Being a hairdresser is the dream job for many people. You get to make your own schedule, do something you enjoy, and meet all sorts of new people all while making them feel beautiful. Sounds, great right?
On the surface, the hairdressing profession certainly sounds pretty great, but as with every job, there can be some not-so-great moments. Between horrible clients and run-ins with poor hygiene, the salon can be an interesting place.
We have 10 stories for you that only a hairdresser could tell. You might even find yourself tipping your hairdresser just a little bit more next time.
Careful though — these might make your scalp itch.
1. “As someone who used to be a hairstylist, please scrub behind your ears! More people than you’d think forget to clean the crease behind their ears and have yellow/white/sometimes green gunk in the fold behind their ears! It’s really nasty and smells.” – pcbzelephant
2. “My hairdresser says she had one lady who brought her kid in for haircuts and the mom never brushed the kid’s hair ever. So my hairdresser had to spend upwards of 45 minutes trying to comb the knots out of a squirming kid’s hair. I think she eventually fired the client because it wasn’t worth the cost of a kid’s haircut to spend the better part of an hour just on combing.” – DiglettUsedFly
3. “My mother was a hairdresser in the 1960s for Vidal Sasson. During the time of the beehive. Customers wouldn’t wash their hair for weeks; they’d just keep spraying it to keep it in place as it was such a complicated do. This meant a LOT of fleas, lice, and on one occasion cockroaches that had to be washed out. For some reason, this never bothered my mother all that much, but hearing about it made sure I never, ever wanted any kind of hands on customer service job.” – LibraryLuLu
4. “Long time ago but I had to wash and cut a teenager that hadn’t washed his hair in what looked like months… After his cut, I tried to wet his hair in the shampoo bowl and the water just ran off his hair because of all the oil buildup. I had seen a lot during my years as a stylist but that was the worst experience.” – bzookee
5. “Bit of a different horror story, but my stylist once had a woman with hair past her butt who wanted to donate everything to Locks of Love. EVERYTHING. This woman with hair down nearly to her thighs says she wants a pixie cut and is donating everything else. The woman sobbed the entire time. Stylist kept asking if it was ok, but the woman was determined to help people with cancer and told her to keep going and to ignore her tears. Other customers kept coming in and probably assumed she was maiming this poor woman.” – PoopsieDoodles
6. “I had a woman come in one day who had hair halfway down her back. She just wanted a trim. I got her shampooed, into my chair and began combing her hair, and noticed a peculiar smell and what looked a bit like dry scalp (but not quite). I looked a bit closer and the ‘flakes’ were actually little translucent nits. Lice eggs. I could see tiny black things.” – pixelmeow
7. “Way back in the day, my mom was a hairdresser. she told me a story once of this guy coming in who had bird poop all over the top/back of his head. Guess he got pooped on and didn’t notice or something.” – skivian
8. “I once had to turn a lady away after she booked in for hair extension removal. The micro-bonded type your stylist should tell you last three months max. Nobody told this lady. They had been in for seven months! There was a chunk of hair about six inches wide that was matted with bits of hair glue (not what we use) poking out. To me, her options were shave it or cut it almost to the scalp. Some ‘hairdressers’ shouldn’t be allowed.” – hinky28
9. “Older ladies that came in for a wash and a waterwave that had a “helmet of hairspray” 4 weeks old was pretty normal.”
10. “A client was getting a permanent and, in the middle of processing, started to have chest pains. We called the paramedics immediately. When they arrived, they wanted to take her to the hospital, but she refused, saying she was not through with her perm yet. We finally convinced her to get in the ambulance, and they took her away. Two weeks later, she called us to say, ‘This is the worst perm I’ve ever had and I want it redone.’ We saved her life, and she was made that we interfered with the timing of her perm!” Anonymous
Please SHARE this with your friends and family.
