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?

So why didn't you ask her to continue with the cut?!
I dont think the hairdresser can win - either you felt your toddler was making so much noise or too distressed you were happy to abandon the cut after 40 mins in the salon or you felt he was fine to continue in which case you should have asked her to try and finish the cut?
Probably having a noisy toddler in the busy salon in the run up to Christmas didnt do the hairdresser's or the other client's mood much good either!

Would you tip if you had the exact money?

She said she didn’t think she could do it,
so what was I supposed to say? I couldn’t force her to cut his hair. If I’d known I was paying the full price I would have atleast said let’s try giving him a biscuit, let’s have 2 mins break, or something, anything to try to help. When she said she couldn’t do it after no time at all I assumed I would just come back the next day when it was quieter.

I agree if this is the case. Only a 5 minutes, didn't work out, made hair worse in fact, then cleared out for the waiting people.

Whats that got to do with anything hun? I tipped her every single time I’ve been. What fucking more do you want me to do.

Hahahah. You literally can’t let it go can you.

It is indeed a chat forum. You will hear lots of differing opinions, it’s important not to let them all eat you up inside.

Did she have a jar of lolly pops on the side. My local barbers has a jar and the end of the cut they get a lolly. I've never seen a fussy child when I've taken my son to the barber. The lolly pop jar has special powers. Every half term there is cues outside his barbers.

You would think that she would have had something like that in her salon if that's what her business model is. Fussy children like to be brided into being good. She would have offered him a lolly if he couldn't sit still. The hairdresser doesn't sound child friendly.

You turned up for a slot which provided the time for a cut and received that slot. Your child not getting the full cut in that time wasn’t anything to do with the hairdresser as she turned up and attempted to do it, so why should she not get paid?. It’s a bit like me leaving a massage to take a phone call and then saying I only want to pay for part of the appointment I had.

Why are you arguing with me? It's not a big deal.

I didn’t book a slot it was just a walk in. She also didn’t give me the full “slot” because she said she couldn’t do it without really trying.

You’re fooling no one wisepanda. Users are allowed to disagree on this forum without being harassed

Your hairdresser’s time is not worth nothing. She deserves to be paid. Why should she lose income because your son wouldn’t sit still?

Yeah I completely understand that but she barely even tried to cut his hair, and if I’m paying for a full service then at the very least I expected her to try her best not give up after 5 minutes.

So let's say she didn't charge you this time - but then the same thing then happened, 2,3,4 times... At what point would she be reasonable to start charging?

It's shit all round - but maybe your better off finding a pre bookable place to make it easier on your son

I go to a walk in place and it’s £11 for a child’s haircut. The other day she cut one of my children’s hair and than tidied up my other child for free. The whole thing took about 15 minutes from start to finishing both.
If it only took 5 mins and she had a queue of customers waiting (it’s a walk in for all those commenting that you took a slot) I think she should have said just give me half and moved on to the next customer

No lollypops. I had biscuits in my bag but I never got a chance to get them out because she basically just said she couldn’t do it so I felt it was over before it even started. I knew I was taking up her precious time and I was conscious she had other people waiting. But then when she asked for payment I was taken back because she didn’t really do anything. Fair enough if she had tried really hard for 20-30 mins and worked with me to find a way to cut it, I wouldn’t have even questioned her asking for payment then even if she wasn’t able to cut it.

I think you are paying for the service, not the appointment/walk-in slot, but it can be very hard to cut toddlers' hair. I think charging you 50% would have been fair.

If hairdressers can't cope with recalcitrant toddlers they should say so. I realise last time she did your son's hair it was fine so maybe she didn't realise she'd have trouble.

I wasn't harassing you I was sharing my experience. It's not my fault you feel that way. You took offense to my experience. I don't know you and was joining in a chat online. I didn't know people got so angry on here for doing that and throw accusations around and start arguments.

You are paying for the time allocated to you. As a parent of an autistic child it’s frustrating but only fair on her!

I would have suggested a voucher to come back later or a discount but either way it's better than your son getting hurt, my cousins youngest didn't have his hair cut for a very long time as he refused to leave house and had meltdowns due to his autism but I believe he eventually managed to go to barbers to get it done after not having his hair cut for a couple of yrs and not going to school

My son's hair is £15 a time as well. He's 16 months old and has had 3 haircuts. I think that's a fairly standard price.

Geez, I just asked a question.

Exactly.

It's all well and good saying "of course she shouldn't charge" - but what happens next time when he doesn't cooperate, or the time after? What happens when another two or three toddlers waiting in the queue are wriggling all over and want a free "attempt" because they saw OP get one?

Of course from OP's view it's bloody annoying to pay £15 for nothing but that's the way it goes sometimes.

Reading just the op, the op is being unreasonable.

However reading all the updates from op, I would have expected the hairdresser to try a bit longer than 5 minutes to then charge 15 quid. It's also not as if she's lost a "slot" if it's turn up and wait. In this situation, you'd think she'd accept a discounted price for the attempt, 5-7 quid seems fair.

As someone who worked in the hairdressing business for over a decade, I can fairly confidently say that children's cuts are a loss anyway. They often take the same amount of time as doing adult haircuts but charged at a fraction of a price. So, from a business perspective, keeping this particular client is not a priority unless at least one of their parents is also a regular client.