It's been a little over a year since I've spoken to anyone regularly on this site.  I feel bad for disappearing and just updating my stork story.  However, there have been some depressing things happening in my life that I didn't want to be pushed onto everyone.  So as you may know, I'm a hairstylist.  I graduated in 2021.  I know that everyone is afraid of new hairstylists, especially when they say, "I've been doing this for a couple of years."  Well let me tell you what I experienced from September 2020 until now, September 2022.  It may shock you that some younger stylists know a little more than stylists of 10+ years.


School 2020-2021
School wasn't bad.  It had it's ups and downs that had me coming home tired.  If it wasn't drama with the classmates, then it was drama with the teachers.  Even with all the drama, they all felt like family to me.  I told myself that I wanted to go to school to learn, not socialize.  But I socialized.  I knew who not to be friends with, and then I had friends that I cried when they graduated.  Some of those friends still talk to me, others got distant.  All in all, I wish that I could just stay at school forever. 

Salon A: September 2021-May 2022
I previously applied to another salon before A, but they said that they wanted a stylist with more experience.  Even though that salon came to my school and said that they were hiring right out of school.  Whatever, it's cool.  Salon A accepted me and was determined to teach me how to cut hair.. Or at least that's what they said they wanted to do.  They waited three months to actually train me.  I made mistake after mistake, and all they did was tell me I did something wrong: manager T just told me that I did wrong and that I needed to be more of a "team player."  I love teams and I love watching people win things.  I'm not a competitive person, but I like to work hard for a goal.  I told her, "That's why I asked for hands on training.  You said you would do it, but you haven't done any of it.  I don't even know what I did wrong with this last cut." 

Manager T acted like a 90's blonde popular girl in high school.  After that, they decided to actually give me hands-on training.  Of course, there were clients even six months after that who still didn't trust me to do their cut.  That didn't bother me as much as T giving me shifts that burnt me out.  There were a few times where I had 11 days of work in a row.  And one day was a split shift, so I was at the salon 11 hours, working 10 hours.  That's when I intereviewed at Salon B.  When T found out, she was acting all snippy and even more immature.  I would have given a two week notice, but the way T and another stylist, H, were giving me trouble.. I just wanted out.  I spent 8 months at this salon for them to be like that to me.

Salon B: May 2022-Present
Manager C said that she would train me with trendy cuts, colors, and help me with my product services.  She also said that I would get 10% commission on the products I sold and the services I performed.  I was so excited to have someone teach me!  And she was actually a teacher in Atlanta!  She promised so much, as well as having my sister work with me during the same shifts.  That's something that A never wanted.  We started there, and it was going well.  There was one other stylist there, J.  J was amazing.  And how C described her was, "Oh, she's Asian.  But she can speak good English."  I didn't want to jump to conclusions, like maybe C meant well by saying that.  But it sounded.. Rude..

J was more than happy to have us!  J and C didn't get along, however.  C always put things up high, and J has bad knees and is very short.  And when we joined the salon, C changed J's hours without talking to her first.  J was hired under the condition of having a certain schedule, because she takes care of her husband.  Within a few weeks, C mostly spends her time at the other salon locations that she managed.  And then by a month, she was either fired or she quit.  So my sister and I had only J to fall back on.  J is super sweet, she used to be the manager when the salon first opened over 20 years ago, so she taught us a lot.

But that also meant we were without a manager.  For just about a month, we three were on our own.  No one was buying us supplies for the salon; no one was buying stock for the shelf; and clients didn't care.  Clients just wanted their hair done or the products they wanted.  They took one look at me and my sister and said we know nothing about hair, just because we're young.  Can I do rainbow hair?  No I can't.  Can I do highlights and money pieces?  I sure can.  I can do skin fades, layered cuts, the wolf cut, trendy bangs, etc.  But because I look like I'm 16, no one cares.  It's fine, I don't need their company if they're just going to be rude to me.  I can handle it.

Now comes Manager B and Director T.  T said she's been working in this industry for 19 years and knows how to run the place.  However, she didn't have a clue on what anything did in the salon POS.  B has been a stylist for 10 years. 

  This is my part of the story with B.  This doesn't even include my sister's side of the story, as her story with B gets physical.  Personally, I don't mind people watching me cut hair; if they have questions or concerns; and I especially don't mind when other stylists want to give their input. I had a client in my chair, I did my consultation, and then I cut her hair. B comes around the corner and steals the conversation from me before doing a consultation. She said, "I could get you where you want to be. I mean, she's already working on it, but I can do it." After that, she stays in my arm space. Like I said before, I have no problem with my fellow stylists, my manager, or even owners watching me cut hair. However, she picked through my client's hair while I was trying to cut my guide. She said, "this section is longer than it should be." I cut my length first before cutting my layers, so I hadn't gotten to the layers yet. my sister was observing from far away and was laughing and saying, "she's not finished yet." 

 Soon after, my sister goes to the back to make a phone call to our mother saying that we were almost done. That's when B follows her. When she left, my client told me how uncomfortable B made her feel. I apologized. When B came out, she told me that my sister and I are not allowed to stay for our ride anymore when we're clocked out. She said all of that in front of the client. I tried to steer the conversation back to the client's hair. My client was asking about a product she uses and I asked her if it was Tee Tree. B picks up the product and steals the conversation again, telling her all about the product. I don't mind teamwork, helping each other make a sale is wonderful. But the client was asking my opinion, and B inserted that she would highly recommend the product.  

 I did feel belittled by all of that, especially when the cut was finished. B was clapping and praising me as if it were my first ever haircut. Salon A was only cuts.  I had 16-20 cuts per day.  However, that wasn't the biggest issue. My main concern is that B did all of this in front of the client. It wasn't only that client, but a client I had before. She was a repeat shampoo client, and she was making my client uncomfortable the whole shampoo by walking around talking, asking questions, and wondering why it was taking me so long to do the shampoo. She was only getting a shampoo, and there were no clients waiting, so I took an extra 2 minutes to let my client relax. But again, she did all of that in front of the client. It wasn't professional, especially coming from a manager.  

 And lastly, my sister told me that mom was going to come in and sit in the store while waiting for me to close up. She is going through menopause right now, so I was going through the procedure in a timely manner. I explained everything, but the whole time she was making jokes about the hot flashes. I don't even know if she was paying attention to me, because next thing she says is, "so what are you doing?" 

The next day she worked, she thought it was a good idea to do highlights on permed hair.  A client came in with 2 failed perms and wanted another perm.  My sister said, "no, I don't feel comfortable doing a chemical service on very compromised hair."  And B said, "I agree, but I can do high lights on you." That lady's hair fried off.  So B only worked for 2 days before being fired.

I told T that I'm putting in my two weeks. And she said that I should be glad she's letting  me stay two weeks.  We have been opening and closing by ourselves, handling client's complaints, and fixing things all around the salon.  We were managers without being paid.  And then T has the nerve to say that I should.be grateful that she's letting  me stay.  And she then said, "I've been doing this for 30 years, you're not going to get more money anywhere else."  The day B showed up, I was super stressed out.  I lost 2lbs that week because you all know I starve when I'm stressed; my period came 2 weeks early; I broke out in horrible eczema all over my body, including on my eyes.  It was so bad on my legs.  And instead of putting cream on, I scratched and scratched.  So now I have scars on my legs.  I've calmed down since then and I've started eating this week.

Salon C: 

We start at this salon later this week.  It's a kids cut place and they have steady clients coming in.  I have a hard time trusting people now, so I'm not even going to believe all the promises Manager S made until I see them.  She said $11 an hour to start with and 10% commission on products.  So we'll see.  

Thank you all for reading all of this.. I really wasn't going to post.  But seeing friends like heclgehog, Asphyxy, Sojuri, and OnceUponAnEXO post.. they gave me confidence to tell my story.  It's not as bad as being sick or losing family members, but this is my personal struggle.  I'm sorry of anyone thought I was ignoring them.  I'm just in a point in my life where I'm barely ever happy enough to talk to people. 

I love you all ❤️ Take care

=^.^=