Haircut Fiasco

What is it about girls and getting their hair cut? It always seems like such a nerve racking ordeal, and some women swear by certain hair stylists and refuse to go to others for fear that they'll look like an idiot. For the most part i never really understood that whole mindset. I just figured no matter what happened, my hair would always grow back. So i never had a specific stylist that i went and saw. I would just call up a place that had a good price tag and i would go to the first available stylist. This method always worked out for me, i never got a haircut that i hated and i always paid the price that i wanted. Well that was until about a week ago...

My hair was getting pretty long, and pretty unattractive so i figured i was due for a haircut. My mom and some women that i knew from the ward recommended this girl who worked at LifeSpa (its a spa type place thats inside the gym that i go to). My price range for this haircut was about 25 dollars and i only needed a trim. I called the LifeSpa and it was about 35 dollars, ten dollars above but it was probably the best price i could get without going to the Hair Cuttery. On Saturday morning after i got home from the gym i called the place and made an appointment with the first available lady (even though my mom and the women in the ward recommended a different girl) i figured it would be fine.

I ended up being really busy that morning and didn't have time to wash my hair, but i figured they wash your hair before you get it styled, so why wash your hair twice in the span of a few hours. (All of these boring details support the upcoming story). I make it the the LifeSpa right on time (at 2 o'clock) and the girls at the front desk have to go get the lady from the cafe. After a few minutes the lady walks in kind of flustered and she's saying that she had to eat lunch really fast, and she's kind of acting annoyed like i'm the one that cut her lunch short(even though i had an appointment). She treated my like i just walked in randomly and somehow i end up being the one apologizing even though this lady wasn't ready for my appointment.

So she takes my hair down (my super nasty hair) and is asking me what kind of cut i want. I try to joke and apologize about my hair being gross but she doesn't really respond. Awkward. I tell her that i liked the way my hair was cut before (longer in the front shorter in the back) and i just want it a little bit shorter. We only talked about the cut that i wanted for about 30 seconds before she took me over to wash my hair. As she was shampooing my hair she says to me (with attutide) "So, you didn't wash your hair?" i'm thinking to myself (UH HELLO!! I told you that already and you're washing it for me!) but instead i just laughed awkwardly. She proceeds to semi talk to me, which means that she is talking a mile a minute about random stuff about herself.

So far the haircut was shaping up to be a pretty strange experience. She sits me back in the chair and proceeds to cut my hair at warp speed. I'm waiting for the usual banter between client and stylist, something along the lines of: so what do you do? Tell me about yourself. But no. my stylist FATIMA, starts talking to the other people in the salon. She starts asking "Kay" (the lady sitting next to me with foil in her hair) about her grandkids and how the grandkids are doing. Then the receptionist "Amanda" walks over and Fatima starts going on and on about how gorgeous Amanda is and how she has such great naturally blond hair and how she could be a model. Then she comments to Kay about one of Kay's daughters who has naturally blond hair and how Amanda has a twin that looks just like her. I'm sitting there with water dripping all over my face feeling like i'm nonexistent.

After the conversation with the blessed Amanda gets finished i tell Fatima that i want layers through the sides of my hair. She nods, and moves on. A few minutes later a women walks into the shop looking for shampoo. There are two receptionists and a Spa manager working, but Fatima takes it upon herself to help this lady find the right shampoo. She leaves me, dripping and non-existstent, just sitting in my chair with a half haircut. The lady just came in to buy some shampoo because she was working out, needed to shower before she went somewhere, and forgot her shampoo. So she didn't need a shampoo consultant. Don't worry though, Fatima came back to my chair and told me all about the lady and how the lady almost bought the volume shampoo even though she had frizzy hair, and that would have just been a mistake. I'm sitting there thinking "okay, Fatima, great, i don't need to know this." As Fatima is finishing up the cut, i tell her again that i want layers through the sides (because she didn't do it the first time that i asked her), and she says okay. She starts to blow dry my hair (and she has yet to have a conversation with me), and i'm thinking to myself "Okay maybe she is going to cut the layers that i asked for when my hair is dry." Well that FOR SURE was not the case. She starts to brush off my shoulders and ask my what i think of the cut (which came across not so much as "Can i fix anything?", but as a "Well this is the part where you leave and pay me")

I had a little pep talk with myself as she was blow drying my hair that i wouldn't leave the salon until she actually cut my hair the way that i had asked her. I could feel myself wanting to cry, but like the big girl that i am i decided i couldn't back down. So i told her for the THIRD and FINAL time, that i wanted layers on the sides. This really pissed her off. She says "Thats not what you asked for, you said you wanted it short in the back and longer in the front." i'm thinking to myself "HELLO, i asked you three times for layers!!!" So i say "well i just don't want it to be thick through the sides. Evil Fatima strikes back with "That's a completely different haircut! There are two other people waiting who have made their appointments six months in advance so you're going to have to wait until they're done then we can get back to your hair."

I was SHOCKED that she was talking to me like that and i was seriously fighting back tears. I kept telling myself "don't walk away with a haircut you don't want." So i stayed. I grabbed a magazine and sat in the lounge chair that was right behind Fatima's chair. As i'm reading this magazine (well flipping through the pages trying to prevent myself from crying) I hear Fatima talking to her other client (Kay) about me. She said "Well she wanted a completely different haircut," and "it was just poor communication." I thought i had to be in some episode of boiling point, was this lady really talking about me when i am less than two feet away?! I was trying so hard not to lose it. Finally i decided that i couldn't handle the humiliation of sitting there for two hours listening to how i was a bad client, so told Fatima that the cut was "growing on me" and that i was just going to go. She then says that if i want anything fixed that i can set up an appointment and come in later during the week.

As i got up to pay my 35 dollars the receptionist says "Okay that will be 52 dollars." WHAT?!?!?! This was getting worse and worse. So i say "I thought it was 35?" and the girl just looks at me. I just want to get the HECK out of there, so i decide to pay it (and being the moron that i am, i actually tip Fatima). Then as the receipt is printing Fatima comes to the front and jibber jabbers about coming back in to fix it if i want to, and she HUGS ME. Blegh. I get my receipt and sign for it and bust a freakin move out the door, put on my sunglasses and burst into tears. I cried all the way home (like the littlest piggy toe). I got home and sobbed through the whole story to my sister, and my parents. I haven't cried that hard in a long time. Well stacey got fired up and said that i needed to complain and that lifetime (the gym) would probably fix the situation. I was way too emotional to be making any sort of phone call, so stacey asked if she could call and pretend to be me. I gave her the green light.

She called and did a great job acting upset and she actually talked to the General Manager of Lifetime. She got off the phone and said that the guy was new and he was going down right then to talk to Fatima, and he was going to refund my money down to the original price that they told me i would have to pay, AND they were going to have the spa manager call me to set up an appointment with Allison (the original girl that my mom and the women in the ward recommended) to fix my hair for free. It made me feel a lot better. Over the weekend the spa manager called me and we set up and appointment with Allison (i made sure that it was at a time that Fatima wouldn't be working, because thats just how mature i am).

I went to my appointment, and Allison was AWESOME. she was extremely nice, we actually had a conversation, and Allison said that Fatima did a really crappy job on my hair. The pieces in the front had an inch difference. Way to go Fatima. When Allison finished my hair it looked a MILLION times better and i felt a whole lot better. The manager of LifeSpa was so nice and she refunded me the money. So i give serious props to LifeTime for fixing the situation, they did a great job.

The best part about this story, aside from them actually fixing my hair and giving me my money back, was that a couple of days later my sister's friend Lisa from our ward was telling my sister about this horrible hair cut experience she had with a stylist named FATIMA, and that she complained and got her hair fixed by Allison. hahaha. Fatima had two HUGE complaints against her in one week, i hope she gets fired.

The moral of the story is that it really does matter who you go and see when you get your hair cut. So if you find a good stylist, STAY WITH THEM. Also If you're in the D.C. metro area, please avoid making appointments with Fatima at LifeSpa.