'AITA for asking a salon school to stop my service and leaving before it was finished after 8 hours?'
"AITA for asking a salon school to stop my service and leaving before it was finished after 8 hours?"
I booked a full foil hair appointment at a cosmetology school with a “top” stylist for 1pm - this means they are experienced and almost graduating therefore you pay a little more for your service. 9 days before my appointment, they called and told me to come in at 11 AM instead because my service would take longer.
When I arrived, I was told my stylist was close to “graduating,” and an assistant who was not Phase 2 would be doing my hair with her supervision. The Phase 2 stylist helped at first, but would leave for hours, I assumed lunch and then around 3pm she left for a mock interview and never came back.
By 5pm (6hrs in), all the day students had left or I had assumed. There was no instructor present for a long time, and I wasn’t introduced to the night instructor nor them to me and she wasn’t given any explanation of what had already been done. I asked my stylist much longer it would take as I have kids and was told about two more hours.
Two hours later, a little over half of my hair was unfinished still wet while the stylist was trying to blow it out. This is where I lost it. At 7:15pm, the Phase 2 stylist walked back in and was shocked I was still there, saying she thought I had been done.
She then sat another student next to me and started working on that person’s hair instead of helping finish mine. There were also issues during the service, including inconsistent instructor supervision.
At one point, foils were removed without proper instruction to deactivate the product, leaving them resting on my hair long enough that my hair began bleeding. At that point, I became upset and asked to stop the service.
I started crying because I hate confrontation. I tipped the stylists in cash and left. The night instructor seemed annoyed and didn’t really engage with me. I feel bad about how emotional I got and how abruptly I left, but I also feel like the situation was extremely unprofessional and poorly managed.
I do want to say that the stylist was very sweet and a rockstar for taking on my project without hesitation. She was definitely set up to fail for my appointment. AITA for asking them to stop the service and walking out without paying?
Here’s what people had to say to OP:
You should be making them pay to have your hair corrected. Actually insane on their part. I thought there was always supposed to be an instructor at the school salons??
NTA, and please leave a review. With this level of incompetence, you are not the first person that has happened to nor will you be the last.
NTA but you shouldn't have tipped.
Honestly this. Went to a school to get my hair cut for over a year and they refused tips each services as their students are not professionals until graduation. Felt wrong but after a few months of inconsistent stylists I understood why.
I would call and insist on talking to someone in charge because what happened to you needs to never happen again! Sometimes, 1-star online reviews will get a reaction if a phone call fails.
Even the most intricate foil/color shouldn’t take longer than 4 hours if you have LONG hair. You should have left around 3:00 at the latest (at the same time the student who was working on you did). NTA for anything you did. Shame on them.
starstruck_glimmer (OP)
Being a school there are many processes that go into it so I was trusting this process. But even the night instructor was trying to gaslight me by saying this is a school and I should expect to be there for a while when doing my hair.
Yes it’s very long, I’m 5 7 and it’s almost to my bellybutton. It’s also completely healthy and natural dirty blonde so didn’t have to work through color or dark pigments.
"The Phase 2 stylist helped at first, but would leave for hours, I assumed lunch and then around 3pm she left for a mock interview and never came back."
Are you saying you were just left without service for hours? And you didn't say anything then? Or was the stylist that was graduating soon working on you at that point? Also if you didn't pay, why would you tip, or did you pay...? This makes no sense.
starstruck_glimmer (OP)
So I was placed on a students schedule who was busy. So she chose another student to “assist” her. The stylist I was booked with would then chaperone or instruct assistant. The only thing she helped on was half of my hairs foils, so 1/2 looks different than the other 1/2 due to the two different stylists and different experience levels they were at.
Original stylist would often leave assistant alone and not return for long periods of time and then after 3pm I didn’t see her until 7:15pm. I tipped the assistant $20 and didn’t pay for the $195 I was quoted for service.
NTA. I get that confrontation is hard, but you may want to try counseling or journaling or something to work on self-esteem and standing up for yourself. This was insanely bad service.
I think you’re cutting the stylist way too much slack, she should have been going to get more help if the situation was that over her head. Even if she’s not full trained as stylist, an adult should generally show better decision-making than was happening there. The amount of time you were there is absolutely insane. I can’t believe you tipped her.