What a disappointment. Not only because of the haircut I left with (unfinished) but that the stylists treated me as though I was the problem and not the stylist’s inability to execute an angled bob that tapered at the back at the neckline.
True this is not an easy cut. It requires an understanding of angles & blending but after 4 separate visits, I believe I gave the stylist ample opportunity to refine her approach to my hair cut. Each time I went home, & with my husband’s help, chipped away at the bulk at the back of my head to get the taper / layers I wanted at the nape of my neck.
This time, the stylist did the cut & when I mentioned she still didn’t get the look I was after, she attempted to course-correct without a plan. This is too long a debacle to share, suffice to say that at one point, I had the comb & scissors in my hand to show her where the unwanted bulk was. I had no intention of cutting it. I just wanted to show her how I “chip into it” when I got home. But she said, go ahead. Cut it. 😳
I used to be in the hair biz specializing as a hair colour tech so I know how delicate it is trample on someone else’s work. I’ve also been a graphic designer, & am now an abstract artist & creative coach so dealing with angles, precision, creativity & people are not foreign concepts to me.
At one point, as my stylist went to town on my hair, cutting at the top instead of the bottom? I asked her to stop and sit with me. She sat and stared at me. I asked what her plan was. She didn’t have one she said. She didn’t know what to do. It seemed that I was attempting to coach how to find her way in cutting my hair. I demonstrated several times where the unwanted bulk & weight was.
She didn’t get the taper concept and she didn’t get how the shorter hair at the back of my head needed to “connect” somehow across the hair in between to the longer front - those two lengths. A 6” length difference side by side isn’t going to cut it! No pun intended.
I asked what should we do? “I don’t know” she said. Yikes! This is not the first time I’ve heard I don’t know from her. That happened last time when she cut my hair shorter at the front than I had asked. Her response then additionally was, “it’s gone now”. No kidding.
The kicker for me today was the end result of her asking her two colleagues to step in. Good idea but,….
The first asked me what I had wanted. I showed her the exact gesture I showed my stylist when I came in where I pushed up the back hair to demonstrate how short and angled and also showed how long to leave the front. This new stylist looked at my haircut & said, “yes, this needs to be tapered here at the nape, take out the weight. I’d do it but don’t have time right now, but I can do it tomorrow. “
The second stylist came with a different approach. “I know nothing, fill me in. Do you have a picture? Show me a picture from your phone. Do you have one?
I finally located images out of the plethora of photos I have. I showed the cuts and explained (as I did 2 other occasions on previous visits) how these cuts were what I liked but I wanted the back shorter, higher and less heavy near the nape.
She then proceeded to inform me that “no one here can make me happy.”
So their lack of ability doesn’t exist and this is my fault? (I had managed to finish this cut several times at home, albeit $70 later.)
I replied that this wasn’t a happiness problem. It was a communication problem. Furthermore, I politely reminded her that her colleague said she knew what needed to be done but she couldn’t do it until the next day.
She repeated her statement about this not being the place for me. (You mean you don’t want to bother to fix this.)
I left followed by her gestures of patronizing well wishes, good luck and other such pathetic nonsense.
When I got home, my husband & I took the scissors to it. Again.
