To be annoyed and offended at what this hairdresser did, and what she said about my hair? And should I complain to the owner, or just not go back?

[ILoveAGingerCat]

So I have been to this particular hairdressing salon, 4 times before, (I go every 3 months for a dry cut, and 'Julie' usually cuts my hair.) My old hairdresser retired so I started going to this new one about a year and a quarter ago...

This time I had Lisa. (Julie had rang in sick.) For context, my hair is about 6" below my shoulders, and wavy/curly. It's thick and blonde and I love my hair.

I got into the hairdresser chair to sit down for my cut, and Lisa got the hair straighteners out, then spent about 15 minutes straightening my hair within an inch of its life! Several times I kept smelling burning hair, when she kept them on for too long!!! I kept saying 'my hair is burning, you need to stop.' She carried on, and didn't remove the straighteners for another 10 seconds, and kept chatting shit to her colleague who was a few feet away from her. She barely made eye contact with me, despite me trying to chat - several times!

Then - when it was all straight - she said 'that's much better now it's straight.' I said 'what? Why is it better?' She said 'it looks much better on you than the curly hair.' I said 'but that's my natural hair, it's curly and wavy.' She said 'yeah but it looks better straight.' It was 100% flat and straight because she's fucking fried it with the hair straighteners!

She then started chatting shit to her mate again, and proceeded to cut about half an inch off my hair, and a quarter inch off my fringe. No layering or feathering or any attempt to style it. She spent 5 minutes cutting it... And as I say, she cut it very little! Then she said 'all done' and walked to the till... (I could have done that at home, cut that tiny bit off! In about 2 minutes!)

And I don't believe she straightened my hair to make it easier to cut because it's wavy/curly, as every single hairdresser I have ever had, just sprays it with some water, and combs it through, to make it a easier to cut it properly. The silly mare didn't even cut it properly! And she charged me £45 for it. A shitty, non-cut, and half my hair fried!!!

AIBU to never go there again, and should I make a complaint? About the poor cut, her frying my hair, and her basically telling me that my wavy/curly hair is shit?! 2 pics included are 1) what my hair is like, and 2) how she MADE it look!

Definitely go to a curly hairdresser, the worst thing you can do to curly hair is pulling it straight & cut it because you need to see the curl pattern to know how to cut it.
There are more & more curly hairdressers all the time, if you say roughly where you are I might be able to recommend one (it'll be more than £45 though)

It is quite common when getting a dry cut. Ask for them to wash it or just spray it wet next time.

But not for curly hair

Yes, exactly this. My hair is gorgeous, long, thick, and wavy, and blonde, and I do get compliments on it too. And I will NEVER straighten it.

I think negative comments come from jealousy.

She didn’t ask.

It’s actually the first time I’ve commented on your post ! So go and enjoy your evening. There’s plenty others commenting they are finding it weird that you put up AI photos so I’ll leave you to discuss this very boring subject with them .

Jealous? No, somehow I don’t think so.
Is that why you picked the first AI picture.

She just straightened your hair, and you’re the one that let her. It is not a big deal. There are worse things. The good thing is that this has probably taught you to speak up next time, things like this tend to.

You seem to refuse to answer the question if your hair actually IS burnt?

You DID straighten it.

No I didn't. Thank you @Duckiewasthefirstniceguy

OP, my toddler DS has beautiful curly hair. I’ve learned the hard way that v few people can cut curly hair. Don’t let anyone other than your usual stylist touch it. And complain

Dont be silly. Many of the negative comments have been about your behaviour, not your hair. I’m 68
and ive got the same waist length curly hair that Ive had since I was 20, which I love and will never cut. But there’s no way I would ever sit in a hairdresser for the length of time it would take to straighten my hair and allow someone to do something to it that I didn’t want them to do and which might cause damage, not stop them from continuing, and then pay for what they’d done. If I felt that it would be helpful to my post for people to be able to see the before and after pictures, then I would at least post photos of my own hair (probably with my face obscured) rather than pictures of two different random women who I’d found on google 😆😆😆

Why didn’t you say I don’t want it straightened when she got the straighteners out?

I think you should complain to the manager. She didn't listen to your direction, she passed a negative comment on your hair and ignored you to chat to a colleague. That's about as unprofessional as you can get for a hairdresser.

You can’t honestly complain when you let her do it, come on!

She was ‘taken aback’ apparently

What I don't understand is if I'd booked someone and they'd rang in sick, I'd expect a phone call to see if I wanted to cancel and wait. If I walked in a salon and my normal hairdresser wasn't available, after I'd booked them, I wouldn't have gone with anyone else.
I also wouldn't have sat knowing I wasn't getting what I wanted without speaking up either. Especially if my hair was burning 😬.
If you call and complain, make sure you know what you want the outcome to be, before you ring. Otherwise its a waste of time.

No it's not op.
It's an image of Google

She sounds crappy tbh!! If you can I’d complain to the salon owner/ manager. I’m not good at saying things in the moment but luckily my hairdresser is great in asking what I want and even if when finishing I say your choice he’ll go shall we straighten it so I still have a chance to say no!

I wonder if she was a junior and not sufficiently trained to manage curly hair, hence her spending time straightening it and trying to get you to agree it looked better. I remember one hairdresser I went to saying that while he was training he was only allowed to blow dry the back of clients hair, because he didn't have skills for anything else. I would definitely complain, not least about her chatting to her colleagues

No one is jealous of your hair.

OP, did you book a specific 'curly cut' - some hairdressers know how to do them, and some don't, so I've found it's useful to clarify this. I had one once look at my thick curly hair and say, "Well I don't know what you expect me to do with THAT' 😆

I have not given any thoughts to being jealous of your hair.
I'd hate to have curly hair

To be honest people like you grate on me. You wait til she completely ruins your hair, pays and then want to complain.

You are able to say, you are not straightening my hair and stop it there.

Put your grown up pants on.

I think yabu 🤷‍♀️