This stems from one my biggest pet peeves in the salon. What do you do if you get a bad haircut? You can get creative with the styling, you can wear it up or with a hat for the next while. There are tons of techniques for covering it up, but that is not what I am here to talk about. I am here to talk about your attitude after.
Most likely after your hair cut was over your stylist asked you if you liked it or not, or something along the lines of “how do you feel about it?” Hopefully you told her (in a kind way) that you weren’t happy with the result. So often I have clients (and even friends!) that come to me and they aren’t happy with their cut or color. But when I ask them how they feel they say they love it and they are super happy with the result! I then find out a week later that they are unhappy and have been saying unkind things about me and/or my work.
I can’t even begin to tell you how frustrating this is! I am a professional, I can take the criticism. I now had you leave the salon and thought you were happy, instead of looking at the cut and trying to figure out what the flaw in my technique or miss-communication was and trying to dissect the situation to figure out how I can avoid this problem in the future. You know when people say it’s important for you to learn from your mistakes? Well when you tell me everything is perfect and that you “love it”, then I learn nothing, because I didn’t know there was a mistake!
The next problem with leaving the salon without telling your stylist how you feel is that you feel more motivated to tell other people about your frustrations. So you go to your friends and neighbors and tell them all about that one girl at that one place and how terrible she did on your hair. I wish people would not do this. Not only does it hurt the stylist’s business and career, but it hurts the salons.
There are so many variables when it comes to cutting or coloring someone’s hair. Often clients bring in pictures and in their minds they think that this cut/color will give them a leaner or longer looking face, or high cheek bones. Often the color looks so different on the person in the picture than it will on you as well. The other thing we need to remember is what that picture is usually of.
Take for example this picture of Emma Stone. You might think she has a gorgeous auburn/copper all over hair color right? Wrong. Her hair has been dyed with 3 different shades of red with different tones and levels. This gives her a lot more dimension and makes the color look more natural. The placement of the different colors also add length and are placed in a way that makes her cheek bones look higher. It takes an extensive amount more time, and money to do something like this. It is something you can get at a salon, but it is a timely and costly process. Her makeup and the lighting of this photo also speaks volumes to the overall look.
My point in saying this is that if your stylist doesn’t make you look like Emma Stone it is not her fault, or yours. But try and be realistic about what your results will be like.
Not every stylist is for every client and vice-versa. If you go to a salon and they stylist doesn’t do your hair “right” or you don’t think it looks good, then most likely the stylist isn’t a bad stylist. She is probably very talented and has a faithful clientele, but she obviously isn’t the stylist for you. Whether the miss-communication happened on your part or hers (most likely both) trashing her to your friends and family is not only unkind but it’s really wrong. It can also have legal ramifications. Slander charges can be pressed if they can prove that your bad-mouthing or Facebook posts hurt their business or reached clientele.
If you get a bad haircut you really have two options, go somewhere else next time or go back next time. If you go back to the same stylist you can remind them what they did last time and tell them what didn’t work for you. That way they already know what you don’t want and can “fix” it. If you go somewhere else hopefully you and the new stylist will communicate the same way.
But what I really wanted to hit on in this section is going back to the same place, but not the same stylist. It is okay to request not to have a specific stylist. I know for a fact that there is a few people who don’t care who at my salon cuts their hair as long as it’s not me! I am okay with that. If i cut your hair and two months later I see you in someone else’s chair my feeling aren’t hurt in the slightest. If you find a salon that you like their atmosphere, prices, and location, but you have a bad stylist experience don’t take it out on the salon. Go back to someone different, it’s okay!
In the end I am trying to say that if you get a bad haircut you should tell your stylist! Then you should not go around bashing that stylist. Then you need to know that if you’d like to you can return to that salon without fear! You wont hurt anyone’s feelings.