Hairdresser couldn’t cut toddlers hair but charged full price

[Bubblebather89]

I was recommended a hairdresser in my local area to cut my 22 month olds hair. She has a walk in only salon with one of those sit in car chairs for children. She was highly recommend from a mum whose child has ASD and she said she’s great with kids and makes them feel comfortable, is flexible etc etc. Anyway we visited his hairdresser on a number of occasions and all went well. My son sat better than expected so she was able to cut his hair with no issues.

Then last week I took him and it was particularly busy with it being near Christmas. My son decided he didn’t want to sit in the car so we moved to the chair with him on my lap. But he was particularly fussy and crying. After 5 minutes she said she wasn’t able to cut his hair. She had cut some at the back but literally hardly anything, of course I understood and I was fine with her not carrying on and I said no problem we will come back another time. It wasn’t a good time for my son and she had a line of people waiting I completely understood. As I was getting my son into his pram she said that will be £15 please darling, which was the full price of the hair cut normally. I was taken back because I thought she wouldn’t charge me anything as she literally only cut a small amount at the back and the rest of the time was me trying to hold him down as he tried to wriggle away. His hair looked worse than when we came in. Because there was a full salon of people waiting and looking at me I just paid. If I’d known she was going to charge me the full amount I would have expected her to try abit harder to cut his hair and been more patient with him. The whole appointment took around 5 mins so barely any time at all. Should I have paid full price or should she have discounted it/ let me come back and try again?

You still used an appointment slot, and it wasn’t her fault she couldn’t cut the hair. At least now you no not to take him when it’s so busy and he’s upset

She gave you an appointment slot, it's not her fault your child wouldn't sit still. Pay her.

I’m sorry but you can’t state that you’ve already paid for a haircut when you’ve had your timeslot!

My hairdresser wouldn’t have charged in this situation, but she’s a friend and I’ve been going to her for my hair for the best part of 8 years now. She has also done all of my 4 year old‘s haircuts including her first, and tbh now I think of it, she’s never charged extra for that on top of the cost of mine. However, these perks are presumably because she’s my friend. I’d fully expect to pay a random unknown hairdresser the full amount if they attempted but failed to cut my daughter’s hair, as I’ve taken up their time.

She is running a business and still needs to pay her bills!

Have you ever worked? If you were at work and the computers you were using had failed and weren’t expected to be repaired for the rest of the week, would you be happy if your boss said “as you’ve not actually done any work, I’m not paying you this week”.

Your son is the computer in this scenario and you’re acting like the mean boss saying you don’t want to pay her!

You took an appt slot at Xmas. Not her fault the cut couldn’t be completed. You need to pay.

I'm surprised she charged you, but maybe it happens frequently enough that she has too financially

Of course she charged you- you are paying for the appointment slot. It’s not the hairdressers fault your son wouldn’t sit.
The situation you described with moving seats, having him on your lap and her cutting some of his hair definitely would have taken more than 5 mins

As goodwill, she should have offered a discount, but if you expected her to charge nothing, you are way cheekier than she has been.

I think YABU It's likely she has to pay a percentage to the salon for all appointments. She did cut his hair as much as she safely could at the time. You used her time.

If you paid to go to get in somewhere - cinema, theatre, zoo, soft play and it quickly became clear that your child was unwell/unhappy you would not get a refund.

No way that was a five min service !!
if she’d have tried harder as u are suggesting she could have cut him / made him more upset and the next visits harder for him and I bet u would have blamed the hairdresser !!
you paid for the appointment you used - don’t be a cheeky fucker !

Neither of us wore gowns. But I am probably biased on the timing. But it honestly could not have been very long at all. Absolutely 1000% no where near half an hour.

It wasn’t a booking “slot” it’s just turn up and wait. We waited half an hour which was probably why my son wasn’t having any of it. You live and learn! I guess I’m unreasonable. Thanks everyone! X

It’s not her fault your child wasn’t cooperating. Imagine is she didn’t charge for every child that came in, kicked up a fuss and then she couldn’t complete the haircut. She’d be losing money.

I did pay her. That’s the point of this thread 🤣

But in the time that she was faffing around with yiu and your child, she could have been cutting the hair of someone else in the queue. Time is money in these places. I got to one of these places and always pay more than my DH for a haircut as my hair is longer (shoulder length) and needs cutting with scissors rather than a razor, so takes longer.

It sounds like one of those situations where in hindsight you realise you got it wrong!

ds is 16 now (autistic) and we had many failures at the hairdressers. Even now he will only let one person do his hair and me and the hairdresser know he needs the first slot of the day before it gets busy!

You're paying for the professional's time. What you or your toddler do in that time is not her problem.

When I worked with music teachers and students failed to turn up for their lessons (despite plenty of reminders) and the parents complained that the teacher had charged for the missed lesson, they were rightly told 'you aren't paying for the lesson - you're paying for the teacher's time, and if you choose to turn up and actually have a lesson in that time, that's very sensible. But you still need to pay if you don't actually attend'.

Took our toddler grandson to the walk in barbers I use, tried for probably five minutes to cut his hair , but he was having none of it, shop was far from empty but she never once asked for payment, rather said to just keep bringing him in and trying. I guess it’s different if you using an appointment slot,but a walk in, bit much

i thought you were paying her to cut your son’s hair and she didn’t do it. Not for an appointment slot which wasn’t booked in advance or fully used. So I’d have queried the charge.

I'm sure that all the faffing and moving chairs was time consuming for the hairdressers. She's probably hoping that you don't return.

She has to charge you for the slot, she's running a business

Maybe get some recommendations for mobile hairdressers or barbers op?

My DS kicked off massively the first few times we took him for a haircut and he seemed to react better to clippers than scissors.

He did use the slot, he was just wriggling around so she couldn't do the job. If she hadn't been trying to cut his hair, she'd have been cutting someone else's - of course the hairdresser has to charge.

Yes but you feel you probably shouldn't have been. That's the point of this thread.

You paid for her time.

You know that your son can be temperamental but went just before school returns? I would have gone at a quiet time next week m.

I think it’s difficult for people like the hairdresser to get it right. You feel that she should have tried longer but some would have said that’s cruel. I’m not judging because I don’t know your son or how fussy he was but I think that you owe the hairdresser for her time. It’s a busy time of year so she probably could have sold that slot. Not charging you opens up the possibility of future appointments where you don’t expect to pay so I see why she didn’t offer that.