to think it shouldn't be beyond a trained hairdresser to trim a 2 year old's fringe regardless of gender?

[hellsbells76]

not a huge issue really but i still feel a bit ranty and will feel better if i let off a bit of steam here! have just marched around town with DD trying to find her somewhere to get her fringe tidied up (after my disastrous botched attempt to do it at home). most of the female hairdressers round here are appointment only so i tried a few barbers where you can sit and wait. went in one that advertised 'child cuts' for £6 with three people already waiting. so we waited for about 20 minutes only to be told 'sorry, we don't cut girls' hair'

i mean, what? she needed a straight fringe, nothing else. does 2 year old girls' hair have some weird magical property not present in the hair of 2 year old boys, which renders it impermeable to barbers' scissors or something?

plus they let us sit there for 20 mins (and she's head to toe in pink today so not as if her gender was in question) without saying a bloody word till it came to our turn!

all the other barbers advertise boys cuts only so here i assumed 'child' meant 'boy or girl'. when i suggested this was misleading she said 'well there are two great big barbers poles outside the door, didn't that give you a clue?' rude cow! shan't be taking DS in there any time soon.

grrr and . i know it's not a major thing but trying to keep a toddler occupied and quiet for 20 mins for no bloody reason is not much fun! anyway, we finally found a ladies' hairdresser who gave her a chop for £3 and did a fine job considering she freaks out and starts headbanging any time she sees scissors so it was all ok in the end. just wanted to let off steam here!

YANBU - but a lot of barbers are not trained! I have 2 boys and gave up on barbers along time ago - if you ask them to cut hair with scissors (not fu**ing clippers) they honestly don't have a clue what to do.

How annoying! YANBU.
My local hairdresser refuses to charge me for cutting dd's fringe. Only takes 30 seconds to trim a toddler's fringe, and she says she'd rather do it than have me hack at it and look like I used the breadknife!

£3! Any hairdressers worth their salt would do a freebie on a fringe. The robbing bar-stools..

lol my mum used to say - she & my dad both have their hair cut 'short' so how come she pays £15 and my dad's is £4.75!

The fact that you were left sit there for 20 mins would be the biggest thing with me. That was just plain rude.
In fact it would p**s me off so much that I would drop a note to trading standards pointing out how you brought your "child" for a "child's haircut", and were refused on gender. False advertising surely.
You are probably better off looking at the old-fashioned places rather than the trendy salons to get your child's hair done; the more modern ones are too flash to bother with the simple jobs in my experience.

ooh good point re trading standards! although i have to walk past it every day and they'd know it was me that grassed them up...
and i didn't begrudge the £3 as dd is a very tricky customer and literally clung to me sobbing while the hairdresser tried to get close enough to cut it - there was another lady there trying to distract her with brushes and things too, so i reckon they earned it! anyway it's been a lovely day apart from that so i've calmed down considerably now, thanks for letting me get it off my chest!

I'm a hairdresser, and i'd have only done a free toddler trim if the parent was in for a haircut....Toddlers are the worst when it comes to hairdressing!!....I cut both my dc's hair at home and it can sometimes take 3 days of cutting a bit at a time to get it right!! and they are used to it!!....DS currently love having his hair cut and wants it done on a daily basis and cries when i say its not grown enough!!
i think £3 aint so bad....i'd have charged about £2-3 depending on how long i had to be there for...if its 5mins with a wriggling toddler, i could put a colour on in that time and get £20 for it instead!!

This has just reminded me of the time years ago I took dd at about the same age as your dd to a woman who usually only cuts mens hair.

She was very obliging in that she did it, but my poor little girl (and she's a very 'girly' girl too) ended up with a boys short back and sides

It was awful because I'd only wanted the fringe trimmed. It was the only part that needed trimming. The rest was taking ages to start growing properly. We were just getting somewhere with it and she chopped the lot off.

Unless you are a cross dresser I can't see why you had to wait 20 mins before being told they couldn't help you
What did they think you were sat there for fgs!!!

glaskham - quite, i didn't expect a freebie especially as i wasn't in there to have mine done (god, the thought of trying to get my hair done with DD in tow!). tsarchasm - bless your DD with her short back and sides! did you have to go ultra-girly with pink and frilly clothes to make up for it till it grew back?

when we livd in lincs the hairdressers in the village were all blue rinse and lotion sets .....rather gutted one day i was sat in the barbers awaiting ds1 having haircut and admired the lady cutting it hairsyle,,,,,ohh she says she does it and pointed to young assistant,i asked her to cut mine presuming shed make a home visit she sat me in the chair cut my hir bck into its victoria beckhm short at the back and wedged with a long fringe (it was trendy) and charged me ......£3.95!!!!!im telling you it was the best haircut i ever had when i ws pregnant with ds3 i mysteriously lost a lot of hair and she used to invite me to the shop in the dinner hour on a friday to keep my hair looking as good as it could- and wouldnt take a penny!!!i paid her in prawn salad lol

We did indeed hellsbells. I have a photo of her over the pc now at that age.

Looking at it we went for the ultra girly look perhaps a weeny bit far to over compensate.

I even did that thing with her hair (heinous crime accoriding to majority consensus on mn) of putting what little tuft of hair she had left in a mini topknot Dh even made me get her a new jacket cos it was blue and a lady said she was a lovely little boy.

Ah well...she's all grown up now (9) and has a lovely bob, so we survived. Mind you her haircuts nowadays seem to cost a small fortune.