To HATE going to the hairdressers?

[pugsandseals]

Is it just me? I thought women were mean't to find the whole experience pampering & relaxing- I just come out wanting to kill someone!!! Why is what I want done always wrong? I either need it cut slightly shorter/longer than they want it, or want the wrong type of fringe. All I want to do is have it cut the length I want it with a few layers & a front bit that pushes back, but oh no. I have to have straigteners, backcombing, hairspray & a full discussion on why what I want is not trendy!

AIBU?
Maybe I should go to the barbers next time

Sorry, needed a rant before I explode!

Hoi- I'm scottish, and I am a generous tipper (hence the reason my hairdresser is so nice to me )!!

And I only wash my hair once a week, so must be a rank manky scots get!! If I washed my hair every 2 days someone would turn me upside down and use me to scour pans!

Therefore you are not a "stereotypical" Scot.

..........just a self confessed dirtbag ;-)

I am a southern softy and get a poor lowly trainee hairdresser to wash my manky barnet once a week.

As this is mumsnet I shall probably be accused of slavery or some such nonsense........or worse....they might call me middle class..oh the Bodenesque shame, personally I prefer Dolce e Gabbana but that might upset people.

Yes, I agree with Riven. Grow it long and just chop bits off when it gets a bit raggy. Save alot of money. I don't get all these hair trends, they always just make everyone look the same.

Wow, I seriously thought it was just me. I hate looking at myself in the giant mirror, I feel claustrophobic having my hair washed leaning backwards while an orange teenager with fake nails stands over me, I can't make chitchat about where I'm going on holiday or what I'm doing at the weekend and most of all, I don't understand what I'm supposed to do when they use the other mirror to show me the back. What am I supposed to say? 'It's too short, stick it back on?' Urgh!

Me too. I am in hair limbo at the moment-the one hairdresser who stopped me hating having my hair cut, and who has 'done' me for 17 years has given up!

I literally feel lost without her-I desperately need a cut but can't bring myself to start from scratch again. All those nerve-wracking visits to strange salons, urrgghh!

Think i'll look for a mobile haidresser-I loved it when my lady was mobile, we'd have a cup of tea and a good catch up, and no-one distracting her or whispering that 'her twelve o'clock' is here already etc. And so much cheaper!

Hate it hate it hate it..........back breaking hair wash then a massage which makes you feel your neck will break if they rub any harder... Never having any idea what i want so come out looking the same..... But the worst thing is

being made to take off my glasses do my world finishes on the tip of my nose! Then they try and talk and cos i can't see them I can't really hear them!! Then when they are finished bring asked what I think without giving me my glasses back!!!
Aaaaarrrggghhhhh

YANBU
I have an appointment for 11.45 today. I haven't been since before Xmas. i hate it.
But, I do love the feeling of walking out of the salon with lovely hair.
I just can't be doing with
-the hair washing
-the head massage
-the small talk
-the sitting in front of a mirror
-having to read Hello magazine while I wait, even though I am on time
-having my hair pulled as they dry it
-the hairdresser stinking of cigs
-hearing about the trials and tribulations of the young girl who is washing my hair. I don't want to know that your Gran has died, your boyfriend has left you and you and your dogs have nowhere to live (true story, I came out wanting to throw myself under the nearest bus)

I love it. But you do have to shop around and be brutal and just not go back if they're shite. It took me a while to find one who speaks my language and actually cuts it the way I want her too.

My hair dresser is down to earth, no nonsense and only chats if you chat to her. She has long naturally curly hair fairly similar to mine so she understands what I want. I either read or play on my iphone/DS whilst she snips or colours me.

Lovely.

Nettiespagetti I know what you mean about not being able to hear with your glasses off!!
I can't hear properly when I wear sunglasses for some strange reason

I hate 'salons', My best friend owns one and believe me, they don't do what we ask because they think we are all so un-trendy that we don't know what actually suits us and only they know how to make us look good! Half of them think they are style advisers and don't understand they are there to just cut you hair for you because you can't do it properly yourself.

And it's not only head massages that make me feel sick it's the hand massages as well!
Oh God, I've got an appointment next month and now I'm dreading it [scared]

Usually I dont go to hairdresser's. I colour my hair at home. Last time I trimmed them in Dec 2008 at hairdressers in Poland on holiday. Ive got very thick, curly hair, there arent many hairdressers that know how to do then right. and if I wanted to do that at toni&guy I would pay 120.00 :/

I ask whoever washes my hair for a neck cushion it makes it more bearable for a back wash. I also say beforehand that I do not want a head massage as I have a sensitive scalp. Had a terrible experience with one girl pressing her fingers on the centre of my scalp - it was torture. Felt really faint afterwards.
My biggest bug bear is with the shampooist's nail extensions that scratch and snag my hair.

.

Me too, mostly sitting there with a tight smile (mini) thinking of all the millions of other things I should/could be doing while they break off to speak to another customer or discuss Big Brother.

lovemyoj i am totally with u!! i am also a hairdresser, u get the vibe if people want to chat and if they dont. mayb take a book or mag as ur haidresser may not b picking up on the nt wanting to chat thing!
great idea to take a pic as it doesnt seem as tho ur hairdressr is communicating with u very well, dont even get up to go to back wash unless ur 100 percent sure she/he is getting what u say.

in my experiance people come in with these 'techinal' terms which they think means one thing but means another,
as for these ladies cutting there own hair hahaha there is a reason some of us charge alot of money, because we r good at our job!! try a new salon or stylist if ur not happy, its such a shame u dont find it relaxing, ment to b pampering ur self mums!!

they charge too much and don't do what i ask.

always want to put lots of layers in it and make it short, neither of which suits me at all.

so yes, i cut it myself because i haven't found any who do what they are paid to do - cut my hair the way i ask.

i find nothing 'pampering' (shudder, that whole word is just cringeworthy) about having a teenager wash my hair and sitting in front of a mirror paying someone a bomb to make my hair look like hell.

i'd rather go to a dentist than a hairdresser.

Agree with a lot of what's said on this thread.

I hate any sort of 'pampering' experience especially if it comes with drivel chitchat. Needless to say, I stay a mile away from 'spa experiences' or massage.

I spend the time looking at my magazine with the hairdresser occasionally straightening my head to look up because my nose is getting deeper and deeper into the pages.

And as for any stylists who try to do neck massage will find me jump out of the seat from the shock of it. I am really ticklish. A head massage is about bearable but I sympathise with cyb's description of a rictus grin - pretending to like it but really just barely tolerating it and willing it to end.

My hairdressers have learnt not to wash it (can't bear someone else washing my hair) and just wet cut and out......we chat, but I initiate it (pisses me off though that I still pay significantly more than dp when essential it is the same thing we are having done....

OMG!

I wondered whether I was being silly starting this thread - can't believe the responses, there must be thousands of us out there sitting with fake grins & seething all over the country at this very minute!!!

LOL at the comments about glasses - I actually felt very proud of myself for remembering to wear contact lenses yesterday for the very same reasons!

'pisses me off though that I still pay significantly more than dp when essential it is the same thing we are having done.... '

Same here. That's also a lot of the reason I don't go to hairdressers.

thsats why I go to the barbers - it is consideably cheaper, but then my hair is also considerably shorter than so of course it will be cheaper.

Got to agree with this I HATE going to the hairdressers with a passion, & usually end up trimming it myself for as long as I can get away with to avoid going.

I've only once in my whole life found 1 that I liked, a Lee Safford one, & he was wonderful, the whole experience was great, included head massage, foot massage, massage chair & champagne, I was told to relax & no need talk if I didn't feel like it & the cut was fabulous, exactly as I wanted it, they Guy almost read my mine.......

I went back next time & sadly the Salon was gone, the local 1 had suddenly gone bust & had been taken over by another company ....complete butchers they were, ruined my then very long hair, its never been the same since,

I just wish I could find where the Guy moved to after finishing at the local Lee Safford, sadly not their London branch, as he was so good it would of even been worth the commute

Another hair-cut hater here. I find that I can take pictures, talk them through in detail what I'd like, and I still get something completely random. I am positive that lots of young trendy hairdressers are trained to give everyone the same cut. Have been seriously thinking that a granny salon may be the way forward... or may try a mobile hairdresser first.

Hate it as well - haven't been for ages. Do it myself. I just hate being told my hair is too fine, too long, too many grey hairs, that I need lots of products. The sinks are always uncomfortable, the gowns make me look huge, sitting with a wet towel - yuck, the cost....

YANBU but IMO you need to find a new salon. I love getting my hair done - my stylist is lovely, we always have a good chat about all manner of things, I adore the blissful head massage I get after a shampoo, having a glass of wine while my highlights are being done, and leaving the salon with that lovely swingy hair feeling and gorgeous smelling, shiny bright hair. Good thing really, the amount it costs...

I only go about twice a year tops because I keep trying to grow it from usual bob to something more versatile with the idea that I might "do something" with it (Ha!) and then lose patience.

On the way home I generally cry because I have yet again failed to convey what I wanted despite stating it very clearly, or so I thought. So then I go somewhere else in the hope of finding better but then even if someone does a great cut, the next time they do it completely wrong. It's just a simple bob.

The thing is, I would pay quite a bit more if I thought I would get what I'm looking for but how do you know ahead of time?

I hate the whole thing but would dearly love to look nice. Sigh