Hairdressers - AIBU to be unhappy with my £170 balayage?

[Bumble88]

I’ve recently had a baby boy and have a three year old girl. So you can imagine my excitement at finally being able to get to the hairdressers (for the first time in over a year) to have a fresh new balayage done.

I went to a small chain which has a branch locally. I showed the hairdresser a photo of what I was looking for in terms of colours and depth of the colour. My appointment was 1pm and I came out at 5:30pm, £170 lighter and with a huge feeling of disappointment.

Whilst I’m not naive enough to expect to look like the model, I just don’t feel the colour looks anything like what I asked for😓To me it looks very flat and single tonal. Some of the hair also has a metallic/brassy look that kind of glistens (like my old highlights had become over time!)

I didn’t say anything at the time as I was a) running so late as I hadn’t expected to be in there nearly 5 hours and b) I felt too embarrassed to say it was way off what I wanted, when what could be done to fix it?

AIBU to think my £170 has not been well spent…? (Image on left is my hair, image on right is what I showed the hairdresser for the colours I wanted…)

This happened to me OP.
The finish seemed nice enough under the salon lights but when I got home it was barely noticeable.
So I took a picture and WhatsAppd it to the salon straight away, alongside a pic of the style I'd requested.
They replied immediately, admitted fault and asked when I could come back in to have it redone... by the same stylist but was free, so I said OK. That result still wasn't amazing but at least it was better.

Moral of the story, you MUST notify the salon if you're not happy. They can't risk negative reviews/gossip. Good luck!

Is that the photo straight after you'd had it done? Because it doesn't look like you've had a blow dry in a salon, it just looks like it's been washed and left to dry. I'd be pretty disappointed just from that point of view, hair should surely look glossy and 'done' when you've just come out of the hairdressers.

OP, your hair looks way nicer than your inspiration photo IMO. The colour of your hair is lovely and natural looking, and it looks full and healthy. I appreciate it's not what you asked for and so if you're not happy you should definitely complain, but rest assured you don't look awful or anything

I just can't work out what they have been doing for 4.5 hours! Was this photo taken straight afterwards, because the hair doesn't even look like it has been styled properly, it needs the waves like the inspiration photo. At least it is not a disaster, there is nothing actually wrong with your hair, other than it doesn't look like you have had anything done.

Hmm. Your layers look really uneven in that pic, and did they even blow dry your hair? It should look all shiny and glossy if it's just been blow dried!

Plus yes, the colours are not as expected...
You need to go back and talk to them!!

I have thicker and longer hair and was done within 2 hours!

If your ends were super blonde before the toner then I echo the previous poster: it'll fade after a few washes and be blonde again. You can fade toner quicker by washing with Head and Shoulders but wait if you can because it's rough on hair at the best of times and yours has just been lightened.

For good blonding one should expect to pay a large sum and be sitting for up to six hours, that's not the issue here. It's the quality/outcome which is in question, quite rightly.

Before going to a salon, check their IG to see their work. Taking a photo and hoping for the best is not a sensible way to get your hair done

I had a whole head of foils

What colour was it beforehand then? I've never had a balayage, but thought it meant freehand colouring and nothing to do with foils, let along a whole head of them???

Have you put a box dye on recently? I’m trying to work out why the bleach hasn’t grabbed on virgin hair. Also pregnancy hormones can affect colour. I’m sorry I can’t recall how many weeks pp you are, but if the hairdresser had any concerns about how this would impact the colour, this should have mentioned at the consultation.

Nevertheless, go back and get it corrected OP. £170 is a lot of money for not much of a result.

I think what you have looks lovely.
I always colour my hair and am always disappointed. Very rare to find a hairdresser to do what you want. I think it’s very hard to get the streaks of white blonde in your hair like in the photo. It’s a process and takes a while to achieve that look. It would have been best if the hairdresser was upfront and said this to you beforehand

Truthfully I generally don’t side with the hair owners (for lack of a better term) in these posts, but yeah I’m not sure what happened there.

I don’t think it’s reasonable to expect the photo as a result, but you should have gotten reasonably close depending on what you started with. Which I don’t think you have.

Price overall seems fair enough

No you need your money back or they need to give it. It's not even remotely similar.

Yeah it's not what you asked for OP. I loathe these situations; you do wonder if having it corrected by the same salon that caused the problem is a good idea.

I like the advice from @Jumpingthruhoops Send them the pic you've posted here & politely ask if anything can be done. It's non-confrontational & they might surprise you.

I would just phone and make an appointment to go back and discuss it with your stylist and a more senior hairdresser at the shop. It’s not what you asked for and doesn’t look like you had anything done. Who cares if they disagree. Then you leave and go elsewhere. You tried. You’ll get nowhere is you don’t even try.

I'm sure that makes the OP feel so much better.

How disappointing☹️You should complain directly to the salon. If they don’t agree or are rude then head office. If you are nervous about it you can get a friend to call on your behalf. Good luck😙

You should talk to the salon asap as your hair doesn’t look anything like the photo and the cut isn’t good either. Try not to worry about the stylist being there when you ask to get it fixed. You’re not complaining, you’re asking for what you paid for. Another branch isn’t going to want to put it right as it’ll be a franchise and you’d be asking them to do the work for free.

Neither photo looks like balyage and yes, you were utterly fleeced!

Like everyone, hairdressers sometimes make mistakes at work. Just send an email or phone the Salon and say exactly what you’ve told us - that you hate complaining and that you really don’t want to make a fuss but you are disappointed and you want it corrected.

If it looked light before the toner try giving it a wash with really hot water and some fairy liquid to take some toner off and brighten it. It looks like it's covered in something making it all dull to me.

Definitely phone up and say you aren’t happy so would like it fixing.
this happened once to my hair- it looked very dull and like it was due a redo even though I’d had it done. Turned out the girl who did it didn’t have the more advanced colour qualifications and hadn’t done any colour correction (to even out the current tones, grey, previous highlights etc) so had just done highlights and toner as if on undyed hair. The manager re did my hair and it was fine but I didn’t go back after that as I didn’t think their standard of ability was good enough. I went to a larger, more city centre one.

initally the girl tried to say it’s coz of the grey in my hair as well instead of admit an issue. I knew this was untrue as I’ve actually had grey for a long long time (went grey in 20s) and had some lovely shiny, colourful hair do.

YANBU- the colour correction on this is terrible plus it doesn’t even look dyed enough to be a balayage. Go back and get that sorted: £170 is too much to waste.

Yes this looks very dull/grey, not at all like the warm blonde in the pic. Though both are in different lighting, perhaps your hair looks warmer in RL?

It looks like she's put to many highlights/too fine highlights so it's given more an all over colour than highlights that pop. You have lovely thick hair so you should be able to get the sort of dimensional colour from the photo- I dream of hair like that but mine is fine so it always ends up looking one colour- you shouldn't have that problem.
The toner isn't great but that's easily fixable- maybe ask for some chunky lighter highlights throughout to make it pop a bit?

What is the before pic of your hair?

I'm no expert, but I have balayage done a couple of times a year and have often felt a bit disappointed leaving the hairdressers as it seemed a bit dark somehow. I too notice it is super blonde when first washed but then the toner goes on and it almost looks darker than before! But every time within 3-4 washes it brightens up as the toner fades out then I'm much happier.
However I understand you not wanting to wait too long before going back to the hairdressers if you decide to complain, so it may not be an option for you to 'wait it out' like this.