I came into this appointment with a haircut I already disliked, but fortunately my hair was still…read morevery long and absolutely fixable. I spent a significant amount of time researching stylists because after a bad cut, I specifically wanted someone who appeared to have the technical knowledge and understanding to properly reshape and correct curly hair.
Unfortunately, this has to be one of the worst haircuts I have received in my life. Right now I look like John Lennon's son if John Lennon hated his son and cut his hair with a blindfold.
I explicitly warned the stylist multiple times that my hair is very curly and that even removing a small amount of length would cause it to spring up significantly. Those concerns were ignored completely.
After washing and styling my hair myself at home, it became extremely clear that this stylist does not know how to properly cut curly hair or bangs at the level that should be expected from any professional stylist, especially one working in a NYC salon positioning itself as technically skilled.
The layers are uneven, mismatched, and dramatically shorter than discussed. Even after straightening it, the result looks nothing like the portfolio work shown on this salon's website and is not flattering to my face whatsoever. I feel like a little boy vs a 36 year old woman. And an ugly one at that.
After asking friends later in the night, even the people you would expect to say "oh, it's not that bad, don't worry about it" had the same reaction: "wow, absolute massacre."
That honestly confirmed for me that this was not me being overly emotional or "not understanding" an alternative haircut. The cut is simply technically incorrect for what was requested.
What made the experience even worse was the patronizing response when I expressed concern. Instead of listening, I was asked, "Oh, do you not like it because it's alternative?"
No. I do not like it because it is objectively wrong for what I asked for.
This was not an issue of personal taste or being "edgy." It was a technical failure to properly execute the cut, listen to concerns about curly hair shrinkage, and create a shape that works for my face and texture.
It is also very strange to me that in a city like NYC, where salons position themselves as highly skilled and specialized, direct client feedback is apparently treated as some kind of attack rather than part of the job. A client expressing that something is uneven or not what they requested should not cause defensiveness, gaslighting, or attempts to reframe the issue into a personality problem.
If a salon cannot handle one sentence of direct feedback without trying to psychologically flip the situation onto the client, that says a lot.
There is something genuinely strange happening in a lot of NYC salons right now. So many stylists do not listen at all. They do not take the time to actually study someone's face shape, texture, proportions, or how the hair naturally falls. Instead, it feels like many are applying the same default haircut method to every person who walks in.
Hair should be a craft. It requires attunement, restraint, observation, and critical thinking. Especially with curly hair, you cannot approach every client with a copy-paste technique and expect good results.
This is not a small correction either. Because of how much length was removed and how curly my hair is, this will take months to grow out properly.
I also attempted to contact the salon directly via email and received no response 24 hours later.
