Stylist: What can I do for you?
Me [indicating longish, past-the-shoulders hair]: I’d like a trim, please.
Stylist: Ok, what would you like?
Me: It’s all the same length, so how about just a half-inch all around?
Stylist: Great.
[two minutes later]
Stylist: Um, the back is longer than the front, so is it ok if I cut an inch off there?
Me: So that it’s all the same length?
Stylist: Yes.
Me: Sure.
[seven minutes later]
Stylist: I’m done.
Me: Ok, is it all the same length now?
Stylist: Yes. Except for your bangs.
Me: My what?
Stylist: Your bangs. In the front.
Me: I haven’t had bangs for decades.
Stylist: Oh.
Me: Where do you see bangs?
Stylist [gestures toward my face]: There?
Me: Yeah, that hair was the same as the rest. Because it’s all the same length.
Stylist: No, those front pieces were already shorter.
Me: And now they’re much shorter.
Stylist: Well, the front of your hair is curlier than the rest.
Me: Not really.
Stylist: Maybe it just looks shorter.
Me: Actually, I’m pretty sure that now it is shorter. Since you just cut it.
Stylist:
Me:
Stylist:
Me: Could you please cut my hair so that it’s all the same length?
Stylist: Yes, but normally people like it longer in the front.
Me: But you just cut it shorter in the front.
Stylist:
Me:
Stylist:
Me: Ok, whatever. Please, I would like my hair ALL THE SAME LENGTH.
Stylist: All the same? All around?
Me: Yes. ALL THE SAME LENGTH.
And…SCENE!
There is nothing quite like the feeling of sitting there helplessly whilst tresses rain down unexpectedly, which is a minor sort of horror since we know that whatever remains after all the wild scissoring is what we’ll have to deal with. This has happened to me more than once, almost exactly in this same order, with the same conversation. I’m starting to feel like I’m not very good at asking for what I hope to happen in a salon!
Can anyone relate? And, in the name of all that is good, does anyone have a solution?
Oh Cynthia. I feel for you. Lately I just say “take half an inch off all around.” I usually like some longer layers in front, but I wind up doing these at home. It works. I think. At least everybody has been polite enough not to say anything if it looks awful. LOL
I made a mistake and told the stylist to do what she thought would look good. Yikes I had to have a friend fix it.
I did this once…right before I had to be in a wedding. Oops!
Oh gosh. Why oh why do they do this? This is why I drag my feet going to the salon.
Now I’m dying to see your haircut!
I’ve been going to the same stylist for over 20 years. I don’t know what I’d do without her. My rule when I moved to LA was find a stylist who could give me a great haircut two times in a row. I found one I went to for a long time, but he got insanely expensive and was also in Santa Monica, so a visit would turn into a day trip.
My stylist back in NYC was a character. She and her husband lived in a small apartment on the Upper East Side made smaller by the fact that every wall had been turned into a hidden closet designed to house her shoe collection, which was so massive that New York Magazine profiled her. Current shoes, BTW, not historical, and I never saw her wear a single pair of them. She also had a pet iguana.
I haven’t thought about her in years! Now I miss NYC.
I am so fussy about my hair that I take in printouts from the Internet of styles I know will work for my hair, lifestyle, preferences, and physical limitations. It definitely helps.
I used to take in photos, but then I realized that I really didn’t look like [insert celebrity name]. Before pandemic, I went to a friend of mine who’d sectioned off part of her home to serve as a salon. Afterward, though, she ended up moving, and we lost touch. So then I hopped around salon chairs, and I’ve finally settled with a stylist who did another friend’s hair, which I liked.
I find it frustrating when someone gives me a one star review that doesn’t say anything about why they think my book is a one star.
So if you haven’t done it yet, let the stylist and the shop owner know why you’re giving them a one star. If they are open to listening – great. If not, then it’s probably time to find another shop and stylist.
I used to go to a chain style salon. It was interesting how much difference one stylist determined how long a 1/2 inch was from another stylist. Good times!
I have to have a very stern discussion with my stylist when I get a haircut about what we are doing. Oh, I should mention I cut my own hair. Since it’s just a simple all over buzz, it’s fairly easy to do, although I something finds spots I missed, so I have to keep the clippers handy for touchups over the next couple of days.
I’m lucky because I just tell the stylist, “Cut it short all over, and make sure to trim it so it doesn’t fall over my ears.” If anything, I tend to have to tell them to cut it even more than they want to, since they’re afraid I’ll think it’s too short.
But it is amazing that we trust to put something so very import into the hands of people we barely know (if at all), when one errant “SNIP” could send us to tears….
Amen, Leslie.
Oh, the horror stories I could tell you. Horrors! I now do my own hair and have only myself to blame if it looks bad.