Let me start by saying part of me wants to be petty, part of me wants to warn any hairstylist who may be looking in my area for a new salon. I worked there for 5 years and in those 5 years I could write a book about all the wack shit this employer had done. But I’ll just name a handful.

It’s a noncompete salon which means if you quit you can’t work in town anymore. And you can’t reach out to clients. You can’t be present on social media, clients aren’t even allowed to know your last name. And if clients ask where you went, the salon will straight up lie. They told my clients that actually found me I wasn’t doing hair anymore. Wack shit. Also I watched her try to take multiple stylists to court because clients chose to follow that stylist. Or they chose to stay in town.

They got a handful of 1 star reviews because the owner would put me down, making me feel stupid and incompetent in my career and in one instance I totally cried on the floor in front of the client. Not my best moment. There was also a 1 star review regarding her Covid practices. I was attached to the review, and it was glowing about myself, but tearing the bitch up. She was very much a Trump supporting mask fearing Karen during the time, and she made her political opinions known throughout the salon. I’ve lost a lot of wonderful clients because of her political beliefs and agenda. She also made racist remarks about the new little mermaid while I had a black client in my chair. She is awful and working for her is awful. I just wanna know opinions. Should I protect the baby stylists? Or should I leave it be? I’m feeling spicy tonight. 💀

I was working at my first salon out of school, about 4 months of being licensed. I get this 13 year old girl with her grandma, and she comes in initially just wanting a light trim. But as I'm cutting she asks if I can do bangs, I tell her yes but ask have you really thought about whether you want them? It would be a big change from what you have now. She says yes, she wants them just like her grandmas and has been really wanting them for a while. Her grandma has thin wispy bangs.

It still just felt like it was on a whim so as I'm getting ready to cut I ask her again, are you sure? She says very definite "YES" so I cut them.

She's never had bangs so her hair immediately wants to part down the middle and look wonky, but I reassure her to wait for me to style them for her, but I can already see the tears forming in her eyes. I style them, and they are adorable, exactly like her grandmas and truly suit her face. But she's freaking out, she immediately started crying and asked if I could put them back on... I told her no, and I ask what is wrong with them so we can try and fix it to what she wants, she can't tell me what's wrong and just says she hates them, and her friends won't want to be friends with her anymore because of them. I feel awful regardless of how ridiculous what she is saying is, and I hug her and reassure her that her friends won't do that, and she looks really good and just has to get used to them, she looks me dead in the eye and says "do you know what depression is?" I said yes, she said "THESE are making me feel that" and points at her bangs.

I started crying, and continuously apologizing. My manager comes over and brings her grandma, both reassure her that they look fine and she just isn't used to the change. The grandma apologized to me and said she'll get over it, and left. I was only 2 hrs into my shift that day and had to act like a little kid didn't just absolutely rip me to shreds.

Just wanted to share my experience as an esthetician employed under a small business, and why I don't think Groupon is a good marketing tactic. Note: I live in Canada.

I make 40% commission on non specialty services; this includes lashes.

So Groupon is at least 50% off coupons, and our lashes right now are going for $47 a set.

I make barely $20 per full set. This can be up to 3 hours of work.

I have so many lash appointments but don't make enough money for it to be worth it.

And I absolutely must give 100% in the service or the Groupon customer will leave a bad review which obviously hurts the business even more.

I've found that Groupon customers rarely tip because they want something cheap.

I can't refuse Groupon customers because again they will leave a bad review, and they prepaid with the site.

And with my schedule filled with Groupon lash customers, I can do 3 lash appointments per day based on schedule blocking. About $60 a day.

So I don't have any room for clients who want my specialty services, because the management books Groupon customers first since they already paid. And there's just so many.

I feel like I can't escape. Groupon places our services at such a low value that customers wont ever pay full price after using the coupon. And most small businesses use Groupon to bring in more clients.

A lot of people don't realize how much time, effort, and sacrifice goes into their appointments. And I really don't see a fair amount for it.

My paycheck this week is going to be bleak because of Groupon.

TL;DR: please tip your Groupon esthetician.

Posted on tails from retail then found this place...

Ok, so this story is not mine. This story is the one I heard being told between hairdressers while one of them was cutting my hair - my first cut post lockdown - everyone still masked up and all.

It seems that a woman had called up to ask about an extremely complex hair treatment/cut/colour whatever - I did not catch the details other than it would need to be done over several sessions over a day and was sufficiently complex that she was quoted £190. Given my haircut was £13 (we gents get away with murder in the hair cutting business), this seemed like a lot of money.

So the woman did not accept that at that point, but rang back later. She was complaining that "Some bitch" had quoted her £190. Unfortunately for her the person answering the phone was the same person who had quoted her £190. The hairdresser explained that she was the person who had quoted £190 and she did not appreciate being called "Some bitch" and would not be doing her hair.

Apparently the woman actually came in to beg her (the hairdresser) to do her hair as as "she was the best in town" - she had thought she had phoned the other hairdresser and got quoted £190 and was referring to the other hairdresser as a bitch - but the hairdresser correctly pointed out she had not and therefore had in fact referred to the hairdresser as a bitch. Perhaps not insulting the "best in town" would be a good plan?

She also wanted to get the hair done now without an appointment because she had talked about it on the phone. Now this hairdresser requires appointments for women's cuts, and at the moment requires online appointments for everything due to Covid, but the thought that she could be fitted in for an all day styling without an appointment was impressively self centred.

I only caught the woman walking off and was then treated to the retelling during my haircut - but I don't think she will get getting her hair done there anytime soon.

So this is the story about how I stood up to an entitled customer. I work in a chain salon that takes walk-ins. Corporate sets our prices and while we have a little flexibility the prices are mostly non-negotiable. So here is where the issue comes into place. Some of the older,long-term stylists would continue charging their regulars the old prices even when we had a price increase. Whatever, not my paycheck so I dont care. But there was this one old lady who came in maybe twice a month. She had been coming in since our store opened 30 years ago and was a dinosaur who didn't 'believe in' making an appointment?? She didnt go to one stylist either, she went to whoever was up next. The problem here is that everyone still charged her $4 for a wash/cut/set/tease which easily took an hour. To add to this insanity she was super rude to staff, didn't tip, and she always came in when we were packed busy.

I managed to work there for 6 months before having her in my chair. I quoted her a price at the beginning of the service and she kind of waved me off saying 'Haha, okay dear!'. And spent the entire hour treating me like I was a child, calling me 'honey' in a condescending tone and saying things such as 'bless your heart'. You know the type? Implying rudeness with typically 'sweet' phrases and suggesting I dont know what I'm doing, explaining everything like I'm 5.

So we finished and get up to the register. I tell her the total is $25.50 and she just started at me. I said 'will it be cash or credit today?'. She replied 'No. That's not my price. Ask another stylist and she will tell you my price.'

Now at this point had my store manager been there she would have caved and just let her get away with it.(Which I find disrespectful considering we are supposed to be valued professionals). But my manager wasnt in and I knew that if this lady complained there was nothing they could do to reprimand me considering I was following company policy by charging her correctly. You may be thinking this isn't a big deal or I should have let another stylist take her but no one wanted to take her. Everyone felt pressured into taking her even tho she was unpleasant and we made pennies from her service (we work on commission). I'm not about to let this lady waste an hour of my time for less than $2.

I replied calmly, 'I'm sorry ma'am, this may not be the price you like but it is the price I charge and you were made aware of that before we started the service.'

This.Lady.FREAKED.OUT!!!

She began screaming about how she wasnt going to pay and calling me an awful stylist and telling me I did a terrible job(I didnt, she liked it 2 minutes ago) as well as saying my boss will hear about this and shes going to report us to the BBB. People were staring, and this lady was trying to yell and get the attention of other stylists to back her up, who(understandably) would not even look at her.

I stood there blank faced and let her yell for a minute before I told her 'I'm afraid if you cannot pay you will no longer be welcome here because we have provided a service and by not paying you are committing theft.'

She just stared at me dumbfounded and then went on another rant about how we're terrible anyways and she would never come back because she would find another place who 'understood the value of a dollar'. That was hilarious and took all my might to not laugh out loud.

And with that she stormed out. My store manager did find out and was upset with me but couldn't do anything about it. Her reasoning for letting this continue for so long was 'they don't want to lose her business'. Which would be fine if we weren't actively losing money on her and hurting the employees paychecks in the process. The GM came in a few days later and told me I did the right thing. My coworkers also seemed to think so. Good riddance mean old lady!

Hi, I’ve had decades of haircuts that haven’t worked/looked good because of my double crown. What is the best way to find a hairdresser who understands the hassle of a double crown?

I so wish I saved the text thread. I’m a hair stylist (I own my studio) in a big city. I haven’t taken new clients in about two years, but I was asked to take on CB by my cousin, as CB was her bridesmaid and my cousin was pretty desperate for CB to have her hair somewhat decent looking for her wedding.

According to my cousin, CB had been coloring her asscrack length hair for about ten years herself using a box color. My cousin offered to pay for the appointment, no matter the cost.

Knowing her hair was as long as Rapunzel’s, I booked extra time. In comes CB, 15 min late, and immediately ranting about the on-street parking. I warned her to get there a bit early for that reason. Taking one look at her hair in person, I knew I was going to have to work some serious magic. She sits down in my chair and immediately goes off about how there’s nothing wrong with her splotchy, awful color and can’t fathom it getting any better than it already is. Fast forward to the color application and this girl will. not. shut. up. She was so obliviously insulting toward not only my career, but service members as well (the comparison was so mind boggling), saying things like “I understand why people want to do hair, it’s an easy out from actually getting an education, kind of like the army. I can’t imagine you make that much money.” I’m pissed. My coworkers are pissed. My assistant is a military wife and had to walk away. I very easily could’ve defended my career and acknowledged her complete arrogance, ESPECIALLY for the military, but I chose to stay silent. She kept blabbering and each topic of conversation was more unbearable to listen to than the last.

We get done, I send her on her way and then apologize to my staff and their clients. I contacted my cousin and although she warned me that CB’s personality was “a bit much to handle”, I couldn’t not tell her about the bullshit CB spewed from her mouth. Fast forward now to 3 weeks post-appointment. CB texts me with a photo of her hair, completely, COMPLETELY in ruins. Not only did she re-color with a box, but she attempted an at-home perm... 3 days before my cousins wedding. At this point my cousin is like “don’t even answer her. I’m sorry, I’ll deal with it.” CB is accusing me of using some kind of color that must have ruined her hair, because “my box color has never done this to my hair before.” By “this”, she meant bright ass Ronald McDonald red roots and the ugliest shade of orange I’ve ever seen in my life on the rest of her hair. She DEMANDED I fix it... for free. I explained that there is no way I am going to do anything for her for free, especially 3 days before the wedding, and that it wasn’t my fault she fucked her own color up. I am so annoyed with her at this point, I told her I was insulted that she would 1. ruin the 5 hours of work I did, 2. there was a very good chance her cheap perm affected her box color along with the fact that she used A BOX after having a $300 service done (that she didn’t even have to pay for) and 3. have the audacity to ask me to fix HER mess for free. She went off, hard. I blocked her because there was no need for me to endure the verbal abuse.

3 days later at the wedding, she approaches me in front of my husband and in-laws explaining that she’s going to blast my business on Facebook for not doing “pro bono services to those who can’t afford them.” I told her to go ahead, because her one negative attempt at slandering my business will become lost in the sea of the 100 positive reviews on our Facebook page. She ended up being kicked out of the venue after 1.5 hours for causing unnecessary drama. Not only did she never write that review, but my cousin 86’d their 15 year friendship.

So several months ago a roommate/friend of mine was thinking about getting rid of his mohawk. I advised against it because it took him a very long time to grow out(it was almost a foot tall). I asked what he was thinking about doing because he has a spot that is starting to thin on the crown of his head. Usually his mohawk covered this as long as he put it up that day. This is when he said he wanted a 'reverse mohawk '. What is that you ask? He described to me the worst idea I have ever heard of. He wanted to grow out the sides of his head and shave the middle so he could have 'side hawks'. I told him several time this was a bad idea and I outright refused to do it.

That is until he came into the salon. I usually just cut his hair at the house because we were roommates and it wasnt that time consuming. At work I couldn't refuse him service. I asked him several times if he was sure. After telling me smugly that now I 'Have to do it' I gave in and started buzzing. Right down the middle.

Instant regret.

He now looks like an old man, refuses to go out without a hat or shave the rest. And because of his bald spot the hair isn't growing back. This was months ago. He is now 20 with the hair of a homeless man in his 60s. But we dont talk anymore for various reasons 🤷‍♂️ Not my problem now.

Had a little girl (no older than 6) in my chair. Her hair looked like she had an angled Bob. But she didn't. Her hair was so matted that it looked like she had short hair. It was down to her back. I couldn't even see her roots it was so matted. Obviously hadn't been touched in weeks or maybe even months.

So I took her to the shampoo bowl and put a SHIT TON of conditioner on her and tried to comb it out. Wasnt working. Took her back to my chair to comb instead(still covered in conditioner). About 2 minutes in and I make a breakthrough. I can finally see part of her scalp. And its CRAWLING with lice. I've never seen a case of lice so bad in my life. I almost puked.

Her parents were shit heads about it too. Obviously they neglected her and didn't bathe her or brush her hair. I told them they need to go buy lice treatment/see a doctor and treat themselves + all their clothes/furniture/carpet ect. because at this point it's very likely they all have it and its everywhere. They said 'no, no, that's seems too expensive it'll work itself out.' I said they are not welcome back until the issue is resolved as it causes a risk to the entire salon and they looked at me like I was the devil. The mother says 'so you're not even going to finish her haircut?' NO! GET OUT! I have to throw away a ton of stuff and sanitize EVERY THING!

Worst client ever.

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