HAPPY FRIDAY the weather here in Seattle couldn’t be more fabulous. Well, I mean unless it was about 20 degrees warmer. All day long nothing but blue skies and sunshine, and all I could think was I CAN’T WAIT TO BE OFF WORK. We just spent a nice muddy hour at the dog park.

Do ya like my “perm”? I posted a Yelp review about it:

It bums me out that I have to write a negative review after having previously good experiences at Elle Marie for so many years, but here goes. After thinking about getting a beachy body-wave perm/chemical service I came in to get a consultation for the service and quote. I was satisfied and looking forward to it.

Kelsey (not the stylist who did the consultation) assured me that she had performed the service on plenty of clients with success. Perhaps she didn’t read the consultation notes about my hair because had she done so, maybe the end result wouldn’t have been so bad. My hair is long and fine, but there is a lot of it and it was virgin hair. I wanted a simple body wave (meaning big rollers) which took about 20 minutes to roll my locks into and voila! Should have looked great.

A bit of an aside: before I was ushered out the door with products I had an odd interaction with the receptionist, who kind of looked dumbfounded when I asked her to do something as simple as calculate the tip for me. She had a calculator in front of her, yet looked as if it were a foreign object. After asking her two or three times to help me, I asked the stylist standing next to her and she calculated the tip for me. Strange.

I left the salon with my hair still damp and it looked like when it dried, it would have some bounce to it. As it began to dry, I started to see that NOTHING had happened except my hair was now frizzy with a dent here and there from where the perm rods sat on the base of my scalp. My hair dried and I took photographs of it to send to my friend in Portland who attends a prestigious cosmetology school. Just that day he happened to be working on what he told me were “roller sets” with his instructor. I sent the photos of me smiling in anticipation with rollers in my hair and the aftermath of my damaged hair. He shared with me this:

“I hope you have a minute because you’re going to get a trichology lesson on your hair-type. Fine hair, especially virgin hair is made up of about 40% cuticle. Hair that sometimes is resistant at first to chemicals because of penetration issues in a chemical service. If Kelsey knew hair, then something this simple passing by her memory is a little disturbing. I don’t know what type of solution was used in your hair as far as a perm solution goes, but when your photographs were shown to my instructors, I was told that most likely a weak acid perm was done versus an alkaline perm which would have given you the desired results.”

I stopped by twice to speak to Kelsey (ultimately made an appointment to see her), and meanwhile spoke with someone in management. They could have cared less about my being unhappy with the service and were more concerned with telling me I would need to curl my hair. Ok. That is why I got a perm in the first place, so I wouldn’t NEED to curl my hair! Management didn’t care to rectify the situation which according to my friend in school, had this salon been professional enough, anything would have been done to make me happy–I should have been offered a refund or a new service so I left HAPPY. Isn’t that what you do to keep a client? Not at Elle Marie, apparently.

During my five minute follow-up appointment with Kelsey she was very bubbly, not at all apologetic, and told me essentially this: “Go buy a diffuser.” The entire situation, from shitty service to the way the stylist and management treated me, was an example used at my friend’s beauty school of how NOT to treat your client in their related studies of salon management/client services.

To sum up, I am out 250.00, my hair is just as straight but now frizzy, and the management system at Elle Marie backs up shitty service and does not care about clients. After six years of going to this salon for haircuts and services, I won’t be back.

Lo and behold, a mere two days later I’m on my way to work and I get a phone call. It’s the manager from Elle Marie, but a different branch, and would I like to come in and see another stylist who might fix my hair and/or make me happy? Why yes, yes ma’am, that’s all I really wanted was to be happy. I now have an appointment set up for next Tuesday to reassess this blonde stuff. If my hair isn’t suitable for a “perm”, maybe they’ll consider throwing some highlights my way. Or an eyebrow waxing. Or some products! Maybe I’ll get my money’s worth after all! A girl can hope.

This weekend I have zero things planned except to eat a lot of lettuce leaves (pre-Hawaii diet is in full force around here and it’s SO BORING), maybe go to Lowe’s and start stocking up on seeds to plant! Every year we swear we are going to start them earlier, and it’s MARCH tomorrow, good God.

Have a fabulous weekend bloggeroonies!