts my perm into perspective 😶

seagull82 · 23/12/2023 19:14

Not a salon story but last Christmas I decided to box dye my hair to save money,. Didn't do a patch test and ended up in hospital.. swollen forehead and strangely swollen nose?! Also one eye swollen shut along with one ear. Such fun.

3luckystars · 23/12/2023 19:22

Was it a black dye?

Britpopbaby · 23/12/2023 19:26

Root touch up colour was visibly wrong.
Dye on my clothing
Old fashioned techniques used

Two Visits ( not including the appointment to put things right) was enough but I don’t hesitate in telling people to avoid the place after my experience.

Dutch1e · 23/12/2023 19:49

I have "white person curly hair" which is basically just very tight waves with delusions of grandeur.

It does perfectly well with a wet trim like straight hair but the stylist I went to insisted that I needed a specialist curly cut.

I came out looking like Little Lord fucking Fauntleroy which was actually quite fortunate as I had to throw a strop like a spoilt Victorian lord for them to grudgingly accept that I wasn't paying.

LittleBoPeepHasLostHerShit · 23/12/2023 19:59

Asked for ash blonde, came out very warm, like a strawberry blonde/cooper shade. When I complained, the hairdresser (who had brown eyes, black eyebrows and peroxide yellow hair, so perhaps not someone to take colouring advice from) told me "with your complexion, this is the right shade of blonde for you".

Apart from anything else, this is not true. Red tones in my hair makes my skin look pink.

ShipshapeShore · 23/12/2023 20:20

Not a horror story but it's reminded me of a strange experience once. The stylist asked me to choose an essential oil by sniffing them and saying 'today' or 'not today'. She looked like she was cringing as she was doing it and I felt really weird!

ChateauDuMont · 23/12/2023 21:27

Root perm in the 80s after big perms went out of fashion and I stupidly told my hairdresser that I missed having the big volume and she told me about a root perm that I had never heard of.

I left thinking it looked ok

But when I woke up the next day I had a huge cowlick that I had to battle every day for over a month.

I wanted to shave my head .

DuckyShincracker · 23/12/2023 21:36

My hairdresser went on maternity leave bless her and I had a fairly new hair dresser. I told the new guy my hair was breaking and I'd had to wipe it all off my bedroom window where I brushed it in the morning, it was so bad. He reassured me I could have it bleached again. I trusted the professional that was charging me £120. Bad move. My hairdresser has been nursing my hair back for about 5 years now. It's finally getting there.

FionnulaTheCooler · 23/12/2023 21:36

A few years ago I needed my hair done for an event I was going to in the afternoon, so I had booked the first appointment they had, 9am, to give myself plenty of time to get ready after. Turned up to a locked door and nobody there, about 10 minutes later the woman who rents a room at the salon to do beauty treatments turned up to open up and informed me "Hair stylist has just nipped to the cash and carry she'll be here soon." About 20 minutes later she showed up and started lugging boxes of shampoo in, and just when I thought she was finished she disappeared off to the car again and came back with her bloody dog, and proceeded to spend ages settling it in its crate in the corner. If I hadn't really needed my hair done I would have walked out, needless to say I never went back there.

hattiehitty · 23/12/2023 21:46

Oooh forgot the time the hairdresser left full scalp bleach on the back of my neck, so I needed steroids for the rash.

That happened to me years ago when I used to dye my strawberry blonde hair a lighter colour. The stylist hadn't washed it off properly. Luckily avoided steroids but I had a sore itchy scalp. I had to wash it as soon as I arrived home.

hattiehitty · 23/12/2023 21:49

I asked for an undo for an event and she made me look like Patsy from Ab Fab with a ridiculously massive pouffy bit on top. I asked for it to be changed, twice, and she was very offended told me it was the fashion. I went home and redid it.

FknOmniShambles · 23/12/2023 21:55

New salon. I explained to the woman my hair is really, really curly, despite not looking it, so please don't cut it too short as I need to be able to tie it up for work. Did she listen? No. Instead, as she was drying it, she fell increasingly silent and said "gosh, it is actually curly, isn't it?"
This was the result. I couldn't tie it up for about three months after. Awful. And typically, it was the week I had my new lanyard photo for work, so I'm reminded of it every day.

Worst Hair Salon Experience...
DawnButlersGayGiraffe · 23/12/2023 22:03

Unintentional mullet.

Having a head massage with just the pointy bits of the hairdresser's fake nails. There was blood.

Getting locked into the salon after hours, alone with the bonkers male salon owner, who cut my hair with a razor blade and only let me out 3 hours later.

Anon3211 · 23/12/2023 22:13

Years ago I had a healed eyebrow piercing, the hairdresser knew this and was chatting away combing my hair. Next thing I know she's caught the comb in my piercing 😩 that bloody hurt.

MothralovesGojira · 23/12/2023 23:33

Back in the late 80's I had thick, wavy auburn hair down to the small of my back. I went to my usual hair salon for a trim. I explained that I just needed wash and trim/tidy but only wanted about a inch off. 90 minutes later I left with hair that was just about resting on my shoulders. At some point she had adjusted my chair so that I wasn't in front of the mirror so I couldn't see her cutting so I was speechless when she finished and showed me the finished job. I silently got up and paid but also tipped her - mad I know but I think that I was in shock. Most of my lovely hair was gone and never grew the same. I think that that the stylist was so intent on getting it even that she just kept on cutting and lost sight of how much she's taken off until it was at my nape & shoulder.
I didn't get my hair cut again for nearly 10 years and trimmed it myself (badly!) as I was too scared to trust anyone else to do it.

Isanyonereallyanonymous · 23/12/2023 23:58

This thread is reminding me why I still drive 4+hours to my hairdresser after relocating last year. Some of these are scary 😱

Edit - I’ve also had the aromatherapy oil smelling one many years ago, I’d forgotten about that!