TL;DR: Linda ignored my requests, gave me the opposite cut of what I asked for, made excuses and lied about the cut, and left me with an unmanageable cut that will take years to properly grow out.
I came to Linda because I couldn't afford to keep going to Devachan Salon, and they were just too snobby for my tastes. I had gone 9 months between haircuts, which Linda was appalled by. I told her I liked the length, and I just needed my long layers trimmed a bit on the ends. My shortest layers were below my shoulders, and I asked her to take about an inch off. I'm aware that my fine wavy hair curls best when it's kept short, around shoulder length, but I liked the waves I was getting from my longer hair, and told her this.
Linda was very friendly as she was cutting my hair, and we chatted about the fact that I like wearing my hair up or down in a variety of styles. She praised me for having long hair and actually doing interesting things with it, instead of just wearing it in a ponytail. It should have been a warning sign that she talked repeatedly about my hair having volume. I told her I was okay with it pulling my curls out a bit- I really liked the length, and my hair grows very slowly. Growing out bangs has taken years in the past.
It's really hard to tell what someone is doing to your hair while they're cutting it, or at least it is for me. I had to stop her once as I saw her measuring out pieces of hair by my chin to remind her I asked for nothing short. She assured me this was just a couple pieces by my face. This was a lie.
When the cut was done and she started shaking it out, I was dismayed to see that from my face all the way to the crown of my head I had chin-length layers. This didn't even remotely resemble the cut I had before, which I asked her to just trim. Then, when she had to style it, she clearly had no idea how to style curly hair. She scrunched in a tiny amount of curling lotion and then blew it with a diffuser. I ended up looking like an 80s mom. My hair was pure fluff, no curl clumping at all, and she didn't seem to know what to do with it. I had to put it in a ponytail the second I walked out of the salon because I was embarrassed to be seen like this.
When I expressed my displeasure with the cut, she made a lot of excuses. "It will look better when you style it yourself"- You're the hair stylist, isn't my hair supposed to look BETTER when I leave the salon? "When you told me you went 9 months between cuts I knew I had to cut it shorter than you asked so it wouldn't look bad when it grew out. My haircuts look best when they're growing out."- So you decided to completely ignore what I asked for. "I wanted your hair to have more volume"- I didn't ask for volume. "The short pieces are only around your face. I don't really cut layers, I just angle it down from your face."- This was a blatant lie, since the short pieces go all the way back to the crown of my head.
I usually wear my hair in a low ponytail or bun for work. The layers have made this impossible- my only options are french braids or very high ponytails. I can't even tuck the shortest layers behind my ear. They hang in an unflattering clump in front of my ear and get in my eyes every time I move. I've never cried about a haircut before, but this one made me cry. It's not at all what I asked for, and it's going to take forever for me to grow out these horribly short layers. read more