Ombre` Hair Catastrophe!

We have ALL been there. Every single one of us. Yes even hairdressers.

The bad haircut, the bad color job, the bad perm...or we have maybe even seen all of them at once. The 80's were rough on everyone no worries. 

Poor Hannah like many of us found her hair-spiration from Pinterest and took her hairdresser the picture of what she wanted.

A simple ombre` that is so super in style right now. 

As a hairdresser I can see both sides of this story. 

From a sitting in the chair perspective it can be hard at times to convey what you want, but as they say a picture is worth a thousand words, and here is Hannah's:

The Original

http://longhairstyleshowto.com/ombre/

This would be your "run of the mill" ombre`. I was just telling my husband how sick of this style I am. Not that I am sick of seeing it, but that I am tired of doing it on clients. There was one week last year where I probably did 6. Ombre` is everywhere!!!

Well Hannah took her picture in and this is what she walked out with, brace yourselves!

The Pinstrosity

Ouch. Hannah honey I am so sorry! As a hairdresser it literally pains me to see this!

"So the story with my hair... My husband surprised me with a trip to the hairdresser for Valentines. I had only had my hair highlighted a couple times in the past. I've gone to the same hairdresser for years but mainly for cuts. I had several pictures of the ombré color from Pinterest that I showed her. She said she had never seen it before or done it but that she could make my hair look like the picture. I should have known better! Lol so after about 3 hours of lots of bleaching, coloring and sitting under the hair dryer I left with the crazy color that I sent you. After she worked so hard I initially didn't have the heart to tell her I hated it. Plus I had to get home to my 3 small children. I did call her and go back for her to "fix" it but it really didn't look any better. At that point I was about ready to cut off my hair but a friend told me to call her hairdresser who is great with color. He let me come in on a Friday night and worked on my hair for 5 hours!! Until 11 at night! It was a mess but he was able to give me a very subtle, natural looking ombré. If I EVER decide to color my hair again I will definitely only go to someone very experienced and ask all the questions you mentioned in your post. What a nightmare! I was able to keep a sense of humor because its just HAIR  but it did look pretty bad! I don't think the original hair dresser was trying to do anything awful. I just think she did not know how to give me the look I was wanting. Hopefully my hair will NEVER be experimented on again!"

Like I said before I can see both sides of this spectrum having both been a victim of a bad hair do, and being a hairdresser. I will be perfectly honest with a client if I don't know how to do what they want, this saves me heartache, the client heartache and bad business when it doesn't turn out well afterwards!

I feel for this hairdresser. Now I don't know Hannah's hair history, or what products or method were used here so I really can't say what all went on here. But I would hope this hairdresser would be concerned that Hannah wasn't happy with the result.

 With that all being said Hannah did get her hair fixed, and I am sure it was a tedious and expensive process. Here is her after the after picture:

Success! It's not like the original picture, but it does look beautiful and natural. 

Tips to avoid this happening to you!

-Make sure the hairdresser you go to knows what they are doing! Ask for pictures of their work, get friend and family opinions!  Shop around. Go check out the salon, start with a manicure or a blow dry style just to see how they act with clients, what the atmosphere is like. Don't be afraid to be picky! I am extremely picky with who I let do my hair!!

-Be 100% honest about your hair history to your hairdresser. The chemicals we use on hair can do unpredictable things if you have some other chemical hiding in there somewhere that we don't have previous knowledge about! Manic Panic? Henna? Hydrogen Peroxide ( like the medical kind)? I have seen them all hiding under other colors! "Oops, I forgot I did that a few months ago...sorry" is the usual reply explanation.

Surprise!! I am under all this other color and I will haunt you in your dreams!

-Take in lots of examples, sometimes someone will come in and say I want this picture! And sometimes that just isn't going to be feasible  If Kim Kardashian came into the salon with a picture of Gwen Steffani and said "That's what I want, I only brought $100 dollars and I have yoga at 3, make it happen." I would probably laugh at her, some things are just unrealistic.

-Ask lots of questions, Will this severely damage my hair? Should I maybe go with a darker/lighter color? How much will this cost? How long will this take? What products should I use? What is the maintenance of this color/cut/style like? How often do I need to come in? etc.

I am happy that Hannah got everything fixed. Let this be a lesson to all of us. Do your homework!!

Happy Wednesday Pinstrosipeeps! 

Stay tuned for us to announce the winner of The Pinstrosiversary Challenge this afternoon!