I ask because yesterday I went in to get a trim and came out with a head of closely cropped hair thanks to an inattentive stylist.
She’d been chating up her friend at the register and apparently forgot that I’d only asked for a touch up and chopped off a good six-inches. The rest had to follow suit, of course. What’s weird is how nonchalant she acted about the whole thing. Just said, Oh I can fix that, and started cutting the rest off.
No apology. Nothing.
Now I know it’s not that big of a deal, but was it right of them to still charge me after they messed up?
My hair is two feet long and it’s curly and took forever for me to grow that long so if someone just cut six inches off I would be furious. I would have put my hand on her hand to stop her cutting if need be, get up at that moment, ask her - politely - to call her manager over, and point. Then, no I wouldn’t pay, but neither would I have my hair cut finished there though. I’d rather suffer with a lock six inches shorter than the rest then have all of it cut that short. The lock will grow out, eventually. I would also never return to that salon, ever. It’s your job, my hair is the only thing you should be paying attention to.
Once you let her keep cutting, IMO you owed her the money after that.
And to me it would be a big deal. Hair is a huge part of our self-image and it makes a big difference in how we see oursevles.
If it was that blatant, I’d refuse to pay or I’d take them to small claims court. Usually there’s no recourse if you simply don’t like it. But if she scheduled you for a trim and you ended up with that, you probably have a case for small claims court. However, I would have said something right then. If you didn’t put up a stink, you sort of accepted it as it was.
I definitely wouldn’t pay for that. It’s one thing if they do what you ask, but you just don’t like it. Obviously, she wasn’t paying attention to what she was doing. Yeah, it’s just hair, and it grows up, but the reason you pay a professional to do it is so mistakes like this don’t happen.
After having my hair coloured by the colour director I ended up with hair that resembled wet breaking noodles. It didn’t look like hair anymore and was breaking off in her hands after she washed the dye out. All the hair dressers were coming over to her to look at how bad she screwed up. So I had no choice but to cut it all off. I walked in with hair past the middle of my back and out with hair that touched my shoulders. So no I didn’t pay for the colour job or cut and they had someone else cut it all off because I wouldnt let her near my hair to cut it off. Thankfully it has grown back.
I’d *like *to say that I would have politely and without fuss refused to pay.
In reality, I suck at standing up for myself, and I would have paid, left a generous tip, then come home and cried for several hours before opening a Pit thread about sucky hairstylists.
I’m such a wuss.
I have as a matter of fact had a similar experience. Twice.
The first time it was my aunt, who didn’t like my hair long, and chopped it. Couldn’t do anything about that but cry, especially since I was only 15.
The second time, it was a salonist, who somehow heard “six inches” instead of “one inch”. However, as soon as she cut the first strand I caught her. She was very kind, actually. She worked with me to fix it, which is the least they can do, and we ended up styling my hair in layers, which I actually kept for years because it looked decent and took forever to grow it even. She was very nicce and apologetic and made it up as best as I could.
However, once the OP’s hair was all gone…I dunno. I could see the manager saying “Why didn’t you say something before?” And I think you should have.
When I was nineteen, I went to a supposedly good, reputable salon and asked for a one of those really relaxed perms. My straight hair was shoulder-length at the time (It’s been waist-length for a good ten years now). I’d specified a “relaxed” perm just to give it some body and volume, not to infuse mega-tight, sproingy spiral curls into my locks.
I came out looking like a poodle. It was a modified Bozo the Clown look and the best I could say about it was at least my hair wasn’t dyed blue and green.
I was so incensed the manager came out and shushed away the stylist, told me it was on the house and brought in one of her senior stylists to fix it. I was told to come back the next day and he’d repair my hair, no charge.
Thankfully, when I returned the next day the guy she’d assigned to fix my hair did fix it, though it took hours and all kinds of stinky goop and chemicals to get the perm to relax. My hair felt so stripped and gritty for days, but eventually it evened out and I actually got the style I’d been aiming for - about three weeks later. :rolleyes:
Happened to me once. The cut was going fine until he started cutting in bangs even though the picture I gave him didn’t have bangs on it (I hate bangs) and when I said “hey! wait!” he was all “oh dearie me, I have to finish it now.” I started crying and cried all the way through the rest of the cut and I did wind up paying. The lady at the counter had more sympathy but still charged me and said “it grows back, honey.” Which it did, but I was still pissed that I had to pay and that he hurried up to finish it instead of brainstorming other ways to hide the cut without giving me full bangs. I guess I could have gotten a manager right away but I didn’t.
I think this incident has cemented in me a lifelong distrust and hatred of salons. I hated them before this, but not nearly as much and I went on a regular basis. I have only gone to get my hair cut twice since then (this was four years ago) and am super anxious every time. I will also never trust a male hairdresser again.
I posted this in another “'Do from Hell” thread. My straight-laced co-worker went to her regular stylist for her normal trim on her very short hair. The woman normally trimmed up the sides using the middle setting on the shaver thingy. Well, she had a punk rocker in prior to my friend and accidentally left it on SHAVED TO THE SKIN and my friend had a bald spot two inches above her ear. She had to use a big fat hair boo-boo crayon on her skin for weeks until it grew out.
My hair is stick straight, very fine, and takes FOREVAH to grow. When I sit down in the chair, I tell the stylist over and over and over: “You really need to understand how freeking upset I’ll be if you cut my hair too short.” And if I want them to cut two inches, I ask them to cut an inch because I know it will end up being two inches anyway.
The worst cut I had was at a salon where I told the girl I wanted a kind of short a-line bob, and ended up with an - I’m not sure, but my hair was all different lengths and shaggy and awful. The stylist could tell I hated it, I was practically in tears by the end of the cut. She charged me $20 instead of $50 or whatever it would have been. I gave her $20 with no tip and felt that was fair for both of us. I then went home, poured myself a drink and cried on the front porch. And never went back.
This is exactly how I found the hairdresser I have now. I went into a place (Super cuts) where I’d gone for awhile, but had someone else cut my hair. Somehow “Shorter layers on the top, longer layers as the length goes, towards the shoulders, but keeping the current length (shoulder length)”, didn’t translate to her. I hated it–it made my head look like a box. I paid, silently fuming, thinking to myself, “Oh, I’ll go home and wash it out and it’ll look better.” It didn’t.
I went back the next day with my Hair Box Head to get it fixed, and happened to “be assigned” to my now-current stylist, Mike. One of the first things he said when I sat in the chair was, “Who cut this? It looks like shit.” I pointed to the stylist who’d cut my hair the day before and said, “SHE cut it. Can you fix it?” He did and I’ve stuck with him, even though he’s moved to two different salons since then.
Those of you who spoke up are very brave. I’m envious. I once went in to get my longer-than-should length hair lightened. My hair was stripped twice, dyed, and then frosted. Not only was my hair a terrible shade of orange it started breaking off about an inch from my head. Not only did I pay the $140, I tipped 14 percent because that’s what I always did. I cried the whole time. In my defense, I was 17 and I never did go back. I did look cute with my new spiky short 'do though.
I sometimes have to wonder what is wrong with some of you people.
If you are paying someone for a service, you have every right to withhold payment if the service sucks. I’m very particular (for a guy) about how my hair is cut. If I’m going to a 10$ Supercuts then fuck it, I have no right to complain. But if I’m paying $40 for a stylist, I’m not going to pay a cent if it comes out looking like shit. By the same token, if I see that he/she is cutting too much off or doing something odd, I stop and say “what the fuck?”, hopefully before they get too far.
Also, I’ve been going to the same guy for the past 2 years so he knows what I like and what looks good on me. The only time he did a less than perfect job was when I asked him to do something against his advice. I didn’t like the result but I had no one to blame but myself.
Although they should rightfully owe you the money, how is it worth it to file a small claim for $15-20? (the price of a haircut) Court costs would be more than that (even if you get that added on the judgement, come on - would you really spend your day in court for twenty bucks?)
One of my friends has gorgeous honey blonde hair past the middle of her back and when she came in to school after a hair cut we were all agape at her. The stylist had cut it to just below her shoulders and added a badly angled layer two inches above it when she had specifically said “Just a trim please, I’m growing it out. Only an inch off the bottom.”
She wore it up until it grew out to a decent length and had it cut to one length. It was from Just Cuts, which is a $20 cheap cut, no styling so I don’t know if she paid or not. If it were me, I would have been livid because I love my hair and I always take good care of it and to have someone hack it the wrong way would have had me in tears.
At the moment, I recently had a trim at Just Cuts and the only issue I ever find when I’m growing my hair out is that they have to trim the layer near my face. It always ends up a tad too short to stay behind my ear - my hair is always glossy and slippery so keeping it out of my face using only my ears is a hassle.
Two months ago I went to the local salon and asked them to trim my just-below-the-shoulders-bob an inch and add a few layers to improve the body.
I emerged looking just like Shaun Cassidy, with the bonus being that the stylist had also managed to cut some kind of concavity into one side of my hair.
At another salon, the next day, the stylist had to cut my hair really short to fix everything. She then said “oh, it doesn’t look very good . . . I don’t know why you wanted your hair so short” :smack: As if I didn’t feel fugly enough already.