my vote goes to staying with the salon you already know…

voting for salon you know due to rarity of hair color you use and the relationship… if all you’re looking for is a change, who’s to say you won’t get it with other people in the salon? besides the new girl HAS to be confident to sell herself…

from a hairdresser…go to the same place. Use any stylist available to your schedule and let them deciede. If they all know you then you can leave it to them.

Elsa if your salon really loves you, they will take you back if the new girl doesn’t pan out.
Give your usual a break and try something new–you just may like it. It’s really easy to go back when you have good relations with people. Then you can say ‘Oh whoever’s free!’ when they ask you who you want to do your hair and look super non-contoversial.

kashmiri – just saw your comment. You’re right and they said the same thing. I just hate to run this girl across town for the color though too. I had no idea when I committed to go her that she could not just pick it up wherever she usually gets her stuff. So it is more problems. I don’t like being high maintenance!!

I vote for the same place. I’d go to the new girl once so she could use the product the bought specifically for me, and tell her in advance I’d continue in the old salon and tell her why.

My old stylist is a double Gemini, from England who has done hair since she was 14! She is now in her 60′s!! But very young… sort of a flip card who has men chasing her constantly. She travels all over the world and in fact one of her lovers put a salon in her home where is still going to do hair but it is far for me and I am trying to let go.

The new girl is a gym rat and the opposite of me in all ways, except for we are both very happy. We both use the crosstrainers, with these shit eating grins, but I do mine on level 20, artfully and girl like, a deep burn, while she is very “energizer bunny”, working out a million miles a minute with sweat flying and a her backwards ball cap.

She also wears headphones and laughs manically at times at I have no idea what, and although I have always liked her, I try not to get on a machine next to hers because our energy is so opposite.

So when she started in with my hair, I thought about this… I definitely think she could cut the hell out of my hair since she thought it so interesting. But I also thought our opposite energies. Would it be good or bad? Who knows. I do know I like boy/girl women in general and she is very VERY happy and upbeat.

On the other hand (Libra) she is a hard sell. She was selling me products right there in the gym which is…. well I feel like I have to deflect that. So it’s a bit like having your hair done by a really great puppy, I think. Will they settle down? Because she is hyper as hell.

Now the gals in my regular salon, none of them are like this. There is only one gal who is not old… the manicurist who also does hair. I would probably go with her first because she does my nails, and because she needs the customers and the money… she is trying to get back to work, mother of 4 kids, 3 or them Aries, so God help her.

Problem is she is decidedly un-stylish, not that a ball cap is stylish but you know. You can just tell that first girl is current and cutting edge.

She is also tentative which… well I am not used to that. I am used to someone who has been cutting hair for fifty years and knows exactly what she’s going to do as soon as she sees your head.

::sighs::
See? This is hard.

The other stylists don’t have much energy, and the salon itself needs a face lift however, they really have never seen a bad head leave there.

Gah.

I was thinking like you, Simstim. That the universe threw her in my path. But now I am not so sure. The color being inconvenient is a big deal. It explains why went I call around looking for someone who uses it, the prices are always really high. My regular salon is very reasonable and this is a factor. I am not in a position to double the cost of my hair care, and fact is she either has to drive and get it or pay them to deliver it…. and it’s not like she can buy a quantity when I have not committed, less she be stuck with it.

Damn Julie! I am happy for her but crap! Look at this hell. And I have had 9 months to decide. And the worst:

No matter what I do, everyone will tell me “no problem”! And they’ll mean it! Which means this is pure Libra suffering. And I just don’t want to hurt anyone’s feelings.

I haven’t read all the replies, but I have plenty of experience with hair and salon issues. (I have very challenging hair and only a truly skilled hairdresser can handle it.)

Stay with the salon you know. Ask your old stylist for a recommendation, or else call the salon on the sly and ask which of their stylists does best with your kind of hair.

For example… I have long, uber-thick n’ heavy, straight hair. I ask for a stylist that’s good with that kind of hair. That way they don’t send me to someone who’s good with blondes with thin, wispy-fine hair, nor do they give me someone who’s best with curls. It works, really. The people running the salon want you to be happy with your hair, so in a good salon, they will help you find the right hairdresser.

i’m chicken about change (esPECially hair-change), so i’d stay where they know me, and where they stock my product. there is so much trauma with changing stylists – i feel for you.

i’d be uncomfortable with being “sold to” at the gym. and honestly, that would probably put me off. i’d just say i’d hate for her to have to go out of her way, and stick with what i know.

I think I would stay at the salon for one very simple reason – Mosta. Recently you blogged about last-minute changes to dental appts, etc. if she is sick that day. If you have an appointment at the salon, they can usually have SOMEONE free later that day or the next day or whatever, if you need to reschedule. With the new girl, it’s just her, right? Or does she work at a salon as well? What would you do if you had to reschedule? Would you be able to, on short notice?

Here’s another idea, if she is a free-lancer. Maybe she could work “on commission” at your salon. She can pay a fee to do your hair there, using the products that your salon keeps in stock, and if you have to cancel an appointment once in a while, then someone else at the salon can do your hair if she’s not available. The salon can get the benefit of having a young, fresh voice around, and maybe learn some new things and attract new young stylists. It could be a win-win-win situation.

As a PS, I remember the first posting I read on Very Modern astrology – it was about an impromptu demo haircut you got at a mall, and you were talking about how your Uranus needed to make a change or something. I was hooked from that first post. So, thank you!