Trainee Hairdressing Advice

WonkyGlasses

So my friend is training to be a hairdresser, she’s in her second year. She knows the basics of cutting and coloring etc. so a girl she knows from her area whos hair she has cut many times asked my friend to go to her house to cut her hair (she got new extensions a month ago and wanted them to look more natural and blended) so my friend went to cut her hair the other day. Now I’m not sure exactly what happened but she said that the client had very thick hair and only got a half head of extensions so her natural thick bra strap length hair was coming through the extensions which were down to her bum. My friend said she had to cut up the extensions about two inches to make them blend a bit better and she said she made the client aware by placing a comb against her back and showing her where her new length would be and the client agreed so she cut the hair and the client was a bit worried about the length so my friend (very stupidly) took a picture of the clients length on the clients phone as she had it in her hand at the time and showed her where her length was and the client said okay so my friend asked the client if there was anything else she wanted her to do and if she was happy and the client said yes so she took the €10 that this client usually gives her and the client hugged her and thanked her and she left. About an hour later the client texted her saying that she’s heartbroken over her new length and that her hair is ruined and it’s too short and my friend apologized for the clients unhappiness and told her that all she can do is offer her the €10 back as the hair cannot be reattached and my friend also stated that she asked her client was she happy with her hair before she left and that she had said she was and she also explained to the client has she has let her know in advance how much she was cutting off her hair and that the client was okay with that and she also stated that she showed the client the picture she took of the back of her hair and the client didn’t complain so my friend very politely explained to the client that there isn’t much she can do now. Her client proceeded to insist that my friend take liability and responsibility for the fact that the client isn’t happy and even went as far to say that she contacted the salon that applied her extensions and they informed her that the salon that my friend works for are now accountable for this and that my friends salon need to apply new extensions to her hair free of charge. My friend explained to the client that as she cut her hair at the clients home and not in the salon that the salon cannot and will not be held responsible for her actions. She then proceeded to send my friend pictures of her hair that my friend is swearing to god is not the way she left this client, the picture my friend took and showed the client was a straight and even haircut that the client was happy enough with and now she has received pictures of an very uneven and very choppy shamble of haircut that her client is now saying my friend completed on her hair. My friend as a trainee is very scared and upset as she doesn’t know how to handle this situation as she’s not a qualified hairdresser. I personally am convinced that the client took scissors to her own head to try and get free extensions but my friend isn’t convinced and now she’s doubting her work and is very unsure of how to proceed and as the picture of the after cut was taken on the clients phone, my friend has no evidence of the cut she took before she left the house. Any advice people? Personally I think because she knew my friend is a trainee she took a risk with her hair that she needs to just take it as a loss and move on but my friend is convinced she’s going to try and take it further and she’s terrified.

LilacNails

What a painful he said/she said situation.

The only thing that jumped out to me was the pictures that the client took, that shows the hair "choppy and uneven" They could be compared with the pictures your friend took?

It's a balls they are on her phone but if ye could get both pictures and compare.... It might even show the time in the "details" Of the picture....

Tell your friend not to delete any messages and write down as much of the consultation she can remember in case this does go further... It will be some kind of back up.

Maybe she could bring this up in her salon and give her side of events. I wonder might this client be known as bit of a pain in the hole?

It's a hard one to solve, hard to prove who's right and who's wrong, my advice is what I would do.

WonkyGlasses

Yeah that’s where she’s stuck now because the client has the picture that my friend took and the picture that the client took later and sent to her so she can’t even prove that she didn’t leave her hair like that. It’s a very confusing situation and she’s very anxious and upset because she doesn’t know how to make it right as she’s only a trainee and she did the client at the clients home, like if she had done the client in her workplace then they could have resolved the matter but she said she will speak to her boss when she is working next and explain the situation and ask for his advice but she’s afraid to bring it up to him also as she doesn’t want him to think that she screwed up something that she’s very certain she didn’t. Like she knows she didn’t leave the clients hair this way but she also can’t understand why the client would cut her own hair but I reckon she put it in the clients head about a full head of hair extensions when she told the client that she should have gotten a full head instead of a half head and now the client is saying my friends salon has to give her a FULL head of hair extensions so I think she put an idea in her head that she might get a better head of extensions from my friend it she complains.

That's a horrible situation for your friend, I think she should just stop communicating with that person now as there is no more she can say about it and hope that it will just be dropped. I'm sure anyone who knows about hair will know exactly what happened and see that the woman is just trying to get a freebie from the salon, it's a horrible thing to do to a young girl , hope it works out for her and doesn't go any further.

WonkyGlasses

Thank you so much, yeah she sent her a message telling her that there is nothing she can do besides give her a refund and advise her to go to a professional salon to get it fixed but the client was being very persistent in telling her that it’s her responsibility and she has to do something about because her hair is destroyed and whats worse is my friend feels very sad for this client because she feels like the client trusted her with her hair and she let her down but I’ve seen her work, she cuts her mother, sister, sisters friends, niece and me and my sons hair and she has another client that she takes care of with very similar hair to this client and she did a perfect job so she’s struggling to understand if she did mess this up but honestly I think the client saw an opportunity in knowing that my friend is still training and is trying to pull a fast one, her family and I have advised her to cease all communication so after the last message she sent, one more message was sent from her but she has not opened it and no more has been said so hopefully that’s the end of it.

meeeeh

There are two separate problems. The client will be laughed out of the salon and they certainly won't do extensions for free because one of their trainees did a nixer in their own time. as far as salon is concerned she is not their customer.

The other problem is the salon and how they view their employees doing haircuts for cash when salon has to pay taxes and cover insurance and other costs. They might not be too annoyed or they could see it as her poaching their clients and unfairly competing with them. So she might want to think things through how to approach it with the salon. And for god's sake if your friend decides to do nixers then she should at least learn to charge enough to cover her travel cost. Risking whole pile of hassle for 10 Euro is naive.

WonkyGlasses

Yeah we all told her that the client cannot go far with this so she needs to calm down, also the salon she works in is an hour away in a different county and she commutes and they’re a very laid back salon when it comes to doing clients from home as long as it’s not being done in the salon area/town as that would be seen as competition then. We told her many times that she needs to be charging more than her fuel cost but she feels that because she’s only starting out that she shouldn’t charge over €10 for work that she’s not fully qualified for but the client apparently only lives 10 mins away from her so she wouldn’t have charged a fuel cost but she does charge more for other services such as colouring etc. but in this instance she’s happy she only charged so little. She’s a very quiet and shy girl and she would be partial to letting people walk all over her but she’ll grow out of that when she qualifies and realizes her worth hopefully.

MinnieMinx

Sorry, but your friend is very silly doing any hair outside the salon without being fully qualified and insured.

It doesn’t matter if she charges peanuts, if she accidentally nips someone’s ear, she’s liable. That’s not a good way to start your career.

She needs to draw a line under doing hair outside of the salon and when she is qualified, start charging full price. Deal chasing clients who only want to pay bargain basement prices ALWAYS cause trouble.

Febreeze

I've a couple of things here....

Your friend is doing nixers basically. Which by all rights, she can do and if it helps her practice her work, fair play to her. Bearing in mind, she's not trainined properly and is still in training so she shouldn't be charging BUT I won't disagree when clients offer to give money as it's their way of saying thank you. I've done this myself. A friend who was training, odd wash and cut and blow dry and I'll throw €20 and everyone is happy. I'm not expecting miracles but if someone is training, then you get what you're given basically.

The client however....

Knew what they were doing. I'm not going to lie and say it was your friends fault. The client knew exactly what their intentions were and for reasons, I don't know as when a hair is cut, you can't magically glue it back together so I've no idea what the client wanted exactly. Your friend went through the exact steps. Informing her client of what was going to be done. Shown photos of what it would look like. There's not much she could of done. I've a niggling feeling that someone commented on the clients hair and maybe it was negative and the client wanted someone to blame. Naturally. But I mean for a €10 cut that she was delighted with when all was said and done and now she isn't happy? Then proceeds to show photos of it being choppy... Me thinks client had intentions of causing something.

My advice to your friend is to keep all text, videos, photos etc but don't reply! If she already replied apologising, she's admitting fault. If she replied stating to go to the salon themselves and have a word then she needs to inform her manager exactly the procedures she took when doing clients hair, what happened after etc BUT if it was outside of the salon, I'm sure the manager won't get involved in that argument but will probably try and help fix the hair but again, the client will most likely be told tough and will most likely end up forking more than €10 to fix something that sounds like wasn't your friends fault.

Again, this is all part and parcel of nixers. You have to be cautious at all times. My friend even used to take photos of before and after and show the client, not posting online just informing the client. Before a cut or colour (or both) she would have a statement (a little sort of agreement) to say she is training and is practicing and her manager signed their name to show they allow their staff members to practice but aren't liable for any wrong doings which I taught was brilliant. The trainer is staff and the client knows exactly what's going on. Safe to say she has never had any problems bar the one or two trying to say they will pay her another day (that's a different story).

This is a learning lesson for your friend, not a negative experience. You can have clients you've had for years but always be cautious. Your friend should make it known that she's training but professional.

MinnieMinx

Febreeze wrote: »

...Before a cut or colour (or both) she would have a statement (a little sort of agreement) to say she is training and is practicing and her manager signed their name to show they allow their staff members to practice but aren't liable for any wrong doings which I taught was brilliant.

... Your friend should make it known that she's training but professional.

Wow, that’s probably the most stupid and unprofessional thing that a salon manager could have done. What on earth were they thinking? Fine to state that the person is still training but not to say they’re not liable as that’s simply untrue.

Legally, the trainee hairdresser will ALWAYS be liable for any mistakes they make on a client regardless of any silly note written by their manager Or even if the client doesn’t pay for the service, that’s still not a get out clause.

If the trainee causes harm to the client from cutting or colouring, it’s irrelevant whether they were charging for the service. They were clearly acting in the capacity of a hairdresser, not the lay person in the street. To think otherwise is extremely naive.

You can purchase Professional indemnity insurance as a trainee but you wouldn’t be covered if you hadn’t passed the required element if the training, such as cutting units, beforehand.

WonkyGlasses

Yeah it’s a terrible situation because she was telling me that in work she had classes once a week where she’d have a bring a model into the salon and do whatever service she wanted to upskill and she always did a cut and the models were always happy. She doesn’t advertise herself as doing nixers, people just hear through word of mouth that she’s training and they ask her for a service and she wouldn’t even have a price list, she told me that this girl just always gives her €10 and that the first time she ever did the girls hair that she didn’t want to charge as she was still training but the girls mother insisted she take something for her effort so she just always gave her €10 and it’s so sad because I sat with her the other day and she showed me an album full of cuts she has done, all perfectly done and this has just knocked her down completely and she doesn’t want to do hair outside of work while she’s training anymore and with covid happening her classes every week have been stopped so she was really enjoying the practice but she’s very heartbroken and confused because she’s just so sure that she didn’t mess this up. It’s so confusing. Thank you so much for your reply.