Florence.... When you said "my Dr. was in trouble, I thought you meant YOUR doctor who operated on you.....for a second I thought he'd messed up your hip or something...lol. That photo is really amazing, and the sheer size and beauty of that rose is a testament to the love you have obviously shown it over the years. Even giving it a haircut is a sign of a good mama....(and poppa, in your hubby's case). Your husband is a good man to fearlessly take on such a monster rose...sounds like my hubby. Tonight we were outside with a flashlight planting out some suckers of Scotch roses....our neighbors don't even question things like this anymore....they know we're weird about roses. The ground was rocks on top of rocks and DH wrestled some major boulders and roots out of the ground, breaking two shovels in the process. Now that I see how little cuttings grow in your yard, now I know how our "Pompom" rose will one day look! Celeste

It’s November 2018. I haven’t had my haircut since my last bad haircut from about 2 or 3 years ago. I really have never had a good haircut. Ever. I have never walked out of a salon appointment and said, “Wow!”, I look and feel fabulous! Never. Honestly, I’ve had so many bad haircuts as a woman, bad hair color jobs. My last bad haircut escapade was today at a curly hair specific salon in my area. I have frizzy hair at times, with some annoying fly always, and a slight wave. I asked for help with this. They said they could help. But they did nothing to help alleviate those issues. I brought pictures, asked what they thought would look best with my hair texture, density, diameter, face shape, lifestyle and the owner pointed to one said style. So I trusted her. I told them about my bad hair cut experiences and I was worried about getting another bad haircut. I told the trainee and the owner who is supposed to be the most experienced and best at what she does there. I told them what I did not want, what looked terrible on me in the past, where I wanted my bangs to fall (a swoop like choppy bang that was longer and fell below my eyebrows but not poking me in my eyes. You know half way between my brows and eyes. And not make them thin looking. And to give me layers that would give me the look of width at my cheekbones, to shorten the appearance of my long thin face. I got instead faux layers, that didn’t add width at all to my face, short thin wispy bangs that are a bit above my brows. She cut them way too short and said that she would do what I asked and have them fall longer between my brows and eyes. She suggested I get a straight across bang, cuz she thought it would look better(the owner said this, and did my bangs). She did not do what she said. She did the opposite of what I told her that I wanted. It’s called Anti-Listening. Or horrible customer service. Let’s just give our customers the opposite of what the asked for! She gave me the worst short ugly bangs that I told them not to give me. I hate my hair/haircut. I look so ugly now. I’m so upset that this happened to me again. I’ve never been to this salon before and got the trainee who they told me had 13 years as a stylist in a salon. Which was a lie. She just recently graduated from hair school and has only been in the field for a year and a half. I was definitely deceived. I would’ve never gone to her, if I knew this. She did basic stuff and the owner came over quite a bit telling her how to do this and that. I was wondering why a experienced stylist would need help with the most basic of cutting techniques.... and supposedly she was trained thoroughly in the techniques of the curly salon, as the urged me, that I could have utter confidence her abilities, still not knowing that she was inexperienced as a stylist. It was only until after I was getting my haircut by her, the trainee, that she wasn’t experienced really. I was like, Oh Shirt! WTF. Then, you would think the owner would be an awesome stylist and not butcher someone’s hair, let alone bangs. But she butchered my bangs. I look terrible. Then they wanted to take my picture of before and after. The before was fine. But the after pics my stylist took, were the most unflattering pics, that made my nose and eyes look, unflattering. I would not agree to them putting my face up on their site. Just the back of my hair. Ugh. How am I going to go out in public? They said to me, wow you look great! But they never asked me how I liked my hair. I was not happy. I felt depressed and was in shock. Then it came time to pay. $40. Then the tip. I hate the whole tip issue. I hate tipping. It’s stupid. It’s forced guilt. I was confused. They had the labels above the tips like this... Good(15%,), Great(20%), (Wow!(30 or 40%), Custom etc. I wasn’t sure what to do. I was afraid to do no tip, even in spite of my bad haircut experience. So I picked (Good-15%). The desk attendant asked me how I liked my cut, I just said the non committal thing, “I don’t know, I have to let it sink in”. I really wanted to say, I look like s**t. Thanks for making me want to cover my head with a paper bag! And the owner came up to me and asked if I remembered all the instructions about how to style my hair. I said yeah, the best I can remember. But nothing in asking how satisfied I was. She really didn’t care. And my stylist just said a lame goodbye and scoffed me off, like dandruff and moved onto her next client. Whatever. Then their bathroom was dimly lit, I could barely see in there and there wa nothing to dry my hands on, and barely any soap. This is supposed to be an upscale salon. And the bathroom was just bad. My face now looks longer and thinner than it did with my longer hair and not wider in the least. In whom can I trust with my hair? I think the reality is, No One. No matter what they say, no matter what you tell them, what pictures you bring, no matter what you emphatically tell them no to do to you, or do, they will do whatever they dang well please. And I don’t believe you can ever know until the damage has been done, what you will ultimately get in the end. It’s really unbelievable. What’s wrong with this world? I am so not wanting to step into another salon ever again, when you just can’t trust any stylist to give you a good cut/style. I honestly don’t know what to do. The only thing I can think of is just not get my haircut again. Cuz it just doesn’t end well. Sad.

Yesterday. The place I usually go just reopened a couple of days ago. They used to accept walk-ins, but are now appointments only. I had an appointment for 1:30 and I showed up 10 minutes early, and waited outside after checking in. Everyone in the store was wearing a mask. The stylist was running late, finishing the previous customer, she came out and said that both I and another customer who was waiting there had been scheduled for the same time. I allowed him to go first and went to shop for shoes which I was planning on doing after the haircut. I returned after that just as that man was paying. I was ushered to the seat, and sat there about 10 more minutes because something was wrong with the computer/register. The stylist finally started, and she was mostly using clippers rather than scissors. At times while she was proceeding I had doubts because it seemed she was cutting it shorter than I had asked, but I was happy at least that it was no longer going to flop in my eyes or blow around in the wind making me look like Einstein. The end result is quite a bit shorter than I usually get, but I like the way it looks, and really like the way it feels, and this way if everything has to close again, I'll be fine for longer.

@petalique that first pic you shared is similar to my cut. Longish layers and bangs and I just recently had the neckline cut shorter. I had more of a bob before that. My hair is thick and pretty wavy although I wouldn't say curly. It looks curlier after I add product and I let it dry almost all the way on it's on, then use the dryer to "fluff". I love my stylist, have been going to her for years!! I do think too short bangs are a bit aging to us. My MIL has a short do, and it's a nice cut if she would only let her bangs grow! Her hair is pretty straight but the short layered cut she has looks really good other than not only are her bangs too short, but she takes a round brush and curls them under. I remember seeing Jane Fonda the other day and thinking her hair looked good, but I cannot remember how it was cut!