How My Hair Was Ruined

As you know, I don't normally write posts about negative things, products I didn't like, etc. because I like to try and keep the focus on positive things, and things I DO like and recommend. However, my recent experience was so terrible, I feel the need to share it. Maybe it'll be useful so you know what to look out for so the same thing doesn't happen to you. (Please excuse the low-quality images, they were taken as proof and were not originally intended to be published). 

Before this, I hadn't had my hair highlighted for about 4 years, and I suddenly realised how dark my hair had become, and I missed being blonde. I saw a great deal on Flossie - $200 for a full head of highlights, cut and toner. So I booked for the next day. The first (small) red flag was when I got there and the salon had no idea I had booked in - despite the fact I had a booking confirmation and had pre-paid. But that was quickly sorted. It took about 3 hours for the foils to be put in my hair, which I thought was odd, and I was worried that the first foils would overdevelop since they were in for hours, while the last foils were only in for about 15 minutes. But I'm not a hairdresser and I trusted that they knew what they were doing. 

Fast forward FOUR HOURS later, the foils are out, my hair is washed (no toner) and it was being cut (by a different person). They blow dried it and showed me, and I was really happy with it. I immediately posted the photo you see above on Instagram and left happy.

I got home and had a closer look at it. The first thing I noticed was a MASSIVE foil bleed on my hairline. Mistakes happen, but why did they not say anything, or fix it? There is no way that they did not notice it when drying my hair. They just chose to ignore it (and probably hoped I wouldn't notice). After realising this, I deleted the photo that I had posted on Instagram, and sent them a message with photos. They replied to my message saying they could fix it, no problem. 

I kept looking through my hair, and I pulled it in front of me to check the length. In doing this I realised it was DRASTICALLY different lengths. Worried that I was being paranoid, I asked multiple other people, who were all shocked to see how badly it had been cut.

Feeling frustrated with it, I tied it up to forget about it. Tying it up, I realised that the sides had big white streaks. Not the light blonde that I had asked for, but chunky white streaks. On top of that, having it tied up made it obvious that my roots and the lengths were completely different colours - you can see in the photo on the right above. You can also see that underneath the foils are very chunky, unblended, and look like they've been growing out for a month. 

Now that I knew that they had made not just one mistake with the bleeding on my hairline, but multiple, I decided to cancel my appointment with them, and I contacted Flossie asking for a refund so I could go somewhere else.

Later, the owner of the salon called me (after she had heard from Flossie), repeating multiple times that my hair was very long (as if that somehow excused their shabby work). She also said that the girl who coloured my hair "was only 17". Using "she's only 17" as an excuse is rubbish. If she is young and inexperienced, her work should be supervised. It's that simple. The thing that actually annoyed me the most though, was her saying "we have girls like you from St Cuths and that coming in all the time", and followed with asking me if I was doing my exams. Hot tip: if you've stuffed up and you're talking to an upset client, patronisingly telling them you have "other" teenagers in all the time when they're a grown ass adult, is not going to help the situation. I mean, I get that I look younger than I am, but that was like she was trying to pull authority using age or something. She offered to get a senior stylist to fix it (the same "senior" stylist who cut my hair unevenly). I warily agreed and booked in for the next morning. 

The next morning I went in, and they "fixed" it. They toned it, which they should have done to start with, fixed the cut, and put in more foils to even it up. (All while the girl who had coloured it the first time did everything she could to completely ignore me - she walked right past me multiple times and didn't even say Hi, let alone apologise for the mess she made). After that, I thought it was all fixed and again, I was happy (after another 2 hours in the chair). I went to leave and the owner stopped me, and while I was still standing there with my bag on the way out, she grabbed a pair of scissors and started to cut little bits that she said were still uneven. Literally, while I was standing there on the way to the door. 

I got home and had a look in the mirror, and thought it was fine. The white streaks looked a lot better and blended, the cut seemed to be even, and the foil bleed on my hairline was gone. But then I played with it a bit more and went through it, and discovered the foil bleed WAS STILL THERE. They had just brushed my hair over it a bit, adjusting my hairline a touch to disguise it. Completely frustrated and angry, I called Rodney Wayne asking if they could fix it (Rodney Wayne wasn't the original place I went to - there was no way I was going to give them ANOTHER chance to fix it). 

I went into Rodney Wayne late that afternoon (and paid another $55), and they put in a few more foils over the foil bleed to fix it as best as they could. They also told me that there were actually A LOT more foil bleeds underneath, but they couldn't fix them now, because my hair had already been through so much, and the bleeds were very close to my scalp. It's now going to take multiple visits and careful adjusting and tweaking, for all of the foil bleeds to be blended in as they grow out. 

So I paid $255 and spent about 7 hours sitting in a chair, over 3 salon visits, to end up with an "ok" haircut, and foils that look good if you're looking at them casually, but are a complete mess if you take a good up-close look at them. The moral of the story? Be SO SO careful about who you trust to go to for these things. I even did my research, checked they had good reviews (which they did - they didn't have many, but they were good), but I still ended up wasting a lot of time and money and will have to put more time and money into fixing it in the future. So, key things to check/look out for:

1. Make sure you find out what experience your stylist/colourist has. If you don't mind having a junior do it, that's fine (they still need to learn!), but if you have quite long/thick/more difficult hair like me, and you don't want to increase the risk of something going wrong, ask for a senior!
2. If you do have a junior doing your hair, make sure what they're doing is checked/supervised by someone more senior.
3. Don't be shy about fully inspecting your hair and making sure you're happy with it. I should have checked mine better before leaving the salon, but it's easy to just trust the stylist/colourist when they're standing there smiling and saying how well it turned out.
4. If possible, don't just rely on general reviews of the salon. Look for reviews of the actual stylist/colourist you are seeing. I think that may have been what went wrong with my experience - the reviews for the salon were good, but the stylist who cut my hair had only been there for about a month, and considering how young the colourist was I don't think she would have been there for very long, and so obviously not many, if any of the reviews online were for their work.
5. If you're not happy with the result (as in the quality, not that you just don't like it because you don't think it suits you etc.) don't let them talk you into accepting it. When problems like this pop-up, people love to play it down and act as though its no big deal, like you're just overreacting. But it's your hair (or whatever else), you're the one walking around with it, and if you paid for a service that wasn't done properly, you have the right to complain and have it fixed!

Hopefully, these tips will help you out so that you don't have an experience like this too!