The Haircut From Hell

The girls and I were out of the house early Saturday for our 4H sleep pants project meeting. We spent a couple of hours at Linda's mom's shop sewing.

Then we went and got Gillian the haircut from hell.

I don't know why I keep trying. I get so frustrated with hair stylists. They always act like they don't know what I am talking about when I attempt to describe a hairstyle. Dang it, they're the professionals, they should be able to figure it out. Gillian wanted a blunt cut with the front longer than the back. Seems simple enough. But the stylist found lots of reasons not to be able to do what Gillian wanted, and kept layering, and layering, and layering, until now Gillian's hair is way too short, way too layered, and not even close to what she wanted. When the stylist first said she might need to layer it a bit in the back because of the thickness of Gillian's hair, I said OK. It made sense to me. But still, we had asked for a BLUNT cut, not a layered cut. Her hair is now very layered in the back, somewhat layered at the sides, and long in the front.

The cut took more than an hour the first time around, plus 15 minutes to wait for our turn. When she finished, it didn't look great, but we were all tired and wanted to go. We left to do some shopping. But then I got a better look at the cut, which the stylist had tucked behind Gillian's ears. When it came untucked, I realized they had her hair going from short, to long, to short again. It stuck out on the sides like a little kid had cut it. I wanted to cry, because I knew I had to take her back to have it fixed, which would mean more waiting.

Of course, we had to wait 30 minutes for the same stylist to be available when we returned. Then she was totally obtuse about what was wrong with the cut. Then she went on to blame Gillian, saying that Gillian kept asking her to cut it shorter. Well, maybe she did, but I'm quite sure she didn't aske her to LAYER it! I managed to be polite the entire time, but I was very frustrated. In total, three hours of our afternoon were spent at the hairdressers. With the other girls waiting the entire time! I ended up paying double the cost of a haircut, because I tipped her a second time to foster goodwill. After all, she didn't get angry or nasty about it. But she was deliberately dense and unhelpful, in my opinion. She refused to give any suggestions about how to fix the problem, just acted perplexed by my concerns.

Rhiannon and Tamzin walked over to Bed Bath and Beyond to shop, while I waited with Shelby. Then Shelby and Rhiannon went over to Target to shop, and I waited with Tamzin. Tamzin was a saint. I cannot believe how patient she was. It was so frustrating!!! Even now, Gillian's hair is not quite right. There are parts in the back that are not even. I admit, her hair is hard to cut because it's so thick. That's why I don't cut it! But if the stylist is not capable of cutting her hair evenly, I wish they would just say so, and let me go to a different stylist!

The whole point of the haircut was so Gillian could go to camp and not have to worry about having an unruly mop to deal with. Now her hair is so short, she can't tuck it behind her ears, so it's in her face! I can't decide if I should take her to Maeleena and ask if she can fix it, or if I'm just being too picky and should forget about the whole thing. The only way I can think of to fix it is to layer the front to match the layering in the back. Then it won't be in her face. But it also will be even less of what she wanted.

Tamzin begged for a haircut too, something I didn't want to do, since we just cut it not that long ago, and cutting it again would mean it couldn't go into a braid, my favorite non-tangling hairstyle. But she was so patient at the salon, I decided to give her a haircut when I got home. She is so happy! She loves it! I'm sad, because I liked her hair longer, but I'm happy that she's happy!