Shits about to go down in the salon.

[Pipeup]

Im a customer.

Girl has come in with hair down to her bum.

Requested it's cut to the collar bone.

Stylist tied it in little pony fails and cut removed the bands and it's up her neck the girl hasn't seen it properly yet and it looks slightly longer in the front. They have taken her over to wash her hair.

Omg omg omg shes going to go mad! She's just returned from basin whilst I'm typing! That is not collorbone length they have fucking bobbed her!!

One terrible hair cut I had made me look like a potato. The stupid hairdresser said she'd make me look like Rihanna, quite the trick for a middle-aged, irridescently white, dumpy woman like me. It didn't work, but I did get saved by my hairdresser who's cut my hair for the past nine years. She's amazing.

The worst one ever was on my 16th birthday, when I had a root perm on a section of the hair on the top of my head (yes, it was the 80's). The trainee doing it left the solution on too long, so half of my hair broke off at the roots. My hair just won't hold a perm, this being the one and only time I tried it. It fell out into these lank ringlets in about a week. I got so depressed about it, I started hacking at it myself, and ended up with something which closely resembled a coconut fibre doormat on the top of my head, for about six months.
My school photo that year is just lovely, with the addition of a super-pimple between my eyes which looks like a bullet hole.

Sixteen. So lovely.

I hate very long hair.

Relevant.

I had my waist length hair cut when I was ten. My mother thought I wouldn’t be able to manage on a school holiday. I looked like a boy and I cried.

When I was about 14, I asked for a bob and the hairdresser ignored that request and gave me a fucking MULLET. It was the late 90’s / early 00’s at that, not even when mullets were in. I got ripped to shreds in school.

I once went to a hairdresser and had my hair styled with a curling iron. She did not monitor the temperature and took a piece of my hair to curl and it just sizzled off in her hand.

She just said ‘oh sorry’ and I was too timid to make a fuss and I even paid full price. I never returned and told everyone I knew what had happened. A few months before she had quoted me one price by text then changed the price at the till. That time I did object but she said ‘I had to add a trim which is an extra £15,’ even though it was usually included. The place shut down.

Last year I went to the one place near me that opens late (I cannot get to a salon in usual shop opening hours) and for some reason the woman, who I’d had before and been fine, just smiled a weird smile and cut off my fringe.

I was .

It was about two inches long and only covered half my forehead. I went home and cried. DH was like wtf? It was terrible.

I paid. I was in shock I think. My heart was racing, I just wanted to get out. I have told EVERYBODY. Everybody asked about it!

I have no idea why she did this. I have cut my own hair ever since.

Aged 17 I had my first perm, hair broke off leaving me looking like a coconut. Elder sister took me to Vidal Sassoon in Bond street, Hair 'bandaged' with some goo which made it nice with chin length bob. Been going to Theo at Hairport in Bermondsey now for 27 years. Brilliant cutter, knows what suits and always double checks what I want. Very reasonable price. Trust him completely & feel very lucky to have him.

I ended up in hospital with burns when I was 17, after saving up for a spiral perm in the early 90's. It dripped all down the back of my neck which had a U shaped open heater behind it...embarrassed to say, I actually still paid for it as I couldn't see back of my neck, just knew it was really sore!....still remember my mum creating hell after she saw it, marching me down with my hospital bandages. Owners reaction was to say I had sensitive skin and it was my fault for not telling her. I can't remember my mum's exact words but end result was my money back and told I was barred

This was me about 6 months ago. Hair down to my bum and I wanted it just below my collarbone. It ended up just below my ears. The stylist knew very quickly she had cut too much off and spent the next hour chatting away not letting me get a word in. Then at the end, instead of asking if I liked it, got all the other stylist to comment how good it was, how much it suited me etc. I hate confrontation so didn't speak up. I just internally decided never to go back. It's only just now at a point I can tie it back properly.

Whaaaaat you’re supposed to tip hair dressers?!

On another note about a year ago I got really bad chemical burns from a hair cut (it was also nothing like I asked for - think bleachy bright yellow), it felt a bit sore but I didn’t notice until the next day. Facebook messaged them, rejected their offers to correct the colour etc and got a full refund instead. Also never went in for the free treatment they wanted to give me

Whaaaaat you’re supposed to tip hair dressers

I always used to as I was told you should but then I went to my little local one and the guy who owned it did my hair, didn’t do the best job, chatted about how he was about to go on his third foreign holiday that year, and it cost about £80 for my roots and a cut (i’m in London) and I just thought “no”. The way I see it, austerity has hit us all, I haven’t had a pay rise in years. While all my other costs have gone up. So no, now I don’t tip. Although when he saw I wasn’t tipping he got really grumpy, took my money and blanked me. Didn’t even say bye or anything (and the place was empty!). So now I wouldn’t go back there.

I’ve been going to my hairdresser for 12 years. He is co owner of the salon. I know that if he ever refuses to do something I ask for he’ll have a good reason, he knows it won’t suit me/my hair type.

I’ll never forget the time when there was a fad for having a little elf-lock if you had a parting. I’d just grown a fringe out and went for a trim and the hairdresser finished blow drying my hair and cut one in, without warning or asking. What can you do? I was so pissed off but it grows back.

Some of these stories are hideous! I can't believe how often it happens. What really surprised me is most people wonr say anything. I have and always would just start crying.

The poor girl- she is the same age as my DD and she would have cried in the salon. I'm glad they gave her a discount, was it a decent discount?

Hairdressers rely on your saying nothing. There are common tricks such as getting the other stylists to say it’s good or blaming it on you/your hair type. If you end up with a style you haven’t asked for, chances are they made a mistake but won’t admit it. Has anyone got s story of a hairdresser admitting a mistake?

If you are told to change seats, away from the window and you’re having colour for instance, beware! It could mean the colour looks bad in daylight. If they take you back for a “treatment” or use a product excessively, beware! It could mean they have damaged your hair and when you wash and styled it without the product, it won’t look anything like it did in the salon.

They just want you out the door when they’ve done a bad job. They know that the majority of people don’t come back to complain and, as hair grows, there is a small window for them to do so. Some hairdressers even say you must have gone somewhere else since being to the! (Take a picture inside the salon on the day if you are unsure.)

In fact if more people did before and after pictures and put them on social media, hairdressers would have to up their game. And paying more doesn’t mean you get a better experience. The worst colour I ever had was at by a specialist at a Hairdresser of the Year salon who left me when he saw what he had done and got a junior stylist to try and sort it out. They couldn’t. He basically tried to hide until I had left.

We ought to use social media to out these people. You get labelled a “difficult customer” because they have messed up when cutting parts of us off! It’s not good enough.

End of rant.

I had 15" chopped off recently in one go to donate. It was in a pony tail. They were hesitant at first but I insisted. They looked terrified when they cut it off and handed it to me and I loved it already!

Dd did same but about 20" off and she was 10. Again did it for charity raised nearly £500 and donated the hair too. She was so pleased with the result but again they questioned it!

there was a fad for having a little elf-lock if you had a parting

What on earth is an elf-lock?

when he saw I wasn’t tipping he got really grumpy

I've heard that you're not supposed to tip the owner anyway, for some reason!

Sadly most hairdressers are paid minimum wage (something I only learned after I qualified and got my first salon job after my apprenticeship) It's the only trade you train 2-3 years for that pays minimum wage and it's hard work. I know hairdressers rely on tips to bump up their earnings, not that you actually get that much, but it all helps :)

Also the people who do make the money are the people who can afford to own/run a salon so they get tons of money, it's all the other stylists that are on pittence. I used to work in a salon where I did alot of older ladies hair and always remember this old lady who always would give me 50p tip, it doesn't matter what u guve, but just that gesture of giving a tip really makes u feel good, like you've really pleased your client and that's ultimately what u do it for and desipte the crap pay makes it worthwhile!

Bloody phone and it changing my words, sorry for the spelling 🤪

I'd always tip a hairdresser, minimum of 10% so if it was an 80 quid full colour and cut extravaganza yes I would put in another tenner. I take my boys to my hairdresser as opposed to grumpy barbers, and even with their 8 quid cut I'll put in a couple of quid extra.

I only thread the title and thought that you meant you were going to have the shits in the salon!

After a lifetime of gritted teeth and crap haircuts I can say there are far too many incompetent ‘hairdressers’ out there. Hairdressing needs to be better regulated and then some.

I must have spent many years in total trying to convince myself it’s only hair and it’ll grow...well, I’m unconvinced and my hair grows at glacial speed