{HP}

I was butchered!!!! ARRRRRHHHHH!!!!

I have a confession to make. I’ve cheated… on my hair stylist. I know, shame on me!!!!  What was I thinking? I swear I have a relatively good explanation, and I’ll never do it again. I’ve learned my lesson the hard way, because it was terrible! Oh so horrible… Go grab a cup of coffee, because this is a long one.

When we bought our house over a year ago, we received a package from our local Welcome Wagon lady. Inside was an assortment of products and service coupons that gave us the opportunity to become familiar with businesses and shops in our area. One of the vouchers was for a local hair/esthetic salon, which is part of a larger family of chain stores located across the Maritime Provinces. I’m going to avoid naming names, but for the Maritimes readers, you can take a wild (but accurate) guess after I eliminate First Choice Hair Cutters from the list. I’ve been to some of their salons before, and have had decent results, so I wasn’t sketched out by the certificate. What they were offering was either a free manicure or shampoo, cut and style. Seeing as I have a perfectly good stylist at the Halifax Interlude, that I’ve been loyal to for almost three years, I fully intended on using the voucher for a manicure when I had the time to do so. Money, however; has been a bit tight in the Hollis and Prince household, seeing as I haven’t been working since October and we’ve been living off of one income (until tomorrow that is *glee*). This has meant that we’ve been trying to be frugal when it comes to finances; avoiding credit cards and pinching our pennies where we can. Being on board with the saving process, I thought I would take one for the team (bite the bullet, so to speak), and use my certificate for a cut and style to save a little cash. This wouldn’t have meant that I would be switching stylists. NO, NOOOOO! I love my stylist, and would never leave her. But I just needed a tiny bit of a trim to take away the bulk that had accumulated over the last 8 weeks. Especially since I would be starting a new job on the coming Monday, and didn’t want to be scruffy. So it would be one time. Simple. No harm, no foul.

HOLY *BLEEP*!!! I WAS SO (!!!!!) WRONG!!!!

I was extremely nervous going to my appointment, because I had a feeling that the outcome was either going to be very good, or very bad. Shortly after arriving, I was greeted by the stylist; who seemed a little young, but nice enough. She took me back to her station, where we talked hair. I explained to her that I was OK with what was on top; that it wasn’t the priority. What I was most concerned with was having the bottom portion trimmed to take out the extra weight, so I looked a little less shabby. She poked and prodded, lifted up bits and visually pointed out the areas that had to go. It seemed like we were on the same page, so we headed to the shampoo room for a wash. This had to be the best (and only good) portion of my appointment. She was very thorough and gave a nice little massage when conditioning. On the way back to her chair, I grabbed a magazine to entertain myself while she was cutting. I hate staring in the mirror while a stylist cuts, because I don’t want them to think I’m scrutinizing everything they’re doing (which I am), and don’t want to make them feel uncomfortable. A magazine puts my focus elsewhere so the two of us can relax during the process. Boy, do I wish I had of kept my eyes on the hair!

Over the course of the hour, I learned the life history of my stylist; including the fact that she was 20 and had been in the business, and at that particular salon, for two and a half years. After that amount of time, you would naturally assume that she would know how to give a straight forward trim. In addition to that, on top of her stories, she continuously jabbered about other products and services offered at the store. If you’ve taken a wild guess as to what salon chain this is, you would realize that the company is in strong favour of up-selling. Colour, lash extension, products, other services, etc., etc. She talked about them all. I realize that it’s the company who forces their employees to do it (or they do get in trouble I’ve heard), but it was getting extremely annoying. Maybe I wouldn’t have been so ticked about her up-selling if the hair had of worked, but when she did the big reveal after drying and styling, I was speechless. I honestly had no words. To describe it (and keep in mind that I have short hair): extremely teased in the back, side swept bangs in the front, kept long, flat ironed all to hell. It may have worked in the mid 90s (may have, but not on me), but she was about 15 or so years to late. She asked me what I thought, and through grit teeth I said “It’s fine”. What do you do? What do you say? There wasn’t any chance that I wanted her to touch my hair again to fix it, because there was zero trust left. Plus this was a free cut, so how can I complain? I just wanted to run out of there, go home, hide and try to fix what I could. Maybe it wasn’t the cut itself, but just the style. Whatever it was I needed to get out of there. I was so embarrassed. She took me over to the computer schedule and asked if I wanted to pre-book (another thing the company makes their employees do). I told her my schedule was all over the place, so not now. She then handed me a bunch of referral cards for me to hand out to all my friends, which would entitle me to 25% of cuts with each referral. Those went straight in the trash.

By the time I had gotten home I had already finger combed and flattened the teased bits. I immediately ran into the house, and flew straight past my husband towards the bathroom without making eye contact. I stared at the damage in the mirror, grabbed the hairspray, and started to mend as best I could. Then I looked at the back with my vanity mirror. EVEN WORSE! I hadn’t even noticed at the salon, because she had the hand held so far away, but the back of my head was a disaster! I believe the concept of blending had completely escaped this girl. I literally had a visible straight line two inches from the nape of my neck. HOW WAS THAT EVEN POSSIBLE??? There’s was absolutely nothing that I could do to fix this. At one point, my husband pulled out his electric razor and was about to go at the back to blend it a bit. But I stopped him and knew what I had to do. I grabbed the phone and dialed the number to my regular salon. I asked the receptionist if my stylists had any appointments for the next day. Of course, being a great stylist, she was completely booked. I started to cry… literally. I explained the whole situation to the girl on the other end, who was absolutely devastated for me. She then said she could squeeze me in for a quick fix if I could be there by 9:30 the next morning. We were having people out that night for a couple of drinks, which would make a morning appointment absolutely dreadful. But this was an emergency! It had to be done. I took the appointment and thanked the girl like crazy.

The next day, I arrived at the salon with a box of chocolates in hand. As soon as I saw my stylist, I apologized up and down and swore it would never happen again. I felt like a cheating spouse trying to bribe and make peace with their significant other. She thought it was a riot, said “Don’t worry about it”, and went straight to work repairing the damage. She was appalled. Now to know my stylist, you would realize that this girl is not a gossip. She’s very professional, very discreet, and is very careful at what she says and who she says it to. I don’t think, however; she could help herself with this one. She couldn’t get over the mess that was my hair, and how anyone could let someone walk out of their salon like that (even if it was free). Do some people just not take pride in their work? Are they more concerned with up-selling then actual technique? Does this salon chain not give enough education? Why would you book a person with the worst stylist in the salon if you’re trying to gain new clientele? What exactly is the problem here? But that’s of no matter to me now, because being the genius that she is, my stylist fixed me up in no time, and I am so completely grateful to be normal again!

So the moral. Free is not always good, and cheating on your stylist is very bad! Don’t do it. You’ll regret it, and then have to beg for forgiveness with a box of chocolates, while sporting a dumb@$$ haircut. It’s not worth it. I can’t believe I did it, and can say with certainty IT WILL NEVER HAPPEN AGAIN!!!!

Hope you all had a great weekend and have a very happy Monday! Cheers!