{ December 5th, 2011 }

Blog: Finding a New Hair Stylist

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By Shelly Seitz

 

If you’re anything like me, you’d rather find a new doctor than a new hair stylist. How do you really know who to trust? Where do you begin to look? For the last 11 years that I’ve lived in Phoenix, I’ve had only three consistent stylists. I’ve been fortunate enough to find some very talented stylists, however not without my fair share of disappointments. I thought I’d share one horror story in particular; I guess if you’ve been in a similar situation, you’ll find company in my misery.

 

This real life scenario was during a time that my regular and coveted stylist had emergency surgery, and it was time for my highlight appointment, so I just couldn’t “stretch it out” until she recovered.  Thankfully, I worked in a mall at the time, and I saw one young woman in particular who always had very trendy and stylish short hair. Since I, too, had short hair, I was always in the habit of getting feedback about a stylist whenever I saw a great, short look. This woman assured me that she went to “the best” stylist at a very well–known and popular salon in our city. She also went to the top colorist and gave me his name as well.

 

Upon making the appointment, I was very specific with the time, as I had told the receptionist that I was in school and had a particular window of time that worked for me before I went to my evening class. I arrived a bit early with a picture of me as my hair was grown out, and I wanted the stylist to see exactly how I wanted it cut. Because the colorist and cutter were different people, the color application came first. Unfortunately, we had gotten off on the wrong foot as he was 45 minutes late in starting the procedure. Strike one. Now, of course, being very specific and involved with my style, I gave the colorist my exact preferences for color choices (I had two colors weaved in at that time). I should have been alarmed when I saw that there was only one bowl of color on his tray, but since he came so highly recommended, I decided to keep my mouth shut. Fast forward to the shampoo bowl: the assistant walks over with a squeeze bottle of mystery product.

 

By this time, I decided to speak up and asked what that bottle was for (I had worked in salons before so I knew exactly what was about to take place). She informed me that it was toner for the color correction – then I knew we were all in for trouble.  Toner only gets used on hair when the desired color isn’t achieved, and this process allows one to ‘override’ the color that was initially put in. In my instance, she was adding color to my bleached hair (remember there was one color dish? Strike two). Back at the colorist’s chair, I see blonde everywhere, but again, still having faith that this is the top colorist, I chose to keep my mouth shut as I still needed to have my hair cut, though I was now running 45 minutes behind schedule.

 

I then went to the person’s chair who would be cutting my hair, and I pulled out the same photo of myself since this person had never seen me until I sat in front of him with an unstyled ‘do.  Again, this was supposed to be a trusted and recommended stylist, so I chose to have faith in his abilities. He started cutting away, chatting as he went, throwing out compliments and random conversation.  Upon completion of the cut, another assistant came over to dry and style my hair. When the circus of stylists and assistants was finally finished, I about had a breakdown in that chair when I looked into the mirror to see a way-too-short cut that looked absolutely nothing like the photo I had brought along, not to mention the color was blonde beyond belief (my natural hair color is medium brown). Strike three!

 

I made my way to the receptionist’s desk to pay, which I had no intention of doing. I voiced my issues and informed her that I wasn’t paying, explaining that I had brought in a picture of my own hair, and it hadn’t been replicated. I left with an appointment for a re-do on the color to add in some dark brown color to break up the bright blonde. The colorist acted offended as if I had just asked the chef to provide me with ketchup for my steak. At this point, I was so late that I could not get home before class to re-style my ridiculously short and blonde hair. I typically get my short hair cuts trimmed every four weeks. After this catastrophe, I did not need to get my hair cut for two months!

 

Saying all this, I have a few tips for you so that hopefully you won’t have to encounter this level of drama:

 

  • Always collect phone numbers and business cards of potential stylists from people that you see out and about with a great hairstyle.
  • Call the stylist and ask for a consultation. Make sure that you show up at least a half-hour early so that you can see the person’s hair that is being worked on before you. If it’s not too inconvenient, stop in at another time unannounced, stating that you just want to peruse their style books to get ideas for your upcoming consultation. Of course, you’re checking out the stylist’s work on the other clients.
  • Once in their chair, ask for suggestions and possibly pictures that the stylist has collected of their own work.
  • So that you know you’ve been “heard”, speak back and forth about the style and if they insist on forcing their ideas on you, either your look is very outdated and you need a change, or the stylist is not hearing you – that’s a red flag!

There’s no foolproof answer. Debacles happen and mistakes are made, but by doing your homework and research ahead of time, you may just find the ultimate stylist!

 

Shelly Seitz is the owner of Powerful Image Development, an image consultant company based in Arizona. Catch her radio show on BlogTalk Radio or via Twitter @shellyseitz.

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