Toni & Guy

Sigh. How can such a big name in hairdressing be so consistently bad? I gave this particular Toni & Guy store three attempts before giving up.
I went in for a haircut with my sister the first time. I’d printed out a photo of an earlier haircut I’d had, which I wanted replicated (hair dyed from my natural lightish colour to a medium brown, hair layered including fringe/​bangs). The guy who was my hairdresser looked at the photo and said, «but this is lighter than your hair colour now.» I glanced at my sister and we shared a «what is this guy on?» look, and I explained what I wanted in as much detail as possible. After failing to convey that I wanted my current, natural dark blonde hair dyed a medium brown for some unknown reason, I decided to skip the colour.
No one likes getting a wild haircut they didn’t plan for. But the opposite is a little disappointing, too. The guy shied away from giving me much in the way of layers, and he went for a light, feathered fringe. I re-​explained I wanted it layered as a side-​fringe. Somehow, he failed to grasp it and I left the salon with not an awful haircut, but not anywhere near the one I wanted.
The next week I visited again, deciding the salon must be famous and seemingly respected for a reason, but this time making sure I got a different hairdresser. She wasn’t the communicative type and seemed abrupt. I explained to her what I wanted (a colour — I wasn’t quite ready yet to try the cut again, even with a different hairdresser) and she seemed to understand what I wanted. Then another hairdresser showed up and she explained it to her, and suddenly I had a different hairdresser. (They seem to do this rotating hairdresser thing a lot.) She seemed distracted, which didn’t bode well. She put the colour in my hair while I read a magazine and then took me to the tubs for «twenty minutes or so». I’m looking at the big clock at the wall as time creeps on and hits half an hour, and I’m making attempts to get her attention when she walks past — to no avail. I even wondered if she was pretending to ignore me. When she finally came to rinse the stuff out, I had been at the tubs for 45 minutes and my hair came out black.
The third time was about six months later and my «final shot». I tried to get a more senior hairdresser, and she gave me a decent haircut and colour. It was still nothing like what I wanted in terms of style (she didn’t properly cut my fringe to the side and kept it way too long) but at least it wasn’t a total disaster.
Still, there’s no way I’m going back to experience sub-​par service at a salon not renowned for its cheap prices.