Why are Philly Hairstylists So Unprofessional? (OPINION)

Ever since I moved to PA about 2 and a half years ago, I have had the worst luck with hair stylist. It seems like everywhere I went had bad service, were unprofessional or completely ripped me off. I've waited over 3 hours for a stylist who arrived late. I've had my edges ripped out by a girl who was supposed to be experienced in doing lace front wigs, but ended up leaving me bald. I've even been charged nearly a thousand dollars by a girl who didn't even cut my wig even. I'm not saying all Philly stylists are bad, but I have yet to experience anything above average.

Everyone keeps asking me to tell of my most recent story where a girl left me in the middle of doing my hair to go fight. Since it's been about 6 weeks and I'm not fuming with anger anymore, here goes nothing.

A few days before I left for my trip to Cancun for my 27th birthday, I had a hair appointment with this girl who I found on Instagram. I had gotten my braids done by her before, and thought she did such an amazing job so I booked her again. The first time I went to her about a year ago, the experience wasn't the best just because she wasn't professional. However, I looked past that because I liked the outcome of her work.

I arrive to her house in Philly and was told to sit in her chair. I sat there about 20 minutes before her cousin started prepping the hair while she ate her lunch in the kitchen. I tried to be friendly and nice and make small talk with her cousin, but didn't get much of a response. The stylist finally came in, started sectioning off my hair and engaged in conversation with her cousin over waist trainers that they had ordered online. 5 minutes into my hair, her phone started ringing. She answered the phone on speaker phone and it was a call from the county jail. The same guy who called her last time I was there, was calling her again. She paused doing my hair to talk to him and their conversation lasted about 15-20 minutes.

I waited there patiently until she hung up the phone and continued to braid my hair. At that point I had been there for over an hour and only had 4 knotless braids installed. Soon after her cousin started ranting about how she got ripped off by the girl who sold them the waist trainers. Apparently they both wanted to start their fitness journey the next day and needed to pick up the waist trainers sometime that day. There was some confusion about the order that had my stylist once again stop braiding my hair to rant over wanting her money back. They ended up calling the girl who they bought the waist trainers from and started screaming about getting their money back over poor service.

Chaos erupted, and to this day I still don't know what their issue was with the girl who sold them the waist trainers. All I know is that they were screaming about how they wanted to fight her. I was so confused, I was irritated and I just wanted my knotless braids!

My stylist turns to me and asked if I minded if she left real quick to go pick up her waist trainer. I asked her how long she would be because I had places to be and things to do. She said, "I mean your hair isn't gonna take but 2 hours to finish anyway." Anyone who gets knotless braids knows if it's done correctly it should take at least 3-2 hours. She then proceeds to complain about how she doesn't want to even braid my hair anymore because she's so "fed up and wants to fight."

They finally agree to meet up with the waist trainer girl at 3:30pm at the burger king, which at that point was in 15 minutes. She told me she was leaving to go get her waist trainer and confront the girl, and that I needed to come along with them. For a hot second I actually considered going. I wouldn't mind seeing a good fight go down. Its been a while since I'd seen some action. Plus I had a strong feeling that If I didn't go, she would never come back.

My boyfriend talked some sense into me and told me to wait in my car and that it wouldn't be safe for me to go with them. So I waited in my car. She said she would be back in 15 minutes, well that 15 minutes turned into an hour and 45 minutes. During that time my car battery eventually died so I was stranded on the side of the street in Philly. My phone died as well and I had left my charger inside of her house. I was crying, annoyed , scared and had 5 braids in my hair. Luckily my boyfriend knew my location and came and rescued me.

Long story short, she never came back and when I asked for my deposit back she never texted back.

Like I said before, I know not every hair stylist in Philly is like this. There are some good ones out there who run a business like it should be be. But since my story went viral on Instagram, I figured I'd tell the whole story.