Finally got a great haircut!

Persephone, I can relate to you on the hair front! I moved to the rural NW UK and away from an amazing US stylist I'd frequented nearly 20 years. I arrived armed with color formula. My mistake was that I honestly thought it was important to exactly match the color brand of my former salon, so for a couple years in the UK, I settled for a stylist an hour away over difficult roads. She was great with color, but my cut was perpetually uneven and shaggy. I was miserable until I finally relented and tried two or three local stylists that used different color brands but we're still able to closely match my preference. With trial and error, I found the right one! No more shaggy, unruly haircuts, and no more commute.

I think this is of interest.

Could it be that there is just a sort of different set of hairstyle values? For instance, with men's haircuts....I notice a sort of different mind set.....footballers seem to influence a lot. The quiff seems to mean something different here, harking back to rockers and mods....

Here our own Tim Dowling get's his haircut like a footballer:

http://www.theguardian.com/fashion/2014/apr/12/footballers-hair-scott-parker-tim-dowling

And I remember a while back when Posh Becks had that short-in-the-back-tapering-down-at-the-sides cut....and it was everywhere. But too, I have noticed....perhaps not lately, that many British women's hairstyles tend to have a lot of geometric angles and such. Fringe seems to be a big issue....

So I am wondering if when someone goes in to a salon sporting a perhaps more American look.....if when talking about possible cuts....that customer and stylist might be coming from very different mindsets...

Sadly, no. It's an issue of my hair was cut badly on 4 different occasions by two different people. A layer in the same place on opposite sides of my head was 3 inches longer on one side than the other and I did NOT go in for an asymmetrical hair cut. I am actually all in for bangs/fringe.

Not to mention I always bring in pictures because I know that however I talk about hair, even with American stylists, I may not use the right words or we could have different ideas of what a pixie cut or a swing bang is.

The stylists I have been to, other than this last time, didn't check the length to make sure it was even on all sides, they were eyeballing it. Which left me with a not great hair cut.

Ok in this case Occam's razor does apply.

we could have different ideas of what a pixie cut or a swing bang is.

WTH is a swing bang?!   Sounds dangerous! 

I missed my hair appointment at my usual salon in UK (due to family emergency) -- so back in the USA decided to trot off to a salon in my home town.  Lovely stylist -- seemed to get what I wanted.  Said she wasn't going to take too much off and I should grow the sides longer.  Blew it dry and it looked pretty good.  In due course I wash it and blow dry myself at home and it looks blah.  And it cost $52 plus tip.