What is your experience at the salon?

[RoxMonster]

After spending four hours at the salon today, I am curious how common my experience is or if I should look for a new stylist. I have gone to my stylist for 8 years now. I like how he does my hair and color 90% of the time (there have been a few times the color turned out not how I had wanted, but I know he will also re-do it for me for free, so that's really all you can ask for). But the length of time I am there gets longer every time I go.

I did get a lot done today--overall color to hide my greys, then lightening the highlights, then doing blue on my highlights. I have no problem being there a long time when I am getting worked on, but there are a few issues:
I think he overbooks and also is typically running behind. I usually get in the chair around 30 min after my state appt. time.

Because he has a lot of us there at once, I may wait about 20 min in between treatments while he does somebody else's hair. I think this is probably pretty common and is not really the biggest issue.

I think the biggest problem is he likes to talk way too much! He will stand there holding the curling iron in his hand but not actually doing hair because he's engrossed in a conversation. Today as the woman who left before me was checking out, they stood and talked about liposuction for like 10 min after he was done checking her out and I was waiting to get my hair dried...just stuff like that. BUT I like how he does my hair and he is inexpensive. Once when he was on vacation, I went to get my hair colored at Ulta and holy shit! It was almost twice as much money. (Today my color, highlights, and cut were $80 before tip).

TL;DR: How much time are you usually at the salon? Would you overlook the chattiness and constantly running behind or would you start shopping around? There isn't really a polite way to tell him "Stop talking! This is why you are late!"

ETA: He owns his own salon but it is just him working there. He doesn't have any employees who could ring people up or wash hair. It's only him.

[shopgirl07]

The running behind and stopping what he’s doing to talk would bother me.

I was just at the salon for 4 hours myself for a cut, color and balayage but my stylist always is on time. We chat the whole time but she never stops what she’s doing to chat.

[killercupcake]

My original hair stylist would take no less than 3 hours and I got VERY little done. Usually just a color and trim. She would book 3 people at a time and talk and talk and talk. Eventually, one of my good friends started sharing the original stylist’s room and I started going to my friend instead. I could deal with the long ass wait anymore. And it didn’t help that the original stylist was flaky as hell.

Even if I’m getting something more extensive than a cut, I’m in and out in like 2 hours now, MAX. Most of the time, it’s an hour.

[lemoncupcake]

I was all ready to say you should find a new stylist until you said that all of those services were just $80 - that’s crazy cheap, at least in my area. For saving several hundred dollars each time you get your hair done (I’m imagining every 6-8 weeks?) Id bring a book and coffee and suck it up, unless you think that you could find better service for a similar price.

[tiki]

I don't get my hair colored so of course that makes a huge difference, but I got a "quick" haircut appointment with my regular stylist recently because it's all she had in her schedule, and it turned out to only be 15 minutes! She asked what I wanted, shampooed my hair, did the cut, and dried my hair in that time. It sort of blew my mind. I do like her haircuts, but the fact that her normal appointments are well under and hour also keeps me going back.

[janegold]

It usually takes about 3.5 hrs for a cut, highlights and blowdry for me. The wasting time while I was waiting would really annoy me. But then, I pay 5x as much, so I would probably be willing to overlook a lot for a good deal, if I was otherwise happy with the service.

[jackie011]

I’m curious if this is more of a Saturday issue? I would bet the experience would be vastly different on a Wednesday afternoon/evening.

I stopped going to my stylist a few years ago when she snuck in all sorts of charges I didn’t understand and I just felt like I couldn’t trust her. (I’d go in expecting to pay $XX and then somehow it was $XXX and it never really added up) She worked out of one of those salon suite places where you just rented the room, so there really weren’t other people around to distract her (or posted prices!). I’m going to start going to a different salon with my next hair cut (I’ve been going to random walk-in places lately) and I think I’d like to go on a Saturday, but I also don’t want to waste prime weekend time.

I would be annoyed that I spent extra time there while he was mainly conversing, but I’m not sure I’d leave over this if I was happy overall.

[RoxMonster]

I think it’s just my stylist’s MO rather than a Saturday thing. In the summer when Imnot working I go during the week and it’s the same problem. My DH goes to him for cuts and yesterday morning was there for over an hour for a man’s haircut. I do think Saturdays are even worse.

[RoxMonster]

Like you have all said, the price probably can’t be beat. I will most likely keep going here and just know to not make any plans the rest of the day!

[TR]

I’d put up with a lot for a good cut and specialty color for $80! My visits usually take 2-3 hours depending on if I’m doing highlights or not. My color correction was 4 hours. A lot of that time is spent sitting around processing, not waiting on my stylist. But I pay a lot more.

[pantsparty]

I spend about that amount of time, but I just have a lot of hair, and it's always been that way. And I pay A LOT more.

IDK, I guess it just depends on whether you think your time or money is more valuable in this case.

[venice2007]

For that price I’d wait alll day lol

[bittybomb]

Apr 7, 2018 15:42:37 GMT -5 lemoncupcake said:

I was all ready to say you should find a new stylist until you said that all of those services were just $80 - that’s crazy cheap, at least in my area. For saving several hundred dollars each time you get your hair done (I’m imagining every 6-8 weeks?) Id bring a book and coffee and suck it up, unless you think that you could find better service for a similar price.

Took the words right out of my mouth. That would be several hundred dollars at my place.

[pandorica]

For $80 I would suck it up! My balayage and cut today took 2.5 hours (but was twice your price even with a new client discount).

[underwaterrhymes]

4 hours is nuts - I don’t have that patience.

But for $80 for all of that? I would fucking find the patience.

[Eagles]

Honestly, I'd be pissed. Even at that price. My time is valuable. I pay about the same for highlights/blending/cut before tip and it takes about two and a half hours, max. My root touchup every 5 weeks is about an hour.

[mala]

For $80 I'd totally suck it up. 4 hours is insane, BUT you will never find that price for those services anywhere else. I think it comes down to what your time is worth to you. I'd spend 3 hours in the salon for the same services, so only an hour less, but I'm paying at least double what you are.

I get my hair lightened (full foil, not a full color), glazed, and then blue/fashion colors applied every 24 weeks. Costs me close to $180, including tip, and takes at least 3 hours, sometimes it can take more if we get complicated with the fashion colors, but we usually look at what time we have before we go nuts (and what other apts she has coming in). She does take other clients while I'm processing, which I don't mind.

Every 8 weeks we do a glaze and fashion color. Takes an hour and a half, usually (includes a cut) and costs me up to $120 (I think? Can't remember) including tip.

[blondemoment123]

I usually get all over color, highlights and a cut and I’m there about 3 hours.

My stylist isn’t overly chatty, but can be slow if she’s hung over lol. She also does a great job 90% of the time.

[lostrn]

I usually get cut, color and highlights and it's about 2 hours? Maybe a little longer but my stylist is fast. But $80? I'd deal with taking 4 hours if I only had to spend $80. Where is this magic stylist of yours? Lol

[RoxMonster]

Apr 7, 2018 16:31:30 GMT -5 lostrn said:

I usually get cut, color and highlights and it's about 2 hours? Maybe a little longer but my stylist is fast. But $80? I'd deal with taking 4 hours if I only had to spend $80. Where is this magic stylist of yours? Lol

Central IL

Yeah, I think I will stick with him after hearing how much people spend elsewhere. I'm probably in a MCOL area, but even so, like I said, Ulta would be over $200 for all this stuff (I did really like how the stylist there did my hair, but it's hard to swallow that big of a price difference).

[sagelily]

Apr 7, 2018 15:50:15 GMT -5 RoxMonster said:

Like you have all said, the price probably can’t be beat. I will most likely keep going here and just know to not make any plans the rest of the day!

Do you think if you try to schedule for his last appointment he will be less likely to keep talking if he is trying to wrap up clients and end his day?

I agree with others that it would be frustrating to me but if I was happy with my hair, I would keep going for that price. It took 2 hours and 45 minutes for me to get my base colored, highlights and a cut this week. That was with skipping the blow dry, someone else washing my hair and not even waiting for her to finish with the other client she saw while I sat with base color. I paid a lot more too.

[kadams767]

Oh man. I’d be really irritated about not getting into the chair until 30 minutes after my appointment time. The rest doesn’t sound too bad to me, take away that 30 minutes to start and it’s not that much longer. And for that price, dang! Could you try to book the first appointment of the day? That might speed it up or at least alleviate the running behind schedule bit.

[eb777888]

I left a really talented stylist because she took 4+ hours to cut and highlight my hair. She didn’t double book, she just talked too much. And she only took cash or check, and she could only book in the evening. I eventually parted ways, mainly for the 4 hours for a highlight and cut.

My current stylist, I’ve followed him for the past 9 years. And he’s amazing!! He does double book but I think it’s done well. I’m never at the salon for more than two hours and I think that’s reasonable. And there’s wine so that always helps. But yeah, I’ve left a stylist I loved in your exact position.

[morecoffeeplease]

The $80 sold me for dealing with it. I just had the same done, cut, root color and highlight and it was $200.

[CloudBee]

HOURS at the salon? That sounds like torture to me. I won a GC to a local salon from my son's preschool auction a few weeks ago and went for my first cut the other day. I was there an hour, and all I needed was a trim. The girl took like 20-25 minutes to blow-dry my hair. My hair, which is already stick straight. She separated it into one million sections and dried each strand separately. Or so it seemed. I'm actually not looking forward to going back for my second cut. (I have enough left on the GC for another.)

I usually go to SuperCuts because the thought of spending an extended period of time at the salon makes me cringe. FWIW, I don't color or highlight my hair (it's naturally thin and blonde, so it damages really easily), and I get a straight cut / trim. I like SC because I can walk in and walk out in less than 30 minutes. Including wait time

4 hours would kill me. KILL ME.

[eb777888]

I completely missed the $80!! That’s pretty impressive if you love all of the services. I couldn’t fit that into my schedule, even as a SAHM! I think it’s ridiculous to take four hours, and you have short hair!!

[scout8]

That's so cheap!!

I am usually there for 2 1/2 to 3 hours each time. That involves cut, highlights or keratin, and blowdry/style.

[spedrunner]

I hate getting my hair done so much bc I am impatient, hate sitting, waiting

So I schedule 2 visits one for cut one for color, makes it more bearable

[mrsd2006]

For that price I'd just suck it up. My hairdresser charges $70 for a cut alone. Partial Highlights and a blow dry is $105, two hours.

[laurack]

Well I have two young children that would be with my husband while I’m at the salon .. so this could be seen as a pro for me ... 😄