9 Honest Client Mistakes That Your Hairdresser Might Not Like You For

In order to avoid any misunderstanding with your hairdresser, it’s better to learn more about their craft. It’s really important because every 2 inches of hair takes almost 5 months to grow. More often than not, it’s our own fault that we’re disappointed, so it’s better to read recommendations from stylists and stop making these popular mistakes.

Wearing the wrong clothes.

Hairdressers recommend wearing the clothes you usually wear because the haircut should look good with them. If you mostly wear bright casual clothes, wear them for the cut instead of the simple dress you wear once a year. And it’s better to leave certain pieces of clothing at home.

• Don’t wear a hoodie or a turtleneck — if you can take it off, fine, but they both get in the way a lot if I’m trying to cut/color your hair. © Leidylike / Reddit
• Also, gentlemen, those button-up shirts with ties and all? Real classy and all, but stupidly hard to not spill water on. © chocolatebunbun_arts / Reddit

Having unrealistic expectations.

Very often, people come to a beauty salon with extreme expectations — they show photos of gorgeous hair and ask their hairdressers to make their hair look that way. It’s better to find photos that look similar to your hair: if you have curly hair, find photos of curly hair, and so on.

• My friend often has people who want to go from dark brown to platinum in a single session. If you want bright hair, you will have split ends. © manlikerealities / Reddit

Succumbing to your emotions

Women often go to the hairdressers’ when something bad happens in their romantic lives. By changing their looks completely, they try to let go of the past and feel more confident. But painful emotions after a break-up are not a good source of inspiration when it comes to your appearance.

• Do not come to the stylist in a raging fit because your boyfriend hurt your feelings, so now you’re going to cut your long hair into a pixie to show that you have control over your life. No matter how awesome it looks, you will hate it, you will cry, and you will hate us for allowing you to do it. This is why stylists will always try to talk you down off that ledge, and many will offer a slower transition. © megferno / Reddit
• I call this my bangs rule. “I want bangs.” “Great, have you ever had bangs?” “No.” “Ok, how long have you been thinking about getting them?” “Oh, I just decided today.” “Any major life changes?” “I just got out of a relationship.” © bphairartist / Reddit
• Several customers would tell me they needed a change, and that I had total artistic freedom to modernize their style. 99% of the time, they cried and yelled at me. 85% of the girls came back and apologized — it took them a month to get used to the change. My helpful tip, wait a month after a break-up before you take the plunge to change your look. © kazphantom / Reddit

Not being able to sit still.

When a person is fidgeting in their chair, moving their legs, or keeps looking around, it’s hard to work. If you sit with your legs or arms crossed, your hair might be shorter on one of the sides. And when an artist is using an electric shaver, it’s better to not move your neck.

• A pet peeve of mine, super unhelpful too, is clients always moving their heads around when it’s time to cut. You tell them to sit straight, get their head straight and then look slightly down, you even push their head gently into position if needed. Then you see them looking up at the mirror to see what you’re doing, with their head down, and their natural tendency is to get their head up along with their sight. Then you put their head back in place, and it happens again and again. © chocolatebunbun_arts / Reddit
• Keep your freaking head still! Learn to speak without bobbing your head around. Warn me (if you can) if you’re about to sneeze or something. © SnailMassacre / Reddit

Not realizing how much hair they want to have removed.

Many hairdressers value the quality of hair more than the length, so they cut off all the damaged hair. If the client didn’t warn you that they wanted to keep the length, they might be in for an unpleasant surprise. Real problems start when clients give abstract descriptions like “shorter on the sides and more on the top” or ask the stylist to remove “around 2 inches.”

• Please know what 6 inches actually looks like on a ruler. Sometimes you think you want to cut that much, but you’re not aware of what it actually looks like. © ambersavampire / Reddit
• I’ve been trained in the French technique of haircutting, and one of the things that we learned is not to talk in inches. Everyone’s idea of an inch is very different. You can take the ends of your hair and flip them under at the level where you’re comfortable with the length. © FeralMuse / Reddit

Coming in with too much product in the hair or with dirty hair

If a client hasn’t washed their hair for several days, it’s hard for the stylist to see the real condition of hair and choose the cut. Also, the dye don’t work as well as it should. Grease makes hair heavier and it’s hard for the stylist to see what it will look like when it’s clean. Styling products have the same effect, and many people forget about that.

• Don’t put random things on your head because they’re “natural,” like coconut oil. A lot of times those things either do more harm or nothing at all, and I have to shampoo 29 times to get your hair to stop feeling greasy, cause if I don’t, you’ll think I didn’t do a good enough job. © Konst93 / Reddit
• I had a client once who came in wanting a zero fade, and he said, “I don’t want anything done to the top” (when he said this, I breathed a sigh of relief). Why? He seemed to have styled his hair with some kind of glue. There was no way the stuff he had in his hair was for hair. Even so, I finished the fade and didn’t do anything on top. I asked him if all was good, and he said yes all was good, but can you take some off the top — just a bit? I said no, there is no way that’s possible with what’s in your hair. He insisted that I try, so I wet down his hair, knowing it wasn’t going to work (but to prove a point), and the water rolled off his hair. © TenebriRS / Reddit
• Come in with clean hair, no hat, and no product. You will cut the work in half if we aren’t spending time trying to blend out a line created by a hat. © Cynthia_NotCyndi / Reddit

Not taking care of dyed hair.

Dyeing makes hair more fragile, and it needs special care, like shampoos with no alcohol or sulfates. But many women believe that ordinary shampoo is good enough, and then they complain that the dye washes out too fast.

• People who are willing to spend 6 hours and $400+ on a fantasy color like pink, blue, purple, etc. Only to not buy professional salon products. I only recommend to my guests what they absolutely need! The shampoo and conditioner that we have at the salon are made for specific types of hair with special ingredients. If you use Herbal Essences or any grocery store shampoo on a color like that, it will completely wash out the first time you shampoo your hair. They have a higher pH and will strip your hair. Also, they have waxes and silicones that will deposit onto your hair strand to make it feel soft, but really it’s preventing any type of moisture from penetrating into your hair strand. © hopecreech / Reddit
• And the good stuff is so much more concentrated, so you technically end up saving money in the grand scheme of things. Purchase your professional products from a salon! Product diversion is a huge plague on the industry. © thatweirdvintagegirl / Reddit

Not telling your stylist about your hair experiments

Some women are scared of being judged for using henna or some cheap grocery store dye. But if you don’t want to end up with an unusual hair color or lose your hair, it’s better not to lie.

• The stylist WILL find out one way or another (like when your “virgin” hair turns orange instead of yellow in foils), and this just makes it harder and more expensive to correct it later on. © unknown author / Reddit
• My mom was working on a new client and asked her about her previous color because she was brunette and wanted to bleach — to basically go as blonde as she could in one session. She told my mum she had done some brown years ago, bleached it a few months ago, but then slapped some brown back on top. Mom mixes bleach, and as the client’s processing, my mom checks the foils and sees her hair is turning green. My mom said, “Is there something you’re not telling me?” Did you color your hair blue when you said you bleached it?" And the client obviously knew she did and admitted she had. My mom then had to explain the importance of being honest with your hair history because now her hair was green, my mom had to create a new formula to minimize the green while still trying to give the client what she wanted as well as use more expensive product because she had to start all over again, and then it cuts into her next clients’ appointment!! © faknugget / Reddit
• Apparently, a friend of mine had a horror story where a lady came in, swore up and down that she hadn’t used any box dye, wanted a color change, and literally got burns on her scalp because of the chemical reaction with the bleach and the box dye. She lost all her hair. Hairdressers won’t judge you, they just want to keep you safe!! © hakunaa-matataa / Reddit

Looking at the hairdresser when they are working.

Few hairdressers ask their clients to stop staring at them even though it’s distracting. Hairdressers are also human, and when someone is looking directly at them, it makes them feel anxious and shy.

• Please don’t keep your eyes open when I’m washing your hair, it’s kind of awkward if someone is staring right up your nostrils. © sukiepoekie / Reddit

These are anecdotes that ordinary hairdressers shared. They are simply tired of some of the things their clients do. We believe that clients also have the right to speak out, so we’d be glad to read about your experience in the comment section below. We’ll make sure as many people as possible will see your stories.