A few months ago, I had a faux-hawk (think Rihanna circa 2009). A few months later, my hair had grown out significantly leaving me with longer sides and even longer hair on top. I went in to the salon requesting a wash, cut and style and was pawned off on the only black woman in the salon. (I guess the assumption here is: she's black, I'm black... she must know how to do my hair) I explained to her that my hair had grown out from a short cut and I needed my hair to be evened out, while actually showing the length difference between the sides and the top of my head.
Well, I may as well have just sat down in the chair and told her to do whatever she wanted because that's exactly what she did. She kept going on about how thick my hair is and that my hair shouldn't be cut short. That people with 'my kind of hair' (I'm mixed) are always chopping off our hair and taking risks because we know it will grow back quickly.
At the end of my visit (and $80 later) my hair was not evened out. I didn't realize it at first because I saw her cut my hair, but it wasn't until I got home and had to style it myself that I realized I had the exact same shape that I walked in to the salon with. In addition to that, even though my hair was blow dried and flat ironed I had this bouffant look to it that I don't think my mother would have been caught dead with in the 50s. I commented on the fact that my hair was pouffy and it fell on deaf ears.
I don't think that people should have to make a scene in order to be respected. A simple comment should be enough. I'm generally not a fussy person, but from what I'm seeing in the comments I can understand why people had to escalate their situations in order to get anywhere because these guys make assumptions and ignore client requests. I was going to go back to see if anyone could fix my hair, but I'm going to cancel and go somewhere else.