Even the most heinous haircut seems to at least start with hope and a smile. But then comes the moment when excitement turns to dread. You know something is wrong, and you want to speak up, scream, run! But you don’t, or can’t, or won’t. You feel invisibly chained to the stylist’s chair as the nightmare continues on auto-pilot, until it’s finally over. Why put yourself through the tress torture?
Here, we learn from curlies who endured the most common (yet disastrous) salon snafus. Find out what they learned from their mane mistakes—and how they made a curly comeback.
Salon Snafu: You emerge with the dreaded pyramid.
Like many curlies, Susan Rizk has long been on the receiving end of nightmarish haircuts. “My hair has been teased and blow-dried upside down,” says Rizk of Salem, New Hampshire.
Her worst curl-crushing cut unfolded at an upscale salon five summers ago. Although she told the stylist that she had no interest in looking like a poodle, her curls were sheared into a poofy pyramid that “made my round face look rounder,” Rizk says. Shocked and speechless, she left in tears.
Looking back, Rizk doesn’t recall any red flags that would have warned her of the disastrous ’do. The salon was even highly recommended by her sister, although she has a “borderline straight” texture. (I can hear you now: “There’s the red flag!”)
Lesson Learned: Rizk is now “extremely specific” with stylists about what she wants, and offers a thorough disclaimer before the first snip. “I’ve had bad experiences in the past. I just want to shape my curls,” Rizk tells them now. “I don’t want pyramid hair, and please don’t cut more than a few millimeters off the longest layers.”
Silver Lining: She eventually found a stylist who is “curl-friendly,” who doesn’t suggest blowouts or ask if she wants to “smooth” her hair. “That term is so irritating,” says Rizk, noting that her new stylist is a good listener and provides a great cut. As for styling? Well, that’s a different story. “I feel like curls are very picky about how you can style them, and what works for you doesn’t work for me, not even a little bit,” she says, “(But) as long as I get a good cut, I’m happy.”
Salon Snafu: You fall for a bait and switch.
Back in April, Sherri K. of Newark, California, thought she found a stylist who knew how to cut curly hair. After all, she just needed a trim.
“He said he understood the concept of the Deva cut (the Devachan Salon method of tailoring a dry cut based on individual curls) ... and he would cut my hair dry,” she says.
