I used to work in a beauty shop, and we had this ONE customer who was an absolute nightmare when we washed her hair. EVERY week, she would come in gossiping about anyone she could.

She was in her sixties, and she did not have any health problems, but when it came time to shampoo her hair, it was like trying to wash a worm. She was doing it on purpose. I tried everything to make her head stay in the bowl and warned her on MANY occasions that if she did not stop, I could not help but get her wet.

Customer: “I don’t care. I want to hear what people are saying!”

With my boss right there (her station was right next to the shampoo bowl), I told [Customer]:

Me: “The next time you start wiggling, your head will be put in a vice by me!”

She thought that I was joking, but my boss knew it was coming.

Sure enough, the next week rolled around, and [Customer] started wiggling again. As soon as I could, I put one of my forearms across her forehead, held her head down, and finished the shampoo. [Boss] looked over at me and just laughed. [Boss] knew the woman very well, and she knew that I had had enough!

Surprisingly, [Customer] came back the next week, and she actually sat still in the shampoo chair.

I am waiting for my favorite stylist to do my hair – she’s worth the wait. I see her playing some relaxing meditation music with her current client:

Client: “So I was—”

Stylist: “—Shh, I need you to remain in a meditative state or the hair relaxer won’t fuse with the positive energy.”

Client: “Oh, sorry.”

My stylist kept encouraging the client to meditate, keep her eyes closed, and say “ohmmm” every time she felt the urge to speak. After about ten minutes they’re done and it’s my turn.

Stylist: “[My Name]! I saw you on my appointment sheet today and I was so happy to see you!”

Me: “Thanks! Good to see you too!”

Stylist: *Setting me up for my haircut.* “So I remember that last time we were talking you were having trouble with—”

Me: “—wait, aren’t you going to turn on that meditation music or something?”

Stylist: “Oh, that crap? I save that for my clients who keep going on about their offensive bull-s***. That last one is trying to end her son’s relationship with his girlfriend because she’s in a wheelchair and for some reason that means she’ll get ‘broken grandbabies’.”

Me: “Oh my god, that’s awful!”

Stylist: “Almost as awful as the amount I charged her for the fake scalp treatment.”

Me: “Fake, what?”

Stylist: “I charged her $15 more for an extra shampoo, the way I see it the more s*** you put out into the world the more s*** I put into your hair. Anyhoo, how are you darlin’?”

Always good to be reminded why she’s my favorite!

This story is part of our Editors’-Favorite-Stories-Of-2024-(second half!) roundup!

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I am at my favorite nail salon. A customer has been complaining during her whole session with one of their best nail artists.

Customer: “Why is it taking so long? Seriously!”

Nail Artist: “Because you keep moving your hands while you talk.”

Customer: “What did you say?!”

Nail Artist: “You keep moving your hands when you talk. You’re doing it right now.”

Customer: “You’re just trying to cover for your shoddy work! These are terrible!”

From where I’m sitting her nails look flawless, despite the customer moving around.

Customer: “Get me your manager!”

The manager is called over.

Customer: “You! Redo my nails! This one has made a mess of mine!”

The manager sighs, but actually agrees to her crazy demand. It’s my turn to get my nails done so I don’t pay much attention to them for too long, but I am aware of her complaining from behind me. Eventually:

Manager: “Okay, that will be [amount], ma’am.”

Customer: “What!? It should be free after what you’ve put me through!”

Manager: “We’ve applied your nails twice now and—”

Customer: “—exactly!”

Manager: “Fine.”

The manager then picked up the polish remover, swiped it across the complainer’s nails, and told her:

Manager: “I have no problem not charging, but you’re not walking out of here with free artwork. You’re welcome to find another salon, but never come back to this one.”

The customer continued her campaign of complaining, but the collective glaring of every worker and other clients (myself included) sent her out loudly but quickly.

I had a woman who would come into the student salon constantly and request me by name. She has some form of mental disability and an obsession with me. She doesn’t accept change at all; she needs the same person every time. Unfortunately, I am naturally quiet and would let them talk.

The only problem is that she sits there and constantly talks about extremely inappropriate personal problems. She also wouldn’t allow her mother or anyone to accompany her because she didn’t like being told to behave in public, so she would just drive herself.

She would do things such as explain a yeast infection in detail, on a salon floor full of guests who would often abruptly leave. There were also small children in the open waiting room beside me present. Mothers would complain frequently.

One day, she brought herself in while I was out that day to the supply store. She also, asked for my schedule immediately when she was told I wasn’t in and refused to leave, getting louder and upset. I am told she slapped her hand down on the counter because she wasn’t getting her way and started screaming demands.

We all thought she was relatively harmless up until this point. They had to blacklist her from the shop because she couldn’t calm down. She reached for the appointment book sitting on the counter and then tried to rip it out of a coworker’s arms. This woman then threw herself on the ground and had the mother of all tantrums.

Emergency services had to come pick her up off the floor, but she was not easily moved. They had to use straps and one of the receptionists quit from the stress!

The scary part was that she would daily come park in our parking lot after dark right around the time we would all clock out and sit there but never get out of her car. I would then refuse to go outside and wait on the police to arrive to walk us all out.

If the police were there she would immediately pull off and basically avoid. After a while she just stopped, and I have no idea what happened to her. I’m glad I moved.

My (former) boss was absolutely insane, and what she did to another employee caused a mass quitting at my workplace.

I worked at a salon and spa. We had a coworker who, admittedly, had a personal life that was nothing less than a disaster and she made awful life choices. However, she was ALWAYS at work on time and was extremely talented, so we just listened to her trainwreck stories and moved on.

Then, her boyfriend moved out; he just left while she was visiting family out of state, taking their dogs with him. She was obviously devastated and called out for a few days in a row.

I was a manager, and I didn’t care that she called out because it was out of the norm for her to call in. Having heard many stories of the chaos that was her life, I just took it on faith that her life had finally taken a sudden left turn that she couldn’t just spring back from, and she needed the time. Eventually, everyone snaps and just needs that space, you know? Despite being a wreck, she was still reaching out to me occasionally to check in, and I just kept telling her to take the time she needed to put herself back together and do some proper self-care.

On day three of her calling out, [Salon Owner] entered the fray. Now, let me make this as clear as I can: what happened next wasn’t a rumor, nor did I hear it secondhand. [Salon Owner] was openly proud of herself and didn’t miss a chance to tell anyone what she’d done.

[Salon Owner] decided that [Coworker] had been given enough time and took action. She found [Coworker]’s home address on the employment paperwork, went to [Coworker]’s house, searched the yard until she found a hidden spare key, and walked right in. [Salon Owner] then stormed through the house until she found [Coworker]’s bedroom, threw open the door, and shouted her awake.

Salon Owner: “Wake up and get dressed! It’s time to stop feeling sorry for yourself! You have work to do, and I expect you to do it. The world doesn’t stop for you just because you want to pout.”

[Coworker] let out a string of curses.

Coworker: “GET OUT OF MY HOUSE! ARE YOU INSANE?! THIS IS NOT OKAY!”

Salon Owner: “You have a job to do!”

Coworker: “Not today.”

Salon Owner: “Get up, get dressed, and get in the car. I’m driving you, so you don’t even have to drive yourself.”

Coworker: “I’m not coming in. I already called out.”

[Salon Owner] ignored that statement.

Salon Owner: “Get dressed. You have five minutes to get ready. Either do it, or you’re fired!”

Coworker: “GET THE F*** OUT! I’M CALLING THE POLICE!”

[Salon Owner] left after telling [Coworker] that she was fired. The staff was absolutely gobsmacked as [Salon Owner] bragged about this incident to everyone and flatly told the rest of us that she would do the same to any of us if we tried to be lazy like [Coworker] was.

As we tried to string words together to mention just how illegal that was, we were all struck silent (again) by police officers coming into the salon and telling [Salon Owner] that they needed to talk.

I had been planning to open my own salon soon anyway, so I just looked at my staff.

Me: “I don’t know about the rest of you, but I’m typing up my resignation, effective immediately.”

The rest of the staff weren’t far behind me.

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