Why I Had to Fire My Hair Stylist

Remember when I got all ballsy and had my hair dyed purple? How thrilled I was to finally find a hair stylist who could do my hair?

Epic. Fail. Here’s my story on why I had to fire my hair stylist… and the hunt for a new stylist begins.

This is my personal experience with It’s All About You Hair Salon located in Arlington Heights Illinois.

I dyed my hair purple in February of this year and loved it. I spent a small fortune ($437. Yes it was that expensive.) to get it done (I was told due to the foils and Pravana brand color being so expensive) and posted a glowing review on Yelp about my awesome hair. Due to my Yelp review, she apparently got some new clients (per an email she sent to me in March). I was told at the time by the stylist (who happens to be the salon owner) that since it was not permanent dye, it would fade in 3-6 weeks so 5 weeks later, even though the color looked just as vibrant, I thought due to the length of time that it must be faded.

So mid-March I spend another $100+ to get it “touched-up”. I felt a bit pressured into getting a trendy haircut, “omg you’re no FUN, this color NEEDS a FUN haircut!” but the color was absolutely perfect. I loved it. The orchid color in the bangs… just…. LOVED IT! Here’s a photo of it two months after the touch-up in May (Yep! I am that pale!).

Then at the end of June, my hair was actually faded at this point, unlike when I went in March, and this time my experience was very lackluster. She was sloppy with the color, it took a week to scrub it off my forehead, neck, and ears, and didn’t do the color correctly even though I showed her that May photo AND I still had color in my hair. She ended up not putting any of the Orchid in (until I complained about it, then tried to put the light pink over the dark purple… didn’t work…) and put the dark brown shade too far down my hair so it looked like I had “dip-dyed” my ends purple rather than the awesome that was my Spring hair. I can only assume it’s because her family was there and she was distracted by talking / laughing with them instead of focusing on me, the client.

Ok… so I complained… didn’t tip and left it at that. I actually have no photos of my hair during this point because it bothered me.

That (minus some hair cuts) brings us to last Thursday when I went in for just a hair cut (to even out my hair and get rid of the trendy cut that was done in March) and get a price on removing the purple to make my hair auburn. I said that I was inspired to go red because of it being Autumn with all the leaves. As always I brought in some inspiration photos.

Instead of doing a play-by-play I shall offer up the email sequence because it’s just easier.

Now I don’t do hair, I fix computers and make blogs awesome but slapping some bleach on is not the same as highlighting (which during my blonde days, would indicate a color and toner at the very least over the bleached area) and based on her services and prices page a full head of foil is $105 so a double foil would be $210… what’s the other $90 for?

This is a quick picture shot on my cell phone but you can see the large bleached area. It was still straight because I took this photo when I got home from the salon. I’m sure to some people, this is nothing but to me, this is a large area of bleached hair.

Now to flesh out the financial situation story… the hair cut was supposed to be $48, when I went up to pay (I was furious, already complained, decided to basically just not tip and get the hell home…) I was handed the receipt to sign but it showed the total as $98. I asked the assistant what happened, she got very upset and then had the salon owner / stylist come over. She refunded the $98 and then was surprised when I said I wouldn’t pay $48 on top of that until the refund was back in my account, which on average takes 5 business days.

She didn’t believe me. I used an analogy of, “Ever return something to Target? How you don’t get the refund instantly? Same. Thing.” and it wasn’t until 15 minutes later when she talked to someone at her credit card processing company and they confirmed what I told her, did she believe me. She then proceeded to, in a room of her employees and clients, make remarks about my financial life, “How will you be able to feed your children?! Do you need money?! How will you survive?! I know you can’t afford this mistake!” and so on. I’m not sure what she thinks my financial situation is as I don’t discuss that information in general, much less with a person who is doing my hair, but suffice to say our bills are paid on time and the boys are healthy, happy, and well fed.

Also, the bleach was in my hair for only two minutes and yes it got that light that quickly. She got me very excited about that which also contributed to me thinking she was going to color my hair (why else do so much bleaching?).

Here’s the rest of it….

So THREE DAYS go by and nothing. Not even a phone call attempt or email (I wanted everything in writing). So after three days, I sent another email.

Wait… WHATTTT?! She not only didn’t address any of my concerns but… re-cut my bangs? That she never cut in the first place? Place bright purple dye on the bleached chunk of my hair but calling it highlights?? You have to be fucking kidding me. Way to not accept fault and make me feel even worse! SWEET! I know this sounds petty but I swear she didn’t write that email herself, just based on other correspondence over the past year.

At this point I’ve already accepted that I don’t trust her, won’t go back to her, and will have to shell out a fortune to get my hair fixed because I will not bleach my own hair and I will not take the chance of screwing it up even further by putting boxed hair dye on my multicolored hair, especially since I know I won’t be happy with it. I called around local salons, salons in the city – Chicago, and even as far as Wisconsin and the average price is $200-300. Which being that I’m not a millionaire, I don’t have just laying around. It’s doable… eventually. However having to wait a few months to save up is frustrating and I already feel so bad about my appearance.

I finally emailed back because I really wonder why she didn’t actually address my concerns, just acknowledged that I had concerns, was patronizing to me, and was implying she didn’t do anything wrong. I really wonder why I was sitting for hours, being ignored with a wet head and only half a hair cut, plus the bleached area… I actually didn’t leave the salon until 4pm (again my appointment was at 1:30p which I was on time for) due to the cut not being finished until 3:40pm and then the financial situation taking another twenty minutes.

At the time of publishing this post, I still haven’t gotten a reply to the last email I sent two days ago. I’m not entirely shocked though as it took FOUR DAYS to get a condescending response to my original complaint.

I will not be returning to It’s All About You Hair Salon located in Arlington Heights Illinois.

I am open to recommendations of a great stylist for cut and creative color in the northwest Chicago ‘burbs and I am willing to drive a bit for a good stylist.

Have you ever had a bad experience with a hair salon? Share it in the comments!

Update 9/17/2012 It’s been six days since my last email attempt and no response. I’ve also noticed that my Yelp review has been filtered and she suddenly has a lot of 5 star reviews on Yelp. I have also gotten a lot of hits from local towns (which is new really) which I’m sure is related. So there you go. Spend almost $1,000 and end up with jacked up hair and high school behavior from a salon owner.

Update 11/2012 I never did get a response from the salon owner who damaged my hair, however I did get some emails from… her friends? Other clients? Telling me that I’m “ignorant” and that I don’t understand that “good work costs money”. I’m fairly sure those individuals don’t have bleached / choppy hair. I also find it absolutely hilarious that after posting this and my review on Yelp, she went from 2 reviews (one of which was mine, one was from years ago from another individual) to over 14 (all but two glowing reviews are filtered, including mine). So there you have it!