Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, July 14, 1994 TAG: 9408050008
SECTION: EXTRA PAGE: 1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: KATHLEEN WILSON STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
The woman across from her nods understandingly, her brow furrowed in concern.
``Are you having a bad day? Are you and your boyfriend not getting along? Was the visit with your mother a real disaster? Has it been a rough week at work? Didn't you get the promotion? Are we really talking divorce?''
The woman in the chair tearily nods her head.
``Then let's talk about it,'' the other woman says, patting her on the shoulder reassuringly.
She hasn't come to talk to her best friend.
And, no, she's not talking with a therapist, either.
Well, not really.
The two aren't even really talking face-to-face. One woman is behind the other, meeting eyes in a mirror.
They're at a beauty salon. And the first woman has just spit out one of several demands that turn a hair stylist into a Marianne Williamson or Leo Buscaglia.
CUT IT ALL OFF! I'M TIRED OF IT! I WANT IT SHORT! MAKE ME A REDHEAD! DO SOMETHING! I WANT IT REALLY RED!
``When someone comes in here and asks to make a drastic change, we do a LOT of talking before we'd even consider picking up the scissors,'' said Caroline Sodre, a hair stylist at Nancy's in Salem.
Hair stylists will tell you people have a lot of different ideas of what ``short'' is. And about how many different variations of ``red'' there can be.
You'd even be surprised, they tell you, by how many different ideas people have of how much an inch really is.
Most hairdressers will admit they do a lot more talking - ``consulting,'' they call it - than actual cutting or coloring. But in reality, that's the most important part of the job.
A good stylist will know when their clients aren't happy before they leave the shop.
``They'll be quiet. Expressionless,'' said Michelle Lawrence from Nancy's. ``But unless you ask them what's wrong, they're not going to tell you.''
It's an odd relationship between a woman and her hairdresser. If she went to get her car serviced, got home and it wasn't running, you bet your bottom dollar a woman would pick up the phone and call the auto mechanic.
If she took a dress to the tailor and got home and it still just wasn't right, she'd get right on the phone and take the dress back.
But when it comes to hair...
Most smile and say, ``I like it'' - even when they're horrified - then get into the car, start crying and once they get home run right for the shower to wash it out and begin damage control.
``That's the biggest mistake a client can make,'' said Lawrence. If you're not happy with your hair, don't hop to another hair stylist. It takes time for any hair dresser to get to know your hair.
``And anything is fixable. But if I don't know you're miserable, I can't fix it. And about 90 percent of what happens in a salon is fixable.''
Part of Sodre's service includes a follow-up call to clients who have had their hair colored or permed just to see if they're happy or getting used to it.
``If they're not, I get them back in here.''
Most women - even hair stylists - are all too willing to share their worst hair nightmares.
On a recent morning, Alysaun Goebel recalled 10th-grade homecoming, while Kim Baker of Tangles in the Roanoke City Market Building cut her hair.
``I told the woman I wanted a wedge,'' she said, referring to the cut that Dorothy Hamill made popular back in the '70s.
``I walked out with hair that looked like that,'' said Alysaun, pointing to Kim's 9-year old son standing nearby, sporting your basic all-American, hockey or baseball-playing boy haircut.
Dorothy Hamill continues to cause women across America big problems.
Sharon Carter of A Kut Above in Salem talked about a girl who walked in recently and asked for a wedge haircut. Carter asked if she knew what a wedge haircut was and pulled out a picture.
``No!'' cried the girl. ``Don't do that! Thank you so much!''
``All she wanted was a shorter bob,'' said Carter. ``But she thought that was what a wedge was.''
Andrea Patrick once decided she wanted to be a redhead.
``I trusted my hairdresser and went home, and my 14-year-old son looked at me and said, `That's not for real, is it?' and all of his friends started laughing,'' she recalled. ``My son said, `It's gonna wash out, isn't it?'''
Most hair disaster dramas revolve around perms, color and drastic cuts.
JoAnn Berkey had a really bad experience in Blacksburg. Within days of getting her long, straight black hair permed, the hair that framed her face just quit curling. The perm had washed out.
So she went back and asked the salon to fix it.
``I looked like a dog,'' she recalled, rolling her eyes. ``Instead of perming the hair around my face, they just permed my bangs.''
Berkey had what looked like a black Brillo pad perched on top of her forehead.
``I told her I wasn't going to pay her unless she fixed it the way I asked, and she told me she'd done exactly what I asked and that if I didn't pay her, she'd sue me,'' said Berkey.
She paid the $15, not being able to imagine showing her Brillo pad to a judge.
But many woman admit their hair nightmares were their own doing.
A woman named Deborah with coal black hair once insisted that she wanted it frosted.
``It'd looked the same for five years, and I wanted something different,'' she said. ``[My hairdresser] told me and told me, `No! No! You won't like it!'''
Deborah didn't listen.
``I looked like Lily Munster. Thought for sure my husband was going to kill me. Took four weeks before we could do anything to fix it.''
Area hair stylists agree that communication is the key to anyone getting what she wants when she goes to a beauty salon.
Surprisingly, though, they don't place any of that responsibility on the client.
``It's our job to ask the questions,'' said Kim of Tangles. ``If you walk in somewhere to get your hair done and the stylist doesn't ask you any questions about your lifestyle or notice if you've got natural wave or ask if your hair dries out in the summer, then you're probably in trouble.''
Kim also revealed another clue that you're in big trouble in a beauty salon.
``If the stylist picks up a curling iron ...''
Curling-iron sets are outdated.
``If a stylist picks up a curling iron, it's usually because she's trying to cover up some sort of mistake. A hole of some sort.''
They've got curling irons over at Nancy's - and just about every other salon in town, too.
``But the only time I pick up the curling iron is if the client asks me to, usually to curl bangs or something,'' said Michelle Lawrence of Nancy's. ``If I can't style hair by picking up a dryer and a brush then I haven't been properly trained.''
``Some women come in looking like Martha Raye and ask to leave looking like Cindy Crawford,'' said Michael (``just Michael'') also of Nancy's.
``But it really isn't that they expect to look like Cindy. They'd like to feel like they think she does. Good about herself.''
Still, what can Michael do with someone who looks like Martha Raye so she leaves even feeling like Cindy Crawford?
``My clients just don't get out of this chair until they're happy with themselves.''
Sharon at A Kut Above in Salem is slightly more blunt.
``Once a woman with [thin hair] came in and said she wanted a Farrah Fawcett,'' said Sharon. ``So I held up my comb and asked her what she thought it looked like.''
It looked like a comb, said the client.
``That's right,'' said Sharon. ``It's not a magic wand.''
by CNB