Never trust the formula in front of you...

A lesson that gets taught, A LOT in this industry is to never trust the formula in front of you.  Here's the scenario:

You've got a client in your chair.  Their last color service was not performed by you.  You go get their color card, check the formula, mix it up, apply it, time it, rinse it....it's too light.  What happened??  You scramble & reapply the color, using a darker formula.  PHEW!!

What happened:  You trusted that what the person did before you was accurate.

In the case of last night, it was.  But it was nearly a year ago that this nice lady received a color in our salon.

What didn't happen:  A thorough consultation and color analysis.
What else happened:  This nice lady has been coloring her hair at home and decided to treat herself to a salon service.  What should have taken a couple of hours, tops (including hair cut & style along with the color) took 3 hours because the color had to be reapplied...at no cost to the client. 

This was Tina's episode of "The Mad Hairdresser" last night (Mad as in crazy, not angry).  In Tina's defense, she was MOBBED last night.  I only found out about it because I went in at the end of the night to get my color done!  It's one of those "honest" mistakes....however, it does tend to stick in the client's mind that this hairdresser screwed up and maybe I shouldn't go to her again.  Hopefully, that won't happen.