Breaking up with your hairdresser

[Innermagic]

Would love some feedback from people on the reasons they decided to find a new hairdresser.
I've noticed I've lost a few loyal clients recently and can't help take it to heart.
Would also like to hear from other hairdressers on how they deal with this.

I left one because she would ask me the same questions over and over again within the space of 30mins.

Price: I now get mine done twice a year on holiday as we go to the same place. 40 euros for cut, roots, highlights. All in less than 3 hours. In France and Greece there is less faffing with the cut.
Slow hairdressing drives me nuts. The same in the U.K costs 120 quid and takes almost 4 hours. The results are no better.

Four weeks ago a hairdresser I've never used before - but is at a salon I have - almost demanded that I have a couple of inches cut off my hair as it was breaking off. The reason it was breaking off was because her colourist colleague had used bleached - rather than high lift - highlights. I had been happily going along having it topped up and hey presto my lovely hair suddenly looked crap.
Anyway this other hairdresser gave it some nicer highlights but instead of cutting 2 inches off, more like 5 and now I can't do anything with my hair. But the worst thing and the reason I won't use her again - I have a fringe which is a big part of my cut and has to be done straight. As it has grown out _ and I could see from the beginning - it is looking really really wonky (after just four weeks). I'm working out whether to give her another chance, but the amount of my hair that has come off - I won't be needing a trim until June!

Slow hairdressing, making you wait ages with wet hair or bleeding highlights while they do someone , nipping out for several fags and reeking of them.
I actually alternate between hairdressers , a cheap mobile lady and another at a expensive salon . Neither hairdresser has noticed !

Oooooh I am so touchy about hairdressers, I've never managed to be loyal to an individual but I've ditched salons over bad hairdressers many, many times.

I have flat, straight, fine, thin hair which is the absolute pits, and to be honest I resent paying to have it cut, but a good hairdresser who makes me feel good is money well spent in my opinion. When they look at my boring, horrible hair and just think "yawn, that'll take me five seconds, easy money" and make no effort then pocket £50 for the pleasure it makes me furious, especially when I leave looking considerably worse than I do when I style t myself at home. I've boycotted salons I previously liked over:

The woman who read my magazine over my shoulder while giving me a flat, lacklustre blowdry which I wouldn't ordinarily have left the house with, and dithered like a rabbit in headlights when I asked for a fringey bit lond enough to be be curled (Another hairdresser in the same salon made me feel like a princess. I'd go back for him, but I've been too busy bearing a grudge.)

The guy who was so bored he practically did my hair with his eyes shut, and didn't offer me so much as a glass of water, even when I pointedly asked him to stop so I could get a drink out of my own handbag. Had previously been plied with wine and been made late for a dinner appointment as I was being treated to such an incredible blowdry effort. (That guy had left, so I got stuck with Mr Bored and never went back.)

The woman who told me how lucky I was that my stylist hadn't come in that day so I was getting a Super Duper Director person for the same price. I didn't feel bloody lucky when they kept changing who was doing my hair every few minutes, getting the girl who swept the floors to wave a hairdryer at it for ages to disguise the fact that they were too busy for me, and put all my hair over my face like Cousin It and fucked off and left me like that for ages

The guy who was actually really good but smoked some kind of insane Eastern European cigarettes which smelt stronger than cigars. The smell made me gag, and I am partial to a Marlboro Menthol in a beer garden!

Sorry OP, I'm sure none of this is helpful to you, just using the opportunity to offload

I slept with him. Then he got pissed off that I got a bit scared off when he became very full on. He got his revenge by burning my hair straight. Lots of it snapped off

Today's lesson: never sleep with your hairdresser no matter how hot he is

I left one as she kept pressuring me to buy expensive products....i was going through a divorce at the time and paying huge legal bills....
She knew this but still did the hard sell on me.

My last one because she almost doubled her prices and only told me after my cut!

I think my current one is great but my hair hasn't been done perfectly the last few times with some stripey highlight, I'm sticking for now but I'm considering trying elsewhere.

As previous posters have said, it would be great to have a review site for hairdressers. These days practically everything gets reviewed on line but not hair or beauty salons. I'd also love to find a fantastic facialist rather than shelling out money for the same old routine they do on everyone

I forgot the one who tried to sell sell sell even though I said I was not going to buy anything. There were approx six bottles in front of me and he told me each one was a miracle in a bottle. Maybe he had to meet a target that week as he went on endlessly for at least twenty minutes, his desperation made me feel so uncomfortable but even more determined not to buy as the salon charges a lot anyway (over 100 pds.). Then there was the woman who used work on reception but for some reason cut my hair. I have never seen her cut anyone else's hair. She always cut it shorter than I wanted and basically did her own hairstyle regardless of what I asked for. If I asked her for ideas she used say 'we will do something next time'. It got to a stage where I would ask when making the appt not to have her but I was then a bit embarrassed to have to talk to her in reception.

My hairdresser is lovely, I've been going there for well over a decade. She never, ever pushes products or treatments and although we have a good laugh you will never hear her talking or gossiping about other clients.

I left my last hairdresser because she was a horrendous gossip (so if she's talking about them I know she's talking about me) and she was always running late.
I would book my next appointment whilst I was at the desk paying, every six weeks like clockwork. On the day she would 'just be a few minutes' seeing to someone else, and those few minutes would actually be more like thirty or forty.
She wouldn't say no to squeezing someone in because she obviously wanted their money, but why should they be seen at the last minute, making my appointment late, when I'd planned ahead to make sure I got the time that suited me.

To add to all of the above...

Poor timekeeping. I couldn't give a flying fuck that the client before me arrived late for their appointment, that's their problem and/or yours. If my appointment is at 1pm I expect you to be starting me at 1pm, and that doesn't mean spending 5 minute with me then passing me on to someone else like the junior to put my foils in, while you finish the late client.

Leaving me during the appointment, mid cut, to answer the phone, check someone else's highlights, take in a delivery, do a consultation with someone that's just stepped in off the street, etc. Hire a receptionist.

Are you in a salon? Walk up to it and through it as a client. Is it attractive from outside, is it clean, non/cluttered, does it smell nice, does it need some redecoration, is the music at a moderate volume, do you serve nice coffee from non-chipped mugs, up to date magazines, is your toilet clean, can I pay by card?

I'm amazed how many of you have (or have had) male hairdressers - there are hardly any where we live.

I left one because she couldn't talk without stopping cutting so took forever. A couple because they just weren't interested in listening to what I wanted and I never looked any different.

My most recent one came to my home, (she's on maternity leave) but tbh I don't enjoy the experience of hanging over the bath to wash my hair first, then having to sweep up my own hair when its done.

And as others have said, why are the prices so complicated? I can have the same thing done three times and yet i'm always charged differently!

Randomly phoned a local salon laast week and booked in at short notice - and its one of the best cuts I've ever had! I said I wanted something a bit trendier, and she provided exactly that, and showed me how to dry it myself. I couldn't be happier!

I've only had to do this once, other changes have been for things like moving or places closing...

Arrived 5 mins early for my appointment.

Was then left to sit for 25 minutes whilst she flirted with a guy whose hair she was cutting, cut was finished and she was mostly snipping the air. If I hadn't really needed my hair done for a wedding I was going to I'd have walked out.

Never went back.

I used to hate hairdressers when i was younger and gritted my teeth whenever I had to go, but then I had a great hairdresser for several years and we tried all sorts of styles and vivid colours together, it was such great fun

Then she didn't come back after having her second child

The hairdresser who took over always made me look like an old lady. What ever I asked for, whatever pictures I bought in, I got an old lady version of it, I went home and cried every time. Yes I am a middle aged goth but I AM NOT OLD

Now I cut and dye my own hair like I did as a teenager. I dont do as good a job as my previous hairdresser but at least I dont feel like I should be collecting my pension

I'm not totally loyal when it comes to hairdressers. If I just want a trim I'll go somewhere cheap like supercuts or local training college. If I want a restyle I'll try to book with a specific stylist or at least someone at that salon however if I can't get an appointment that day or when it suits me I'll find somewhere else that can.

As much as I like a particular stylist I want to book the time when i can afford it and when it suits me. She knows I cheat on her for those reasons and she's happy with that.

Not understanding curly hair. I would travel 1-2 hours and pay whatever for a decent curly hair stylist. I used to travel 2 hours to Leeds from Milton Keynes.

That zigzag partings and cutting into twisted hair are skills all hairdressers should know about for cutting curly hair.

Ditto the need to dry-cut - even if it is just a finishing once-over after hair is dried. Curly hair sits differently once dry and you need to check it still works.

That if I asked for it to be dried curly that does not mean blowdrying it straight and then adding curlys in with a fucking straightening iron FFS - I have corkscrew ringlets with zero effort - why not just use them for curl!!!!

Seriously - learn and teach your staff properly about curly hair. How to cut it, style it. How different curls need different treatment. None of it is rocket science - but it is clearly too much for 99.9% of hairdressers to be bothered with AND IT FUCKS ME OFF.

ElQuinto - likewise please - if you are South East/East-ish please could you PM me the details of the curly-hair recommended salon. I am Herts/Beds/Camb area - will travel for someone who gets it.

I left my hairdresser as I think he started to see me as a sure thing and stopped trying. When I last went for a cut and colour he did the chit chat then the absolute minimum then left me to do other clients. Came back to do the next stage, left again. I was no longer valued and I was really upset.

Too much chat - if I'm looking on my phone/reading a book/mag you don't need to keep chatting.

Hard sell on products

Keeping me waiting after the wash because you're dealing with someone else

I'll actually put up with quite a lot if they're really good but the last one I dumped after she convinced me I needed a trim following my highlights. It took her about 7 minutes and cost me £45. My highlights were £190.

Mine keeps getting promoted so was £45 and is now £58. I'm too embarrassed/ it's too awkward to go to the same salon and ask for a cheaper more junior stylist so I'm looking for a new salon.

I have the total Fear of going to a new hairdresser and not knowing what the fuck they're going to do to me, so I'm pretty loyal once I find someone who cuts my hair the way I like. I once even used my local FB group to find out where my hairdresser had gone when I phoned to book an appointment to be told he'd left! (However, when I tracked him down, he'd gone to a MUCH more expensive salon and gave me an indifferent cut, so I left it at that).

I wouldn't be bothered by price increases, unless they were into taking the piss territory - it's all about getting a cut that looks as good when I've washed and styled my own hair as it did when I left the salon.

I changed hair dresser mainly because it was costing me way too much. £90 for shoulder length hair roots and a few highlights.

She was also cramming too many customers in at once. She would start my hair then while the colour was developing she would start someone else, then while their colour was developing she would come and check me, then start someone else, then rinse my colour off and put a 'hair masque' conditioner on and leave me sat there for ages, go to someone else, then wash it off and leave me with wet hair while doing something else and so on... I was spending hours on end sat there wasting a rare day off work, mostly feeling pissed off, cold with a wet head
The last straw was when I spent a record breaking 4 hours there.

I now have a mobile hair dresser who charges half as much, spends max 1.5 hours here and does it all in the comfort of my home.

I realise this is probably extreme, I doubt many hairdressers are like this!

Maybe your customers are cutting back money wise? Hair might have to take a back seat during hard times?

I've always been really unloyal and just booked with a salon rather than a specific hairdresser. Only realised recently that it's not really done However, terrible hairdressers I've had are:

1. The expensive guy I saw a few times but who spent an appointment mocking me after finding out I liked Lord of the Rings - not lighthearted ribbing, full on nasty edged piss taking. Fuck knows why.

1. I like my hair long, but so many hairdressers insist on cutting off about 6 inches when asked to do a trim. My hair was very frizzy for a while, but it wasn't in bad condition and they were all obsessed with trying to cut it all off. Length actually weighed it down and kept it smoother.

1. Varieties on people just clearly not caring about me as a client at all.

My current salon is lovely and have always had excellent service there from all the hairdressers (I take the DCs there too). I've been using the same lovely hairdresser for about 4 years now, so am actually quite loyal. She's very lovely, always listens and seems interested. Does what I ask her to do and does a good job. She's fab. Not cheap (and yes, prices always seem to be different, I can't figure it out) but I can cope with it because I like her.

1, not doing as I asked. If I say my hair not work with layers don't put them in anyway.
2, bad colour. Again do as I ask not what you think!
3, Making me feel like a boring librarian because I like books and know nothing about reality tv. Airhead chit chat drove me nuts she hadn't even read Harry Potter as doesn't read books, as I sat trying to read!
4, Too expensive.
5, Making me feel rubbish by going on about how difficult my hair is. I had chemotherapy as a child and lost my hair all though my teens.Please be gentle with people not everyone can have thick perfect hair, I go to hairdressers to make me look nice not to have my already very low self esteem bashed!!!!

sunshin3 - that reminds me of when I lived in Fulham and went to a local hairdresser there.

They used to mix me up with other clients, and I was there for 3-4 hours. After the second time, I didn't go back. WTF wants to waste a valuable weekend day at the hairdressers?!

My current one does me, and only me, and I'm in and out in an hour.