Sorry, I Cant Help Bitching About My Haircut

I only go to recommended hairstylists or VERY professional looking salons whenever I decide to either colour my hair or have some curling treatment. Because I’m very tomboy and I mostly tie my hair back, I rarely require their service.

But whenever I wanted a haircut only, I used to just go to the nearest salon. Care factor close to zero, vanity maximum 5 out of 10. I asked for a straight cut to rid of split ends, or a little layering. The most radical decisions I’ve made were usually length related - such as cutting my waist length hair to chin length. Hairstyles so simple even a barber could do it. And if the layered effect didn’t work, it couldn’t be too bad, surely. I could just keep it tied back, nothing to it.

Then… HAIRCUT FROM HELL!!

During my lunch break I walked into a salon with long, curly hair. I have very thick, heavy hair so my curls were getting pulled straight in the back. I told the 2 stylists I wanted shorter hair in the back (around the nape of my neck), longer in the front (around my chin) to optimize my curls and be able to tie it back still. I asked them to layer it as much as possible so my “curls would float”. The Caucasian lady translated it to my stylist who was Japanese and left. The language barrier concerned me but she said she understood. I thought, “That’s cool, I’m still in good hands – she knows Asian hair; and her hair looks funky. It’s a simple layering style, can’t go very wrong”.

I walked out with blow-dried straight hair (what happened to my curls!!??); with some rat’s tail looking layered cut! A huge chunk of the top half of my hair was cut really short I couldn’t tie it in a ponytail. And when I try tying back half my hair, I have this stupid belly button/bunion looking glob on the back of my head with a layered rat’s tail thinning towards the middle of my back!

I thought it was weird she was blow-drying my curly hair straight, but I thought it was to determine whether the layering was even on both sides (which was done to my hair before). I kept grabbing my back hair saying, “short, very short”. The stylist kept nodding and said, “yes, very short”. I thought she must be concentrating on the crown first and working herself down. She’s the professional; she must know what she was doing!! Then she told me she was finished! I complained to the Caucasian lady; she said something about, “you said layer cut, not length cut”. Hairstylist lingo?? Excuse me? Doesn’t “cut this short up to here” while grabbing the hair mean the same??!!

Because I wasn’t too fussed (then!) that the exact style wasn’t followed, I rushed back to work pissed off mainly because the blow-drying was a waste of my time, which I told them not to do, because I was going to tie my hair and wear a hardhat on top of it straight away. Plus I love my unruly, curly hair!!

I got home and that’s when I gave myself time to see the damage!! It was like some 80’s style cut everyone’s wearing now! But I never said “80s” nor do I like this style!! I felt like a poodle whose head fur was shaved off but left with a shaggy body fur!!! Waaaah!!! Nooooooh! Waaaaahhhh!!

It’s been almost 3 months now. I never had time to go back to get the salon to fix the mistake. I did not feel like letting them touch my hair ever again anyway. I cut as much of the rat’s tail as I could. Grab and cut style. At least, it’s straight now in the back, I think. The top chunk’s also grown. It still stupid half-tied, like I’ve got short wings flapping out. It looks so unbalanced with the rest of my hair. So I tie my hair in a full ponytail, always.

I’ve been planning to get another haircut since, but there's always something else more important to do, like rest J... or see friends. Need to make time to see a well-recommended English-speaking specialist. I'm a changed woman after this incident. My care factor and vanity level at least 6, from now on. This time I’ll make sure I say, “Length cut please”.