My Hair Nightmare

WARNING, WARNING! THIS IS A SUPER LONG POST. I SHOULD HAVE GIVEN IT CHAPTERS. GRAB A SODA AND SOME POPCORN, YOU'LL BE HERE A WHILE.

In my post about our last weekend I mentioned that I had my hair done at Toni and Guy. I also mentioned that the experience was one for a different post. So here is that post.

First off I will say that I do not recommend Toni and Guy to anyone. Unless you go and pay top dollar to have their highest level colorist or stylist work on you. But NEVER get someone from one of the lower levels to do your hair. I have been to T&G twice now and the first time wasn't a terrible experience but I guess I just would expect more from this high dollar salon that raves about their artists and what they can do for your hair.

I have a friend that does my hair and I love her. She is so good at what she does. But she's been pretty busy lately and wasn't able to get me in to see her. *TANGENT: If you know me then you know that when I make up my mind that my hair needs to be cut/colored, I need immediate action or I go crazy. I'm just very impatient and obsessive about my hair like that. Honestly the reason I am this way is because I don't feel very good about myself, and having my hair look nice helps me feel prettier. END OF TANGENT!* My highlights had grown out quite a bit and I was looking pretty nasty not to mention that my hair was getting close to shoulder length and was unhealthy and thin. (I don't look good at all with long hair, my hair does yucky things when it is past my chin.)

So while Nathan and I were eating lunch on Saturday I told him that I would do just about anything to get my hair done that day. He told me to just call a place and see if I could get in somewhere. The only place I knew of at Northpark was T&G. I called them and they told me they could get me in at 2:45. Great! So I went on over there and had to wait til 3 before Saul came out to get me for my highlights. He took me back and looked at my hair and made sure I just needed partial highlights. I told him that was correct. He went to mix up the bleach and came back. NEARLY 2 HOURS LATER he had my hair in foils. It was insane, I usually have all of my highlights and cut done in the same amount of time when I go to my other friend. This was crazy! He stuck me under the dryer for maybe 20 minutes and then told me I was done. Reese came to get me then to shampoo my hair. She would also be the girl that would cut it. She took me over to the sink and I sat down. While she took out the foils she asked me if I wanted the EMT...which translated to some hair conditioning treatment. I told her sure, I knew my hair would be damaged from the bleach anyway. She left to go get the stuff when another girl named Sarah came over. Sarah said she was going to put a toner on my hair. I know a thing or two about color and bleach on hair and I know that when you use a toner after bleaching it is because the color is too yellow or brassy. So by this point I was starting to get nervous. Sarah put the toner on and massaged it into my hair for a loooooong time. I think she was wishing that the nightmare that were my locks would go away if she rubbed hard enough. But we weren't that lucky. She told me she would leave it on for 4 minutes but she came back after 2 to rinse it out. Then Reese came back to put the EMT stuff on me. She also told me that would sit for 4 minutes but she came back after about a minute and a half to rinse it out.

After all this came the haircut. When I sat down in the chair and Reese took off the towel I was shocked to see what my PARTIAL HIGHLIGHTS had turned into. My mouth fell open but I was speechless. Reese had a look of panic in her eye as she casually asked me what was wrong. I told her in a flat tone that my hair--ALL of the top of my hair-- was way too yellow and brassy. She said that it was because it was wet and it would look different after it dried. I guess Reese thought I had just shown up at Northpark fresh from the planet mars or something. I'm no dummy. I knew I was in big trouble. She had been asking me what I wanted my haircut to look like and I told her that I basically wanted what I already had (even though it was a little overgrown): a stacked bob that angled down so it was a little longer in the front and a couple of long layers on the side instead of lots of short ones. She asked me different questions about this several times which should have been my red flag that she didn't know what I was talking about even though she said she did. When she went to get her manager to ask me if I wanted the same haircut as she had I should have just gotten up and run out. But I didn't. I guess I really am a dummy. Reese what a terribly sweet girl from North Dakota and cute as a button but just didn't cut my hair the way I had intended. Instead of stacking it up the back of my head she stacked it out so when I look at it in the back for some reason I am reminded of Dorothy Hamill and her fabulous 80's mushroom do. The back of my head feels like a mushroom. None of this probably makes sense to you but it all does in my strange brain. Anyway, the cut wasn't the worst part of the whole ordeal and my hair grows fast so I counted my blessings. I still had to deal with the color on my head.

I was nearly in tears and Nathan had come back from walking around to see the disaster and was not happy. When I finally left the hair chair to head up to the front, I found Nathan giving the colorist a nice chewing out. I felt embarrassed by Nathan's display but happy that he was sticking up for me. I went to the front desk to pay and they asked me how everything went. I told them that the haircut was fine but that the highlights were not what I had wanted. Nathan had joined me now and was letting the front desk people have it. "HIGHLIGHTS he said! WHAT HIGHLIGHTS? HER WHOLE HEAD IS YELLOW!" I stopped him though before we got kicked out! They also played dumb, like the way I looked was even close to acceptable, and asked me what was wrong. I was so glad Nathan was there because he had me turn around so that they could see a big dark circle on the back of my head that didn't take the bleach at all! OH MY GOSH can you believe I might have walked out of there with a big dark circle on my head?!?!? The manager called the top colorist (the Art Director or something) to the front. When that girl, Laura Beth, came up to look at my head, she agreed that it was not very pretty (FINALLY someone who can be honest and say it looked like crap!) and told me that I could come back the next day to have it fixed. I had asked them how long I had to wait before I just threw dark brown over my whole head to wipe out this brassy trailer-park blonde mess. Laura Beth said I didn't have to wait at all. She again told me that I could come in the next day to see Saul, the same dude that messed up my hair in the first place! I told her thanks but no thanks. Then she told me it would be Tuesday before I could get in to see anyone higher up than him. After some persuasion from my too-awesome husband, Laura Beth took me back right on the spot and covered up the mess with dark brown. HALLELUJAH!!! Nearly 5 HOURS and $137 later plus a nice tip to Laura Beth for her help, we left that place NEVER to return!

Once I got home I took another gander at the back of my head which is when I discovered the mushroom in the back and I also noticed that the dark brown didn't come out as dark as I'd have liked since it was covering up such a light color. I have made an appointment for 2 weeks with my regular hair stylist, to do some damage control. My hair grows so fast that it should be ready for a trim by then and I'll get her to color my hair again. And I will never, as long as I live, cheat on my regular hair stylist. It just isn't worth it.

THE END.