For wanting hairdresser to stop talking

[Vaws]

Feeling like a bit of a cow but spent 4 hours in the hairdressers this afternoon. I have two young kids, obviously they take a lot of time. So it’s one of the few chances I have to just sit and have a bit of peace.

I don’t mind a bit of chit chat at the start of the appointment but the whole four hours was just like a running commentary. What she was doing, why she was doing it, what did I normally do.

I did try to read my book but then she kept asking me what it was, was it any good, did I like reading, argghh.

AIBU to have just wanted to have quiet?

yes exactly if you have the same person its nice to talk and catch up etc. Sometimes its good to talk about your hair too.

Hate to sit their like a zombie.

I’d rather chew off my own eyelids than have to listen to someone wittering on for 4 hours. Your paying for her time and skills, not to hear her life story. You are not required to be sociable.

Err - I read a book in the hairdressers, doesn't everyone???

You seem to be taking it personally that not everyone wants to make inane chit chat for hours on end. Not everyone thinks its pleasant. Its a perfectly reasonable way to feel about it.

Personally, I find it to be quite stressful. I'm not good at small talk. I miss my cues, I have a tendency of oversharing so I look interested, I become a bobble headed numpty just nodding and smiling and wishing internally they would be quiet. So, I dont see why, when I'm paying for the pleasure of that time, I can't spend it in a fashion that makes it comfortable for me.

The magazines are there for people to read when they are having a break because they are having a treatment or colour on their hair, or when they are waiting to be seen. I have never seen people reading and trying to move a magazine up and down while the hairdresser negotiates the cutting.😁

Everyone I see is chatting and looking in the mirror as their hair is cut and chatting be that personal stuff or talking about their hair.

There is a massive difference between being sat in silence ‘like a zombie’ for four hours and listening to non stop talk for four. It also took so much longer because she told me exactly what she was going to do and why before she did anything, which was frustrating as I had wanted to go to the shops before getting kids and I couldn’t.

Nobody's making you "sit there like a zombie"

But it should be the clients' choice as they're the one paying for the service! It's rude to force chit-chat on someone who's not interested.

15 minutes of inane chit chat would drive me insane never mind 4 hours!!

Some people just love the sound of their own voice and can chatter on for hours. I'm guessing a few of the posters on here giving OP grief, are those kind of people. :)

I think you should be able to let hairdressers know if you want quiet or chatty as standard

Because some people feel a bit vulnerable at the hairdressers and suddenly find themselves unable to speak

You are paying her to do your hair, not to listen to her non-stop! If you don't get the chance to read a book very often then a four hour stretch at the hairdressers is a lovely time to do it.

Loads of people - book, phone or magazine I’m surprised you haven’t seen this

Goodness me, do people have to be sociable all the time?
My 40hr working week revolves around being SOCIABLE, Ilove my job and put the effort in, I go to a family of 4 who I spend time with because I want to, I love them. Then there are friends I put effort in with. By the time I come round to walking the dog, gym, running, getting my hair cut I need to use this time to recharge my batteries, collect my thoughts and relax. I have usually ran out of energy by this point to worry about some who wants more of my attention.

Sometimes people just need quiet time or they run out of steam.

I'm with you OP.

You do realise that lots of hairdressers are chatting to you purely because they feel obliged to, and not because they're actually enjoying it? Lots of hairdressers would be delighted to have a break from chatting to clients. My hairdresser trains a lot of stylists and she once said that when she gets new apprentices, they often find the chat with clients to be the most daunting part of the job!

The salon I go to has a online magazine subscription service and offer clients a tablet to read them on while you're having your hair done. They are definitely absolutely fine with clients reading a book, playing a phone game, or just being quiet and chilled. If you want to chat, they will happily chat to you, but they will also happily cut your hair in silence.

As it happens, my hairdresser and I have a lot of interests in common, some personal and some professional, so we actually do tend to chat quite a bit, but it's not the small-talk, been-on-holiday-lately / have-you-been-watching-anything-good-on-Netflix type of chat really, which I think both she and I would find quite painful! I tended to just chill and be quiet at my previous hairdresser's place.

It's why I have a mobile hairdresser, I do chat to her but there are quiet bits where neither of us😁 say bugger all. It's soooo relaxing.

@girlfriend44 I can talk to anyone, make small talk when I need to and can and do talk to my friends for hours but I have no interest, like the op, in wasting precious kid free time listening to the inevitable small talk that you do with someone you hardly know and with whom you quite possibly have little in common. I love how my hairdresser does my hair but his lifestyle and idea of a good time (apparently) is nothing like mine and vice versa. Its an effort to sound enthusiastic and polite about something you think would be awful so no, I don't think there's anything wrong with a bit of quiet - I have had far too many people pull a face when they ask me what I do and how they would hate to do that because x,y, z. Its tedious and annoying.

I think most hairdressers take their cues from the client. I get a few niceties over and done with then I can’t wait to get stuck in to the pile of magazines I’ve collected from around the hairdressers! I’d hate to chat for the 2 hours it takes to do my hair. Sounds exhausting.

We’re all different and if you look around the hairdressers you’ll see some reading. Some on their phone and some chatting.

I bet hairdressers love having a break from small talk

Who reads a book in the hairdressers.?

I do. While my colour is taking.

I'm struggling to understand what the hairdresser was doing that necessitated four hours of non stop attention though. When I'm having a colour done my hairdresser puts the colour on then goes away to do someone else's hair.

Depending on my mood, I either speak to hairdressers or I don't.

Last time I was with my hairdressers, honestly I'd heard mostly everything she was saying before so it was quite boring, or it was just a repeat and update on previous things.

My previous hairdresser I quite liked because although she did do chit chat she would actually get on with it and not chat away about nothing, she owned the salon though. Another previous hairdresser was quite nasty, pretended to be my friend but would bitch about anyone and everything, from her husband, kids, colleagues, ex colleagues, even clients! Her current clients think she's lovely but she really isn't!

I take something to read at the hairdressers while the colour’s on. They don’t provide magazines since Covid. Otherwise I don’t mind chatting.

I chat for the hour or so that my highlights are being done and then I read while I’m waiting for the colour to develop and my hairdresser will always have another client during this time. We chat a bit during the cut but not during the blow dry because the dryer is too noisy. That’s been the procedure for the past thirty years.

Probably colour?

I do. It's normal.