Hairstylists Spill Their Most Disgusting Horror Stories

#1 Bugging Out

I had a young man come in with his mother. He was about 8 years old and had tight curly hair. His mother ask me to shave down to a 00000 that is the shortest you can go with clippers. I said sure it was my last cut of the day and I was eager to go home. I start the service and notice barely 1/3rd in that he had a lice infestation under the tight curly hair. I mean these guys were huge. Probably why his mother needed me to shave it off. So..

I discontinued the service and spent the next 3 hours disinfecting everything in sight. The boys mother called the barbershop later to complain because I wouldn’t finish shaving her sons hair. We tried to explain that it was illegal for us to continue the service as it might spread lice to others and recommended a specialty shop that could take care of this for them but she demanded that it was because we were racist. That was fun.

#2 Did He Dread It?

My husband is a barber, one day he had a guy come in with dreads, wanting them all shaved off. He parted his dreads, looked at his scalp and noticed it was green!! He touched it and saw it ripple. Asked the guy when he'd last washed his hair, he replied 'about 3 years ago!!' My husband realised the guys whole scalp was covered in a layer of pus!! Sent him straight to A&E to have it drained and treated with antibiotics.

#3 Old young man

“Ahh I just remembered the best one! After a tornado had came through my area an older gentlemen probably 50-65, who was working for FEMA came in for a haircut. During the consultation he told me, “whatever you do, don’t shave the hair off of my ears, my last girlfriend thought it was sexy.” So I didn’t shave the hair off his ears!”

#4 Pimp That Hair

I’m a hairstylist, pretty new still. In school, you can’t really turn anyone away. I had a prostitute sit in my chair, tweaked out of her f***ing mind, with her pimp telling us to dye her stringy, fried hair blonde and cut it to her chin. She didn’t speak for herself at all, she wouldn’t even look in the mirror. he gave all the instructions, he definitely had a specific look for her in mind. He was a huge asshole to everyone and she left the chair to go cry in the bathroom.

A classmate went to go check on her and she had just walked out of the door. He left really quick after that. I think about her sometimes and I hope she’s okay. I wish I had gotten the chance to make her feel beautiful. So that was a pretty nasty expedience even though I didn’t have a chance to start the service. Besides that… I was pregnant throughout school and gagged quite a bit at the ladies who would come in for a wash, blowdry, and style after weeks of not brushing out their hair or washing it. I always suggested braids for these ladies since they obviously for whatever reason chose not to maintain their naturally curly hair but most refused and would be back in 3-4 weeks for the whole process again. This was a very time consuming process with tons of detangling rats nests and dreads that invariably ended in zero tips.

There were also really creepy men that would come in for $5 cuts and say very sexual things and enjoyed the shampoo a looot. My school was basically just a mill of free labor and we had to accept every client no matter what and it sucked, but I’m enjoying more creative freedom now that I have graduated and am in a salon. I still volunteer for events where homeless get free cuts and there are quite a few very dirty people there but I don’t mind because it’s not a daily basis situation like it used to be and I like making people feel good.

#5 the desaster

I used to work as a receptionist at a high end salon. One day, a lady called and asked if we had anyone who specialized in cutting curly hair. I matched her up with someone, asked the standard questions, and made the appointment, which turned out to be for her granddaughter.

When the family showed up, the mother and grandmother were white, and the granddaughter was African American. They obviously didn't know (and didn't bother to learn) how to take care of the girl's hair, because it was in a giant, waist-length ponytail that was completely matted. She also had a bit of a developmental disability, and they claimed she would not wash her hair herself.

I could smell her as soon as she walked in, but when the stylist got her hair wet at the shampoo bowl, the smell quickly permeated the entire salon. It was like a punch to the gut. The hair stylist had to keep coming up front for fresh air. She said giant flakes/sheets of dandruff and buildup were basically crusted to the girl's scalp and throughout her hair. The matted ponytail was the worst of it. What should have been a simple 45 minute service ended up taking over four hours.

#6 Hmm...Maybe I Didn't Make Myself Clear

"I go to the hairstylist for every dance in high school. It's my one splurge! By now, most of the stylists know that I like my hair in an up do, curled, sometimes with a few loose pieces. Unfortunately, on my last visit, I must not have specified exactly what I was looking for. When they spun my chair around, I had cornrows! I'm a redhead with pale skin that does not need to show on top of my head. You can imagine my shock..."

#7 Nest of Spiders egg!

“When I first moved down here and wasn’t aware of who this family was. When all twenty of them (yes, they all come into town together) entered my store, I was very pleased because I wasn’t sure if my barbershop would become popular.

I plop the first kid down in the chair (being polite and pretending not to notice the rank stench of B.O.) and attempted to get to work on his collective mat of hair. Yes, you read that right; his entire head of hair was one giant mat, as was the rest of his family’s.

I broke out the big clippers and attempted to buzz from his neck up, but when I did a nest of spider eggs fell out. The momma spider had made a little burrow in part of his mat and laid eggs.

I kicked the whole family out and still refuse to see them every four months when they try to come back.”

#8 large boil at the neck!

“When I was a broke ass student I was in a place like walmart getting my hair cut. An old lady comes in and sits in the chair beside me.

She says to the hairdresser “oh yes and by the way I have a large boil on the back of my neck”.

Hairdresser says ok.

Old lady says “yes, so can you squeeze it?”

The hairdresser started looking around for tweezers or something and I looked firmly at my lap and tried not to barf.”

#9 Tasty

Haha, not me, and technically not hair but my best friend went to cosmetology school and said the majority of pedicure practice came from old men who would come in to get their toenails cut, because they were too old to do it/couldn’t reach them/whatever. One girl is cutting some old man’s toenails and one went flying right into her mouth.

#10 his ears were covered in blackheads

My cousin is a hairdresser. One time a woman brought in her special needs son. He had some hygiene issues and his ears were covered in blackheads. While all the other hairdressers recoiled in horror, my cousin gritted her teeth and gave that kid the best haircut she could. I really respected my cousin after that.