Hairdresser - a bit of a rant!

Someone on here posted that perhaps hairdressers were worse than the dentist and I heartily concur! In fact I would go so far to say that ALL (mercifully few!) the personal grooming treatments I have had are worse. When I go to my dentist I have fast, efficient and professional treatment that does not require me to make small talk (very nature of the treatment puts paid to that!) or to nervously anticipate the outcome or bill. I get an excellent result with minimal consultation (I trust his advice as a professional). No pain as pain relief excellent (unlike waxing!). My dental plan takes care of the cost so no feeling of being fleeced! Perhaps I’m just lucky with my teeth/dentist/pain threshold or just a miserable so and so!

I a dog groomer and people would bring in pictures often . Usually crufts winners lol. But actually I don’t think a picture is enough. There’s more to a cut than that and it seems it’s a good hairdresser that goes through the detail with you. There’s always that ‘one ‘ thing that’s not obvious from a pic.

Do they just not care! I’m 64 and over the years I can say I’ve had 4 hairdressers who listened to me and cut my hair the way I asked. I stuck with each of them until either they or I moved. I’ve tried top notch salons and little side street ones and it’s about the girl not the surroundings !

I know exactly what you mean about the style books in hairdressers. They are all so weird and way too 'abstract' for everyday wear.
I've tried taking photos to the salon too with next to no success. I have very fine thin flyaway hair, styling products irritate my scalp as do hair colourants and most shampoos. I rarely use conditioner but the HD insists on lathering it on.......result is soft flyaway hair that even she can't control.
Not had my haircut since before lockdown because of the HD reluctance to listen to me and I've tried several over the years, I just tidy my fringe and fasten the rest up in either a claw clip or slides.

Had a really nice hairdresser for many years, he retired. I carried on going to same business but after a couple of terrible cuts now travel 40 miles on the motorway to a really great h'dresser. No exaggeration to say it costs me 3 times as much and it's a rotten journey with great difficulty trying to find a parking spot for the 3 hrs or so it takes for cut & colour but I do come away with a great cut and a good colour.

I think it depends a lot on how stylish you want to be.
And how adaptable your hair is.
My standards are purely functional, practical need at the time.
A bit like yous, Bamm.

During lockdown I got used to washing and styling my own hair. I also got used to having hair without all the product HDs use! I've always had strong, shiny hair (I used to be a model for student stylists) and now it looked even better. Now I just to go my HD for 'dry' cuts. Long hair, with blond (the red in my dark hair has gone yellow now) and grey streaks just happens to be the look for grannies these days. I've saved hundreds in the last three years too.

I am happy with my hairdresser. All her clients seem very pleased with how she does their hair and often ask her to take photo’s of the back with their mobile phones.

She cuts the back of my hair but she knows I like to cut the front myself and I colour my hair at home.
She laughs and says”oh you’re funny” but it suits me, and I pay only £20 about every 8 weeks. I’m in and out in 20 mins.

I used to go the HD every 6 weeks PP. My DD and Oh were not keen on LH on an OAP. So off I go, my HD had closed so XFR to a new one. This one is VG. So think I will stick.

I agree totally Witzend. Never really happy since my usual h.d. left the salon. Tried 3 other salons and one hardly took any off and colour hardly was noticed . One was cheap but at least it looked like it had been cut, but not the best really . Can't afford highlights yet .

I haven't been to the hairdressers for 20 years. Hard to find one with the same vision as you. I wet my hair and comb a lot of heavy conditoner through flattening it against my neck. I hold a bigish mirror in left hand and, using a pair of hairdressing scissors (internet), cut the back looking into another mirror, I curve this slightly to be shorter at the back, then turn to the side and cut the sides slightly longer , hair still touching my neck. Sometimes I section the back pulling down to cut to my guide line but as I have fine hair both method work ok I think. Don't think this would work on course, thick hair. Means I always have same old style but it's easy to keep, (am 75) wash every other day and rough dry with head upside down for volume.
.

Oh I’m so pleased to read these comments! I thought it was just me being too fussy.
I have moved around quite a lot and dread having to find a hairdresser who knows how to cut hair properly.
The last place I lived, all the hairdressers had been trained by the same lecturer at the same college and their cutting was awful, sticking their little finger in the air whilst snipping at my hair with a pair of scissors which looked like nail scissors!
The best haircut I ever had was in Hong Kong.

Talking of highlights, I showed my new hairdresser a photo of my hair when it was last highlighted, showed her which colours I wanted and how I wanted it to look.
Result- nothing like the photo, far too much brown for my skin tone and barely highlighted. She totally ignored my request and just did what she wanted.

I like to wear a pretty hairband, specially when the hairdressers get it wrong.

Couldn't agree more. I tried a new hairdresser on recommendation. On three separate occasions I asked for it to be layered but not let my ears show. First of all she said it looked nice the way it was - and proceeded to cut it round my ears. By the third time I'd had enough, found someone who actually listened and then informed me she was pregnant!

I've been with my hairdressers for 25 years. I started with her when she was training and followed her when she had left to go to a bee salon. She, is self-employed salon based.

No one else will ever get their hands on my hair. If anything happened to her I would be heartbroken. Totally selfish reasons I know.

I am fortunate my friend's step daughter is a qualified hairdresser. She, qualified in the same salon as my hairdresser so I would go over to her if I had too.

My hair is long and I go every 6-8 weeks to the hairdressers, to keep it tidy and in good condition.

I have it coloured and roots done every 6-,7 weeks.

My hair is my pride and joy. I'm a Leo so you will get it ?♌️?

I went to a hairdresser for years until we moved, she cut well but never got the colour looking the same twice running. Sometimes it was lovely, natural - and other times it was too "plummy" or too dark. She was also very expensive.
My new hairdresser is older, only works part-time and comes to our estate to do our hair in our own homes every six weeks or so. She perhaps isn't quite so good at cutting but she still does a good job and my colour is really good and consistently the same. She also leaves me with enough colour to touch up roots between visits.

I think we put up with a lot of poor hairdressing and ridiculous prices in this country. Friends in Italy and Spain pay much lower prices for their good cuts and colours so can afford to go more often.

Sometimes we go to hairdressers because they are the nearest to us or the most convenient but iit doesn't always work out well as I found not once but twice after I visited our local salon in desperation.
The first time I wanted my hair shortened by several inches , just a blunt cut, no layers or anything fancy.
Was combing it later in the day, and there were several long chunks that had obviously hidden somewhere so ended up trimming them off myself.
Second time, I had planned to go elsewhere. Had a job interview the next day, bus didn't turn up, so again went to the local salon who very kindly fitted me in. Had a shorter bob, all went well until after she had blow dried it, she went over it again snipping bits off here and there all the time assuring me I'd love it when she had finished!
I didn't. The next morning, it was hanging round my face like a mop that wasn't improved by washing it again and blow drying it.
Never went back to the salon even though it has new management - the same stylist is still there.
Taking photos is always a bit of a gamble, but in my experience, any decent stylist can adapt a style to suit you but I don't see that it is beyond expectation for them to ask questions as they are not mind readers!
Go elsewhere and have a good discussion with the stylist. Your hair and facial shape may well have changed over the years but your stylist should be able to adapt your original style to fit in with how you are now.

After my fabulous hairdresser moved abroad I tried a few others but was never fully satisfied.
So I looked at different hairdressers on Google and read reviews of the ones I could easily travel to.
I think I was extremely lucky because the first one I tried on strangers positive reviews has been amazing.
She has now cut 3 generations of hair in my family since lockdown ended!
I really helps that her prices have been reasonable too.
So my suggestion is to read some reviews.
Good luck.

It’s very annoying when they ask
Loads of questions when you’ve shown a pic!
It is sometimes problematic for them as one may have too fine/thick/ curly hair for the style shown in the photo, but they should discus that with you..
I only ever had 3 great hairdressers and one was my husband (!)
Nowadays I say no parting and by the time my hair is wet they say “which side do you usually have your parting”?! It’s very frustrating ?
You wouldn’t think you could go wrong with a picture of the style requested …

Yep...

I do sympathise. I used to go to what is considered the best hairdresser in town but I became aware that actually they just had the most upmarket shop fittings. I now go to a young girl in a small salon who has no trouble cutting a straightforward bob with fringe which I have gone back to since lockdown.

If a hairdresser does not cut my hair to my satisfaction, I just find myself a new hairdreser.

A word of praise for one I once tried, though, years ago and near MiL’s so sadly a one-off, since we were usually an 8 hour flight away.

At the time I had long hair, very fine, but an awful lot of it.
He took one look and said to the girl who was going to wash it, ‘Don’t rub it - that sort of hair will go into a million knots.’

Exactly what I’d always said to anyone washing it - which they invariably ignored, and afterwards would proceed to try to untangle it by tearing it out by the roots.
I would often have to take the comb and do it myself.

to be told I looked like a mad monk without the tonsure
???

Apparently mine's a haystack!!

I went yesterday and no, again I'm not happy! But she is better than other hairdressers round here.
She's lovely but she said mine wouldn't look like the style in the photo because I don't have streaks.

Longer hair doesn't suit me or suit my unruly hair Luckygirl so it's a short bob but not like the one in the picture!
She managed it the first time I had it cut after lockdown so why not this time?