Trusting Newly Graduated Hairdressers
by Gibralto
Well I'm so happy this forum is here, I need to do some serious venting, maybe it will help someone else. For the past year and a half, I have the double process color at a very prestigious school. Supervised by top professionals who oversee a rigorous 9 month program for the students. In all that time, I've never been disappointed. I'm a male, have short brown hair and blonde highlights, just the "tips" on top. Although the color of the highlights haven't ever achieved a "platinum blond" shade, I figured at the cut-rate price and the constraints of the school that was the best I could do. And it always looked really nice. The Artistic Director at the school was fired after the owners discovered he was opening his own salon down the street and was recruiting graduating students to fill positions at his place of business. I didn't think much of it at the time. Shortly after that I received an e-mail from one of my favorite stylists at the school (who had graduated months before and was a highly regarded student), stating that he was working at a nearby salon and offered his services to me. I e-mailed him back stating that I was looking to get lighter highlights. I explained that the school had been "painting" the highlights rather than using foils and the end result was a "Blob" of color with an awful "orangey tint". I stated that the look I wanted has been around for years and that I got great results in the past when they used a latex skull cap with holes and pulled out the hair to be highlighted and it worked beautifully. He acknowledged all this, that the students at the school were working with constraints and since the services were so cheap there was less the students could do to give optimum results. I was reassured and I scheduled an appointment. We greeted each other I sat and waited for the look that had eluded me for some time. To cover the gray he did the single process of dark brown after sitting and waiting he washed out the color, then proceeded to "paint" the highlights on!!! Even though he had set the foils out on the counter! By then I felt it was to late and trusted that he knew what he was doing. Two and a half hours pass... under the dryer etc. My highlights were a combination of orange tabby and a lighter caramel. He asked if I could come back tomorrow to continue and apologized profusely saying he would charge me for the single process the next day and make sure the highlights came out perfect, he would also do the haircut. Well I spent another two hours there the next day and after carefully explaining how I wanted my hair cut, he chopped off my beautiful bangs and top of my hair which as I explained to him I needed for volume to achieve the style I wanted. Here's the kicker...The highlights? A big orangey-blonde "Blob" on top and dark brown on the sides and back. I have a real problem with public anger and expressing my hurt feelings and disappointment in public, and I didn't want my stylist to lose face in front of the owner (the fired Artistic Director at the school), so I thanked him, paid, tipped him for a second day in a row, and left. I was so upset, my hair was chopped off and on top of it sat a big Orange Tabby cat. I went home, vented, tried to style what was left of my hair and could do nothing to improve this hot mess! I even tried different clothes on... all in vain. I called the stylist on his personal cell phone and he was mortified, apologetic and really felt bad. I told him, "The damage has been done, I'll have to let my hair grow out but you've got to get rid of this orange hair, this two-tone disaster has to go. He offered to do the "best he can" to just make the hair one over all color the following day. So here it is 9:30 am and my appointment is for 2:30pm today to "Correct" this, I'm not looking forward to this, it will be uncomfortable for both of us, but what choice do I have? I was told there would be no charge but the damage has been done. I'm going to contact the owners of the Hair Design School who fired the owner of this salon to let them know their students are referring people to this salon. While I was there yesterday a couple of "walk-ins" mentioned that they had been told of the new salon by students. So this owner is using inexperienced students as "Professionals" to practice on clients so he can offer better prices than competing salons. So I wound up with a disastrous hair color and cut at triple the price of what I paid at the school he was fired from with totally inferior results. Thank you for letting me vent! ************* Wow, that's quite a mouthful. Students who are just out of school with no one overseeing them, are not the best of hairdressers to know what they're doing yet. Better to go back to the school, where there's at least, some oversight. Sorry this happened to you! Hope your hair is better by now! |
