I have been bleaching and coloring my own hair for YEARS. I know the damage it does. I know my hair is dry and frizzy and has split ends. That's why I decided to go get a drastic hair cut. I went in with a reference photo in hand, ready for my transformation.
Upon entering, there were three people in chairs at various stages of the hair transformation process. Yet only one person actually doing hair. I found this strange that a stylist would spread themself so thin, but I trusted that they were the professional and knew what they could handle. I waited about twenty minutes for a chair to open up (not bad at all).
When I sat down, I showed the stylist my reference photo and told her exactly what I wanted. While she was talking to me about it, she kept throwing in little quips about my hair. "It's too dry" "your hair is very damaged" "there's too much going on" etc. I'm used to these kinds of comments, so I kept to myself and didn't say anything about it.
When she cut my hair to my shoulders, she asked if I liked the length. I personally thought it could've been cut SLIGHTLY shorter (.5 inch), but I asked my mom for her input. While my mom was talking, the stylist cut her off to give her own input. Mind you, she did this several times throughout the whole endeavor. To me as well. My mom agreed that it could be slightly shorter, but not too much. So the stylist began cutting again. All the while, saying how it wouldn't make that much of a difference and that it should be shorter.
(While she was cutting my hair, she was talking about clients that come in with a reference photo, yet they want something slightly different. She said to me, "if you don't want what's in the picture, show me a picture of exactly what you want!" In hindsight, I find this statement very funny and ironic because I did, in fact, come in with a picture of exactly what I wanted and I still didn't get it.)
After she trimmed my hair a bit more, she asked if I was happy with the length. My mom and I both agreed that it was good. So the stylist began layering. As she did my layers, I noticed that she was going around the bottom of my hair, taking more length off. I didn't say anything because she kept insisting "I'm not taking length, I'm making layers, okay?" I trusted the process. I trusted her experience. I trusted her.
While she was cutting my hair, she also repeatedly stepped away to wash/tone/condition another clients hair, and went over color options and trimmed ANOTHER clients hair. This haircut took almost an hour.
By the time she was finished cutting, I was done. My hair was too short and it looked awful. I was visibly upset and she insisted that she style my hair because she wants everyone leaving her salon "feeling beautiful". I didn't want to stay, but I don't do well under pressure and stayed anyways. I thought a cute style might make me like it better. So I let her style it, but as she was styling, she continued cutting??? Taking a chunk of hair here and there.... It was terrifying for me. It was already shorter than I requested and she was taking MORE?
By the time it was all over and done with, my hair was about an inch to an inch and a half shorter than I wanted. It's exactly the hairstyle I DIDNT want.
Moral of the story: don't go to Avanti Salon if you have your heart set on a specific style. Because the owner will look at what you want, insult you, do the opposite of what you ask for, and forcibly hug you on your way out the door. read more