Would you do this in your salon?

[applepie]

I'm a beauty therapist but have a hair Q I'm interested to know your thoughts on please...

I have been happily going to my hair stylist for 18 mths and had my hair cut today. After the cut he said he had booked another stylist to blow dry my hair and then disappeared to cut someone elses hair!

I didn't feel I had much choice but was surprised and really disappointed especially as the finished blow dry result didn't look as good as my usual stylist does it.

I booked my appointment 6 weeks ago and this has not happened before though I don't normally go on a Saturday. I can understand when I have a colour he will fit in another cut in between but this just didn't seem very fair! I thought I booked him for the cut and finish!

Is this a normal thing to do?
How can I avoid this again? (the other stylist would have heard if I said anything after so I didn't feel I could).

 

[minky]

I'm a beauty therapist but have a hair Q I'm interested to know your thoughts on please...

I have been happily going to my hair stylist for 18 mths and had my hair cut today. After the cut he said he had booked another stylist to blow dry my hair and then disappeared to cut someone elses hair!

I didn't feel I had much choice but was surprised and really disappointed especially as the finished blow dry result didn't look as good as my usual stylist does it.

I booked my appointment 6 weeks ago and this has not happened before though I don't normally go on a Saturday. I can understand when I have a colour he will fit in another cut in between but this just didn't seem very fair! I thought I booked him for the cut and finish!

Is this a normal thing to do?
How can I avoid this again? (the other stylist would have heard if I said anything after so I didn't feel I could).

Hi , yes it really sucks when you were looking forward to it , but it is quite usual in some salons especially on busy days
and sometimes the stylists don't really have any choice either, as its just the way the salon is ran by the actual owner ,
I used to quite feel bad leaving the client in the hands of someone else , as most of us would prefer to do our own work from start to finish

I worked in a salon like this and as a senior stylists we couldn't do the blow drying if we were busy ,
but we were allowed to go back once the blow dry was finished to check the cut over and add finishing touches we also checked over the blow dry too and make sure the client was fully satisfied with their hair
I hope this at least happened for you ? as a cut should always be re checked over when dried by the professional who cut it ,

If you specifically requests the senior stylist to finish the blow dry then it may turn out to be a little more expensive for you ,

but in our salon , as long as the client came in on a quiet day when it wasn't too busy then the senior stylist was usually able to finish the whole lot at no extra charge ,

I would give them a ring and ask them about it ...
If they are a good salon then I am sure they will try to help you

 

[VHunter]

I realize that this is sometimes the case..... HOWEVER I feel strongly that it was handled VERY unprofessionally. (speaking as a former hairdresser, here)

The stylist should have asked the client if this was ok, and should not have assumed so!
When I choose to book with a particular stylist, there IS a reason for it.
When recptionist asks "who do you want to book with", I make my choice. If my stylist is not available that day, I choose another day.
If the receptionist should anticipate a busy day , then she should ask the client if he/she minds someone else do the blowdry.
I am VERY particular about who does my hair, and will let no-one BUT my reg stylist touch it.

If my stylist did that to me, I'd walk out and never go back.
It's rude, plain and simple.
It is hardly the clients fault if the stylist overbooks him/herself.
If it happens, they should call the client BEFOREhAND and ask if it's ok, so that the stylist can arrange the latecomers differently if necessary.
(because, at 6wks prior, there are surely options).

IF the client books last min, I can understand stylist saying "I can fit you in for this, but not that".

But such is not the case here.

 

[BABSann]

This is something that bugs the hell out of me.I have had 3 hairdressers work on me before and it's just not on.As a beauty therapist I would never ever start a pedicure(for example) then get another therapist to paint the nails...it's something that has actually put me right off going to one particular salon.It makes me feel like I am NOT important and I know of a lot of friends and family who feel exactly the same.When I have talked to clients about this issue they all say it's a big bug bearer of theirs.

How can the cut be checked by the stylist without drying off and checking the finished result? Usually its a junior who dries the hair off and it's not her job to check the cut.

My hairdresser who I go to now does everything from start to finish (sometimes I have someone else wash it,and tbh I would rather not have even that but ....)she dries it then re-checks the precision of my cut and cuts again if necessary,I just dont get how a hairdresser can be confident in her/his cutting without drying and re checking:irked:

 

[angelina221]

It's one thing that used to bug me when i went to the hairdressers to have my hair cut.
There were different charges for different stylists so if i've paid more to have a top stylist then i don't expect a junior to blowdry it.
It's the main reason i stopped going to a big name salon in my town. I would go there and someone would wash it, someone else would cut it, someon else would blowdry it and then someone else would straigten it. God it was like a cattle market and this was a very well known salon and wasn't cheap!
I don't mind a junior washing it but that's it and i swore when i opened my salon this wouldn't happen.
If i've paid £128 for a full head of headlights and wash and blowdry then that includes £30 for a wash and blowdry. If a junior had done it then the blowdry should have cost £10 so really they should only charge £108.
Really does drive me nuts

 

[persianista]

We don't do this in my salons. Although the juniors shampoo the hair, the same stylist does the cut, blow dry and finish. It is simpler to book it this way too. As long as the booking system works, this kind of thing shouldn't happen. I think it was a trendy West end thing for a while, along with colour specialists to do the colour separately. I only employ very experienced top stylists, there is no way a junior or young stylist could blow dry to their standards, so I would expect the client to feel short changed.

 

[liana kay]

If youve booked it in then its not on . If they said on the phone that hes only got time for a cut and somebody else may have to blowdry it , then i think its fine . Or sometimes if you are ASKED(Say if you are a regular client having it dried off after hi-lites and you are not going out) if youd mind the junior doing it for practice and then not be charged, that would be fine by me.
As said before , the cut should be checked , and its always polite for your stylist to say goodbye!

 

[-sophisticutz-]

I know this happens in a lot of salons but I don't like this method of working. I agree that if you book in with a particular stylist, you should stay with that stylist.
When I was an apprentice I always had to start blowdries, put on colours and wind perms and sets. I decided then that I didn't want to work that way. I like to be in control from the very start until the end, that way if there are any problems I can hopefully eliminate them!

The only time an apprentice steps in for us is if we are running far behind due to the client being late. Then we ask the client if this is ok (even though they are the late one), and if not, have to accept this.

I would just have a quiet word with your stylist, as if this is normal practice in there on a Saturday he would not have realised that he had offended you.

 

[applepie]

Thanks for all your replies and thoughts, I found it really interesting to hear your different perspectives!

It did make me feel really miffed but I don't want to cut my nose off and not go back as it's because I am very happy with how my stylist does my hair that I was disappointed so it would only spite myself to have to find someone else!!

Think I will have a quiet word next time like 'sophisticutz' suggests.

Hopefully it is just something they do on Saturdays then and I can avoid going in that day. It's never happened to me before anywhere else but sounds all too common unfortunately. I would imagine it is the salon owner who gets the stylists to do this but have to say to risk good clients not coming back for the sake of saving him 15 minutes, just doesn't seem worth it to me!

He did give it a quick check at the end btw but it didn't stop me feeling like I had just rolled off a conveyor belt with all the different staff handling me! (saturday girl washed my hair, stylist to cut, then junior to dry, stylist back to check and different junior to pay and book next appointment!). (Think I know why my clients like coming to me at my little home salon now!)

Thanks again for taking the time to respond. :hug:

 

[jotommo]

i wouldn't like it!
tony and guy have colour specialist, cutting specialist and so on so they must do it!
i on the other hand can do the whole job lol x

 

[persianista]

Personally I would rather do the whole thing from start to finish. I prefer my own colouring to anyone elses!! Even root tints! (how control freaky is that!!)
On a serious note, you were miffed about being shunted off to someone else for your blow dry, it tells us hair geeks how clients really react. Interestingly you kept quiet at the time, so the stylist and salon owner have no idea that the whizzer idea of getting the junior to blow dry didn't go down so well.

 

[minky]

He did give it a quick check at the end btw but it didn't stop me feeling like I had just rolled off a conveyor belt with all the different staff handling me!
:hug:

Hi, well I am glad he checked it over for you , also a conveyer belt is excactly how I see it too ,
I too agree its far better to have the whole service done by the actual named person who you booked it with

 

[bombini]

i wouldn't like it!
tony and guy have colour specialist, cutting specialist and so on so they must do it!
i on the other hand can do the whole job lol x

I have my hair coloured at toni and guy and in the last 7 years or so Ive never had my hair blow dryed by the colourist always been a junior blast dry it (FOC) or had to pay an extra £20 upwards for a stylist to blow dry I usually end up leaving with it half wet as im desperate to get back to the car before the ticket expires !

I used to have my hair cut there and it was always, always blow dryed by whoever did the cut even if it was the owner.

I would say next time you go (or call them prior to your appointment) that although the blow dry that you received was nice you much prefer the original stylists method.

 

[shedunlop]

I stopped using salons because of this, I got myself an excellent mobile who is just the best at cutting. She had worked on cruise ships and came back to get married.

I think it is just rude to pass a client around but it seems to be getting more and more common. One of my friends who had paid top money to have the owner of a top salon here had to wait 2 hours for him to turn up. Once he did he was so far behind he rang a friend from a local salon, shampoo and set type of place, no offence meant, and then tried to charge her the same amount as she would have paid to have him. Backfired a bit though as this little girl did such a good job she changed to the salon the girl had been borrowed from!