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The day a walk-in at my station in Austin changed my whole booking setup
I used to take every same day slot that came through, figured more clients meant more money. Then last month a walk-in showed up 20 minutes late with a full head of box dyed black and wanted platinum in one sitting. I rushed through a color correction that should've taken 3 hours in about 90 minutes and had to refund $180 when her hair snapped at the sink. After that I set a hard limit of one walk-in per day and now I block 4 hours for any correction work. Has anyone else had a nightmare client force them to rethink their scheduling rules, or am I the only one who learned this the hard way?
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mitchell.lee2mo ago
Wait, have you thought about how walk-ins are basically gambling on whether the client actually knows what they want? Like, I had this one chick show up with a "quick trim" and it turned out she wanted a whole new style she saw on TikTok, plus she had extensions in that she forgot to mention lol. Blocking time is smart, but maybe also start asking for a photo reference before you even let them sit in the chair. That way you can spot the impossible requests like box dye to platinum before you've already got them wet and committed. It's saved me so much stress, and it makes it way easier to say no when the expectation is clearly off the charts from the start.
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the_linda2mo ago
And honestly, even with a photo reference, you're still playing roulette because half the time they bring in a pic that's been edited to death and expect you to magically match it. I've started asking if the photo is of their own hair or somebody else's, because that changes the whole conversation right there.
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