Active discussions

Meet the Other Phone. Child-safe in minutes.

Meet the Other Phone.
Child-safe in minutes.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

Talk
AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

To think that hairdressers should be legally obliged to warn you before commiting topairy ...

96 replies

UsedtobeFeckless · 29/10/2015 16:23

I'd take my specs off and had my eyes shut against the snippets and she was holding forth relentlessly about her cousins dog and by the time I realised what was going on it was too late and my once magnificent fringe was layered to buggery and now my head looks all pointy and it'll take months to grow back ... Wail!

Just wanted to vent, really ... Anyone else got any hairdresser-related horror stories to take my mind off it?

OP posts:
derxa · 29/10/2015 18:15

My hairdresser is the most wonderful man on earth. He listens to me, laughs at my jokes and cuts my hair to perfection. Unfortunately I'm 400 miles away.

chrome100 · 29/10/2015 18:16

I had my worst ever hair cut 5 years ago. Sadly, I was doing the archetypal "treat yourself" after a bad break up. It was awful. Subsequent hair dressers have commented on it and it's still all weird now.

I know it's only hair, but it matters!

emwithme · 29/10/2015 18:21

It was September 1990. I was 13 years old, and had had a perm in February for my birthday. The curls were still holding really well, and my natural wave at the roots looked fab. Mum said I needed to have it trimmed and neatened up before school started, so off we went (me, DM and Aunty) to the salon they went to every week for a wash-and-set or whatever it was middle aged women had done to their hair back then

Hairdresser mentions "long layers". DM and DA nod approvingly so I say OK. Except long layers turned into "super-turbo-mullet". The back was still pretty much bra strap length. The sides were level with my earlobes, and there was NO graduation whatsoever. She then dried it into a frizzy mushroom cloud, using a metric fuckton of product, finishing it off with most of a can of Elnette. My hair was SOLID.

She asked if it was OK. I nodded uncertainly, mum paid up and then I ran out to the car as fast as I could. Back to DA's house, where I washed the product out (took four shampoos) and sobbed proper giant tears about how shit my hair was.

DM and DA agreed that it was shit, but that there was nothing we could do, it would grow back took a fecking age and that yes, I did have to go back to school tomorrow. So I started back to third year senior (Y9?) with hair I hated. I swore revenge on that hairdresser it took 15 years but I got it

Since then I've had a major distrust of hairdressers, until I met the most wonderful one about ten years ago. I now drive 40 miles each way because he is amazing, knows how my frizzy hair functions, gives the best head massages and won't let me do anything that won't suit my hair, and always makes me feel gorgeous before I leave the salon.

73dexter · 29/10/2015 18:29

I swore revenge on that hairdresser it took 15 years but I got it

Now that a story I want to hear!

iklboo · 29/10/2015 18:29

When I was younger the sister of a friend of my mum & dad's used to come and do our hair. I think she was just starting hairdressing college. Trims were fine, but this was the 80s and I wanted a loose, 80s perm. You know, like Madonna or something.

The trouble was, the only perms she had ever done were on the pensioners at the salon she was work-experiencing at. Instead of sexy locks I ended up with a tight, frizzy granny perm that no end of combing & washing made look cool. It just stuck out of my head like a big pouffey mess.

After a couple of weeks I went to a proper hairdressers and had a pixie cut.

fruitlovingmonkey · 29/10/2015 18:31

Awww I feel your pain. I used to dread going to the hairdresser like other people dread going to the dentist. They never knew what to do with my hair type and usually made me feel like a freak. I now have an amazing hairdresser. He treats me like I'm normal, my hair doesn't faze him at all. In addition he has great chat and I really look forward to catching up with him. I live in another country but I still try to go back to him when I can.

MayhemandMadness · 29/10/2015 18:32

I came out if the hairdressers looking like a brunette Margaret Thatcher today.

DH said it doesnt look any different - I'm still deciding how to inflict revenge

lizzydrippingsghost · 29/10/2015 18:59

i went to an hair dresser on the spur of the moment as i couldnt get in to my regular one. i used to go there alot and couldnt remember why i stopped going there.
well i soon remembed, i came out looking like pat fucking sharp.
i wore a hat till i could get in to my regular hairdresser who pissed herself laughing

Original poster
UsedtobeFeckless · 29/10/2015 20:02

Thanks everyone ... I've cheered up slightly having measured the really short bits and decided that the worst should be over by Christmas. Although I'm definitely going to wear my contact lenses next time I go! ( In about a hundred years - think Rapunzel ... Grin

OP posts:
WitchWay · 29/10/2015 20:13

I used to hate having my hair cut before I had contact lenses. Being as blind as a bat without my specs I had no idea what was going on till it was all over, when invariably my fringe would be miles too short.

Aposey · 29/10/2015 20:55

The longest lasting disaster I had was a perm which even after having had two previous perfect perms, went horribly wrong.

I have a lot of hair and the hairdresser started putting the perm lotion on from the top, with my head arched back into the sink. Fine. But by doing that almost no solution got to the thick hair on the back of my head.

After the usual amount of time she checked to see if it had worked, nope. Checked 5 minutes later, nope. Another 5 and another 5. By this time I was getting worried, thats nearly twice as long as it shouldve been. Eventually she decides to wash it all off anyway.

Turns out she'd only been checking the bit she hadnt got much solution on. So I had almost flat hair at the back and horribly damaged, overprocessed frizzy ringlets at the front and sides. She then pretended nothing was wrong and cut sharp layers in so I looked like someone had been at me with garden shears.

After that I took a hairdressing course and knowing a bit more has saved me from a few more disasters.

Aposey · 29/10/2015 20:58

Oh and I regularly have battles over using the barrel brush to blow dry at the end. If I ask for texture and lots of movement in the cut then I don't want it all blown out and straightened/ given a weird undercurl with a dratted barrel brush!

CordeliaFoxx · 29/10/2015 21:03

I had mine cut 3 days before my wedding and she completely ballsed it up - only time I've cried over my hair.

BabyGanoush · 29/10/2015 21:30

Tripadvisor for hairdressers would be great!

TelephoneIgnoringMachine · 29/10/2015 21:46

And they should tell you what kind of hair they specialise in - long, short, straight through to tight curls.

pinotblush · 29/10/2015 21:55

Im lucky enough to have a best friend that's a hairdresser. I'd be besides myself to go to anyone else. Find someone that cuts your hair the way you like it and stick there.

SapphireSeptember · 30/10/2015 00:28

And this is why I cut my own hair. It's past my waist, so I only give it a trim once a year (split ends be damned!) If someone decided to lop it all off I would go mental! It's also fairly flat with a tiny bit of wave and not very thick, so I'm terrified they'll get me with the volumising products. Nobody touches my hair!

BrideOfWankenstein · 30/10/2015 00:41

The last time my hair was cut by "professional" about 2 years ago. I told him specifically that I want my hair like Rapunzel after her hair was chopped off. Short and girly. Fucker made me look like a fucking mushroom. Clearly has his arms growing out of his arse.
Since then I have cut my own fringe and let my hair grow. Did mn haircut couple of months ago. Long version of it.
Now I'm do happy that I don't need to spend money on hairdresser.

Unreasonablebetty · 30/10/2015 00:45

I had to change my hairdresser last year, she was my DDs best friends mum, turns out Her DD was a cow to my daughter (long term) at school and it all ended quite badly... Which was a shame cos she was so flipping good!
So one of the other women in the playground, says she's been a hairdresser since she was 16, her hair always looks good so I say book me in bearing in mind this was SEVEN WEEKS BEFORE I WAS DUE TO GET MARRIED!
I was going substaintially lighter so I knew I needed 2 appointments so I could get the colour I wanted...
You know how everyone gets that 2 week grace period where your hair feels healthy, and thick and lovely.. I never had that, my hair was hard to handle and frizzy and would just break as I brushed it.

I went to a salon the day before I got married, they were horrified that someone had done that to my hair so close to my wedding. I had about 4 inches cut off and they tried really hard to make my hair look nice. The conditions still pretty messed up though, was 5 months ago

iamaboveandBeyond · 30/10/2015 00:49

I had my hair cut this week

Had a stinking headache on the day it was cut. Had my growing out pixie tidied up into a bob. The next day my neck gave an almighty crack and all of a sudden my new bob was longer on one side!!

Behooven · 30/10/2015 00:50

I'm going through this pain just now. Sad

I wanted a Jackie Bird, I got a Pam Ayres.

Google it if not Scottish.

BeeRayKay · 30/10/2015 01:03

Oh this has cheered me up no end.

Ironically my story features a hairdresser I adored.
She was wonderful. Found her entirely by accident, hubby had gone to the barber for a haircut, but had to wait ages, so went into a grubby little salon next door and found this wonderful lady who rented a chair then.
She did his hair so well he booked me in there and then and came back and told me about her.

So, I went to her religiously for 2.5 years. So she knew my hair woes (it takes forever to grow). She played with different shades of blonde and I trusted her implicitly. I could fall asleep and know I would wake up when she was done and it would still look awesome.

After my wedding I was fed up of being blonde and wanted to go a bright colour. So we did. A blue and purple ombre affair. Looked fab.

Went back 12 weeks later.

Remember how I said my hair takes forever to grow?
Well, given that by this stage she really knew how impulsive I was with my hair. Every time I went blonde we stuck random toners and colours in and on it.

So this time. I said, I want to go short.

She knew this was a bad idea. I knew this was a bad idea.
But we did it anyway.

She gave me a mullet. A 23 year old girl, in 2013 a mullet.
A goddam mullet.

I went back a week later and begged her to restyle it again.

Never did return after that. :-(

derxa · 30/10/2015 07:16

My God Behooven that's some difference. Although I'd rather be Pam Ayres than Jackie Bird any day. What a wanker she is.

Original poster
UsedtobeFeckless · 30/10/2015 09:06

Rebound Hair should be a thing ... When you're so horrified by what's just been done that you rush out first chance you get and re-style/re-colour/buy a wig in an attempt to Silk purse/Sow's ear your way back out of the ruins of your self-esteem ... ( It never almost works Sad )

OP posts:
TillITookAnArrowToTheKnee · 30/10/2015 09:14

Many a disaster here.

Fortunately, 19YO DSis is now doing her Level 3 Hairdressing and does my hair perfectly. Even in her first year, she cut my hair far better than any other over priced poncy place.