AIBU? My hair is awful! What do I do?! Pics included….

[forgoodnesssakee]

I went to a hair appointment this afternoon, which I was scheduled in for since 2 weeks ago. It was a free of charge ‘model’ appointment for the hairstylist, who was completing a trial session in the hair salon. (But many many years of experience in other salons)!

I was booked for today at 4.30pm - and messages at 4.05 and again at 4.15 to say I’m running behind as two taxis cancelled on me back to back, so I had to walk from home to the closest shopping complex (8’ min walk) to find a taxi that was available to get me to the salon, which was 22 minutes away.

On the way there, as expected, we hit every single red light imaginable and I ended up arriving at the salon at 4.36pm - so six minutes after my allotted appointment time.

On the journey there, the stylist was kept informed on my estimated arrival time etc. when I text to say I was 2 minutes away, the stylist text me to tell me their next client had arrived, and that they will no longer be able to do my colour appointment and will just be able to do a wash and dry.

Baring in mind that at this stage, I’d just arrived to the location and had paid £52 for the taxi as I was stuck in heavy stop start traffic almost the entire journey.

When I get into the salon, the stylist is rude and extremely unwelcoming and tells me - again, that he is not willing to do the color service. I explained that I was sorry for being late, and another member of staff came over to ask what the problem was.

The stylist then proceeded to tell the other member of staff that I was 36 (!!!!) minutes late for my appointment, and that I was actually booked for 4pm. This is categorically untrue and I showed them both my appointment confirmation for 4.30. Again, I explained that I was sorry for being late and at this point I was getting extremely upset and red and embarassed. It turns out he had a 2nd client booked at 5 and the salon closes at 7. He’s not left enough time.

The stylist then reluctantly tells me he will do some minimal ‘scatter’ highlights if that makes me ‘happy’ and that will be it.

Before I can answer he’s sectioning out my hair - no prior consultation to ask me what I’m looking for - and proceeded to start putting the bleach on. This literally happened in the blink of an eye. I had no time to react and didn’t even have a gown on at this stage.

Fast forward and he’s added some random highlights to diferent sections of my hair, and it’s left on for 35 minutes, before being washed out.

When washed out by the assistant, the stylist was asked if he wanted to check the highlights. The stylist then proceeded to come over and say they’re fine without even really looking, and when the assistant asked which toner they wanted to use, the stylist said none - my hair doesn’t ‘need’ it.

I’ve been blonde all my life and NEVER have I ever had highlights without a toner.

When I was back in the chair and my hair was being dried, the stylist didn’t speak to me.

Once dry he told me I’m done. The other member of staff then came and looked, signed off his work and I was told I’m finished and can leave. I’ve never felt so rushed and unwelcome in my entire life. I know this was a free appointment but I’ve left feeling even worse about my hair than I did going in.

Girls - what do I do? My highlights are uneven, chunky in parts and thin in others, some start up higher on my root than others, and they’re so brassy they look yellow.

Please give me some advice? I feel like I don’t have grounds to complain but I also feel humiliated and disrespected and like I was an inconvenience for helping the stylist out on their assignment.

I wouldn’t want anybody else going through this. I’m so upset I’m in tears.

I’ve tried to take a photo as clear as I can, and to be honest the photo doesn’t even do it justice, it’s so yellow and awful. The blonde is so yellow and it’s making my hair even look oily?

I don’t want to cause an issue as I don’t want to cost this stylist their potential job - but at the same time I’m really disappointed with the outcome. It’s only since I got home that I’ve noticed how bad it is! In the salon the lighting was very low and moody and it didn’t show so much.

It looks fine, but wash it with some purple shampoo and in a few weeks the harshness of the bleach will have eased.

All these people recommending purple shampoo makes you know they don’t know anything about hair.

No this is exactly correct!

School me then

I don't see how anyone can be traumatised for years after an unsatisfactory hair appointment. It's hair. It grows out.

Complain! This was appalling customer service. 6 mins later, with full updating, is nothing. You’ve got hair you hate that will be expensive to put right. You weren’t respected. I can imagine how you felt steamrollered here; we’re conditioned to be polite and you felt flustered from the journey. But this is not an acceptable experience and if this is meant to be an assessment for a job why NOT feed back your unhappiness if it’s an honest representation of your feelings.

Send an email summarising your experience and where you felt let down, and just see what their response is. I’m sure the salon will want to know

in Superdrug you can buy toning drops that you add to conditioner. I would tone it with that. It will look fine.

So you didn't leave enough time
You spent money on the taxi
You were late
Your hair is fine, you're being dramatic

I can see that it looks very yellow - I’ve had a similar experience where they’ve gone too bleachy when I really wanted less bleach and more toner- I think if it were me I’d get a permanent ashy / grey blonde dye and go over it with that (test first obviously). That’s what I did in my situation.

It’s a bit stripy but it’s not awful. Try washing and drying to see if it evens out a bit when your hair settles?

If I were the boss I’d like to receive feedback

Why did you just sit there @forgoodnesssakee ???
You could have said, Wait. Stop.
Unless, of course, you were bound and gagged.
Were you?

Hair doesn't settle. Washing it will not change the fact that some parts were bleached. If she doesn't like it she needs a re-do - with someone else, obv.

I wasn’t bound or gagged 😭🤣 but I did have one woman one side already sectioning and clipping my hair, one slapping bleach on, and one asking me if I want a coffee all at the same time.

I was already overwhelmed with the journey and how I’d been treated.

Coulda, shoulda, woulda. 🤷‍♀️
Live and learn.

I’ve personally had much worse and paid full whack for the pleasure. As others have suggested, there are some really good purple shampoos, conditioners and even toners on Amazon. I’ve used Olaplex no.4 blonde enhancer toner shampoo and it’s great. Just read the instructions and use a conditioner after.

You've had some harsh responses! Six minutes late is not enough to justify this, and as you say- he had booked someone in too soon after you anyway. OP, I know nothing about hair but I'm afraid I agree that it is rather brash and stripey. I would complain about your treatment and the quality of the job.

OP please ignore all of the nasty posts on here. You were treated badly, full stop! OK you were late, but only by 6 minutes, and you had kept them informed the whole time. You were bulldozed into having something done that you didn't want, and were not happy with, not consulted, and this was supposed to be the stylist showing the owner what he could do? There is NO WAY that I would employ him after seeing that! So in your shoes, I would email the owner immediately, tell them EXACTLY what happened, and how you were made to feel, and that if you went to a hair salon and were ever treated like that by a stylist under normal circumstances it would be the last time you visited, and you would be bad mouthing them all over social media! I would also go so far as to tell them that if they employ this stylist long term, you definitely won't be going there in the future. This IS NOT acceptable, whether it was free or not, and you should definitely make your feelings known to the owner of the salon.

Its very 90s. Can you get a root melt?

Overwhelmed!?!? God help you if you're overwhelmed by this.

Sometimes I think you could show your hair half burnt off on here and some people would say "it's fine, what are you moaning about" 🙄

OP- That sounds miserable honestly.
He started the highlights and they didn't even put a gown on you? While working with bleach? I'm not a hairdresser but that seems mad to me.

No toner sounds weird to me also and even though it might look "fine" to other posters- you aren't happy about it and nothing was discussed with you about what look you were hoping to achieve.

Also, I hate being late for anything and am usually embarrassingly early but SIX minutes is hardly late enough to refuse to do what they originally planned surely?

I don't know. Maybe a hairdresser will come on and give a professional opinion, but I think it sounds miserable and YANBU.

I think this is the risk you take as a hair model. I’ve done it once, hated it, will never do it again. They cut it SO short and styled it horribly (but I guess it was for their portfolio!)
Can you get some purple shampoo on it? Try and tone it down at home.

Wow that’s very 2000s.

Why don’t you have grounds to complain? I work in an industry where reading reviews is a daily task so I know customers like to add colour to their stories for maximum effect but what you’ve written, married up with the photos makes perfect sense. Not only did you have a terrible experience, but they clearly did this out of spite because you stood your ground.

If I were you, I’d copy and paste the bulk of this post in to google along with the images and wait for the salon to contact you to either offer to rectify this or give you your money back.

Charming 🤣