Is it just me?

At one time I was not comfortable going to the hardresser but it is a product like anything else in a shop so I kept trying different salons until I gelled/clicked with one. I now have a very good professional hairdresser who likes her clients to feel comfortable, to know what you really like and does her best to give you exactly that. She is happy to use my own shampoo and knows that she will never sell me any product unless I actually ask for it. I have always had easy hair to look after but as I have got older it has become much softer and I don't find that as easy to style and keep it looking nice without giving it some spray to hold it. I love my bright and shiny grey hair and will not colour it as it really suits me. As for the mirrors I only feel a bit embarrassed if someone catches me watching them but I just give them a big smile and nobody has ever not smiled back. I am very happy in my own skin which is fortunate since I couldn't change anything if I wasn't!

My dislike of hairdressers goes back to being a shy teenager and some pretty awful hairstyles in my twenties when my self confidence was non existence. I can’t blame one particular hairdresser as I’ve had many over the years and even when I like the person and how he/she does my hair I still hate the whole experience. I’m no shrinking violet now and can stand up for myself bu, like an ingrained fear of dentists, I just hate going to the hairdresser.

mollie have you tried taking with you a magazine picture or photo of the style you want to emulate? Some salons have books of them and you can also book just a consultation appointment often with no charge made. My hairdresser will even come to my home as she knows that I am often unable to go to the salon and I just need to be flexible and fit in with her - which I do with reams of gratitude! I understand how you feel as I used to be painfully shy and couldn't even bear to enter a room on my own. My children cured me of that as I then had a role to carry out. Can't think of any role you could play in your head going to the hairdresser - unless you were a secret shopper and giving them marks for their salon?

I enjoy going to the hairdressser having a coffee made for me etc, but my hairdresser has gone “mobile” so now he comes to my home, I don’t sit in front of the mirror, wash my own hair, and I make him a coffee. But it’s half the price of the salon and I still get a great haircut so I’m not complaining. So maybe the OP should find a mobile hairdresser in her area.

Lol! I go every 4 weeks these days so it’s not a phobia or a trauma. It’s just that I don’t enjoy having my hair done the same as I don’t enjoy clothes shopping and would hate going to a spa. Some of us don’t and lots of you do. That’s all...

I neither hate it nor particularly enjoy it I go every five weeks They don’t usually do the banal questions as they know me well enough I tend to consciously not look in the big mirror read a mag until she starts then concentrate on looking at the hair not the me under it
Because I have a short choppy style it usually looks pretty much as I expect it to when I walk out

I love going in to have my thick curly hair blow dried. It looks lovely and lasts for ages. Even quite enjoy my 3 monthly root touch up. Always pleased when it's done and my hair is shiny and no grey.

I neither hate not enjoy it either. But I go for the cut not the blow dry, and my hairdresser is quite happy to hand me the hair dryer and let me dry it myself, so I get the result I like.