Horrible haircuts AIBU to.complain?

[Brightyellowspyrograph]

My 16yo has very thick hair with a cowslick. I remember cutting it during lockdown and it was a huge task.

Unfortunately this means that every hair cut he has had in a barbers has been awful. Shorter on one side so it looked like a beret had slipped. Repeatedly terrible slipshod haircuts. So we changed barbers and the last cut wasn't great it was uneven and there was a bit cut out. Today the fringe starts too high on one side of his head, dips down in the middle and then ....well the rest of it was a cm longer.
He's 16 and doesn't want to say anything so he's stuck looking I cut it with crayola craft scissors ...blindfolded.
My hairdresser wouldn't leave my hair looking uneven like that.
Is it common for barbers to.let teenagers walk out their shops looking lopsided because they know the customer is too embarrassed to say something.
My kid is already self conscious of his looks.
AIBU to ask for a refund. Its caused a massive fight with my son who thinks I should leave it.
I want him to go somewhere half decent where they know how to cut thick hair properly

He needs a unisex salon rather than a barber, and preferably a male stylist.

Go to a Toni and Guy and ask for a senior stylist. They call them Style Directors or something like that. You need someone experienced.

I’m surprised how many hairdressers can’t do gents / boys hair, I go to a big salon and out of about 12 hairdressers, only two can cut my 10 year old boys hair, the rest aren’t trained. I would never take him to a barbers, all the kids come out looking like thugs.

As someone with 2 cowslicks on their hairline, he’s in for a lifetime of pain 😅

Please don’t go to Toni and Guys, they’re terrible. Not all barbers cut hair badly.

What does he ask for when he goes in?

Exactly. He looks like a wonky thug. They cut his hair wet after being told he has a cowlick and thick hair. So when it dries it's uneven. It needs to be cut with scissors when it's dry.
Also the last time I sat in the barbers they were so busy chatting to eachother and other customers they can't have been concentrating. My hairdresser the wonderful Irene just concentrates on me and my hair.

Try a salon instead. A lot of these barbers do the one style and not all of them well.

I also wonder is he sitting properly and straight when he is there. I walk past a barber shop regularly and often see teen slouched in the chairs

Look for a proper barber. Not a Turkish or similar with multiple chairs where you pick a haircut from a series of photos on the all.

How much was it, out of interest? I remember DS’s cuts initially costing £5 at a local hairdresser, and jumping up massively the older he got! If your DS went to a cheap barber for a quick cut and paid about £20, then he’s got what he paid for… if he wants a good cut, ideally at a men’s salon or proper barber shop, he’s looking at more like women’s haircut prices. One in the city near me charges from £45, but they do a consultation, wash the hair, do a quick head massage, cut with scissors and clippers as required, and show the customer how to style it with decent products and tools - many men don’t even own a hairdryer let alone know how to use one to style their hair. All that takes at least 45min, so £20 for a crap cut but out in 20min, or £50 for a more considered cut…

I read somewhere ‘you wear your hair every day’ and many people spend more than £50 on lunches or coffees in a week, so it’s just where it sits in your priorities.

My lovely DS had this - he has thick hair, cowlick and the last time he went to the barber with his dad he came home with his lovely hair (that he had been growing in expectation of being able to do a fabulous quiff /fade) cut short as squint fringe just over the eyebrows. It looked like the sort of haircut that would have been done on restrained uncooperative patients in an asylum while they were struggling. I was bloody furious at DH for taking him to the cheapest butcher in town, and poor DS was not happy.

Luckily DS remembered that when he had his waist length COVID hair cut and donated, I had taken him to my hairdresser, and he came sidling up one day and asked me if I could take him to a 'proper salon' instead of going to the barbers with his dad. We gave it a week or two to grow out a bit and then booked him for a restyle at a unisex place, after recommendations from a few of my colleagues who have teen boys. DS had been having a hard time at school and with social anxiety, struggles to talk to people/asserting himself so I went in with him, while he showed some photos and helped him explain what he wanted. Got a lovely senior stylist who was great, she couldn't do the haircut the way he wanted it, but explained why and they settled on a halfway style that when his hair grew out a bit more would allow the style he wanted in the future, and he was really pleased with it (was lovely to see him admiring himself in the shop windows as we left the hairdresser😁)

Certainly costs about 6 times more than our local barber, and DS is now quite loyal to having recuts there and goes around muttering about styling products and ' can you buy me more salt spray' but it was definitely worth it, for his self confidence and independence (he now sorts out his own appointments and takes public transport to the salon). Its really good to see him smiling with a haircut that suits him

This ^

Why can't the wonderful Irene cut it then?

I’m interested in Irene’s work and if it really is wonderful.

Short back and sides. So not helpful.

I think DS fears ridicule

Maybe he needs to grow his hair longer rather than keep it short. My nephews have cowlicks and one keeps a nearly shaved head that he does himself, and the other has shoulder length hair he ties back. Both look good but anything in-between just looks unruly.

She is truly a hairdressing miracle. She knows what I want by mind reading. She also understands that I am hopeless at styling and that I probably won't even dry it with a hair drier. I have the hair dyeing tendency of a 18yo it's currently orange. 6months ago it was pink and before that traffic light red. She happily cuts into it unlike a previous stylist who tried to cut as little as possible and used to move my head so vigorously I thought I had whiplash

I think you are right. I like it when it naturally parts in the middle and goes floppy.

Now we have all calmed down, I think that's how it's going to go that way. He starts college and meet new people so he needs a good haircut.
And the beard needs sorting. He has a full curly beard and sideburns. Someone said he looks like wolverine gone rogue

I think he needs to get on Pinterest or tik tok and find some hair styles he likes with hair like his and find some examples. Just saying short back and sides, he isn’t helping himself. He needs some pictures.

Hmm, I have trained in hairdressing/barbering teaching. Hairline patterns as you describe can be really difficult for inexperienced barbers and hairdressers. I'm going to be honest here. It's half term. Many barbers will have stood all day in the heat, relentlessly cutting hair and rightly or wrongly, a teenager with loads of thick hair, with difficult hair patterns who is maybe the last customer of the day is often seriously unwelcome. There are of course, many shops whereby this is not the case, but the nature of the beast is that it's a minimum wage job, and getting employees who are unprofessional and don't give a shit/sick of kids, is not unusual. You'll need to try different places and as someone suggested, a unisex shop may be the answer, but in my experience not everyone in even a unisex shop will be proficient with clippers, particularly the staff who mainly do ladies. And avoid foreign barbers full stop, they rarely attend colleges, they often train each other. The reason a PP said they come out looking like 'thugs' is that these kids will be asking for skin fades. They are what most of the foreign set ups do and are one trick ponies. You'll not get a nice surfy cut from them. And many just photoshop their photos on social media, or employ 'barbers' in a rent a chair capacity, so it's never guaranteed that the same staff will be there from one week to the next. It is extremely sceptical where their funding comes from - there's 22 in my town and I know some have been selling drugs)... anyway, going back t a skinfade - it's basically what many of the footballers have and in this country, most boys from teens to their 30's copy them. Music doesn't have a huge influence e like it used to - well maybe Sam Fender and the other odd one. OP, it is very likely your sons hair will take time and a half to cut, so it's not a 'quick snip' for the barber, if it is as thick as you say it is. Personally I think pricing should be by thicknes of hair, and time needed for the cut (skin fades take longer - it's like doing fine art). Good luck for the next snip!

I'm a bloke in his 50s who's unfulfilled ambition was to be a hairdresser...I'm too scared to cut someone else's hair! I have, though had my hair cut by the world hairdressing champion and been offered a place at college by the UK coach!

Two comments, firstly a lot of barbers don't seem to have been professionally trained in my experience, especially the Turkish type places and the older generation of barber -who served apprenticeships from the previous guy

Because of his hair growth pattern you will need to find a barber who has actually been to collage. You might want to go for a barbers where they rent out chairs, as these guys need to be good and build a regular client base.

Alternatively, push him to go to a unisex place and ask for someone who cuts men's hair.

Boys and men don’t have to go to a barbers for a haircut. There’s no rule saying they can’t go to hairdressers.
He can go to a hairdresser where he will have a proper appointment and they will put more time and effort in to it. It will probably cost more but will be totally worth it.

There is a barbers down the road from me luckily he is really good (once he’s been nagged at). But at the beginning he just wouldn’t listen to what I wanted and what I was asking for. Now he sees me walking in with my boys and he knows exactly what to do and does it to a good standard.
I do think that if I wasn’t there when he faffed about, they would have sent my boys away with a shit hair cut. So yes I agree @Brightyellowspyrograph, I think they will send teenagers away with whatever they think looks good enough or what they decide they want to do rather than what they’ve been asked for.

Yeah that what me and his sister said this morning