No, I am sorry to say you are not the only woman on earth who can't get a good haircut. I too stop strangers with hair I like, take in pictures, etc. When I do find a good stylist, the person moves away after a year or so and I am on the hunt again. I am going to a new one tomorrow and am scared. I just hope I don't come out of the salon tomorrow looking worse than I when I went in.

Sorry I can't help, but you have my sympathy.

Aw it's awful when you don't feel comfortable with the cut you get. You're doing everything right. It's taken me a long time to find someone I trust, and even now sometimes when she tries something new I may not feel right with it until it grows out a bit. They never blow it dry quite the way I can, and it just looks and feels awful when they do it. In the summer I run back home with my hair wet to style it myself! Anyway, the cut is good, and here's what I've done.

Bring a few pictures you like, preferably of someone with your similar shape face and hair texture. Then just talk for a while with your stylist about what you like about the cut(s) AND what you DON'T like about some of them. I will bring some pics of women with slight layers that I like and say I love how this looks here, but here is a similar pic with shorter layers and I hate how it looks over her ears, the inversion in the back wedge is too severe for my liking, etc. This will help your stylist to see what you are shooting for.

Then she will talk to you about what she thinks is correct for your face and show with her hands how short or where the layering will start or why, etc.

Good luck! I think they KEY is to show what you like AND what you do not like.

Another tip is to ask for the person who has been there the longest. They always have more experience. My current person gives me a great cut, but I tell her to skip the blow dry because it is never what I want.

One thing I've learned is to ask the hair dresser to SHOW you (by holding up some of your hair and indicating) what their interpretation of "one inch" (or however much you want them to cut) is.

Well, follow up - I got a pretty good cut! And at a low-price salon. Now I just hope she doesn't disappear or really mess it up next time.

I'm saying, I'm practically paranoid now. Wonder how women in public life and entertainment always have such good hair? You never see them with a bad hair day. Do they wear wigs?

Something I do when I have to go to new hairdresser is wash my hair the day before, and let it dry naturally. By the next day, it has fallen into its natural waves, or whatever rules my hair. Then the hairdresser knows how to use those natural assets (straight, curly, wavy, heavy, etc) to create the style I want. No matter how good they are, if they are working 'against' my hair, rather than 'with it', it never comes out the way I want.

Believe me, it's not just women. I have a pretty simple very short cut. I'll try a new barber shop, and it seems the first time I get a great cut and go back, thinking I've finally found a place that knows how to give a good hair cut. It seems every time I go after that, the cut gets worse and worse. They think they've got a regular customer and get lazy. I tend to look for a new barber about every 6 months.

See if there's an aveda institute near you. It's students so it's moly $18. I've heard hood things. I'm going saturday

I know this is an old thread but I felt just like the OP. Impossible to get a good haircut. I have asked for a trim and got a pixie. Asked for a classic bob and realized in horror that the stylist was whacking the back of my hair into short layers. Asked them to cut my hair following the lines of the old cut and received a totally different hairstyle.

Finally after growing my layers out for almost a year I had my daughter cut my hair straight across on the back, and I angled the sides myself. Now I have the bob haircut I have always wanted and it looks exactly how I hoped it would.

I have requested THREE times that my hair person keep the tops of my ears covered. What does she do? Cuts off more than ever. How does one get through to them? Do they cut/shape more what THEY like than what the customer wants? Also raised her price $5 without another thought. $50 an hour is not bad these days especially when she has eight or so appointments per day!

Fortunately we have a one woman barber shop that also cuts women's and children's hair. My husband and I go in together, for me she just cuts hair but it's not a beauty shop so I go home to shampoo and set it. We've gone there for years and are both pleased with her work..my husband gets a regular mens haircut and I get a short, but not super short cut.

It's funny how even bringing in a picture and explaining what you want doesn't work sometimes, been there, done that.

Hope you find someone that understands the cut you want soon.