The last haircut I got was AWFUL, and it is just now to a point where it can be cut again without looking ridiculous. I found a picture of what I want and I am going to do some research before I set foot in another salon again. The woman who cut my hair last ignored the picture I brought her and gave me the same haircut she had, and it was not a good one. About halfway through she told me she cuts her own hair and that is when I knew it was not going to end well.
Some hairdressers just have no idea and they’re not going to have any idea unless you tell them that what they just did was completely wrong in relation to what you asked for. pbbth, your experience must have been horrifying and I hope you told her off for completely ignoring your requests. They are providing a service in a competitive line of business and they should at least try to please the customer! It’s just astounding what people think they can get away with, hairdressers are just nutcases a lot of the time.
In about 1990 my straight blonde hair was down to the bottom of my ribs and I decided that it needed some wave. I went to a salon downtown that was supposed to specialize in long hair perms. The fellow who did my hair charged me $240 and painstakingly rolled my hair, two rollers per strand so that the solution could get through. The entire procedure took about 4 hours. Unfortunately, his rolling technique left something to be desired, and at the midpoint of each strand a portion was left that was not rolled – say an inch and a half? It wasn’t all that evident at first – I was overwhelmed by all the curliness – and I went home with instructions to refrain from washing my hair for two days. After I finally did, I noticed the gap and returned to the salon to complain. They told me that I must have created the problem myself by using a blowdryer on my hair (which I had not done – blow-drying my hair in those days would have taken a solid half hour, and I am just not that energetic – to this day five minutes of hair care seems grossly excessive).
Anyway, they also refused to refund my money. I waited literally years before letting anyone touch my hair again, for any reason. Since cutting it to the point where the straight bit began was unthinkable, I also spent a lot of years with hair that looked disturbingly like a spaniel’s ears. I have pictures from this time that make me laugh even now, because I forgot about it after a while, but there it is in the photos – long blonde spaniel ears! I feel for you, mojito.
I’ve been cutting my own hair most of my life (starting at about age four) and I’ve given myself some real doozies, but somehow it’s always easier to bear if I’m the one who fucked it up. I think the worst one was in ninth grade. I had a mullet (shut up!) with the back permed, and the permed part was getting frizzy. So I put my hair in a ponytail and cut the ponytail off. Then I tried to fix it for a while. Finally I went to Mom and had her do the best she could to even out the back…and oh man was it short! However, I still had long layers on top of my head, so I gelled 'em and sprayed 'em and made 'em reach for the sky. Ah, the glorious eighties…
I’ve had plenty of bad “professional” haircuts as well. My theory is, if you just want something simple done, go to the cheapest place you can find. If you go to the pricey place, the hairdresser may think of themselves as an artist who knows better than you do what ought to be done to your hair.
I’ve finally managed to grow my hair out to all one length, except for the bangs, which I cut myself. When I want some of the length off, I can get my mom to cut it. No more crazy haircuts for me!
Oh, do I hate the hair “artistes” who try to talk you into a haircut. If I come in with a picture, I want that hair. Don’t try to talk me into a new-age mullet, or blue streaks, or a poodle perm, because you think it’s so totally me.
And please, folks,* never *volunteer to be in a hair show! I had a friend in hairdressing school who asked if I’d be her model and I declined because I didn’t have time, but I went to the show to encourage her. When I saw folks displaying things like this, or this lovely look, I was so happy to have declined the privilege. I guess those work on some folks, but some hairdressers are about “what can I do with this” than “how can I make her look nice”.
So, did you pay for it?
I haven’t gone to a “salon” since my father died. In 1999.
I use kitchen shears and trim it myself. It’s far less painful. And frankly, looks better.
Two years ago, I went into Super Cuts and got a hair cut, but not the one I asked for. It made my head look like a box–I literally should have had UPS stamped across my forehead. I went back the following day to get it “fixed”, but the woman who cut my hair wasn’t available (as if I’d let her come at my hair with scissors), so another person volunteered to fix it. He stood behind me and we looked in the mirror. He made a face. “What don’t you like about it?” he asked before I’d said anything. “Aside from it making your head look like a square?”
Not only did he fix it, he gave me an incredible cut. I’ve followed him to two different salons over the past two years, and I’ll not let anyone other than Mike at my hair with scissors.
Place yourself in a hairdresser’s shoes. Would you gat more of a thrill from squinting at splint ends to trim, or chopping off long hair? Chopping off long hair is a temptation for hairdressers, like popping bubble wrap is for the rest of us. You have to be VERY, VERY, careful and very exact.
When I was in college, I went to the local Hair Cuttery, ended up with a stylist who didn’t speak much English, and got a haircut that made me look like Bill Gates on a bad hair day.
It was toward the end of a very tough semester, so I was running out of clean clothes. One day when I was getting ready to go to classes, I thought, “Nobody cares how I dress anyway” and put on an old T-shirt with a flannel shirt over it.
Of course, that ended up being the day that reporters from the Washington Post came to my physics class to interview the professor (he’s a well-known black physicist). I was talking to him after class, and the reporters took a picture of him and me talking. A couple of years later, I showed this picture to the then-future Mr. Neville, and he said, “That’s not you- that’s a guy”.
I started growing my hair long after that haircut.
In college during the Big-Hair 1980s, I was going on choir tour and I needed good cut that was easy to style. I went into the Hair Salon with mid-shoulder length hair. The stylist turned me away from the mirror. I left with 1/2 inch hair left on my head. Too short to even comb much less style. I looked hideous and didn’t get my hair cut again for 4 years. Now I have super long hair and when it needs trimming, I do it myself.
The worst cut I’ve ever had was from my dad’s cousin, who runs her own salon out of her home. When she started, I decided to start going to her, she being family and all. The first time was the last time…I wanted my long hair cut to shoulder length with long layers. It looked like a schizophrenic monkey with cataracts cut my hair, it was so uneven and ragged. She missed entire locks of hair, so I had shoulder length hair with the occasional bit that still went all the way down to my bra strap. As soon as I left, I called my prior hairstylist and was able to get in the same day, thankfully.
I’ve never had a hairstylist cut my hair too short, though. Usually they’re hesitant to cut off as much as I want. A couple times, I’ve gone in with bra-strap length hair and wanted it shoulder length and I’ve gotten, “omigod, really? are you sure???” and, while in the process of cutting, “are you going to cry? I’d cry.” Just cut the damn hair!
My husband and I now go to the same stylist, and she’s wonderful. She’s the only person who’s ever been able to cut his hair and make it look normal (it’s so thick, it usually sticks up all over if it’s cut short, and he had the same bowl cut from childhood until I met him).
I am getting a haircut again this Wednesday. I have a picture selected of a famous person who had the hairstyle for a long time, and I will have a good, in depth discussion with the stylist before scissors are brought near my head. I am also going to someone named William recommended to me by a friend. If it doesnt look right this time I am shaving my head and getting a wig. I wish stylists kept pictures of their previous customers right after their haircuts in their little hair cutting cube. That would make it easier to discern who I should let near my hair.
It happened again…I went to the salon (a different woman this time, one who has done fabulous things to other people’s hair) and asked for this and was instead given this. I sobbed on the way home. I wish that suck-n-cut thing from the Waynes World movie actually existed cause I would totally cut my hair at home and not deal with this crap anymore!
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Ah, the Rachel. Very nice, layered style. That is not the same haircut as what Nicole Richie is wearing (although I must say, she looks really good in that picture). Sorry to hear about your hair problems, pbbth. Bad haircutter! Bad, bad haircutter!
(I have started cutting my own hair, and it looks good, I must say. I have forgiving hair, though.)
I present to you…the Flowbee!
The difference is that one has layers and one doesn’t. Can’t you go back to him and ask him to layer your hair a little bit around your face?
When I was a freshman in high school (1983), my mom had a “white woman’s afro”, and her hairdresser used to come to our house about every 4 weeks to re-perm it. While she was there, she would cut our hair too. So, every 4 weeks she would cut it, and cut it, and cut it, and I, not quite having evolved into a girlie-girl yet, let her do it. When I got my school portrait back and saw that I looked like FREAKIN’ MICHAEL J. FOX, that very day I started growing my hair out, and I’ve had long hair ever since!
Yup, that happened to me. When I had my first perm I had long, one length hair and it was wonderful! I could not have been happier. Then they told me to maintain it by returning every few weeks for a trim. I loved my new hair so much I was willing to comply. That’s when it hit the fan - the cutter cut in layers!!! What happened? The shorter top locks spoinged upwards in a nice pouffy pile while the longer locks were pulled straighter from the weight of the hair and ended in a tight curl. There was a gap between the two groups and I looked like the poodle I had as a kid after she had a fancy cut.
I was devastated and avoided salons for years. It wasn’t until about a decade ago I completely gave up perms. My hair IS straight and that’s the way I’m gonna leave it!
I am going to look into that flowbee thing and see how that works. I wish I could go back and ask them to layer it, but my hair is wavy and she blew it completely straight and then cut another inch off, so I know tomorrow once I wash my hair it is going to shrink considerably. I don’t dare go back and ask for more cutting. She also gave me those stupid bangs that sweep across your face, blinding you in one eye. I hate bangs that are not long enough to be swept back as part of the rest of your hair if need be.