Fight at hair salon. What would you have said, if anything?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’ve seen this happen so many times. People are so difficult when it comes to hair. Your type of hair and thickness, shade, all the important details are never the same as the person in the photo you bring to get the style of your dreams.

The stylist has to bring your vision to life with only what you are working with. Your hair may be thinner, shorter, dyed, fried, laid to the side with two strands left trying to get the Rachel from ‘96.

Which type of hair makes stylists snicker at their customers?

Totally inexcusable and unprofessional behavior. OP, why did you wait 45 minutes for your appointment instead of walking out in solidarity with the woman who was snickered at? Is that the kind of behavior your support? Or do you not think you'd be next because you're so special?

I'd have walked out.

Op here. I signed off all day.

Why would I walk out? I needed my hair done! In solidarity of what?? I didn’t see or hear the colorist snicker. Btw this has nothing to do with race so not sure where the comment above came from, and I’m not a troll. This happened.

I’ll add that judging by her overall behavior and demeanor, I’d guess the customer was probably in the wrong here, but I didn’t see the original interaction.

This is what some of us picked up on in your OP. But there's a poster on here who absolutely wants this to be the employee's fault.

Aha I see, ty. I guess she/he is repeat posting.

I’ll add that when we were both getting our hair dried, I noticed her literally turning her head to stare at me. It was uncomfortable, not sure why she was doing it- maybe she didn’t think my coloring looked good, idk.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My goodness. I’d find another salon and send a complaint letter. That should have been handled very differently.

+1
Yes, sorry but getting coloring can be very fraught if you've had bad experiences. If I asked about something for reassurance, like "please make sure you are getting the highlights thin enough, I'm not looking for a chunky look" and I was dismissed or scoffed at, I think I'd be really upset.

+2

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Cranky seeming lady was upset, insisting that her colorist (new to her apparently) snickered when she complained about something (not sure what it was- something about a knot in her hair..?) and then made a comment to a co worker about her. The cranky customer refused to continue working with her and went and sat in the waiting area, but not before another customer got involved, I think to defend the colorist, and there was a yelling match over MYOB etc.

Cranky lady sat and had to be convinced by another colorist (who is also the manager) to go back to her chair to finish. She insisted the colorist had ‘snickered’, that she was ‘triggered’ and ‘very offended’ and wouldn’t go back to her seat. All of this took awhile and my appt was delayed by 45 minutes.

I felt like saying something to the lady but kept quiet. I kept my nose in my phone.

This was at a salon in an upscale location fwiw.

don't mess with rich old white ladies with gray hair.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Cranky seeming lady was upset, insisting that her colorist (new to her apparently) snickered when she complained about something (not sure what it was- something about a knot in her hair..?) and then made a comment to a co worker about her. The cranky customer refused to continue working with her and went and sat in the waiting area, but not before another customer got involved, I think to defend the colorist, and there was a yelling match over MYOB etc.

Cranky lady sat and had to be convinced by another colorist (who is also the manager) to go back to her chair to finish. She insisted the colorist had ‘snickered’, that she was ‘triggered’ and ‘very offended’ and wouldn’t go back to her seat. All of this took awhile and my appt was delayed by 45 minutes.

I felt like saying something to the lady but kept quiet. I kept my nose in my phone.

This was at a salon in an upscale location fwiw.

Why would you feel the need to interject yourself in something that was none of your business? The manager was involved, so stay out of it

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Cranky seeming lady was upset, insisting that her colorist (new to her apparently) snickered when she complained about something (not sure what it was- something about a knot in her hair..?) and then made a comment to a co worker about her. The cranky customer refused to continue working with her and went and sat in the waiting area, but not before another customer got involved, I think to defend the colorist, and there was a yelling match over MYOB etc.

Cranky lady sat and had to be convinced by another colorist (who is also the manager) to go back to her chair to finish. She insisted the colorist had ‘snickered’, that she was ‘triggered’ and ‘very offended’ and wouldn’t go back to her seat. All of this took awhile and my appt was delayed by 45 minutes.

I felt like saying something to the lady but kept quiet. I kept my nose in my phone.

This was at a salon in an upscale location fwiw.

Meh, you have no idea what the "snickering" was about. Every time my coworker sneezes, it sounds like a snicker.

[Anonymous]

I would not have poked the cranky old lady bear. Anything you said to her was not going to register, and would just provoke her more.

But I would have spoken to someone at the front desk after waiting about 10-15 minutes. "Excuse me, I had an appointment with Kiki at 5:30. It's 5:45 and she doesn't seem like she's going to be ready for me anytime soon."

From there, ask for what you want. Either "Is there someone similar who can help me now? I really am not willing to come back on another day." Or "I'm not willing to wait while this issue plays out. Can you help me reschedule? And can you adjust the pricing to take this into account? I was here on time, but she's nowhere close to being ready for our appointment. And now I have to go home and come back again."

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Cranky seeming lady was upset, insisting that her colorist (new to her apparently) snickered when she complained about something (not sure what it was- something about a knot in her hair..?) and then made a comment to a co worker about her. The cranky customer refused to continue working with her and went and sat in the waiting area, but not before another customer got involved, I think to defend the colorist, and there was a yelling match over MYOB etc.

Cranky lady sat and had to be convinced by another colorist (who is also the manager) to go back to her chair to finish. She insisted the colorist had ‘snickered’, that she was ‘triggered’ and ‘very offended’ and wouldn’t go back to her seat. All of this took awhile and my appt was delayed by 45 minutes.

I felt like saying something to the lady but kept quiet. I kept my nose in my phone.

This was at a salon in an upscale location fwiw.

I think the only thing I might have done was quietly speak to the manager about my own appointment. It wouldn't be acceptable to me that they handle another client's tantrum by cutting into my time. And if I thought the complaint were justified and not a tantrum, I would leave (and tell them why).

Agree. I'd have put it between me and the salon and depending on my mood/her assistance/where I needed to be I'd either reschedule or leave/not return.

[Anonymous]

Hard to decide this one without being there and seeing tone/tenor. But the second customer should not have gotten involved unless first customer was impacting second customers experience.

More importantly, salon should have handled better so first customer felt seen and heard AND so as to not impact second customers experience.

If I was paying for a coloring service and the tech laughed at me, I’d be pissed, say something and want a new tech right away. No way I’d trust them with my hair. This is why I book appointments with the same person.

Salon is in the wrong.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Cranky seeming lady was upset, insisting that her colorist (new to her apparently) snickered when she complained about something (not sure what it was- something about a knot in her hair..?) and then made a comment to a co worker about her. The cranky customer refused to continue working with her and went and sat in the waiting area, but not before another customer got involved, I think to defend the colorist, and there was a yelling match over MYOB etc.

Cranky lady sat and had to be convinced by another colorist (who is also the manager) to go back to her chair to finish. She insisted the colorist had ‘snickered’, that she was ‘triggered’ and ‘very offended’ and wouldn’t go back to her seat. All of this took awhile and my appt was delayed by 45 minutes.

I felt like saying something to the lady but kept quiet. I kept my nose in my phone.

This was at a salon in an upscale location fwiw.

Why would you feel the need to interject yourself in something that was none of your business? The manager was involved, so stay out of it

Well, because her hissy fit was making other people inconvenienced. You don’t see the irony of her being offended by something like ‘snickering’ while bothering the rest of the entire salon with her drama?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I would not have poked the cranky old lady bear. Anything you said to her was not going to register, and would just provoke her more.

But I would have spoken to someone at the front desk after waiting about 10-15 minutes. "Excuse me, I had an appointment with Kiki at 5:30. It's 5:45 and she doesn't seem like she's going to be ready for me anytime soon."

From there, ask for what you want. Either "Is there someone similar who can help me now? I really am not willing to come back on another day." Or "I'm not willing to wait while this issue plays out. Can you help me reschedule? And can you adjust the pricing to take this into account? I was here on time, but she's nowhere close to being ready for our appointment. And now I have to go home and come back again."

That’s not how salons work. They don’t have extra people sitting around to do a coloring. And why should they reduce their price over this? Bad enough they had to deal with her. They weren’t ready through no fault on their part.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Hard to decide this one without being there and seeing tone/tenor. But the second customer should not have gotten involved unless first customer was impacting second customers experience.

More importantly, salon should have handled better so first customer felt seen and heard AND so as to not impact second customers experience.

If I was paying for a coloring service and the tech laughed at me, I’d be pissed, say something and want a new tech right away. No way I’d trust them with my hair. This is why I book appointments with the same person.

Salon is in the wrong.

Salon wasn’t in the wrong.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Cranky seeming lady was upset, insisting that her colorist (new to her apparently) snickered when she complained about something (not sure what it was- something about a knot in her hair..?) and then made a comment to a co worker about her. The cranky customer refused to continue working with her and went and sat in the waiting area, but not before another customer got involved, I think to defend the colorist, and there was a yelling match over MYOB etc.

Cranky lady sat and had to be convinced by another colorist (who is also the manager) to go back to her chair to finish. She insisted the colorist had ‘snickered’, that she was ‘triggered’ and ‘very offended’ and wouldn’t go back to her seat. All of this took awhile and my appt was delayed by 45 minutes.

I felt like saying something to the lady but kept quiet. I kept my nose in my phone.

This was at a salon in an upscale location fwiw.

Meh, you have no idea what the "snickering" was about. Every time my coworker sneezes, it sounds like a snicker.

This is what the manager was trying to tell her. That the colorist had only smiled and that her demeanor was always very smiley, she didn’t mean to offend. The cranky customer refused this argument ‘I know what I heard, it was a snicker, so let’s not debate this further!!’

The whole thing was insane. Poor colorist and that poor manager who was being SO nice and trying to calm the customer down.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Hard to decide this one without being there and seeing tone/tenor. But the second customer should not have gotten involved unless first customer was impacting second customers experience.

More importantly, salon should have handled better so first customer felt seen and heard AND so as to not impact second customers experience.

If I was paying for a coloring service and the tech laughed at me, I’d be pissed, say something and want a new tech right away. No way I’d trust them with my hair. This is why I book appointments with the same person.

Salon is in the wrong.

+1

[Anonymous]

This story shows why it’s taking so long for there to be a female president…people don’t trust their priorities & pettiness.

[Anonymous]

I would have been peeved at having to wait 45 min. to get my hair done all because the employees could not figure out how to handle their customer.

That ultimately is where the responsibility lies.
It would have been tempting to speak to the cranky client directly but I wouldn’t do so because I wouldn’t want to make the situation escalate.

The salon should have apologized to you for the wait, then offered you a discount for the inconvenience.