I am thankful for all people who go to a cosmetology school to get their hair done. Without them, cosmetology students wouldn’t be able to get the practice they desperately need before going out into a real salon. However, when you come into a school you must sign a waiver that says the student is not responsible for any mistakes made. We’re well trained, but we’re not professionals. Not everyone realizes this. Some of these clients are brutal. Take it from me. I went to cosmetology school, and there, I met all sorts of awful clients.
Whether it’s the Elderly Perfectionists, the Know It Alls, or the Cinderella Wannabees, these clients don’t care who you are, they’ll eat you up and spit you out alive. The Elderly Perfectionists are the women who come in once a week to get a roller set. Most of them have been coming in for at least fifteen years and get it set the same way every single time. A roller set is the first, and by far the easiest, service you learn in cosmetology school. It’s impossible to mess it up. But as simple as it is, these little old ladies truly believe that if they don’t walk you through every step, that you will mess up.
A perfect example of the Elderly Perfectionist is a woman named Irene who came in every Thursday at 10 a. m. sharp. I would bring her over to my chair, drape her and ask her what she would like done today. She’d reply with, “Well, I’m getting a roller, but not just any roller set! Let me show you. ” She would proceed to take my comb off my station and comb it how she wanted it rolled. Surprise, surprise, it was exactly like every other roller set I’ve ever done. To the sink we went. That’s where I would start shampoo her head and she would interrupt to tell me, “Don’t forget the cream rinse! “Of course Irene. ” I’d reply with a smile on my face, knowing that conditioner is obviously part of the process. I’d bring her back to my station where she would once again tell me exactly how to roll her hair. When I finished, I would bring her over to the dryer where she insisted she needed to sit under the dryer for 35 minutes, when in reality she only had 50 hairs on her head and would dry in about ten minutes. But of course, she liked it “extra dry. ” I’d say the worst clients are the Know it Alls.
The Know It All clients are the ones who come in for cut and colors regularly so they believe that they know just as much as we do, if not more. And let me tell you, they couldn’t be more wrong. Let’s take Diane for example. She’d come in every four weeks for a simple trim and color retouch. I’d bring her over to my chair, grab her color card and confirm that she wanted the same color and cut as last time. She’d say she liked everything last time so I would just carry on with applying her color. “Aren’t you supposed to start back here? ” she says with a snotty tone.
I’d tell her in the nicest way possible that everyone applies color differently but I like to start in the front to ensure her grays were fully covered. After the 35 minute process time was up, I would start to bring her over to the sink when she’d ask, “Do you think we should wait longer? ” I’d ask her again if she was happy with the color last time, which I already knew the answer to because she just told me. “So there’s really no reason to wait any longer then,” I’d tell her. I’d get her over to the sink and start rinsing her head. “Shouldn’t the water be cold when you’re rinsing color off? she snipes again. I am so irked at this point! “Well it shouldn’t be too warm but there’s no reason for it to be cold unless you prefer it that way. ” I bring her back over to my station to do the haircut. I make sure she wants just about a half inch off. She agrees. I start cutting. “Shouldn’t you section my hair before you cut it? ” Now I am fuming. I take a deep breath and count to three. I put a big fake smile on my face and explain to her that once you become comfortable with cutting you tend to stop using the clips; they’re like training wheels.
And since I’m about 900 hours into my 1000 hour program, I’m quite comfortable. The most optimistic of the awful clients are the Cinderella Wannabees. These are the girls who come into the school expecting us to be able to transform their heads into something that I’m not even sure a professional could do, never mind a student. Our instructors would tell them that we’re really not experienced enough and that we could try something similar, but much less extreme. They’ll usually pout about it, but they know that they don’t want to go to a salon and pay $200+ on it.
So they’ll take a seat in the waiting room. A perfect example of this was a girl named Jess who came in. She had long, dark, gorgeous hair and brought in a picture of a platinum blonde A-line bob (very short). I mean sure, this is possible, but none of us had nearly enough experience nor did our school have any of the products that were necessary to complete that. We told her that we could do the cut exactly how she wanted but we’d only be able to highlights and that it wouldn’t be as blonde as she wanted. When it was done it looked great.
But of course, it wasn’t nearly as blonde as she wanted it. If you ever decide to go into a cosmetology school to get your hair done, chances are you won’t regret it. Your hair will look great and you won’t have to dig into your kid’s college fund to pay for it. However, as hard as it sounds, you must have trust in the student doing it. If you are nervous and show it, chances are you’re making the student even more nervous than they already are. If you can’t handle it, you should just go to the salon. You don’t want to be that client that a hairdresser remembers for the rest of their lives!
