And I’m not talking severe, like giving you a Mohawk or shaving you bald.
How “bad” would it have to be for you to make any kind of scene? What do you feel is appropriate?
If I complained and they told me “It’s only hair, it’ll grow back!” then I’d probably be pretty irate.
I expressed my displeasure not long ago. I told her what bothered me and she argued. She also said it wasn’t her fault because my hair is wavy and hard to predict - which I told her before she started. And in her sulk when I asked for a shampoo and not getting the usual free shampoo with a cut (this salon offers that to customers who arrive by bike), I never went back. And deeply regret leaving a tip.
It was more the attitude than the screwup.
Once, years ago, I went to my usual barber and there was a new young lady there. I figured I’d give her a chance. So I sat in the chair and told her what I wanted: #2 all over. Any other barber would consider this about the easiest haircut ever. So she started snipping with the point of the scissors. 45 minutes later, she was still snipping around the edges. So I asked her whether she’d ever done this before. She gave me a crappy answer, so I got up and started to pay her. The head barber said “no charge,” so I left and went to another shop to get it done. I never went back there.
I am never going to make any kind of scene. Also never going back to that shop. And I will post a review.
“Dammit, I said I wanted my hair shorter. You made it longer!”
It’s only hair. It will grow back.
Only once have I gotten a bad haircut, mostly because I showed up just before closing and the stylist rushed it. No excuse, but I just shrugged and let it grow out.
I don’t worry about my hair. I just run a comb through it and get on with my life.
It’s hair. It grows back. I should know–I was completely bald during chemo (though I must say I totally rocked it).
If I get attitude with the cut, though, it’s no tip, a word with the manager, and an online review.
Even when I had a full head of thick curly hair, I never worried much about “style” or “looks”; it got crammed into a motorcycle helmet so much it always looked off. So times when I haircut went bad I was OK with it. Maybe tried a different operation the next time but nothing major in the way of complaints.
Recently a stylist in the city next to mine colored my hair and did not follow my wishes at all. I wanted ash blonde with low and highlights, and instead she did a brassy yellow with brown splotchy roots (and had the audacity to charge me 300 dollars!). When I finally saw myself in the mirror I said “wow… it’s a lot more brown than I was expecting” and she just said that it would make my growing roots blend in better. I’m not one to be confrontational, so I paid and cried in my car in the parking lot 
I would reduce her tip.
The last time I went to my barber, she gave me three CD’s that were sitting around the shop that she didn’t want. How can I object to that?
My haircut is very simple, so it’s rare for anyone who knows the basics of how to cut hair to do a bad job of it. On the rare occasion that someone has really screwed it up so much that I look worse than when I walked in, I make sure never to get that person again. It’s happened probably twice or three times in my life.
You know, the Governor of Missouri is facing a trial because his stylist followed his desires a little too fully.
An honest LOL from me!! I live in U-City…
“Fred’s U-City Barbershop” NEVER fails me…
But MO politics do… Hey, this is a barbershop thread so i assume Politics are in full swing…but I digress.
tsfr
The last time I had my hair cut, they completely ignored me and did what they wanted. That was 20 years ago, I haven’t been to a salon since. Trust me, they knew I wasn’t happy when I left.
If it’s out of my eyes when I comb it straight forward, not sticking out above my ears when I put on my glasses and/or ballcap, and off my collar in the back (and likely to remain that way for six weeks or so), I will be satisfied. If any of these criteria are not met, the haircut isn’t finished yet, and getting upset would be premature.
In short, it would take a Mohawk or a Yul Brynner for me to even KNOW I had gotten a bad haircut.
I saw a particular stylist for many years because she was funny and we had the best time yakking while she did my hair. She was open to most of my whims because – or I thought at the time – “hair is hair, it’ll grow back.” I stopped going to her when I realized one day that she’d been giving me the same basic bob with so many highlights I was practically blonde when I’d specifically asked her NOT to give me yet another bob and NO, I wanted highlights, not all over permanent coloring which clashes with my skin tone. Never gave a reason, never explained.
A year or so later I found out she’d been fired because she’d supposedly screwed up another client’s hair because she’d been talking too much. How did I find out? The stylist who’d worked next to her was now working at the salon I was frequenting. She became my stylist and never screwed up my hair.
I like my hair short, but am very sensitive about my ears. Trust me, no stylist I have ever sat down with has ever escaped hearing this fact. The hair needs to cover the tops of my Spock ears.
One little twit began the haircut by very careful and meticulously cutting all the hair around my ears too short to cover them. I can kind of understand the barber school mistake she was making; to keep the hair from sticking out, you cut from behind the ears first,then cut the hair above to cover them. But she cut ALL the hair above the ears extremely short; I was stuck walking around with my ears sticking out for weeks.
I wouldn’t say I yelled, but I spoke loudly. “WHAT are you DOING?” The manager came over, I explained, but there was nothing to be done except finish the haircut and live with it. The manager did the rest and didn’t try to charge me.
A couple of times I have asked them to make the bangs shorter, or some little adjustment. If it could be fixed, I’d just speak up politely and they’d fix it.
“Making a scene” is never useful or appropriate, but sometimes it’s the human reaction to a bad mistake.
I have a cow lick at the crown of my head.
There’s no problem with very short hair. There’s not enough to stick out.
Very, long isn’t a problem, because it lays down. I wore my hair that way for years.
Trying to wear a medium length hair style is a big problem. Stylists struggle to keep that sucker from standing up and waving at people.
I gave up years ago and started getting it buzzed off.
If I genuinely felt they weren’t listening or were incompetent, then I would not use them again, wouldn’t tip them, and might even try to get a discount. I think that happened once or twice at really cheap places, likely the one with students.
But the other times it happened, it was more that I couldn’t explain what I wanted well enough. And I said something and they cleaned it up, even if it might wind up shorter than I wanted. In those situations, I just accept it, and wait for it to grow out a bit and style it how I want.
There have also been a few times where I’ve cut my own. In that case, it means I didn’t really care what it looked like, and didn’t care at all after I was finished.