Salon/Hair stylist Nightmares

[Betazed]

Hello again, everyone!

Since it's been awhile since I last posted on TLHC, I thought I would share something that happened to me a couple months ago.

It all started 7 or so years ago, when my hair was just past BSL and I had grown out almost all of my dyed hair (like most of us, I went though a stint around the time I was in my mid-teens where I dyed my hair religiously and with various and numerous colors for quite a few years). When I decided I was going to grow out my just-brushing-shoulder-lenth flippy hairstyle, I also decided to stop with the dyes. What's the point of having long hair if it's not healthy, am I right? (Just to note: I'm not insulting anyone who uses dyes, I just found, for myself, that it damaged my hair beyond all repair... Ooo! I rhymed!). Well, Once all the dye was gone and my hair had grown quite a bit, I became bored with it. I hadn't yet found the LHC and I hadn't any clue how to actually tie up my hair in more than a pony or basic braid (I couldn't even french braid on myself at this point). So, I went to my favorite stylist who had been doing my hair since I was 11 or so and she took a strip on the right side of my face, including about 1/4th of my blunt bangs, and we bleached the **** out of it. After it was very white, she proceeded to add a bright color over it (I think it was purple that first time, but it was so long ago now that I can't be certain). I've maintained this small section of bleeched hair since then.Sometimes it's a funky color, sometimes it's just blonde, but it's always been there.

A few years ago, my stylist had a severe mental breakdown and stopped working. I haven't seen her since, although I do send her the occational email to make sure shes ok. I've been reluctant to have any other "professional" touch my hair after I had 2 horrible experiences after losing my regular stylist. (If anyone's interested, the first was a complete botching of a side bang trim that, when all was said and done, left my bangs uneven and only about an inch long. The 2nd was when I asked for a 1 inch trim and lost about 5 inches instead.)

Anyway, the point of all this is that I've learned to bleach my own hair and, thanks to LHC, how to trim it myself, too.

This brings us up to two months ago... My aunt convinced me to let a styist touch up my roots and add pink ontop of it. She had coninvced me if I went to her stylist, my color would last a lot longer and thus, I wouldn't have to reapply pink on every wash day. This is the result of that visit:

http://s33.postimg.org/o8w2j19dn/image.jpg (http://postimg.org/image/o8w2j19dn/)

Not only did I have an allergic reaction to something she used, which left my back covered in hives for nearly 2 weeks. But, she burned the hell out of my scalp! The above photo was taken immediately after I returned home from the salon. Two days later, it began bleeding and was very painful.

Luckliy, after it scabbed and looked horrendous, there wasn't any lasting effect. Needless to say, I'll be doing my own hair from now on.

So, anyone else wanna share their awful stylist/salon stories? I'm sure most of us have 'em!

[pili]

In college I was away at an internship for a semester. I got it in my head to cut my waste length hair to get rid of some relaxed parts and highlight damage. The stylist looked nervous, and that should have been my first clue, but the only person to ever cut my hair was my mom or my cousin (who owned her own salon and cut all the family's hair!) I ended up with a blunt cut just above my shoulders. One side was a whole TWO INCHES shorter than the other and when dry it triangled like crazy. I told her I wanted to wear it curly. I paid, went home and cried and went back the next day to talk to the manager, the manager offered to have it fixed, but I refused to let the original stylist fix it. The manager evened it out herself. It still had a bad triangle shape, but I wasn't willing to let them try anything else in my hair, so I just kept it in a French braid until the end of my internship.

[Groovy Granny]

WOW NicCarpenter...that is horrible!! :agape:

My nurse friend who also was a licensed stylist part time (that should have been my first clue :doh:) FRIED my waist length + hair.

My colored blonde hair turned green and was fried/breaking off 12 inches up a couple days after a coloring.

She offered to give me DROPS to fix it :doh:

I told her where to put her drops :p and ran to the nearest salon for help.
They had to cut off over a foot of hair and I opted to have it dyed to my natural color.
After over an hour discussing and analyzing their options, they colored my hair and cut me to a SL BoB.

Need I say the family was shocked when I walked in ; I had been blonde for 15 years; even our Pastor was shocked :laugh:
None of them realized that my light blonde had indeed darkened over the years and the dark blonde/light brown was my true color.
Not even my Mother believed me....until my silver started to show :wink:

I actually was thrilled; I was turning 50 and for the first time in over 15 years I saw the true ME :joy:
It didn't matter what anyone said or thought....and they had plenty of opinions lol

I never looked back, though it took another 11 years before I would decide to buck against the 'older gals wear short silver hair' and grow it long.

It feels good now over the past few years to have total control over my hair = more $$ for hair toys :eyebrows:

[pili]

Groovy Granny, you are my hair idol! :crush:

[lapushka]

OMG your scalp looked terrible. What the heck!? I'm so sorry that happened.

[luluj]

Hello again, everyone!

http://s33.postimg.org/o8w2j19dn/image.jpg (http://postimg.org/image/o8w2j19dn/)

Not only did I have an allergic reaction to something she used, which left my back covered in hives for nearly 2 weeks. But, she burned the hell out of my scalp! The above photo was taken immediately after I returned home from the salon. Two days later, it began bleeding and was very painful.

Luckliy, after it scabbed and looked horrendous, there wasn't any lasting effect. Needless to say, I'll be doing my own hair from now on.

Hello, NicCarpenter, it is so nice to meet You.:waving:

You certainly did have a bad reaction, ouch! I am so happy to hear that you don't have any lasting effects.

Here is a link to an article on adverse reactions to hair dye.....http://www.nhs.uk/Conditions/hair-dye-allergy/Pages/Introduction.aspx

Luckily I don't have any hair stylist nightmares to share.:p

[Frankenstein]

That looks painful! :(

I wouldn't call any of my salon experiences "nightmares" but some of them have definitely been less than satisfactory. 8 years ago, I went in to have my hair bleached blonde from my red dye. The stylist bleached it twice and I don't think she used a toner. The whole process took 5 or 6 hours and my hair was of course, fried afterwards. After a few days it oxidized and turned orange, with platinum blonde roots :eek:

Also, for the past year I had been going to a girl whom I thought did a good job cutting my hair. But the last time I had a trim, I soon noticed that it was uneven and the right side was shorter than the left. I suspect she had been cutting it this way all along and I just hadn't noticed; I'm not trying to be rude but I always got the feeling that she didn't really care much about the work she was doing. So I went to a hairdresser who had a very good reputation and she had to take off another 2 inches to fix my wonky hem, but she did a great job. I plan on sticking with her and won't ever be going back to the other girl.

[Groovy Granny]

Groovy Granny, you are my hair idol! :crush:

LOL thank you :o

[MINAKO]

Hell nah, can't believe what that person did to your scalp :( !!!
The only times i had a serious hair crisis was after visiting a "professional" too, and i'm talking the expensive kind of hairdresser. As a teen i used to have my hair trimmed at a budget salon and never expirienced any problems. The were quick, friendly and did a good job never cutting off too much so i thought by the time i made my first own money i would upgrade and treat myself to a more fancy place. The trimm there took 3 times as long as in the cheap salon. They talked me into some absolutely useless but pricey conditioning treatment and the trim was extremely uneven which i only discovered at home so i had to cut of another 1-2 inches myself.
Real nightmare was an extremely expensive japanese straightening. It looked alright the first day but turned out they had processed my hair and by the next wash it started to melt off, much like extreme bleach accidents. I tried to save it but eventually cut it from hip to somewhere between chin and collarbone. Thank god short hair looked nice in me, so i wasn't feeling too miserable but still it was a tough lesson and a fortune wasted on nothing.

[Betazed]

MINAKO, my experience was very similar. The girl who used to do my hair worked at a "First Choice", which is a Canadian buget salon. In my various experiences since I lost her, it's been the higher end places that have done the most damage. My husband goes to a First Choice that's nearby our house, since he isn't too picky and his hair is fairly simple to cut (I used to do it myself for years. Way before I would even touch my own hair). He found a stylist there that does a very good job and, when I accompanied him one afternoon, I let her trim my side-bangs. It turned out much better than I expected (my bangs is where I'm a little more uncomfortable doing myself, as I think its much easier to see mistakes than with a basic micro-trim). Once i got to know her a little better, I asked her to give my hem a dusting because I was worried I was cutting it unevenly.

Anyway, my point is that it was at a "high end" salon where my scalp was burned, and the employees seemed rather stuck up. The whole time I was there, and it was a few hours, the stylist kept trying to talk me into a very big cut. She repeatedly said "Long hair isn't 'in' anymore" and "You would look so much better if we took off a few inches and gave you some layers". When I told her that I was actually trying to grow out layers (which another "high end" salon had put in, without my knowledge or consent), she replied "But layers would make you look much better!" I said, "I'm sure you think that but I like to do a lot of braided up-dos and the little pokey bits are the pain in the ass to get to stay inside of a braid". She didn't let up the whole time!! I've never had anyone say my long-ish hair (not very long on LHC,of course) isn't "stylish" or looks bad. In fact, I recieve a lot of compliments on my hair, whether it's up or down.

Anyone else get any long hair discrimination?