What is it with hairdressers' mirrors!

I have the opposite problem probably to do with some asymmetry in my face in that I look better in mirrors than in real life so I usually have an inflated sense of how nice I look. Even my OH commented when he happened to look into a mirror at the same time as me that I looked better. But in photos the opposite problem I usually look terrible I am not at all photogenic and wonder who is that overweight, triple chinned old lady in the photos. Oh and why does the heavy clothes protector that they put round your neck in the hairdressers have to cause my neck wrinkles to sag so alarmingly? By the way gransnetters why are you even contemplating buying clothes in M&S when there are so many better outfits out there? Try (in the sales) Crew Clothing, White Stuff, Sea Salt, Top Shop etc etc and many many others.

So interesting to see things from a different perspective thanks Playermojo 007.

Photographs are worse!

I really like this site. It's so nice to find out that lots of you have exactly the same thoughts about themselves as i do about me. I really thought that I was the only ugly woman looking at herself in the mirror at the hairdressers. Please don't mention M&S mirrors, I absolutely hate them, maybe if they got kinder ones they would sell more clothes

Hapgran this made me smile!
Trouble I so can my husband and he didn't like my mum!
But I do agree about hairdressers mirrors, couldn't they do 'soft focus' mirrors?..

ps it was an M&S jumper .....

I've just bought a new jumper Eloethan and am just wondering 'does my bum look big in this'

But, quite honestly, I like the jumper and I don't care!! Perhaps people will admire the jumper and ignore my backside.

Like others on here, it's M&S mirrors that I most dislike. As soon as a see my face in profile, I usually abandon whatever garment I was trying on and leave feeling very depressed.

At least at the hairdressers I don't see myself very well until she has finished, as my glasses are off, and even when I put them back on, I only get a back and front view (bad enough!), and not my profile!

Thanks Jalima, that's sweet of you.

I avoid mirrors these days. And do find the hairdresser mirror a curse. I think the problem is when I look in a mirror at home, my face is still. At hair salon, I'm talking and moving and then notice how my neck creases when I do. And the jowls. As for the back view mirrors in shops, had no idea how saggy my arse has become until I had to a reluctant shopping trip. Utterly depressing.

I always keep my eyes closed until nearing the end of the ordeal when I have to check if my fringe needs more off and the ceremony of looking at the back of my head in another mirror. I also keeps my eyes shut at the dentist's, and I always decline when I am offered a small mirror to check what has been done to my 1950's teeth! If I could get away with eyes shut at the opticians I'd do that too!

My grandson (7) loves to chant my age to all and sundry??‍♀️ Half the town now knows my age? I keep telling him that his grandfather is 5 years older than me! Especially when he asks if I am the oldest person he knows??

Been to hairdressers today- dear God the wrinkles in the mirror were horrific, HOWEVER my hair looked as it always does so no, mirror not at fault , the wrinkles are obvs always like that!

Eloethan
LOL - and I am sure you look just fine in that jumper

My cousin does my hair, at my mums so no mirror. However, when walking past anything that can give a reflection, I wonder who the dumpy woman coming towards me is - turns out it's me

I think I look pretty ghastly in most mirrors, and I agree that hairdressers' mirrors are rarely flattering. I did get my hair done in a salon in Brighton last year and actually looked quite OK in the mirror. I look terrible in M&S mirrors and not so bad in other stores. It must be something to do with the lighting.

I went to an event in a large local restaurant a while ago. It was a buffet meal and as I was walking back to our table I saw someone walking towards me wearing the same jumper as me. I thought, smugly, to myself that it didn't look half as nice on her as it did on me and then I realised it WAS ME - there was a mirrored wall at the end of the room! I haven't been able to bring myself to wear that jumper again even though I like it.

I'll bet it doesn't help when I produce a picture of some celebrity with lovely hair who's no doubt at least twenty years my junior with the request, "Can you make me look like that?" Julie smiles politely but inside I'll bet she's thinking, 'You must be joking!'
However, I do like to (kid myself) think that my grey hairs are artfully distributed all over making me look 'mature and distinguished.'

Love reading all your comments. Last time I went to the hairdresser I sat waiting, looking, thinking I didn't look too bad then the lovely young hairdresser came over, looked at my hair and announced loudly that it 'must be terribly windy outside

I had my hair cut yesterday. My first grown up hair cut, not on a pensioner day, not at home, not trimmed by a family member or me, just a pukka, famous in our area, stylist and I am loving the results. It cost an arm and a leg but when I think what I have saved over the decades I felt I deserved it. As for the mirror, my glasses were off which helped and I just tried not to look until the big reveal.
I've been ill for a year, in hospital overnight last week again and just couldn't be bothered to get to a salon. I thought another few weeks and it would have been long enough to tie back then suddenly couldn't bear to catch a glimpse of myself in anyone's mirror. I feel like a new woman today. Now how do I stop it growing though?

My DGS recently told me I had the same hair as a neighbour down the road. I was horrified, as she has straggly grey hair while mine is silver and stylish. Well it is in my mirrors at home, but the ones at my hairdressers must have retained some of the reflections of countless old biddies over the years

So pleased i am not the only one,i do not go to hairdressers, for this reason, i come out feeling worse than when i went in,
Also i dont like the open plan salons,
I mainly colour my own hair, and trim, but my grand daughter was a hairdresser, so i have it cut when she visits
When we had cubicles a long time ago, i preferred them
When i look in my mirrors at home i dont look too bad, but even then some seem kinder than others

Because they wash your hair, I don't wear makeup to hairdresser's. Bad move

One of my sons has hair so silver that, to his horror, he was once taken for his 12-year-old son's grandfather. But my hair (the only bit of me that isn't disintegrating at a rate of knots!) is still mid-brown – which sometimes causes people the same age as me to think I'm much younger than them.

However, on the rare occasions when I go to the hairdresser's, lo and behold, that old biddy in the mirror has scraggy shoulder-length GREY hair. And the rear-view mirror in my car, with its horrible anti-glare filter, also highlights every grey hair, even though they're not at all noticeable otherwise. So maybe it's to do with mirrors themselves, not just lighting.

So this is why I never go to a hairdresser!

I solved this problem by having a super hairdresser come home to do my hair. Always a wonderful surprise when I look in the mirror when she has finished.