Salon Cu follow up

[sly-salkie.livejournal.com]

I am starting a new job and have come to regret that I cut my own hair a while ago... I'm not that interested in my looks and I previously worked from home, so it was no big deal, but I made a bit of a mess of things. It looked okay, albeit a bit shaggy and sloppy, but it was time to fix it. I remembered the post in the hair tags a while back about someone wanting to go to a place that wouldn't rag on them for trying to cut their own hair. Comments in the hair tags have been warm in their recommendation of Salon Cu.

Apologies in advance for how inane this entry is, but I need to put in my two cents on this place.
I went this morning, though not to Umberto (whom everyone seemed to love). Other guy.
1). He made me feel awful about what I had done to my hair.
2). He did not even remotely try to connect with me about what I wanted, but seemed more intent on trying to "fix" what I had done.
3). He didn't ask me any questions about my hair type, which is on the insane side, or tell me what he was going to do.
4). He didn't ask me if I wanted it blow-dried and styled and just went for it anyways. I looked ridiculous leaving that place. Is that normal? I don't go to salons often (years and years). It didn't feel right.

Yes, I probably should have spoken up, but I'm meek and was already embarrassed and I didn't want to offend him, and I didn't realize until it was over that I had been made into

but with nerdy glasses and poofier hair.

So yeah, I'm not giving them a good review, and I'm not going back. I don't like salons.

Comments

[inahandbasket]

(I'm the guy who cut his own hair...)
I went to Umberto, not the guy you did, and had a great experience. I actually enjoyed it and I too hate salons.

Not to be snarky, but i talked to him, made sure we were on the same wavelength, and got exactly what I wanted out of it.
You didn't speak up and didn't get what you wanted... I'm really not surprised.
Just about any service industry will be like that. They're not mindreaders.

(Guess that was slightly snarky anyway, I apologize, but felt it needed to be said.)

[sly-salkie.livejournal.com]

Ha, that's not snarky, that's just reasonable advice. I tried to tell him. I talked. I explained my situation, but he wasn't really feeling it, and I think it's because he was too busy sneering at the bad job I did. So at some point I just shut up and hoped that he would be doing something nice to my head.

liiiiiiittle off the top...

[nora-rocket.livejournal.com]

My number one gripe about salons is that they castigate anyone who comes in with a home haircut, no matter how simple or well-intentioned, or maybe even well done, that home haircut is. I am pretty well committed to cutting my own hair, a position reinforced by the crap attitude I get from stylists when I get the wrongheaded notion that I might like something different. I interpret snark as social control: they must make us feel dumb for cutting our own hair or we'll all catch on that it is both possible and fun to do so, and that hair *almost* always grows back.


(Though I will say that I got very, very little attitude from Mario's when I went in over the summer--they washed and trimmed with little comment, only remarking once on my self-done bangs-and-fringe. 'Twas a fine cut, but I needed a trim in four weeks and, as a notorious cheapskate, could not rationalize the expense. My $20 Oster trimmer has paid for itself about four times over each year I've had it since 2001.)

Re: liiiiiiittle off the top...

[sly-salkie.livejournal.com]

I agree with everything here. I really do have fun cutting my own hair, but I'm getting my first *real* job, which means putting away my ink-stained clothes and buying nice ones, and, sadly, getting a professional looking hair-cut. It takes a lot of women (and probably men too) a long time to build up enough self-esteem to feel comfortable being natural, and to go to a salon usually feels like a plunge back into middle school. The stylists roll their eyes at you if you don't use any products, like there is nothing worse than frizz.

I'm just going to grow it! But a trimmer sounds like it would be good to have on hand. Thanks for the Mario's recommendation.

Re: liiiiiiittle off the top...

[nora-rocket.livejournal.com]

Real job, schmeal job. I'm in ur office, sportin' ur buzz cut:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/norarocket/1812158916/

Re: liiiiiiittle off the top...

[sly-salkie.livejournal.com]

*aspirations*

[on-reserve.livejournal.com]

I think you're wrong on this. He cut her off at the pass by belittling her about her existing hair and in so doing shut down any dialogue. He sounds like a self-important jackass who thinks he's on Newbury Street. When someone comes in with even the most shitacular hair, there are ways to fix it without making your customer feel like crap.

Hair dressers *aren't* mindreaders but by that same token it doesn't sound like he *wanted* to be told anything. He wanted to do whatever he felt like, express *his* artistic expression at the expense of the customer. And that's pretty lousy customer service.