I finally reached the point where my hair was bugging me too much, so yesterday morning I called a nearby Regis that I hadn't been to before and asked if they had anything for 5:00 PM that same day. To my delight, they did, so after work I trotted myself up there. I got there with a few minutes to spare, so I gave my name to the stylist at the front counter and proceeded to sit down and wait.
Now, I'm not the kind of person who gets ticked off whe an appointment ends up being a little later than scheduled. I totally understand that sometimes the person before you takes longer than anticipated. So I wasn't too bothered when it took them 30 minutes to even get to me. The stylist, Trina, apologized for my wait and asked what I wanted done. I had a picture with me. Basically what I wanted was a short-ish layered shag cut with long bangs. She said "no problem, that'll be easy" and took me back to wash my hair.
She explained that she'd had a highlighting job that ran over, which was why she hadn't gotten to me earlier. I told her I understood, no big deal, happens to everyone.
She got me back to the chair and decided she was going to cut my hair off at the shoulders first, then cut the back to the nape of my neck and then start cutting the layers with a razor. She got as far as cutting it to my shoulders and then cutting the back part off at the nape of my neck before announcing that she was still working with her first customer, and needed to go wash her hair and give her a quick clean-up trim. I was moved to a different chair and asked to wait, with the assurance that it wouldn't take but a few minutes to do.
Well, as it turned out the first customer did not want a quick clean-up trim. She wanted an entirely new style. So I sat there for over an hour with my hair only partially cut and dripping all over my face and neck while Trina worked on the other woman's hair. She did ask her manager and the other stylists if someone could please take over my hair cut, but they all ignored her.
So I waited, getting more pissed off by the minute, with my hair now starting to dry. If she'd just washed my hair, I would have walked out. But as it was, I had hair that was two completely different lengths and ragged from where she'd just hacked it off at shoulder length.
She finally got back to me at 7:00 PM. My hair had to be re-wet because it was now mostly dry. Then she proceeded to pretty much just grab handfuls of hair at random and razor it off. I told her I wanted the cut to be either exactly like the picture or as close as she could get..she cut it about two inches shorter than it was in the picture. Rather than being a layered shag, my hair is more like a really short layered bob with extra short bangs. The style in the picture is long enough to tuck behind your ears. This can't be tucked. She left the part at the nape of my neck a good two and a half inches longer than the rest of the haircut..it looked like some really bizarre shaggy mullet back there until I made her cut it off and blend it in.
The entire time she was cutting my hair, she kept talking about how hard it was to be a hairdresser and how no one understands and how no one ever helps her and it wasn't HER fault the first customer hadn't liked her hair (she did the same thing to her..chopped her hair off way shorter than she wanted. the girl left the salon in tears), and why do people keep wanting to get short haircuts, anyways? She doesn't like doing short haircuts. She also kept stopping to go do other things. By the time I finally got out of there, it was 8:15. I have never had a haircut take that long before. I wasn't getting it colored or getting a difficult style..it was a simple cut. I've gotten similar cuts before and they have never taken longer than an hour, at the most.
Now, I did get the haircut for free. Apparently Regis has a policy that if you wait a certain amount of time, your haircut is free. However, this was not offered to me until I mentioned that my cousin works with the Regis head office. Then suddenly the offer went from charging me for a kid's haircut with a 20% discount to giving me a free haircut. The manager on duty did not say a word to me the entire time..in fact, she was one of the ones who would not take over the haircut.
The haircut isn't horrible, even if it's not really what I wanted. I can live with it until it grows out some more. I have sent an e-mail to the Regis corporate office, and I'll also be getting in touch with my cousin about it. He'd asked us to call him if we ever have an unsatisfactory experience at a Regis Salon..and this was pretty damned unsatisfactory.
She explained that she'd had a highlighting job that ran over, which was why she hadn't gotten to me earlier. I told her I understood, no big deal, happens to everyone.
She got me back to the chair and decided she was going to cut my hair off at the shoulders first, then cut the back to the nape of my neck and then start cutting the layers with a razor. She got as far as cutting it to my shoulders and then cutting the back part off at the nape of my neck before announcing that she was still working with her first customer, and needed to go wash her hair and give her a quick clean-up trim. I was moved to a different chair and asked to wait, with the assurance that it wouldn't take but a few minutes to do.
Well, as it turned out the first customer did not want a quick clean-up trim. She wanted an entirely new style. So I sat there for over an hour with my hair only partially cut and dripping all over my face and neck while Trina worked on the other woman's hair. She did ask her manager and the other stylists if someone could please take over my hair cut, but they all ignored her.
So I waited, getting more pissed off by the minute, with my hair now starting to dry. If she'd just washed my hair, I would have walked out. But as it was, I had hair that was two completely different lengths and ragged from where she'd just hacked it off at shoulder length.
She finally got back to me at 7:00 PM. My hair had to be re-wet because it was now mostly dry. Then she proceeded to pretty much just grab handfuls of hair at random and razor it off. I told her I wanted the cut to be either exactly like the picture or as close as she could get..she cut it about two inches shorter than it was in the picture. Rather than being a layered shag, my hair is more like a really short layered bob with extra short bangs. The style in the picture is long enough to tuck behind your ears. This can't be tucked. She left the part at the nape of my neck a good two and a half inches longer than the rest of the haircut..it looked like some really bizarre shaggy mullet back there until I made her cut it off and blend it in.
The entire time she was cutting my hair, she kept talking about how hard it was to be a hairdresser and how no one understands and how no one ever helps her and it wasn't HER fault the first customer hadn't liked her hair (she did the same thing to her..chopped her hair off way shorter than she wanted. the girl left the salon in tears), and why do people keep wanting to get short haircuts, anyways? She doesn't like doing short haircuts. She also kept stopping to go do other things. By the time I finally got out of there, it was 8:15. I have never had a haircut take that long before. I wasn't getting it colored or getting a difficult style..it was a simple cut. I've gotten similar cuts before and they have never taken longer than an hour, at the most.
Now, I did get the haircut for free. Apparently Regis has a policy that if you wait a certain amount of time, your haircut is free. However, this was not offered to me until I mentioned that my cousin works with the Regis head office. Then suddenly the offer went from charging me for a kid's haircut with a 20% discount to giving me a free haircut. The manager on duty did not say a word to me the entire time..in fact, she was one of the ones who would not take over the haircut.
The haircut isn't horrible, even if it's not really what I wanted. I can live with it until it grows out some more. I have sent an e-mail to the Regis corporate office, and I'll also be getting in touch with my cousin about it. He'd asked us to call him if we ever have an unsatisfactory experience at a Regis Salon..and this was pretty damned unsatisfactory.