My hair is now long (somehow it came on suddenly) and despite a few trims has the look of a hairdo grown out. I need a new cut. I want the nice feeling of a professional cut but the idea of going to the salon fills me with dread.
Am I the only one?

Things I hate about a trip to the hair dresser:
* Chit chat - I'm just not good at it
* "What colour is that?" or "Did you bleach your hair yourself?" or "You really shouldn't lift a level 1 colour to a level 10 you know"
* The washbowl - when you're 5'2" they're always too high and it hurts!
* Seeing my hair under the harsh salon lights (shows up every colour imperfection)
* Articulating the hair cut I want
* The tuggy part of my hair behind my ears being combed and trying to keep your head still while they pull your hair taught and then maintaining your composure when they cut and the tension is removed
* Being gawked at by the other bored customers. Ah it would be so nice to have a private room like at a beauty salon.

Yes, I'm very uptight about going to the hair dresser's.

maybe mine can be good !chissa`

Awww, I know the feeling.

Where do you go to get your hair done, Jude?

I was going to recommend Voodou in Liverpool (Although they're a salon and all the issues you've mentioned apply to me) as they're really good with colour, but as you live in Dundee... something tells me it's not the best idea ever.

And those washbowls are too high for me as well - I'm 5"2!

I hate getting my hair cut too.
A few years back I had fairly long hair, and I asked for a trim and to have some layers put in.
The lady practically hacked it all off and styled it really stupidly as well.
I was so pissed off that it was a year before I let anyone touch my hair ever again.

For the past few years I've only got a haircut once and that was basically a trim at the ends, because I don't want to go to the hairdresser. So, my hair now is very long and a mess with no haircut which bothers me. I feel like a cavewoman with faded purple hair. And the reason I leave it like this is like what happened to you, Hopeless. :/

I've been wanting to get a haircut for a few months, but I'm afraid to go to the hairdresser.

-I'm not very good at making small talk especially when I am nervous about the fate of my hair. The hairdresser (a guy) I last went to turned out to be an old classmate of my brother, so we ended up talking about their other classmates (people I don't really know).

-Why do they tell me how damaged my hair is and that I need to (and should) cut most of it off to get rid of the damage. And to think that was before bleaching my whole head, they're going to freak out now.

-I don't like it when they don't like how I want my hair and say things like "Where did you come up with that idea?" or "Your hair should be like this..."

-It seems like almost no one can adequately communicate with hairdressers. It usually takes quite a bit of explaining to get them to understand the general idea of what you want and the trouble is they usually are much too eager to start chopping before they really understand.

So, don't worry, you're not the only one.

Phew glad I'm not the only one.
Last time I went to the hair dresser I went to Regis. I think they have salons all over the UK. They were nice and did a good cut but I did feel like they wanted me to explain myself.
That was a long time ago. My hair was really really long and they took about 2 inches off. It looked a lot tidier and thicker.

Since then I've been cutting my hair myself. Sometimes I can do a really nice job like when I cut it short I really liked some of the styles I had but now it's long I can't really do the back very well so I have no idea how good/bad that looks.

I suppose I'll just have to work up the willpower to go back.

YES! I avoid them. I agree completely to all of your reasonds, and I have traumatic memories from one hell of a haircut, and several bad ones... I cut my own hair. And I always will.

I had a haircut at a local salon a few days ago and I hated it... The haircut is dull AND not only that she refused to give me partial bleaching job, because she thinks it's too overboard to add highlights in addition to my already purple hair (on unbleached hair). It is indeed very difficult to find a stylist who can listen to you, comprehend exactly what you want and can execute these ideas tastefully. I believe that the bottom line is they want to sell you what they want to sell. Anything beyond their framework goes out of the window.

The hairdresser can't really "refuse" to do what you want them to. It's YOUR hair, not theirs. if they don't feel comfortable with doing it that way because they may take the blame for a bad job, then they should say that.

I've been going to the same hairdresser all my life. The only time I switched it was god awful. I'm going to dread moving.

I don't, but my "girl" is great. I finally found "another one" who will do what I want, how I want, is nice to talk to and doesn't charge a million bucks.

I used to go to a great stylist who was a bit on the whiny side and complained a lot about everything - her relationship, her job, the owner of the salon, the other customers, etc. It seemed liked she only liked me and a few other people (seriously). I had to end up going someplace else, but I was able to do it easily, since she stopped working there. It was the 2nd or 3rd place she's worked at since I had started going to see her and it wasn't the other people who had the problem. It was HER. Yikes. She was a good person who needed to be her OWN boss.

I go to a barbershop, though, and yes, sometimes the other patrons seem a bit "put off" by me. I'm a woman with weird hair that goes to a barbershop, though, so c'est la vie.