J’aime Les Cheveux

**FYI as of ¹⁰⁄₂₀₀₈ — J’aime les Cheveux appears to have gone out of business, or moved from their Oak St. location**
I think your experience of J’aime Les Cheveux depends on which stylist you see. For the record, I have a friend who raves about Lisa for cuts and colour — says her colour is just as good as Toni & Guy for much less money. My friend’s hair always does look good.
Unfortunately, though, I didn’t have a chance to find out more about Lisa’s abilities as she has a newborn and so understandably is not taking new clients. But I figured I’d give one of the other stylists a try because the salon is so close to my house.
I called and got an appointment with Jamie. It was one of the more annoying haircut experiences of my life, because it quickly became clear that she wasn’t listening to my answers when she asked what I wanted to do with my hair. She’d decided what she was going to do with my hair and I wasn’t going to have much say in the matter. What part of «I do not like bangs; that’s the one thing I absolutely do not want in my haircut» did she not understand? Seemed clear to me. But then she made the first cut in front, cutting my hair short, and at that point it was too late to save it. I was going to have bangs.
The haircut she gave me wasn’t bad, it just wasn’t the right look for me or for my face, and it wasn’t what I wanted. I had a similar cut 10 years ago and loved it, but I could do supershort back then because I was in my 20s and thinner. I can’t wear that cut any more, and I know that now far better than I wanted to.
So, two stars instead of one because Jamie seems to be competent at executing the cut she wants to give you. But only two stars because she doesn’t listen and doesn’t consider what would work best on her client.
And I’ll caveat by saying that Lisa may well be worth four or five stars; I just don’t know.