What To Ask For When You Visit The Hair Salon

Have you ever left the hair salon kind of disappointed? You thought you asked for one thing, but got something totally different? Or maybe you don’t even know where to start when it comes to communicating with a hairstylist. Then today’s post is for you!

I enlisted the help of my stylist, Nichole, who is fantastic and may I add super cool. She was recommended to me by my previous stylist Rachel who moved a few years back. I was devastated when Rachel moved because she saved my terrible bob haircut. 

She put me in good hands though with Nichole who works at Hemlock Salon.  Nichole not only does cut, but color and balayage as well. I’ve never left not liking my hair and we’re always swapping the best texture spray finds.

What To Ask For When You Visit The Hair Salon

Asking Nichole what the hell she does to my hair was key because I feel like I’ve never really asked for anything specifically except “don’t chop it yet” and “just clean up the ends”.

She always asks me a slew of other questions that I feel like I never know if I’m answering correctly. But clearly, I am. I love my cut and it makes styling it effortless and easy.

Because she KNOWS I style my hair and is aware that I know my way around a round brush, curling iron and blowdryer she always asks if I want more layers. I always say sure, not really knowing what the hell it means. But here’s how she would describe my cut if you’d like to ask for something similar from your stylist.

If you’re looking to recreate my haircut from the photo above, below is what you’ll want to ask for. This is usually what I ask for when it comes to a medium length or long length hairstyle for myself.

Ask for long layers throughout with some soft layers around the face. Keep your face framing layers below the chin. Nichole always finishes my cut with dry texturing for movement. This is done only with scissors, no thinning shears. 

Hairstyles To Ask For At The Hair Salon

There are so many hairstyles you can ask for at the hair salon. From a blunt bob, to a long bob. To a shag haircut at any length really. And a textured heavily layered cut for longer hair.

I finally chopped my hair back to my go-to bob a few years ago. I grew my hair way out so that I could do a donate my hair to a hair donation organization. Best decision I ever did!

Lately, my hair has been a short haircut in a blunt bob with lots of texture. Short blunt cuts are trending right now and it’s probably one of my favorite hairstyles I’ve had.

Now, I ask for a blunt cut as short as we can go before having to deal with the hair at the nape of my neck. I also ask for weight removal as I have very heavy and thick hair.

Whether I do a long bob or short bob, I am always asking for lots of texture, no real layers, and weight removal. Depending on your personal style, you may want to have a slightly angled bob (in the red dress this is slightly angled) or more blunt and straight (in the pink top).

How Often Should You Cut Your Hair?

When my hair was a long bob, I would get my hair cut every 8-10 weeks. At the 8 week mark, my layers definitely get out of whack and my hair begins to feel like a mushroom at the bottom around my shoulders. Maintaining a short haircut means getting it trimmed often.

However, just because your hair is long doesn’t mean you can go months and months without cutting it and expect it to still look great. Maintenance is key and I aim for 8-10 weeks. 10-12 if I’m trying to grow it, 8 if I’m just maintaining the same look. Long hair or short hair, you will want to get it cut every so often!

With my short blunt bob, and hair that grows really fast, I dream of going every 6 weeks. It would be great to get this style trimmed up often, but it starts to add up.

Have You Ever Done Color?

As for my color, I’m not big into color. The only reason why I did balayage many years ago is that Redken reached out and offered me a day at the salon to do this. I’m actually against doing color on my hair since I haven’t gone grey yet and DETEST being at the hair salon for more than my 45 minute hair cut. 

However, I LOVE how my color came out. It hadn’t turned brassy at all and is literally the most subtle color ever. I was obsessed. I know they only lifted me 2 shades (I believe) and did very few pieces throughout my hair.

They went cooler, versus warm (which can easily turn brassy with my hair color). the result was the perfect sun-kissed glow to my super dark color that looked natural.

Regardless if you’re looking for a similar cut to mine or not, it’s important to always go into a hair appointment prepared.  Here’s how to do it.

How To Always Leave Happy From A Hair Appointment

Find Someone You Trust

This seems like a no-brainer, but if you ask me, it’s the hardest thing to find when you move to a new city, or your beloved stylist moves away. There’s NOTHING worse than a bad cut, trust me I know!

I’ve experienced the most awful Mom Bob on the planet, to totally butchered bangs. BUTCHERED. I think I cried actually it was that bad.

Finding someone you trust is as simple as finding someone at the grocery store with a great cut and asking who does their hair. It’s how my Mom always found someone when we moved to new places growing up and it never failed. Plus, with Instagram now, you can creep on the stylist and see their work firsthand which is kind of amazing.

Do Your Research & Bring Visuals

With the help of Instagram and Pinterest, start saving your favorite cuts and styles to a board or your archives to show your stylist. Stylists are creative people so they’re usually super visual. Plus the way you may describe the cut you’re showing them may be totally wrong. We don’t know all the terms, right?

Ask The Right Questions

It is important to ask the right questions to a stylist so that they can get you the right cut and style for your hair. And to be honest about what you really are capable of doing with your hair.  First, do layers work for my hair texture? Summer plays a big part in that, depending on if your hair gets bigger with the humidity.

And second, do I have to style it more with layers? Meaning…are you going to actually style it? If you’re a let your hair dry and go kind of girl, you need to communicate this to your stylist. If you round brush your hair and use tools, she should know this too. This all plays a role in the type of cut you’ll get and your stylist can also manage your expectations.

Be Honest

If you get a cut or color and it just isn’t right, say something. I’ve been guilty of not wanting to hurt the stylist’s feelings, but you’re paying for a service and you deserve to get what you want. Say something if the color doesn’t look just right, sometimes it’s a quick fix of a toner. If your cut feels off, it may just mean it needs some more texturizing to allow it to fall better. 

Your hair should look its BEST when you leave. If it doesn’t make you feel good or look the way you both agreed on, speak up. I’m emphasizing, what you BOTH agreed on because you may have shown her photos of Kim K, and your stylist may have said “this won’t be possible for your hair but we can do something like this instead”. If you don’t look like Kim K then you weren’t listening to your stylist.

Also, be honest with yourself. If you think you’re going to all of a sudden be this blow-drying queen, but you’ve never even tried it, don’t ask for a cut that will require you to do this every wash. You’ll hate your hair instantly.

And having an understanding of your hair type. Do you have naturally curly hair and are asking for a cut and style that doesn’t work with it? Or do you have naturally straight hair that can’t hold a curl and you want a cut that favors beach waves? You have to be honest with yourself and your hairstylist to make sure you leave the salon happy!

Questions To Ask Your Hairstylist

Before you do any cutting, it’s important to have a good conversation with your hair stylist beforehand. Everyone’s questions may vary, but below are some good basics to ask.