How lovely to find a wonderful, honest person who is talented in her profession as well! I am sure the hairdresser is very fortunate to have you for a client as well. Being appreciated makes one's life so much better.

Congratulations on finding a stylist that you like. I've been following my stylist from salon to salon. This last move, though, puts her 45 minutes away from me in a salon with limited parking. Luckily, I can get away with going every 8 weeks, but I'm tempted to find a new stylist closer to me.

“sometimes it takes a while for the cut to come into itself” - Yes! It takes my naturally frizzy/curly hair at least 2 weeks to “settle in” after a haircut. Glad to hear that a stylist acknowledges this phenomenon!

Fun, I used to travel into the city. I paid dearly for those cuts and colors but to be honest it wasn't worth the trip. It just got old after a while and I needed local.

This stylist was the one to give me my current look and it's something that others can "follow" although each put their own spin.

Delilah, yes, so true. I am amazed that she thinks I will be able to skip a haircut.

Leela, yes I am usually loyal when one works. Sometimes though, they no longer give you the right results.

Rita, thanks!

It takes 1 week to 10 days until I like my hair. That fact needs to be planned for a special event. Hair is work people.

Eld, glad you found someone honest and talented. The ones that I like end up moving to another salon or other cities. I’ve made it a point to be over the top with my tips and to get their cell number so that I can follow them to their new location/salon if it’s in my city. (Sometimes salons don’t want to tell you where a stylist went, just tha they don’t work there anymore.)

Isn't it great to find someone like that! One of the people I miss most from the city I used to live in is my stylist. Finally found someone here (my neighbor had started going to her after finishing cancer treatment, and looked fabulous).

For the first time, my hair doesn't have to "grow in" to the style. Just like at the dentist, I schedule my next cut as I leave, for 8 weeks out. About 8 weeks later, I'll do my hair one morning and think it's just not holding its style today. Then I look at the calendar and sure enough, hair appointment for the next day. I don't know how she does it. I've been seeing her for about 15 years now and am so glad she's younger than I am, hopefully she will outlive me lol.

When we first met, she told me she'd been a stylist for 15 years. I told her that was impossible, she looked like she was 28. Well, she was a little more than 30, but she'd known all her life she wanted to do hair. In high school she did high school in the morning and beautician's school in the afternoon, got her license at the same time she graduated from high school, and went to work the next day. She's absolutely delightful.

Boy did you get lucky!!! Finding someone who is both affordable and knows what they’re doing can be like looking for a needle in a haystack. It took me 12 years and countless bad cuts to find the right person and shop for me; the bonus is that she’s only 3 minutes from my house.

Yes, I have been up and down all the salons in my town, have tried a few of my friends' places as well, so I had nothing left but to just do a walk in!

So happy for you in finding a good one. It’s hard. I have been with mine for more years than I can remember. And I dread the day when I will need to find another. I keep my eye on a few of the younger stylists in the same salon, and there are a couple I would try if mine retires.

How fortunate to find someone on a fluke! And you like her to boot! What a keeper!

I asked my Nextdoor people for recommendations for my very curly hair. Out of about 14 replies, I think 8 were for this woman. She also has very curly hair, so score #1. She cut my hair the first time, and said she really only needed to see me 3-4 times a year. I go about every two months for a bang trim, which she does for free. Last time I had a cut, she said 6 months works fine! Twice a year makes me happy.

She is obviously so busy that she can afford to recommend only two haircuts! Wow.

I agree with Leela that hair stylists are some of the most undervalued professionals around. I almost posted a while back about my experience trying to find a new stylist.

I've gone to the same stylist "B" for years, I love the way she cuts my hair and I never have any settling in period. I followed her from the Aveda salon where I first met her to her own salon when she opened it. But B's new salon uses Redken products which I despise. Thinking it might be time to find someone else, I talked to the Aveda girl who does my waxing - she always has great hair. I made an appointment with the girl she recommended at the Aveda salon - and it was a disaster. I was horrified. All I could think was that I looked like I had a mullet. I had to slink back to B and tell her what I had done.

I have a hair appointment tonight, the second one after the 'disaster cut' and hopefully the damage will finally be completely corrected & no longer noticeable. B knows I struggle with the scent of the Redken products and she uses as little as possible, but just being there for 2 hours can be an ordeal for me and I normally leave with nausea and / or a headache. I can smell the Redken shampoo on my hair for 2 or 3 days even with daily washings.

So I'm back where I started except now I'm even more hesitant to try another stylist. I'll probably stick with B for now, even if it means I have to deal with the repercussions - - maybe I can wear a gas mask while I'm there (haha). How vain is that.

Smhinnb, I don't know of your coloring o=r if it would work, but a friend of mine does her own hair with henna rather than using all those chemicals. I don't think I could stand them either. I'm trying to grey gracefully, but I'm a blonde and that gives me an advantage there. Hope it's enough.

The last time I had to find a new stylist, I finally made an appointment at a place in the mall. It would normally be on the list of last places I would consider, but I'd had awful cuts at good salons and knew a friend of my sons who had gone there before she moved away. Even though it wouldn't be the same person, I figured it was worth a shot.

The guy who greeted me the top half of his hair died bright cherry red and spiked up, the sides cut short and naturally dark. I reminded myself that my best hairstylists had mostly been men, and somewhat flamboyant at that. I figured this was going to be really good or really bad. We went shorter and I have been really happy with it. The only downside is that I have to get it cut more often. The cost has gone up 50% in the time he's been cutting my hair, so we had a talk about that. It's all set by the corporation that owns the place and he's now locked in for another 18-24 months at which point it would go up $5. He used to live in town but has moved out this way -- I hope that means he will at least stay in the area because I really don't want to have to go through that hunt again.

I've pretty much usually had friends (who were stylists) cut my hair, but lately I've been doing it myself, with two mirrors and right and left handed scissors (I trained myself to be ambidextrous for this).

One friend who is a stylist in West Hollywood told me that certain clients of his would pay by check and then put a stop payment on the check on their way home, giving him the excuse that their husbands didn't like the haircut, whereas in reality, the husbands did not like the price. Therefore, he stopped taking checks from these clients and would only accept cash from them. They kept returning to him and paid cash, but perhaps this was easier for them to conceal from their husbands. I mention this because I thought it might help explain why some stylists only accept cash.

That's outrageous Lars! I can't believe the chutzpah of some people. Sad that any professional would have to put up with that kind of foolishness.

I used to go into DC (Georgetown)-had a great guy there, but they turned my outdoor parking lot by the river into a park which is delightful, but makes parking a pain in the neck since I hate parking in garages. So back to Alexandria. My guy is okay and I have gone to him for years now, but my hair never really does much except fall straight. Fine and thin, too, especially now that I am in my mid-60s. Sigh. He does much better with my DIL and her mom who have incredibly thing and nicely curly hair.

That's awful that someone would stop payment on the check and then keep coming back. I hope the stylists got paid on the stopped check before they took cash for another cut. Don't they think their husbands would see the activity on the account and ask about it? I know I would have a stopped check fee as well as the missing check.

I used to work with someone who never wanted to get attached to any one stylist for fear they would give her a bad cut and then she wouldn't want to go back, but she'd feel guilty about that, so better to just go to whomever. She didn't want to have to go through "the breakup." She also had really nice hair, not super-duper thick but curly in the best way possible, ringlets almost (not like my wavy frizziness.) Maybe forgiving hair is easier to just say, eh, doesn't matter?

Don't they think their husbands would see the activity on the account and ask about it?

All of those clients were from the Persian part of Brentwood, and it's possible that the husbands knew that the wives were scamming someone and approved of that. Most Persians are not like that, but there are some who are, and my friend told me that they had very difficult (i.e. coarse) hair to cut and that it would dull his scissors, but he may have been exaggerating. BTW, my dentist (who is Persian) hates the show Shahs of Sunset, as she thinks it gives Persians a bad reputation. I briefly worked for a Persian furniture company that had a warehouse in Watts. It was an experience that I would not want to repeat. I would often have lunch in Compton.