'That'll be $120 please': 15+ barbers and hairdressers who messed up their customers' hair and tried to hide it

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Ben Weiss • Writer and Editor
Jan 26, 2024 4:00 PM EST

Bad hair days come and go, but the experience of receiving a bad haircut lives forever. The shock of looking in the mirror and seeing something so far beyond what you asked for is seared in the memories of countless disgruntled customers. That being said, with this story, we're going to shift the focus from the customer to the barber. 

Everyone makes mistakes on the job, and sometimes, forgiveness is the best you can ask for after you mess up on the job. For these hairdressers, the experiences of giving bad haircuts were probably just as scarring as the experiences were for their customers. Cutting someone's hair is not like most reversible job mistakes. When hair is gone, it's gone, and the best you can do is even it out. 

Keep scrolling below for this collection of r/AskReddit responses. When you're done, here are some hilarious adult temper tantrums. 

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  • 01
    "It's just hair. It'll grow back"
    via pizzaROLLS5
  • 02
    r/AskReddit. Posted by u/CplCucumber : Barbers and hairdressers of reddit, have you ever up a haircut, and if so, what did you say to the customer?
    via u/CplCucumber
  • 03
    nerdybynature. 1 Im a hairstylist. When i was in school, they just let me on the floor and i got my first haircut ever. It was this old man in his 70s. I was so nervous. I start to cut around his ear and my hands were shaking so bad i let go of his ear on accident and it flipped up into my shears blade. I cut the top part of his ear off. I mean not like a significant portion but i got it good. Blood starts pouring and i freak. He says, hey whats wrong? I say ,uhhh sorry but i cut your ear really
    via u/CplCucumber
  • 04
    [deleted] Not only have I I them up, i once cut a 5 year old kid about 6 or 7 times in one hair cut. His mother lost her. She went completely In all honesty it was a bit of a crime scene on the back of his neck. And the little cut on his ear bled like a stuck pig. But... BUT. The kid was a little 1. he was pushing himself into my clippers to make them cut him. He also kept trying to slip his hand into my scissors.
    via u/CplCucumber
  • 05
    So anyway, my boss came over to examine what was causing this woman to flip out. He is Italian. So, in a very passionate and exaggerated fashion he fired me on the spot. Right in front of the mom. He said he had never seen anything like it. He then told the woman that we were sorry, free haircut. She said she would never be back. That seemed about right. She stormed out. Dragging her little I behind her.
    via u/CplCucumber
  • 06
    I started to collect my gear to complete the firing process. My boss turned to me and said "What the are you doing? This is a busy saturday!! You think i am going to fire you over an $8 kids hair cut and leave all these customers waiting? That kid was a little (insert italian swear word about vaginas). I'm not going to fire you about that. Get the back to work." The woman was never seen again. I made record tips that day. My next customer said it was hilarious to watch the kid mess up my day, th
    via u/CplCucumber
  • 07
    My boss gave me a bottle of homemade wine that we drank in the bathroom of the barber shop after the day was over. TL;DR - I sliced up a kid and got a bottle of wine for it. Edit: correct 7 or 7 times, to 6 or 7 edit 2: the reason we drank the wine in the bathroom is that the mall closed 3 hours after the barbershop. And it was the only place we could smoke. So, we actually drank and smoked in the bathroom, and then moved around the shop. Mostly harassing the large-breasted women who worked ther
    via u/CplCucumber
  • 08
    Testate Small town barber from Italy cut every ones hair. He would pull out the leather strap to sharpen his knife. There was a 25% chance he would cut you somewhere and say 'Two dolla off.' This was 20 years ago when the price was $6. Edit-this is in Canada. Barber's name was Tony, he was from Italy. The old folk of the town played cards in the back room. I once got a hair cut for $2. 2.2k Share
    via u/CplCucumber
  • 09
    [deleted] I cut my own hair. A few months back I it up especially good, so I told myself it was free of charge and bought a hat. 2.1k Share
    via u/CplCucumber
  • 10
    [deleted] "That'll be $120 please." (I was the customer.) 2.0k Share
    via u/CplCucumber
  • 11
    forthethrill I was working at a children's salon for about a year during my cosmetology career. Most of the experiences were miserable due to unrealistic expectations of parents combined with children who were afraid of the clippers or shears. I'll always remember when I accidentally cut off a little boys 4" rat tail. The mother scooped him out of the chair right after, with only maybe 1/3 of his head shaved, and stormed out. My reaction: it's 2008, and your son had a rat tail. You're welcome. 1
    via u/CplCucumber
  • 12
    FormerTeacher. Hairdresser in Norway who didn't appear to speak any English stopped in the middle of my cut and said in a strong accent, "You head is lopsided." Time to buy a hat. ↑ ↓ 1.9k Share
    via u/CplCucumber
  • 13
    brithus. I said I wanted layers... 1.6k Share
    via u/CplCucumber
  • 14
    Cheezburger Image 9870295040
    via u/CplCucumber
  • 15
    o Anuglyman My gf (a licensed hairdresser) was cutting my hair and then all of the sudden I heard, "Ohmigod!" She quickly covered my sideburn with her hand and wouldn't let me see. She started to tear up. Turns out she had given me racing stripes like some 90s white rapper. I just laughed and said, "it's just hair. It'll grow back." I took the razor and shaved off both sideburns. I got to hang it over her head for a week or two. 1.5k Share
    via u/CplCucumber
  • 16
    GentlemanDefault. Hairdresser I up my hair badly. I was in rage. She looked at me, called a colleague over, she looked at me, they conversed, took a shaver and shave my head. It. Looked. Awesome. Been bald since. Edit: Ofor using my non-posting account on accident. 1.5k Share
    via u/CplCucumber
  • 17
    deklayn90. Former hair dresser here- If it was a females hair that I had messed up cutting I normally would dry it all fluffy and with scrunched curls to hide it... I was an awful hair dresser. If it was a mans they normally didn't say anything to me about it but I always felt horrible inside. I no longer am in the hair business now though. I left feeling it was better for everyone's hair safety and returned to school lol. 1.2k ↓ Share
    via u/CplCucumber
  • 18
    MikeyB7509 When I was a kid my Dad gave me such a bad haircut that it had to be shaved off. He felt so bad he shaved his own head to make me feel better. This was in the middle of Winter right before he took me to a football game, in NY (freezing) One of my fondest memories of him. 466 Share
    via u/CplCucumber
  • 19
    [deleted] My brother went to get a haircut at the barbershop. Just to get it cleaned up and he didn't want to. It was a complete bowl cut and looked awful. Absolutely terrible. I don't know how the barber can call that good. 171 Share
    via u/CplCucumber
  • 20
    o cozigotgamebitchez. I was shaving an old mans hair a couple of months ago and the vibration from the clippers made a funny sensation in my hand and my immediate reaction was to take my clippers away from the mans hair so I didn't ruin it. I didn't ruin it. But I Tup sure as his eyebrow, he had about 1/3 of it left but he didn't notice. He gave me $20 and I gave the poor guy $50 change out of my own pocket. He hasn't come back. ↑ 169 ↓ Share
    via u/CplCucumber
  • 21
    cutandstab. Beauty school- had a middle aged woman want to cut her shoulder- length hair into a short pixie cut. Having seen my superiors put hair in a ponytail and cut it off, I decided that was what I was gonna do. So I tied it up and chopped it off...well the hair right behind the ponytail was only about a half inch long. Im freaking out. I asked "So you wanted to go pretty short right?" Continued to cut all the hair in the back about a half inch all over all while sweating profusely and hopi
    via u/CplCucumber

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hair FAILS customer service FAIL askreddit barber reddit thread Reddit funny
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