Story Time
The bittersweet journey of being an entrepreneur is learning how to build a successful business from the ground up through good and bad experiences. As much as I’d LOVE to cap about an 100% satisfactory rate with my hair clients, I’m not gon front on my own blog. There’s been PLENTY of moments where a client wasn’t the most satisfied with my work. There’s been a PLETHORA of times where EYE wasn’t most satisfied with my work. That also comes with the territory of trying to be a perfectionist. But let’s not get off track from story time.
Iight so boom. This one time in particular, I had a scheduled session with a regular. That’s a loyal client that’s had at least three or more hair sessions with me. Ima call her, Jay. So, a week before Jay’s session, she inquired about knotless braids via text, and she asked for a certain size and length that she found from a pic on Pinterest. The braids were fairly small, and according to my price list I told her the style would be $180 (This happened almost 3 years ago, numbers may be slightly off). My price was more than what she was willing to spend on the style. So Jay decided she’d go with the medium sized braids since it matched her budget. So I said okay cool.
We’re now a couple hours into her session and I’m almost halfway through Jay’s hair. Jay’s mom comes into the area where I’m doing her daughter’s hair, and she does a calm inspection with what I’ve achieved so far. Let me give yall a lil back story. Jay’s mother is also a loyal hair client, and she is very particular about her hair as well as her daughter’s. This behavior is very common when I service clients younger than me, so I’m never offended when moms want to “check on the work that I’m producing”. Jay’s mom came behind my shoulder as I was braiding and said, “Wow Bree. the braids are so neat, I like those.” VERBATIM. Also, Jay has now gotten up and went to the bathroom at least twice during the session. Every time Jay came from the bathroom I’d ask her if she was satisfied with the braids. She says, “yes I love them.”
It’s now 11pm and I finally finished shawty’s hair. She goes into the bathroom mirror, and tells me how much she loves her hair. She pays me, thanks me, I take my earnings and made my way home. A day and a half later, I get a text from Jay’s mom. I don’t have the conversation anymore since it was about three years ago, so Im gonna try to rewrite what she sent me. It went something like:
Hi Bree, It’s Jay’s mom. I just wanted to know if Jay’s hair is supposed to look like this (she sends me a photo of my work on Jay’s hair) because she told me she sent you a photo of what she wanted and it doesn’t look like the picture at all. the braids are too flat and the boxes are too big. I’d like a refund because nobody should have to walk around with a hat on their head.
YALL. YALL. Yes. I too was flabbergasted. Because HUH?!?!!?!?!?!? FIRST OF ALL I had to immediately remind myself of Jay’s age because she was at least 4 years younger than me. And at that time I was about 22-23. Jay obviously didn’t tell her mom the reason she didn’t receive the look that she first found in the photo she sent me. Remember, It didn’t fit her budget. Not only did I feel disrespected because Jay wasn’t grown enough to tell her mother the truth, but I felt wild BETRAYED. Throughout the whole session both Jay AND her mother kept complimenting my work. I reminded her mother of that. She stood quiet. One thing I always do with my clients is make sure that they are satisfied BEFORE l leave their house. Because once I leave that solidifies that I’ve earned every cent I stood on my feet for. Not to mention, her hair took me at least six hours to do, right after clocking out of an eight hour shift from my other job at the time. Jay steps into the chat room and says to be honest she just didn’t want to hurt my feelings. She had me fucked up. I had to remind Jay of my age and also proceeded to tell her that I wasn’t one of her lil friends. I told her she could never hurt my feelings over something SHE was paying for; it would merely be constructive criticism so I could satisfy the next client. OF COURSE I SAID THIS IN MY MOST PROFESSIONAL ACCENT.
LONG STORY SHORT I told both shawty and her mom that I would not be giving anybody any money back. I earned every cent. Like, GIVE ME MY TIME BACK? Exactly. Not something you can do. This aint a product that can be returned, like a hat. Jay and her mom both apologized to me, and then Jay proceeded to ask if I could just come over to redo some of her braids. I told her she would have to book me and my time again. Had she been honest the first time and said she was not happy with the outcome, I would have easily made arrangements to redo her hair. I am a person of integrity and I value all of my client’s satisfaction. But I also value myself, my time, and the honest work I put in when I service others. In this scenario, I wholeheartedly chose myself. It’s been three years and I never heard from Jay or her mom again. I honestly did not mind losing them as clients. Because I’m happy I stood up for myself and did what was right. Jay and her mother was deadass wrong.