Stories from the hairdresser's, and other odd tales

[Hermit]

And just what the heck is wrong with looking like Santa?

I think I would need a pillow to get the total effect, but that is just my opinion!

 

[Bestwifeever]

Except for the very infrequent high end stylist, most of the people who have cut my hair have had a financial sob story. I think it’s a tip-encouraging ploy. Interestingly, DH’s barbers never play that.

 

[MarieIG]

Real men don't color their hair. Period.

That's what my DH would say. But then, I'm not a real man!

 

[Scrapr]

LOL, somehow, I'm guessing "the guys" don't hear anything about this!

I am going to laugh to myself about this all day Monday as I work Blue Collar. I'm going to imagine every one of them with a smock and looking over the hair to make sure it's just right

 

[FUEGO]

Someone needs to start a "$hit my Dental Hygienist says". That's a situation where you're usually on the receiving end of 30 minutes of conversation without the ability to do more than vaguely nod and maybe mumble a response.

 

[MRG]

DW allowed a young lady free booth rental to do nails for her in her salon. It was spring and DW needed help with the tanning beds, the gal would get free rent for a few months to start her nail career.

The gal was fresh out of school and didn't have nail clients. Based on her first week of calls she had plenty of other clients. They were not interested getting their nails done! She was asked to leave.

 

[Moemg]

My last three hair dressers were loaded . Lots of travel,expensive homes , nice cars , etc..Then one day I figured it out you book clients for 45 minutes overlapping .The clients pay $100 and up depending on what you talk them into .An easy $1,000 per day .Why did I waste my time on college ?

 

[Sunset]

DW allowed a young lady free booth rental to do nails for her in her salon. It was spring and DW needed help with the tanning beds, the gal would get free rent for a few months to start her nail career.

The gal was fresh out of school and didn't have nail clients. Based on her first week of calls she had plenty of other clients. They were not interested getting their nails done! She was asked to leave.

Did she leave a forwarding address ??

 

[Amethyst]

Our favorite hairdresser at Hair Cuttery left to join a blowout bar in Bethesda (affluent D.C. suburb). Obviously she did it to make more money...blowouts take far less time than a careful haircut, and the tips are apparently better.

A proper blowout makes thin, fine hair look thicker and bouncier; thus it is worth the money to some women, particularly long-haired women. Mrs. Trump and the Duchess of Cambridge sport "blowout" hairstyles.

Last week I drove through an area with far more splendid demographics than my suburb and saw my first "Blowout Bar". You pay them to do nothing but get your hair wet, then style it, probably with a few lotions and potions to help it keep its shape. I'm sure there are women who go there before any occasion where they want to look impeccably groomed.

Too rich for my blood. I did, however, buy a $1.50 sample pack of blue-tinted mousse at Great Clips which I plan to use at Thanksgiving. Sometimes you gotta walk on the wild side.

 

[braumeister]

Last week I drove through an area with far more splendid demographics than my suburb and saw my first "Blowout Bar". You pay them to do nothing but get your hair wet, then style it, probably with a few lotions and potions to help it keep its shape. I'm sure there are women who go there before any occasion where they want to look impeccably groomed.

In some places, like NYC, there are many women who go there every morning on the way to work. There was a piece about it in the WSJ last year.

 

[atmsmshr]

Bar code house

There is a beach mansion in our town know as the "Bar Code House."

A cool $17 million to build 18 years ago.

A hairdresser married the older engineer who invented and patented the ubiquitous bar code.

Good for her.

 

[Aerides]

Our favorite hairdresser at Hair Cuttery left to join a blowout bar in Bethesda (affluent D.C. suburb). Obviously she did it to make more money...blowouts take far less time than a careful haircut, and the tips are apparently better.

A proper blowout makes thin, fine hair look thicker and bouncier; thus it is worth the money to some women, particularly long-haired women. Mrs. Trump and the Duchess of Cambridge sport "blowout" hairstyles.

This was exactly what I was thinking for the weekly visits. Many offer this service at regular salons as well as the Blow Outs. A large number of women with more unruly hair often do this as well. It makes crazy curvy frizzy hair also look sleek and nice.

I only go every 4 months, and pay the far-pricier way for straightening. When a woman is unhappy with her hair, she is unhappy, period!

My stylist is doing quite well financially lol

 

[athena53]

Well, my own hair stories are a bit pathetic. I am still working, about 70 hours a week, and I hate spending time I don't have sitting in the chair.

So, it started with me grabbing scissors at work, running to the ladies room when my bangs got in my eyes and cutting them myself. Then it progressed to me buying coloring in a box, and, ahem, walking on the treadmill while coloring my hair. I call it multitasking.

I cut my own hair for years before going to the stylist I mentioned earlier; I also cut DH's hair the last 10 or so years of his life. He didn't have much and I got good with the electric clippers. Now I go to Great Clips, which costs less than Shear Madness, the place where I just took my 3-year old granddaughter. Without the tip, her cut was $18 and they cut her hair while she sat in a pink Jeep and watched videos from "Frozen". She was in and out in 10 minutes. I'd like to have a percentage of the gross on that business.

 

[ERD50]

There is a beach mansion in our town know as the "Bar Code House."

A cool $17 million to build 18 years ago.

A hairdresser married the older engineer who invented and patented the ubiquitous bar code.

Good for her.

I don't see how the inventor could have gotten rich from inventing the bar code.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Norman_Joseph_Woodland

He applied for the patent in 1949, it was granted in 1952, and he was working for IBM (and apparently the patent became IBM property?), and IBM "sold the patent to Philco in 1952 for $15,000, which sold it to RCA later in 1952. RCA went on to attempt to develop commercial applications through the 1960s until the patent expired in 1969."

So the patent expired long before it came into common use. Maybe he got rich from other things? Wiki didn't have much info on that.

-ERD50

 

[FUEGO]

I don't see how the inventor could have gotten rich from inventing the bar code.

No, no, no. He invented the Bar Code. It's the Code that says you must tip the bartender at least a buck in exchange for him spending the 2 seconds removing the bottlecap from your beer. The Fraternal Union of Bartenders collects 20% of those tips and sends them to the Bar Code guy. And if it's a $10 premium beer at a fancy place, the tip is more like $2 each.

That 20 to 40 cents per beer to Bar Code guy doesn't seem like much but it buys an okay mansion on the beach.

 

[FreeBear]

DW goes to a hairdresser about once a week and often comes home with stories of what we think is downright strange financial behavior. The hairdresser lives with her hubby in a mobile home (dunno if single or doublewide) and had complained last winter of getting $600-$700/month electric bills for the heat pump. That seems a tad high to me (is there a hole in the roof?) even given that mobile homes tend to skimp on insulation so as to increase interior space. So anyway, last spring they found a wood stove at auction and installed that. Good thing too, since now the heat pump has died entirely.

Wow! DW goes only a few times a year, but the bill is sobering. I tag along for a quick trim. Most of the time, I look like a hippie musician since I really "should" go every 6 weeks or so.

DW's hairdresser lives in a nice McMansion. Maybe if she lived in a junky trailer, then DW and I could also afford to go every week or two!

 

[FreeBear]

My hairdresser told me this crazy unbelievable tale about saving up $1MM+ then leaving his engineering career at age 33. What a loser.

Funny that you mentioned this...

DW's hair dresser probably tells this tale of some loser saving some $$ and leaving his engineering career in his 40's to live a life of leisure. Actually, this guy would probably be very jealous of your guy, since he was late to the party by more than a decade!

 

[Walt34]

Wow! DW goes only a few times a year, but the bill is sobering. I tag along for a quick trim. Most of the time, I look like a hippie musician since I really "should" go every 6 weeks or so.

I have no idea what she pays, but she is generally as value-oriented (i.e., cheap) as I am and is frugal almost everywhere else so it's one of those things I just don't think about. Everyone has their splurges, I suppose this is one of hers.

If she didn't go she would be most unhappy and as every guy knows who has been married for more than 20 minutes that is never a good thing.

 

[aja8888]

My DW says her trips to the hair and nail salons are because she is doing it to be more attractive to me. How can a guy argue with that?

 

[Bestwifeever]

I have no idea what she pays, but she is generally as value-oriented (i.e., cheap) as I am and is frugal almost everywhere else so it's one of those things I just don't think about. Everyone has their splurges, I suppose this is one of hers.

If she didn't go she would be most unhappy and as every guy knows who has been married for more than 20 minutes that is never a good thing.

I wonder if she is getting a weekly manicure, not actually having her hair done that often? Mani pedis are a small extravagance for lots of women.

 

[Meadbh]

I wonder if she is getting a weekly manicure, not actually having her hair done that often? Mani pedis are a small extravagance for lots of women.

Some of my golfing friends seem to have a new artistic design on their nails every week! It amuses me to look at them, but having regular manicures doesn’t appeal to me in the least. As for pedicures, I’m way too ticklish! I bought a foot spa about 20 years ago and haven’t had a pedicure since.

 

[HFWR]

It’s so much cheaper being a guy...

 

[calico1597]

I've never heard of Crea Clip, looks interesting on Amazon. I have medium length layered hair.......mmmmm

 

[Ally]

Being an introvert, I hate the 3x a year that I get highlights which take about 3 hours. I love my hair stylist, but that's a lot of time spent talking to someone. I always try and think of questions to prompt her to talk for a long time, so I don't have to keep talking. Last time, I asked her what were the craziest experiences and customers she's had. Well, she spent nearly the whole time telling me about the funniest things! We were both laughing so much, she could hardly do my hair. I can't believe all the crazy stories.

The one I loved most was a customer who wanted a slight change to her hairstyle and so the hairdresser did the changes and thought it looked nice. The next day, the lady came back with terrible thick, uneven bangs cut, which had not been there when she left the day before. She wanted the hairdresser to fix her hair free, because she blamed the bangs on the hairdresser! She said they showed up after she slept on the new style overnight. [emoji23]

 

[RunningBum]

I cut my own hair for a little while, because there's so little and it seems like a waste of money. But it's not easy to get the back straight, the neck shaved, and around the ears done right. I also don't like dealing with the cleanup, and if I'm not careful I get it down my shirt and I'm itchy until I give up and change it. And I just like the feeling of getting my hair cut and neck shaved with a blade.
Apparently there's a place down in the valley for all the local gossip but I haven't tried it yet since it seems more hairdresser than barber shop. I like a place in the nearby town, 3 ladies, and now a guy, in an old fashioned barber shop type setup. Best place I went to was when I lived near Austin, the guy had clippers with a little vacuum attached, so little or no loose hair. Plus it was an easy walk from my house.


I can't think of any good stories. Worst experience I had is when I went to a new place, a single chair place, and I think the 2nd time the woman's young son (~8) was there, had been sick so missed school. By afternoon he was feeling better and very restless, and wanted her to shut down early so they could go home. He kept turning the open sign over to closed and just being an annoying brat who didn't listen to anything she told him to do. I never went back. It didn't stay open too long.