Coupon & Hair Challenges

Finding a great hair stylist that listens to you, knows your hair and has a similar style to your own is tough.  In my life, I have loved two stylists: one back in Grimshaw (who is probably no longer very current) and Megan in Red Deer. I found Megan six years ago and we had many lovely hair styles during those years (and a few flops looking back). While I enjoyed our time together, I was looking forward to a fresh relationship with someone local here in Leduc.  I still cherish Megan as a friend, but we were running out of hair ideas together...plus I didn't want a three hour round trip commute every time I needed a trim.

Tyler had bought a coupon book for Leduc & area businesses and it expires April 1. I was feeling in a real funk about my hair so decided to use the "free cut" coupon as a way to test out a new stylist. I asked her to keep my length in the front, clean up the back (I like an inverted bob which is short in the back and longer in the front) and was thinking about some bangs so asked for a semi-bang.  Well she cut AND styled my hair in 15 minutes.  That is not very long. I often don't like the way someone styles my hair so though I didn't like the way it looked I thought I could fix it by de-poufing it when I got home (a.k.a. straightening iron).  At home, I discovered she basically did the opposite of what I asked: too long and bulky in the back, too short in the front. My hair will grow back, but unfortunately for the stylist, she blew it and I won't be going back to her. As I stared at my botched cut and my 2 inches of graying roots I decided to use a box dye of brown.  A few hours later my cut still sucked and though I didn't have gray anymore (woo hoo!), my hair still looked bland.

I decided to go to a more trendy salon in town and get some streaks and see if they could fix my cut - no coupon this time.  Apparently I wasn't specific enough when I said streaks (I prefer more chunks of color than an all over look). Though it still looks better than my drab brown. She was able to somewhat fix my cut by thinning out the bulkiness and making it less round (though still too round for my tastes). She also gave me some real bangs as I opted to try those. Again, she styled it way unlike me - and she was a young thing. But I came home looking like a Grandma.  So I went into the bathroom again, straightened it, cut my bangs a little shorter and came out looking halfway decent. It's sad that I had 2 cuts and came out still unsatisfied but hopefully I'll fare better next time. I'll definitely go back to the same salon but I might try to get into a different stylist, one I was recommended to by another Mommy (who's hair I like).

The other coupon fiasco is one I had for a free manicure, coincidently at the same place as my first haircut. This was after I had my hair fixed so I conveniently wore a hat & I don't think she noticed - if she did, she didn't let on. The nail lady was different than the stylist so I thought I'd give her a shot. While she did take a little more time for me and I didn't feel rushed, the paint job was pretty pathetic.  Especially considering she's suppose to be a professional.  She missed the edges of my nails, only did one THIN coat, and it chipped pretty quickly after. She seemed nice enough but the whole salon had a negative energy that I didn't enjoy.  I'm not one to really go to get my nails painted but I do like to get pedicures sometimes and I wouldn't go there for that. Not a very relaxing atmosphere.