£34 For A Hair Cut - Conversation Extra! (Regis)

Member Name: karenuk

Product:	Regis
Date:	12/02/05 (3551 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: good hair cut

Disadvantages: expensive

I’m growing my hair at the moment and it’s in that awful in-between stage, where it’s neither long nor short and can’t remember the last time it saw a style. So I decided it needed some urgent rescuing and booked an appointment with Regis – the hair salon in House of Fraser in Bristol.

I have been there twice before and although it is expensive, I have always been very happy with the service and felt it was a nice treat and a good pick-me-up. As I have been ill for 3 weeks now with a bad throat and chest infection, it sounded a good idea all round.

It started off well. I was greeted with a nice smile, had my coat taken to be hung up and I was shown to a seat and told my stylist wouldn’t be long. I sat there for almost ten minutes in an impossibly high chair with my feet dangling. Being sat in front of the mirror meant I had to look at my face (Not a pretty sight, at the best of times!) and I wasn’t even offered a cup of tea!

My stylist arrived at her leisure and asked how I wanted my hair done. I explained I wanted to keep the length, but wanted it in some kind of style. She had lots of useful ideas and suggestions for me and we soon agreed on a style. She was going to thin out my hair, to take the weight off it and give it some shape by adding a few layers, but planned to keep most of the length for me.

After discussing this, she took me over to have my hair washed. Following a good enough start, she lost points here! I mean, I don’t know about you, but I expect a bit of conversation at the hairdressers. You know, where are you going on holiday? – that sort of thing. Well, not here, she was deathly silent.

So I took the initiative. The woman who had taken me to my seat had said ‘Karen’ would be along shortly. So using my best deductive skills and a winning conversational opening, I said “So you’re Karen too then?” “Yes,” she said. Oh well. So much for that idea. Still, she proved she could talk – by chatting to a colleague about the party he went to the night before and his fake tan!

Apart from the distinct lack of verbal interaction, her hairdressing skills were good enough. She shampooed and conditioned my hair well and only sprayed water into my ears twice. An elaborate ritual of towel-wrapping followed and I was led over to another chair and had my hair dried and combed.

She regained the use of her vocal chords briefly here, as she explained how she was cutting my hair, checked how I had my parting and how much I wanted off my fringe. She showed some enthusiasm in how she was going to save my hair from its current lacklustre state and as a hairdresser, I was impressed with her skills. She seemed to know what she was doing and did it very well.

But – and it’s a big ‘but’ – I felt like she would have been happier if I had just left my hair there and taken the rest of me off somewhere else! The only subject she seemed happy to talk about was my hair. I did try too. I commented how her hair was similar to my daughter’s, so she could ask about my kids. But no, nothing.

I felt unwanted and a burden, not a welcome customer. When she was told her next client had arrived, she whisked me off to get my coat within a minute! It felt like being on a conveyor belt.

While I was pleased with the way my hair had been done, the whole experience wasn’t a feel-good one at all. Parting with a whopping £34 for what was only a cut, wash and blow dry seemed particularly painful.

The salon is spacious and clean. The Regis products are good ones and ones I am happy to use and yes, I was pleased with my cut – although my family said they couldn’t tell much difference! But a salon looking nice is not much good without it having the service to deliver. My experience at Regis today was like buying an expensive book with a beautiful cover, only to discover the story was rather weak.

ADVANTAGES

I was pleased with my hair cut.
The stylist was knowledgable about hair.
The stylist listened to my requests about my hair and complied with them.

DISADVANTAGES

The stylist lacked communication skills.
I felt I had to wait too long.
It was very expensive.
I wasn’t offered a cup of tea!

Summary: