I found Fatima on Yelp and decided to try her since she has some five star reviews. She was initially very friendly when I called her to make my appointment.
Last year, I had my hair cut in a short, professional pixie cut, since I'm a mother of two little girls and don't have time to do a whole lot of styling in the mornings. I regularly receive color treatments to cover my grays, and I highlight my hair to add dimension.
The last time I had my hair highlighted was three months before my appointment with Fatima. When I went in for my appointment, Fatima said that my highlights didn't need any touching up and that my previous highlights were sufficient. She did a root touch up to cover the grays and then cut my hair. While she did a good job covering my grays, I was not very impressed with the cut. She saw my hesitant face and told me that I just need to use lots of styling paste to style it right in the mornings. I told her that I have some styling paste at home and that I'd give it a try (despite my previously mentioned time constraints in the morning!). My hair looked decent after she styled it, but I was still concerned about the cut since it seemed rather long in the back. A friend of mine at work mentioned the length in the back as well before I said anything, so I knew it wasn't just in my head.
The next morning, I washed and dried my hair and attempted to style it with styling paste, but it looked AWFUL. The length in the back was terrible, and it looked like I was about a month overdue for a haircut! The more I looked in the mirror, the more convinced I was that the back needed to be trimmed and shaped up more and the sides needed to be shaped. I figured that since I was a new client and this was Fatima's first time cutting my hair and she seemed very nice, I should give her another chance. So, I called her and explained my concerns and asked very politely if I could come by whenever she had some free time that day for a follow-up appointment to fix the cut. She was again very nice on the phone and told me to come by at 3:45pm. I was so happy that she had agreed to see me on that day, since I didn't really feel comfortable leaving the house with my hair looking the way it did...
Around 3:30p, I realized I was running a little bit late, so I texted Fatima to give her a heads up that I was, like, two minutes behind schedule. I wanted to be extra considerate, since she'd agreed to see me for a follow-up appointment at the last minute. Traffic ended up not being as bad as I expected, though, so I ended up arriving at the salon on time. Since Fatima was with another client, I took a seat in the waiting area at the front of the salon.
Fatima hadn't seen me walk into the shop since she was with her client. It was at this point that I overheard her talking to her client, saying that she didn't care if I was going to show up late or not at all. She was clearly upset, saying that that some people "do not have a brain," implying that I'm an idiot because I don't like the haircut she gave me!
I felt awful and immediately got up to leave. She saw me as I walked out of the salon to go set on a bench outside to collect my thoughts. I was so confused and upset about what she just said, in the middle of the salon, in front of everyone. I have never experienced something SO unprofessional--I honestly wasn't sure what to do!
Fatima followed me out of the shop and found me sitting on the bench a minute later. When I asked her if she was just talking to her client about me, she started trying to explain that she "did not mean it that way." Then she set in on trying to convince me that the back of my hair looked exactly how the back of a pixie cut should look, and that she couldn't make it shorter or shape it to my head because "this is the way that my hair grows." Literally all I needed was for her to use a lower number clipper on the razor to cut my hair shorter in the back and shape up the back and sides, which has NOTHING to do with how my hair grows! Absolutely ridiculous.
I informed her that I had heard everything she said to her client, and I started walking away. She then proceeded to FOLLOW ME ALL THE WAY TO MY CAR, shouting about how she was sorry and that I was "being too sensitive!" SERIOUSLY?!
I should mention that Fatima did offer me a refund at this point. However, for me, what she'd said and how she'd acted was far more upsetting and hurtful to me than what she did to my hair. I was so disgusted by her complete and utter lack of professionalism that I didn't even want to be bothered with a refund. I couldn't have looked at her a minute longer. I refused the refund and left.
Fatima doesn't deserve even ONE star, but there's no option for zero stars. A bad haircut is one thing, but talking trash about your clients to other clients in the middle of the salon is absolutely unacceptable. I hope this helps her learn to respect her clients in the future, whether they are around to hear it or not. read more