Share your bad hair stories.
I need you guys to share your past or present misery with me.
My hair was long. Very long and shiny. I just wanted a trim.
That’s all.
A trim with slight layers.
She chopped it off. She cut it like a mother f-.
Pardon my french.
I can’t even look at it in the mirror.
It’s horrible.
I’m so upset. And pissed.
Yeah, I really need to vent.
I’ve given my colleagues enough of a headache today.
It’s your turn.
I feel your pain. Back in the '80s when curly hair was the rage I had long straight hair that was down to my bra strap. I wanted a body wave, I wanted it just a little curly but I guess I didn’t know how to describe it well? I went to the hairdresser my grandmother always went to. Don’t ask me why, looking back I should have known better. My grandmother always got a really short perm. I ended up with a really short perm. After he took the rollers out he started trimming. I was in tears when I left the place and I never went back. After that I bought a curling iron.
Lessons learned: 1. Bring a picture of what you want. 2. Don’t let anyone cut your hair unless they’re recommended by a friend, co-worker, someone you know. 3. Never cut your own hair. 4. It’ll always grow out, but be wary if anyone uses that line to talk you into a haircut.
It’ll grow out. <<<hugs>>>
Nowhere near on the level of your stories, but I went to a barber who didn’t speak English and asked to be left with 1/4". (Yes, I like my hair to be very short.) She thought that this meant cut off 1/4". Not a huge difference given the length of my hair, but I was quite annoyed not to get it as short as it could be.
I asked for a trim of my long layer cut once, and she cut something like four inches off. Somehow, she thought the hair should all be the length of the shortest layer. 
There was a language barrier here - she obviously didn’t understand what I was asking for. I was almost in tears when she made her first cut, held it up and showed it to me - “This much?” NOOOOOO! Not four inches off! Once you’ve cut four inches off of a big chunk, I guess we’re committed to that now. Maybe I should have just left then, with only one chunk cut off.
I think all hair cutters are insane. Maybe it’s the perm fumes.
Want proof? Just look at their hair. Why do we have to trust people with clown hair to do ours right?
I’ll bet it’s still long and shiny. Unless you got a buzz cut, you’ll stop freaking out in a day or two and feel better.
It’s just hair. It’ll be okay. Deep breaths.
Measure twice, cut once!
I haven’t gone to a barber in years. I just let my hair grow wild. When it gets too long, I tie that sucker back and hack off the pony tail. Done.
I like the simple life.
Two weeks after my 40th birthday, I went to a friend of a friends salon. “I want to be blonde. I’m an old, fat, redhead and I want to be blonde.”
Four hours later, my waist-length, formerly auburn & gray hair was, while not exactly what I’d had in mind, an acceptable shade of blonde.
The next morning, it started falling out in clumps, or perhaps merely breaking off at the root. Two days after that, I had a lemon-colored crewcut. :eek:
I did not hunt her down and beat her to bloody pulp with her own comb. I thought about it, but I did not do it.
Two years and several inches later, if she were to burst into flames in my presence, I think I would probably spit on her in an attempt to put the fire out. Maybe.
It will grow out.
I started trimming my own hair about a year ago, using this method. Mainly because I want really long hair (it’s down to my tailbone now), and IME most “professional” haircutters can’t stand to see long hair on anyone. Whenever I would go in and ask for an inch off, they’d take off 3 or 4 and try to talk me into layers. I gave in one time; that was the worst haircut I’ve ever had in my life. I looked like a deranged Carol Brady, with that weird flippy thing going on at the ends. And then I permed it. :eek:
I feel your pain, but I bet it’s not as bad as you think it is. Even if it is, it’ll grow. Did you complain to the hairbutcher’s supervisor?
The trick isn’t to go to the one with good hair and ask her to cut yours. You have to go up to her and ask her which of the other hairdressers did her hair, and then you go to that one.
I went to my sister’s hairdresser once, and while the cut was decent, she styled me like a poodle. She asked if I wanted it more curly or more straight, and I guess we had very different definitions of “curly”.
Ooh, I know how you feel. I always had my hair cut by a woman who lived near us until we moved to Bangkok, when I was about to turn 8. Unsurprisingly, the people who I trusted with my hair there got it all wrong, every time. I used to throw tantrums. Eventually my parents had enough and stopped trying to force me to get it cut. As a result I haven’t gotten my hair properly cut for a long time and now it’s just long enough to sit on.
The last really bad cut I got was some place at the mall.
I asked for it short, you see I wanted something pixieish, but I should’ve known better. You see, my face shape is not for pixie. Instead I ended up looking like a man. She basically gave me a man’s cut.
Before it grew out, I was called sir many times (not helped at all by my being tall and tomboyish).
Now at least I have a trusted hair dresser, she does a wonderful job on my hair. Not too short or too long and just the right style (which is never exactly the same twice) that I can wash and go and it still looks good. I need to get a cut again though, it’s getting too long.
I should also add, it took me yearsto find the right hairdresser and it is really the most trying experience.
It’s rough but it will grow out hugs
Before my last haircut, I always went to ‘salons’ with ‘hairdressers’ who never spoke much English and never understood what I wanted. I brought pictures, I told them HOW to cut it, but they never followed my instructions because “I know what you want, I make it pretty”. My face is a squarish and pretty wide, so short hairstyles made me look like I was losing my hair. Gah. All those haircuts always left me in tears because being a student, you couldn’t afford a fancy haircut and the chop shops were all that you could go to.
After I graduated I was recommended a hair stylist by a very trendy friend. My hair had gotten pretty long and I needed to have it cut because I was having a ponytail everyday at work was getting very depressing. It was the best hair experience of my life. He was a bit pricey ($65), but he spent an hour and a half consulting with what I wanted, told me which products to use on my hair, how to style my hair and gave me advice on which cuts are best for me in the future. Overall he was totally worth every penny of that and the $25 tip I left him. I will be going back to him in the future.
So if you’re in the San Francisco, CA area, just let me know and I’ll tell you the salon and hairdresser to go to. He’s FABULOUS!
Ah yes, bad hair cuts/color, the story of my life. When I was an older teen and into my 20’s I lightened and streaked if frequently, and in my 30’s I tended to accent the natural coppery highlights. Now in my 40’s there is a liberal amount of silver streaking it naturally, and the silver won’t take color, so it’s back to it’s natural dark coppery brown and silver.
I have never ever had a haircut I liked. Ever. The last haircut I had, which I hated, was in 1994. I am now able to sit on my hair when it’s down. I put it in ponytails, braids, twists, buns, etc with ease, as it wraps around itself and pretty much holds itself in place. I can even just tie it in a knot. No more bad haircuts for me, ever. Sorry about yours, and as has been said, it will grow.
I kid you not, this is a sign in our town:
Vince’s Hairstyling
Fresh Chicken Parts
Ahh, the North.
Hey, it’s better than Sal’s Deli and Urinalysis, now isn’t it?
I haven’t gotten my hair cut since last June, partly because I was so traumatized by my experience and partly because I was waiting for the cut to grow out. At the time my hair was down to my shoulder blades, and I was wearing it in long layers – the shortest layer ended right around my jawline. I asked the stylist to keep the same style, and just trim off an inch. She made me look like Kelso from That '70s Show. By the time I realized that she’d cut the top layers so short, it was too late to fix the damage. I spent the entire summer wearing headbands and barrettes.
I have had a similar experience, Flutterby. I wanted a cute pixie cut at some point, but with my round face (that can’t pull off a good pixie cut) and the man-cut I got I basically looked like a boy. It didn’t help that I was in my striped tube socks/converse/dressing like a boy phase. I got a like of "dude"s and "sir"s.
Overall not great, but could have been worse. When I look at pics from that time of my life I immediately have a little Austin Powers floating head beside mine saying “That’s a man, baby!”
Then there was the time I tried to give myself bangs. I kept going further back because they didn’t seem thick enough, and I ended up giving myself a mullet. I wore a hat to work the next day and left around 11:00 to go get a haircut at the first place I could find. The hairdressers in this place didn’t think that me cutting my own hair was very funny (they seemed to take it as a personal affront that someone so unskilled ever thought she could do what they do - at SuperCuts). I ended up with a short but workable haircut.
I was sitting at my desk later that day missing about 9 inches of hair when my boss walked by my open office door, stopped, smiled, and said “You join the LPGA at lunch?”