I’ve had a number of bad haircuts, and I have never refused to pay.
I wish I had though.
Right now I am extremely lucky in that my best friend is a hairstylist and I trust her to know what to do with my hair, and know what will look good on me. I look great ever since she started cutting my hair (and we’re both happy since she gets paid without the salon’s share taken off the top and I’m not paying through the nose for a cut and colour/foils).
I opened this thread because I may need it someday. I felt so lucky last year to find a long-haired stylist who understood and respected my desire for length. I have consistently relied on her for a “dusting”–i.e. taking off like a centimeter or less, only as much as needed to prevent damage from split ends and to assist growth.
But lately her memory may be starting to wander, I don’t know why, she’s a young woman. I’ve had to restate what I mean by “the usual.” She always used to remember it. What’s the point of repeat visits to the same stylist unless they remember what “the usual” is for you? I have been going to her like clockwork every 6-8 weeks for the past year and a half. The other day she took off at least an inch. She has never cut that deep before. It’s probably for the best, because I got a compliment on my hair yesterday and the recent trim may have added a bit of body. Thus far I still trust her. I just get nervous when the cutting boundary starts to be pushed, that’s all.
I liked Anaamika’s idea and have to remember to pay closer attention as soon as L. picks up the shears.
I agree that you have every right to refuse payment if the haircut sucks. For me, the issue is how much to speak up during the cutting process.
I can’t easily tell how it’s going to look once the cut is finished. Sure, I can tell the difference between cutting 1" vs. 6" or putting bangs in where they don’t belong, but something like layering is a very confusing process for me! Often I can’t tell until it’s done if it’s what I asked for. And I can never tell what they’re doing on the back of my head!
Then there’s the issue of how much and how forcefully to speak up while the cut is in process. You need to let them know things aren’t going as planned, but you don’t want to tick them off and end up with something worse!
I wouldn’t have paid and I would have made a scene. But that’s just me. 
I firmly believe you need references before you go to a stylist. If I haven’t heard of the person or seen his/her work, I’m not going to give them a blind try. I’ve had too many mess ups to have that ever happen to me again.
And, despite what the diehard Great Clips people say, you do get what you pay for. There is a huge difference between a $10 haircut and a $50 one. Think about it, if the hairdresser was any good at all, why would he/she be working for next to nothing at a chain salon? Seriously. You didn’t say where you went, but anytime I hear stories like this I think of Great Clips.
I had a bad haircut once, they had it uneven by 1" on one side. I was 12 and my mom let me skip school the next day so I could get it fixed (the haircut happened at 8pm on a Tuesday night)
I can’t really pay much attention when someone cuts my hair, because I have to take my glasses off and am pretty much blind. I have a great stylist in St. Louis but I have yet to find one here in Columbia. As a result, I haven’t gotten a hair cut in 5 months and desperately need one. I can’t go home often because of work but my stylist doesn’t work weekends anyway.
Yep. That’s what I came in here to say.
I’m not vain about my hair, so I would just chalk it up to “whatever” and let it grow out, unless someone cut off a LOT, as I’ve never really had long hair, and I’ve spent the last year growing a pixie cut out into shoulder length hair. That’s lost time, if someone cuts off inches.
I have super curly hair that shrinks up to about half it’s length when it dries. You can imagine that I get a bit worried whenever I go to get it cut, seeings how an alarmingly small population of hairstylists actually know how to deal with curly hair (I think they should have a mandatory class in beauty school.) I hardly ever get my hair cut because it freaks me the hell out.
So, my sister in law was out here visiting right after her wedding and wanted to get a haircut. My hair was then more than halfway down my back. I missed having it shoulder length like it had been years before. I told the stylist multiple times how much my hair shrinks and that I wanted it shoulder length when dry. Then I repeated that my hair dries to half it’s length when wet.. I also told her I’d prefer if she didn’t wash it. She insisted.
She started in the back so I couldn’t see what she was doing. By the time she got to my side I realized it was just below my ear WHEN WET!. I almost started crying. Still paid and tipped though, because I’m a big sucker. When I walked into my mothers house, everyone just gasped.
I had to straighten my hair before leaving the house for a month. Didn’t go to another salon for four years and INSISTED the stylist cut my hair dry and that I could watch every little thing she was doing.
I did just that last year.
I finally got the cut I wanted - at a good $60 a cut sort of salon - and ran into a Cost Cutters or something for a trim…which is my usual mode - get the good cut at the salon, spend $12 to keep it trimmed.
The women decided to fix it by giving my hair layers instead of giving me the trim I asked for. The sad thing was that she did a great job - for Cost Cutters it was a fantastic cut - she really took her time, really got a nice precision cut - just not the cut I wanted and one that was going to take me six months to grow back out.
Subsequent haircuts have involved me putting my hands over my hair and saying “no layers!!!” Do NOT cut above this point!!!
I went to this cheapie salon for a quick trim, and sigh they gave me this guy who thought layers consisted of waving an electric razor at my hair. :eek: :eek: :eek: Needless to say, my hair was in a bit of a state. Lopsided, most defiantly not layered, and so on.
I paid the dinero he charged, walked out, and vowed never to let him near my hair again. I went to a different swishy salon to get it fixed, and the woman commiserated with me as she fixed it. Bless her heart, and I mean that sincerely.
Now I’ve found this awesome Japanese stylist who knows how to cut Asian hair. Downtown and all, but for a haircut when I can sit back, take off my glasses, and relax in the certainty that I won’t walk out looking horrible.
Just out of curiousity - my son is Korean - does your hair dull scissors? My mother used to be a stylist - years and years ago - so she trims the family hair. She swears my son’s hair dulls her scissors. We also think the he doesn’t like it cut because its so thick that people pull it as they cut.
Hey Dangerosa- you beat me to it, as usual. 
My son’s Korean too, as is The FemBot, aged almost-15.
Their hair, especially the son’s, is insanely thick and coarse. I’ve only found one stylist who can do a reasonable job. I cut it when he was a baby and toddler, usually with abominable results. Used to use my Wahl clippers on it. Sure enough, the blades didn’t hold up well with his hair.
I’ve had haircut issues. My parents went from the typical Bowl Haircut look to a crewcut when I was a kid. I detested it, and to this day have had long-ish hair. For about 15 years, I had a ponytail. Cut it off around 2002 and shorn a lot of length. HATED it. Now the ponytail is back and all is right with the world.
The stylists we go to are a mixed group. Two of em own the shop. She always cuts my hair. Now and then, she’s not been around and I’ve been in bad need, and have gone to Him. He’s been at it as long as she has, but he doesn’t have an eye for what I want. OTOH, He cuts son’s hair brilliantly, wickedly thick or not. He does this finely layered look that pleases the boy. He also cuts The FemBot’s hair and always nails it.
My best haircut story isn’t a bad one. My childhood’s best friend’s dad was/is a stylist in Philly. When I fought off Daddy and the Shears for the last time, I asked his dad to cut me. This was around 1977, and Billy Joel’s “The Stranger” was out. He cut my hair to match Billy’s haircut because I was such a huge fan.
Let’s see, that was 29 years ago and I still look fetching in that cut…
Cartooniverse
Good timing on this thread, I had an almost horrible experience at the salon on Saturday. I went to a very upscale, trendy salon (had a coupon). I am really going gray, so I was interested in a cut/color. I asked for dark hair, the woman said “how about red” and I said “no thanks, red hair always looks fake, I don’t want any color not normally found in nature, I was thinking a nice, chocolate brown color.” She dyes it, she rinses it, she sits me down in front of the mirror and starts drying it - my hair is Bozo the Clown red. I was nearly in tears. She could tell how upset I was, so she offered to dye it again to tame the red. I agreed and it ended up a very very dark auburn. Not what I wanted, took another 1.5 hours I didn’t have, ended up not any color that exists in nature, but not frightening to small children anyway. Because she fixed it (and it was difficult for her, since she had other clients showing up for their appointments), I did pay and tipped 15%.
I don’t know if I’ll go back to her though, although I absolutely adore the cut.
In your situation, which was because the stylist wasn’t paying attention, I would have stopped her and asked for a stylist who was capable of paying attention to the person paying her to do her job. I’m rude like that - I don’t ask to command people’s attention often, but when I’m paying for it, I want their total attention, especially where my hair is concerned. I’ve NEVER gone to a stylist to dye my hair, mostly because I’m really good at doing it myself.
Anyway, I’ve had horrid haircuts before, mostly, I think, because I’ve never been able to afford to go to a really nice salon. It’s always been something like SuperCuts or Cost Cutters for me. One time I made the mistake of going to a $5 haircut place (I was like 13 and poor) and asking for a model haircut where the hair slants toward the front of your face. She cut it uneven. I made her fix it and then refuse to pay the $5 (I don’t think this woman even went to beauty school, the haircut was so bad to start with - seriously, there was a three-inch difference of hair length on each side of my face), which the manager agreed with. I think she may have fired that stylist.
I’m a stickler for service, maybe because I’m so big on giving good service. I always have been. In all of my previous jobs, as well as now, I always try to give everyone I deal with my total attention and best effort, and I figure that if I can do it (I have bipolar disorder and OCD, and am just generally antisocial and bitchy), almost anyone can - so there’s no excuse for not doing a job well done. This applies whether you’re making pizza or flipping burgers, or writing obituaries or giving haircuts. So to the OP: I’d at least call the manager of the salon you were at and tell them what happened. Don’t expect anything, just let them know that one of the stylists wasn’t paying attention to something she damn well should have been, and you’re concerned that someone else may have the same experience you do - because that girl needs to be told, by management, that chatting up your buddies while you’re cutting someone’s hair, is unnacceptable.
~Tasha
I’ve gotten bad haircuts at expensive salons. My first horrible haircut ever was for my Senior Pictures in high school - and my have been my first haircut in a salon ever (as I said, my mother used to cut hair). Being “nearly a grown up” my mother took me to a fancy salon and had my eyebrows waxed (good) and my hair cut and permed (it was the 80s).
Why do bad haircuts involve stylists who put in layers without direction? In this case I was growing my hair out and had done a great job (for my hair). The stylist took ten inch layers off and gave me the worlds worst perm.
When I went to college, I had much shorter hair. But I look horrible in my Senior photos.
I’ve been pretty lucky with hairdressers; the few times I hated the 'do it was at times when I gave in to other people’s criteria.
For the last three years I’ve gone to the salon only if I can get to this particular one in my hometown. Since my dye is more along the lines of brightening my natural tone than anything radical, and since I always try to do what my hair wants rather than fight it, I can afford to go cut-less for qutie a while.
The owners of the salon are two sisters, they have another worker. I may get any of the three. They are very good at cutting it to where I tell them (open ends? whazzat? I once went for five years without a cut and didn’t get no open ends; I swear their existence is just a fable invented by Pantene); they also know that it doesn’t matter what my mother signed me up for: if I, the actual owner of the hair, say “trim a bit, no color” that’s exactly what it means (Mom insists that I should get a perm because “you were so cute with your curls when you were two!”).
I hate gels and sprays and all that. If I just shampoo, I need to wash my hair every 5-9 days; with those things, it’s almost a dash for the shower. Once I went to this salon and they knew I had a wedding, so it was a “comb pretty”. I reminded them I didn’t want any gels but “oh, just a little, let me tease your hair a bit…” “ok, but if I don’t like it, you redo it” “ok!”
So, she finishes and says “well?” “I look like… well, I sure don’t look like me, but… who does this remind me of… oh GOD, I know! You’ve given me Monica Lewinski’s hair! ARGH!” A couple of the other clients and the other sister tried to stop the giggles with better or worse success, and I said “can we just wash this out?” She looks at me and says “well, I don’t think you look like her” (her sister: “actually yes, I think you went a bit overboard with the fix, sweetheart, oooh my”) “but I wouldn’t want to be compared to a vacuum cleaner, certainly. Let’s wash”
They haven’t so much as brought the bottle of hairspray near me for over a year. They know I’m liable to bark at it 
I’ve never had a bad hair cut, per se, but I have had The Perm From Hell.
I had nothing but fuzz for 6 months and I ended up tying it back in a ponytail every day letting it grow out enough. Ended up getting all my hair chopped off and no one recognized me the next day…in a good way.
I’ve been on the perm wagon since 1994. what the hell was I thinking?
No, I didn’t demand a refund or make a scene. I was too much a wuss then.
I haven’t been to a salon since my father died - in 1999. I cut my bangs with kitchen shears. Every once in awhile my son or husband cuts the back - just straight across. Hey I figure if it’s good enough to bone a chicken, it’s good enough to cut my hair!
I have very very fine, thin hair - and used to get it permed (back in the day - like high school and a couple years after). I would always tell the stylist that the front of my hair takes the processing much much faster than the back, and to use very large rollers - and they never listened. The last time I went, they burned a huge patch off in the front - over my left eye. It never grew back - I just have tiny little wisps there and have to manage my bangs in some creative ways to cover it. I will never ever ever let someone near my hair with chemicals like that again. Which is sad because I looked good with curly hair.
I went to the Old Guy Barbershop once in college. I told him how I liked it. I came out with a crew. I expected an angry man in a broad-brimmed hat to appear at any moment and begin disabusing me of my dignity as a citizen.
I chalked it up to experience and dressed '50s style for the next 2 weeks: V-necks, rolled up jeans, pennyloafers.
Just as long as you rinse them now and again… :eek:
Of course! I wouldn’t want hair spray on my chicken!