Getting money back for a dodgy haircut - help!

jf1999

Hi everyone,
my friend is an apprentice hairdresser who is not yet qualified. She operates in a salon but also does styles from her home; although I’m not sure wether she should be doing it from home as she is still an apprentice and I’m not sure wether her insurance would cover her if she isn’t in a salon/under supervision.

Anyway, I went to her house for her to put highlights with foils in my hair, showed her a picture of my desired look and she attempted to replicate that. As she was my friend and she had highlighted my hair before I payed her in advance.

However, the end product was far from what I expected, which she even admitted herself and she stated she would fix it for me for free. 

However, she cancelled on me on a number of occasions for really silly reasons. One day she cancelled because she’d ordered a Chinese takeaway and on another she said she couldn’t fix it because she was drunk. Just to get an idea of how bad my hair was, I was so self conscious of it that I had to wear a hat due to it being so stripey on top and so I wanted it fixed ASAP.

i told her that I would sort it myself as she was so unreliable and I had to keep moving plans to accommodate her cancelling. I asked for a partial refund as I would have to pay to go elsewhere to fix her mistake. 

This did not go down well with her and now she is refusing to to give me any money back. She claims that she offered to fix it for free and I have chose to pay and go  elsewhere and that if it had happened in the salon I wouldn’t have got a refund. 

I really don’t know what to do as I feel I’m owed atleast some money back but I don’t know which routes to go down? I don’t feel like I can ring the salon as it occurred outside her work. On the other hand, as an apprentice, I’m not sure she should be working outside the salon so maybe I should report her? I really need some help please! 

Moneyravingexpert

I’m not sure if this would just have to be something you grin and bear. I don’t mean your hair cut 😣 I mean the lesson learned. If you knew she wasn’t qualified and she was learning... that might be more on you I’m afraid! I think if that were me I’d have been peed off with the cut and colour but then thought what do you expect? Also I’ve had a poor experience in a hairdresser once and they said they’d fix it for free. Why would you want them to fix it when they ruined it? I get it... you may have to swallow this one! 

Pollycat

I'd write it off as a lesson learned.

Which includes

don't pay in advance

don't entrust anything to do with your appearance to someone who isn't trained and supervised

Toothsmith

In the late 80s when I was a student, my sister was an apprentice hairdresser. 
So the combination of the 'learner' aspect, and the styles of the 80s mean that there are several incredibly dodgy photos of me with dodgy haircuts & styles from the time!!!! Although, to be fair, I never paid for them.
Your opening couple of words are "My friend"..... The question here is how good a friend, and do you want to preserve this friendship? How much was she charging? Was it just covering the cost of the products or more?
Your choices seem to be:-
Suck it up, learn a lesson and move on, then you can choose if you stay friends with her or not
Cause her a whole load of trouble, which will certainly end the friendship for good.
Which do you want to do?

pattycake

You knew she wasn’t qualified so you took a chance.  No doubt the cost was less than getting a professional to do it.  Put it down to experience and consider her an ex-friend.  Remember the old saying, the only difference between a bad haircut and a good one is two weeks!

jf1999

The haircut was £50 by the way and she had highlighted it a few times before and done a fine job. This time was a little different however haha 😣 it doesn’t look like there’s much I can do about it I’m just abit shocked at how she’s acted with the whole thing as she was supposed to be my friend 

Grumpy_chap

Nobody can give you better advice on "getting money back on a dodgy haircut" than James Nesbitt - you could look his number up in the Yellow Pages.

BUT, hey, friendship is worth more than a refund of £50 - take solace in the learning experience she has had from it.