How To Break Up With Your Hair Stylist

Having a stylist can be much like being in a relationship. You have ups and downs. Sometimes they get on your last nerve and other times, you feel like your life would be incomplete without them. You bicker about the most insignificant things, but ultimately you are both more satisfied than you are dissatisfied.

And like all good things, relationships many times come to an end. Breaking up with your hairstylist is no different than breaking up with a good friend or breaking up with your lover.

THE SIGNS: You feel the tension and it’s not subsiding. You can tell that the end is near because lately you’ve been fighting more than laughing and you can’t seem to agree on anything. Whenever you’re in the chair there are long, awkward silences neither of you are willing to break. You begin to dread going in for your appointment because it causes you anxiety as the time nears.

After much contemplation, you decide that it’s time for you to move on. You’ve been eyeing the work of another stylist on Instagram for months now anyway. So just how do you go about it with the least amount of fallout? Can a breakup be civil or is that a fantasy that doesn’t exist in the real world?

Yes, there is a correct way to leave your stylist. Let’s outline how to break up with your stylist.

Be polite

As you learned in kindergarten, treat others like you would like to be treated. A situation where you’re leaving your stylist for another stylist is no different. Think about it from the other person’s perspective. If you were the stylist who was losing a client, you wouldn’t want that client to be mean or nasty about it.

With that in mind, do be polite about the entire ordeal. There is no need for a scene or an outburst to be the last impression you leave your former stylist with. Remain calm and not that fake calm where you’re throwing shade in every other sentence and pretending that you’re playing nice. If you need to say a prayer before you do it in order to get into the right head space, then fall to your knees.

Don’t offer up an explanation

This may be difficult but refrain from spewing out a list of things your stylist did that drove you into the chair of the next up and coming stylist. The reasons for the breakup are irrelevant once the decision to leave has been solidified in your mind. It simply doesn’t matter.

The main focus should be kept on the fact that you are extending the courtesy of a polite notice to your one-time main squeeze of a stylist.

If they ask, you can tell them that it wasn’t one thing in particular, but rather, you just decided to give someone else a try. Also express that there are no hard feelings and thank them for the time they dedicated to making your hair visions a reality. Tell them you appreciate them and leave it at that.

Be professional

Let’s be real here. This was your stylist for however long. Months, years, decades. A long enough time for you to be officially breaking up with them. This means that you likely know some of their habits. You know when the shop is less populated and you know when it’s high traffic time and the place is jam packed.

Choose an appropriate time when you can have a one on one conversation with your stylist without disrupting the flow of the clients who are there for a service.

Also, when choosing a time, consider stopping by just before the shop closes or within the few minutes after closing hours begin. You could even call and let them know that you’d like to stop by. Don’t use your breakup as a reason to disturb their business.

Do not leave without saying goodbye

One of the worst things you could do is to leave without so much as a goodbye. It’s downright rude and you wouldn’t want it done to you. Being left for another is already bad enough on its own, but being left high and dry and not knowing it’s happened is even worse. It’s like being dumped in a text message.

It may take some courage and some forethought, and it will probably even be a little stressful, but it’s one of those things you have to tackle head on. If you tell them you’re leaving, you will feel better in the end after it’s all said and done and so will your former stylist.

Besides, you don’t want to be sitting in the chair at the new salon and have your former stylist so happen to walk in and catch you. How silly would you feel sitting there with half your hair curled and your tail between your legs, ashamed and embarrassed?