Hairdressers have a pretty sweet gig most of the time. They get to do something that they love doing, where they get to chit-chat with customers and make people feel beautiful with fabulous new cuts.
But, as with every job, there are the downsides. For hairdressers, the downside is the occasional unbearable client.
From poor hygiene to infestations to tangles so intense it seems like an animal might live in there, hairdressers see it all. Sometimes, it's nothing a simple shampoo can't fix. But sometimes, it's just downright disgusting — and probably against multiple health codes.
Just reading these 10 stories from Reddit made my scalp itchy. I can't imagine what it must have been like for the hairdressers from these harrowing encounters. This definitely gives me a newfound respect for hairdressers all around the world!
Have you ever sat down next to someone like this at the salon? If I were a hairstylist, I'd have turned these folks away!
1. Clean Your Ears
"As someone who used to be a hairstylist, please scrub behind your ears! More people than you think forget to clean the crease behind their ears and have yellow/white/sometimes green gunk in the fold behind their ears! It's really nasty and smells." — pcbzelephant
2. Take Care of Your Children's Hair
"One time a woman brought her 8-year-old daughter in to get her hair done. The mother [wasn't very nice] but that little girl was the sweetest most polite little girl we've ever had. Unfortunately, it's like the mom never took care of her hair! That poor little girl's hair was so dirty and tangled it took three or four people working on her hair for almost three hours to get it untangled and clean enough to run a brush through it… I'll never forget that sweet little girl and how thankful she was for her pretty hair." — leavingNYCtoday
3. Seriously: Brush Your Children's Hair, Please
"My hairdresser says she had one lady who brought her kid in for haircuts and the mom never brushed the kid's hair ever. So my hairdresser had to spend upwards of 45 minutes trying to comb the knots out of a squirming kid's hair. I think she eventually fired the client because it wasn't worth the cost of a kid's haircut to spend the better part of an hour just on combing." — DiglettUsedFly
4. The Seven-Month-Old Hair Extensions
"I once had to turn a lady away after she booked in for hair extension removal. The micro bonded type your stylist should tell you last three months max. Nobody told this lady. They had been in for seven months! There was a chunk of hair about six inches wide that was matted with bits of hair glue (not what we use) poking out. To me her options were shave it or cut it almost to the scalp. Some 'hairdressers' shouldn't be allowed." — hinky28
5. Beehives Hide Any Number of Things
"My mother was a hairdresser in the 1960s for Vidal Sasson. During the time of the beehive. Customers wouldn't wash their hair for weeks; they'd just keep spraying it to keep it in place as it was such a complicated do. This meant a LOT of fleas, lice, and on one occasion cockroaches that had to be washed out. For some reason this never bothered my mother all that much, but hearing about it made sure I never, ever wanted any kind of hands on customer service job." — LibraryLuLu
6. Bird Poop Will Surprise You
"Way back in the day, my mom was a hairdresser. she told me a story once of this guy coming in who had bird poop all over the top/back of his head. Guess he got pooped on and didn't notice or something." — skivian
7. Don't Bring Contagious Diseases With You
"My sister is a hairstylist and got scabies once from a kid. Apparently the mom knew the kid had it too, just didn't tell my sister until they were leaving. Yuck." — 82workthrowaway82
8. Please Wash Your Hair
"Long time ago but I had to wash and cut a teenager that hadn't washed his hair in what looked like months… After his cut, I tried to wet his hair in the shampoo bowl and the water just ran off his hair because of all the oil buildup. I had seen a lot during my years as a stylist but that was the worst experience." — bzookee
9. Lice, Lice, Baby
"I had a woman come in one day who had hair halfway down her back. She just wanted a trim. I got her shampooed, into my chair and began combing her hair, and noticed a peculiar smell and what looked a bit like dry scalp (but not quite). I looked a bit closer and the 'flakes' were actually little translucent nits. Lice eggs. I could see tiny black things." — pixelmeow
10. Make Sure You Want What You Ask For
"Bit of a different horror story, but my stylist once had a woman with hair past her butt who wanted to donate everything to Locks of Love. EVERYTHING. This woman with hair down nearly to her thighs says she wants a pixie cut, and is donating everything else. The woman sobbed the entire time. Stylist kept asking if it was ok, but the woman was determined to help people with cancer, and told her to keep going and to ignore her tears. Other customers kept coming in and probably assumed she was maiming this poor woman." — PoopsieDoodles
These stories are based on posts found on Reddit. Reddit is a user-generated social news aggregation, web content rating, and discussion website where registered members submit content to the site and can up- or down-vote the content. The accuracy and authenticity of each story cannot be confirmed by our staff.
