Bad Haircut? What to Do When Your Stylist is Convinced It's Great - Amanda
wanted a touch-up to her old style, which was an edgy, layered look
that complemented her New York lifestyle. She showed the stylist a
picture of her old haircut and a few similar styles to give her
something to work with. "I told her I wanted a basic cleanup, maybe 3-4
inches off, and choppy layers up top that would get increasingly thinner
on the way down," she says.
What she got: "My bangs were repulsively short, and the left side of my hair was obviously longer than my right," says Amanda. "She obviously didn't know what a layer was. But I just took one quick glance at it after she finished and didn't realize right away that I hated it. I knew immediately it wasn't what I asked for, but I'd never had a horrible haircut before, so I just assumed it was fine, even if it wasn't perfect. I said a quick thanks, because I felt so awkward saying anything negative after all that time I spent chatting with my stylist, getting all chummy. I didn't realize it was way too short and completely uneven until it was too late."
How she handled it: "I would call back in a different situation, but I booked the haircut through a discount site and it was so cheap I didn't feel like I had the right to complain. Plus, she was talking to me throughout the whole haircut about being a single mom and telling me personal things, and I felt guilty. I didn't want my bad review to be one more thing on her plate. Plus, I just didn't want her to touch my hair ever again. The errors she made were unbelievable."
What she should have done: Petroff says that Amanda should have spoken up about the unevenness and lack of layers. "In that situation, I would just ask the stylist to double-check the length," he says. Hairstyles with bangs are a different story, though. "There's really nothing you can do about that then," he says. The good news? Bangs only take a few weeks to grow out, since "too short" is usually just one-fourth of an inch.