Once when my regular hairstylist was on maternity leave, another woman in the same shop gave me a cut. It wasn’t a truly AWFUL cut, but it was sure not up to my regular standard. I decided I’d try to live with it till my Anne returned from her maternity leave, but a few days later when I stopped in the shop to buy some product or other, the owner took one look at my head and said, “Oh, no, that won’t do!” and sat me down and gave me a new cut of her own initiative at no charge.
I still miss that shop. I hated moving away from there. The shop was in the building I worked in. My last day, I’d gone in for lunch with all my friends, and stayed cheerful and happy and managed to not get all weepy; then I went to say goodbye to Anne, and next thing I know she’s crying on MY shoulder (I’d helped her out by obtaining some free legal advice for her once from my boss regarding a situation with her baby, and she and I really were good friends after that), and I go upstairs to say goodbye to my boss all blubbery. And everyone thought I’d completely lost it when I sobbed, “My hairdresser started me crying!”
But that relationship with a good hairdresser is worth its weight in gold. When I find a good one, I pay well, I tip handsomely, and in the case of my current hairdresser when I had to go out of town on an emergency and miss an appointment, I called long-distance to apologize to him personally and gave him a double tip next time I went in.
It’s okay to piss off my husband. It’s NEVER okay to piss off my hairdresser.
I haven’t, at least not yet. When Aaron was in his hair-pulling stage, I wished I had shorter hair, but didn’t actually cut it off. Fortunately, he’s outgrown it, so I can keep my silky red locks.
When I was 16, I had beautiful sun-streaked blonde hair. Think Heather Locklear’s color. Did I like it? Oh, no. Because it was the 70’s and the days of Dallas. I wanted “Sue Ellen” hair. So for my birthday, my mom agreed to pay for a cut and perm.
When the devil lady was done with my hair, I nearly cried on the spot. My mom actually gasped. She had given me a poodle perm – about an inch long (she used the smallest rollers) and curled. To top it off, the chemicals completely bleached and frazzled what was left of my hair.
In retrospect, I should have complained and not paid one dime. But I dutifully paid the fifty bucks. And wore a hat for months.
Regis, the store of my heartbreaking haircut/perm story.
So I was pregnant and feeling kinda blah. My ex-husband decided to take me to the mall to give us something to do on a Saturday afternoon. (It was in Savannah and there was a restaurant there I L-O-V-E-D). While we were walking around the mall, I saw a sign that said perms were on sale. This was a bargain for me, as I have long, thick hair and I always had to have two perms. I hadn’t had one in about 4 years and so he suggested I go ahaed and get it done.
An hour or so later, the salon lady was putting cotton around my forehead and squeezing solution into my hair. Ten minutes after I was under the dryer (I’d never been put under a dryer while I was getting a perm before) the back of my neck started to itch and burn. She checked it, and said she didn’t see anything wrong.
It itched a good amount the entire time I was under the dryer, but stopped once she turned it off. She took out the rollers, blew dry my hair and voila! Curly haired pregnant girl walks out smiling!
The next morning I woke up and couldn’t move my head. Anytime I moved my neck the pain was incredible. I was scared. I went into the bathroom and lifted my hair off my neck…there were HUGE blisters on the back on my neck. The hairdresser didn’t put any cotton on the back of my neck. I still have scars.
She ruined a shirt I was wearing that was irreplacable. (The color was unique and went with a pair of pants I had that I eventually threw away because I couldn’t find another shirt to match). I went back to the salon (an hour’s drive) where she and the manager basically told me it was my fault because I’d gotten the perm while I was pregnant. The manager offered to buy me a new shirt…I stormed out in tears…I no longer have to perm my hair, it’s decided to be naturally curly now, but if I did, Regis would certainly not be perming it for me.
(They also told me that it wasn’t SOP to put cotton on the back of a person’s neck when they were getting a perm, but that was the only time I didn’t have cotton all the way around my head. She had put cotton in the front and looped it behind my ears, so I didn’t know there was no cotton all the way around.)
