Scissor Happy Hairdressers

Smiling hair stylist with scissors — Photo: Shutterstock

"Scissor Happy" Hairdressers, Unhappy Customers

Sitting in a stylish new hair salon where the cost of a haircut alone is equal to the cost of a cut and highlights at a less high-end hairdresser, Annie felt confident that the "trim" she wanted would result in just a trim and help her achieve healthy, vibrant, and most importantly, "long" hair.

"How much would you like off?" asked the young, stylish hairdresser who had recently graduated from hair college and was eager to impress. "Just the ends, I'm growing it," replied Annie.

45 minutes later, as the hairdresser was blow-drying Annie's hair, her suspicions were confirmed when she gazed into the mirror with horror and saw that well over an inch of her carefully nurtured mid-length locks had been swept away into the dustpan. The hair she had managed to grow just past her shoulders had bounced up to near her collarbone. It was no wonder that Annie felt quite nauseous when she had to pay almost 50 dollars for a haircut she was determined not to end up with.

As if growing hair wasn't tedious and endurance-testing enough, there are "scissor happy" hairdressers who seem intent on delaying the long and arduous process by casually cutting off a precious couple of inches of length, setting their clients back by at least a couple of months. Why is it that hairdressers have an infuriating habit of disregarding our requests regarding how much hair they cut off?

Unskilled Hairdressers

To be fair to hairdressers, when hair is cut while wet, it tends to bounce up dramatically when it dries. However, experienced, well-trained, and educated hairdressers should take this tendency into account and cut off the bare minimum to tidy up the hair.

Hair on the salon floor after a too rigorous cutting session — Photo: Sand555/Getty Images via Canva

Have you ever felt uncomfortable when a hairdresser is bent over you, just inches from your face, meticulously pulling on one side of your hair at the front and then measuring it against the other side? Unconvinced that both sides are the same length, out come the scissors again, and chop off another quarter of an inch to make the hair the same length all the way around. Then the other side is shorter, so further cutting is required on the other side, and so on.

Another explanation for the cause of "scissor-happy" hairdressers is their inability to achieve evenly cut hair the first time around. It can often take two or even three attempts to achieve the same length hair all around, during which hair is cut above and beyond what the client had originally requested. Again, this is usually a trait of less experienced and less skilled hairdressers and should be overcome by experience and training.

Arrogant Hairdressers

But perhaps the most infuriating reason behind "scissor-happy" hairdressers is when a hairdresser thinks they know what is best for their clients. Dismayed by the odd split end or breakage occurring a couple of inches above the ends, some hairdressers feel compelled to eradicate those damaged cuticles with their scissors. "It'll be much healthier," they say in their minds as they glimpse their client's uneasy reflection in the mirror.

While scissor slip-ups leading to unintentional asymmetrical cuts and oblivion to our hair's tendency to "bounce up" when it is dry are traits of less experienced and unskilled hairdressers, the "we know what's best, therefore have the facility to cut off more hair than requested" theory is usually a characteristic of experienced, highly skilled, and well-educated hairdressers, where unfortunately, the price of a cut is usually a "cut above" other salons.

In this sense, customers are left extremely angry, as not only did the hairdresser ignore their requests, but they also paid a lot of money to be upset and dissatisfied.

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