OP- I feel for you. I've had a few bad salon experiences and even when you hold your tongue, push through to force being polite, you still get treated like crap. It's mind boggling.
Years ago I went to a stylist I found on Styleseat for a relaxer touchup. I walked into the salon and the stylist was dying a wig
. If it had been an actual human in the seat, I would've still been annoyed, but I know stuff happens so sometimes things run late. But for her to know she has an appointment coming up and to start coloring a wig (not attached to a human head) was so ridiculous to me. But I kept quiet and sat at the side waiting like 15mins for her to start on my hair. Finally my appointment starts, she puts the relaxer on my head and
then informs me that the building doesn't currently have any running water so some young girl in the salon is going to take me across the street to wash my hair. W.T.F. I had to go outside with relaxer on my head and cross the street to the African braiding salon, who was letting her borrow their sink. I had a wedding to go to the next day so I might have put up with this crap anyway because I desperately needed my hair done that day, but she should have communicated these issues at the start and acknowledged the inconvenience.
I was a dummy/couldn't find a replacement stylist (why is this so hard?) and went back to her months later for another relaxer touchup. I walk in (on time) and there is someone else in the chair. The young woman in the chair just so happened to be someone I went to college with (hadn't seen since) and was pregnant. The stylist was just in a foul mood in general, and when working on my hair keeps complaining about her back pain so she needs me to bend my head down more and more. Yo - my CHIN WAS IN MY CHEST - it couldn't go further. Then she starts going off about how I always have an attitude problem and blah blah. LIKE WHAT??? Never went back to her again. The entitlement is unreal. I didn't go off on her because 1) the stylist and the one I knew from college seemed to be close family friends and I didn't want to make things awkward 2) my gyno had recently made me switch birth control and unbeknownst to me at the time, it was turning me into an emotional psychopath that just cried all the time.
I've recently transitioned to natural and I've attempted to learn to do braids and such on my hair. I'm not that great and the styles don't last as long, but I can't be bothered with trying to find stylists who have good customer service (and who don't charge and arm and a leg).