I booked an appointment months ago with my regular stylist. When I called last week to confirm it, I was told that that stylist no longer works with the salon, but they had someone they felt would be good for me. They added extra time to my appointment so I could talk over my needs/wants with the stylist before we started. I arrive today to find that there would be one person to dye my hair, another to style it. Was led to a waiting table area and left for about a half hour. The person who came over to dye my hair asked me what I was going for and I showed him a few pictures of different reds - I wanted coppery red base, with dark auburn low-lights and strawberry blonde highlights. He proceeded to go to the counter behind me and mull over what chemicals to combine etc. with another stylist, almost as if he didnt know what to do. They both came back and started to work on my hair - talking to each other, and it honestly sounded like she was a trainee.
After the dye was shampooed out, the stylist took me back to his chair and blew it dry, then trimmed a bit off the back ends to get rid of the splits - not even a half inch, no shaping or anything. After that, I moved to the NEXT chair for the girl to style it. I told her how I wanted it - soft/loose curls, pinned back just a little bit off my temples. She did her job and I was happy. In all honesty, the look was the same look I would pretty much always leave my normal stylist with, except that she pinned it back off my face and sprayed the SHIT out of it to make it last. She did the spray heavy to make it last the day, as I was going to pick up my dress later that afternoon and had to try it on etc. - wanted it to look nice to make sure it was what i wanted. I asked her how long I should give her day-of to do it, and she said Oh, about a half hour to 45mins - you come in with clean dry hair, we dont wash it for you.
Then I went to pay. I was expecting around $150 - the normal amount (90) or maybe a bit more for my dye job (long hair, lots of roots, so more product needed), and then a styling fee - usually my cut/blow dry/loose curl salon visits were about $45 before taxes.
They told me $245 and broke it down like this:
$120 for the colour (90 plus 30 for the 2 low/highlights plus 10 for the extra length) <- that was the same that I always did on dyes, just changed the colours a little
$45 for the cut
$55 for the *updo*
Plus 12%tax
I stopped them and said that it was not an updo - it was curls with a couple of pins, that I always had my hair loosely curled like this. Turns out, my previous stylist was undercharging his clients.
I was outraged. When they informed me that my stylist(s) would be different than my normal one, shouldn't they have informed me of the price difference. My moms salon stylist charges $45 for a cut, and includes the style (basic - nothing updo-y or whatever, but she does curls).
Anyone else I have ever known to get their hair done for their wedding paid for their colour/cut on the trial, but the *style* fee was always paid on the day-of.
Grr...anyway...just needed to vent.
