20+ Girls Shared Why They Stopped Visiting Beauty Salons Once and for All

Taking care of oneself is an important part of any girl’s life. Eyelash extensions, manicures, depilation, brow correction, and hair dyeing are all standard practices for any fashionista. These procedures can be repeated again and again and it’s not that easy to break out of this vicious cycle. However, modern tendencies are more prone toward organic and eco-friendliness, which is why more and more women are ditching the salons and going back to their natural beauty.

Bright Side sought out some women who no longer want to alter their appearance and found out why they’ve crossed visiting beauty salons off their weekly to-do lists. The bonus feature will show you 2 pics: photographic proof that it’s not easy to find a good manicurist after moving to a different country and the story of a girl who has never visited a beauty salon in her life.

Makeup

• “My cousin paid €120 for this makeup artist to do makeup on me and give her tips while doing it. How I walked in vs How I walked out, someone please save me.” merionization / Reddit

• “The sad wedding makeup that I paid $50 for.” wytte / Reddit

Eyelash extensions

• Yulianna: I’ve refused to get eyelash extensions once and for all due to my allergy. Even when I was using hypoallergic products, my eyes would itch and turn red. I tried getting this procedure several times but the result was always the same. I had to put up with it — and now I will be wearing my natural eyelashes only. The next step I want to make is to stop going to the tanning salon. Though the natural color of my skin disappoints me, I understand all the harm this procedure does.
• Anna: I refuse to get eyelash extensions or get them laminated. Artificial eyelashes would always fall off together with mine, and after the removal, I’d be left with uneven, randomly located bunches of lashes left on my eyes. I had 2 procedures done and that was enough for me. There is one more drawback to eyelash extensions: it makes you look older. And as for laminating your eyelashes — it looks cool at first, but after some time, the eyelashes over-curl and start breaking.

Hair manipulations

• Polina: Initially, I had straight hair, then I did a perm and repeated it regularly every 6 months for 5 years. Finally, I got tired of curls and did a chemical straightening of my hair. I didn’t get any other procedures done with my hair, and at some point, I noticed it had become much shorter. A part of my hair simply fell off as I was combing it. And, of course, the thickness of my hair is not there anymore. In the photos above, you can see how I end up having less and less hair with every procedure.
• Margo: Laminating my hair is a waste of money. It used to be trendy some time ago. I tried it but realized it’s nonsense.
• Norah: After childbirth, I refused to dye my hair, grew out my natural color, and my curls started to look much better. Now I’m not going to dye my hair until it turns gray.

• Anna: I kept dyeing my hair blonde for a long time. Once, I went to a salon to remove my yellowness and it resulted in me crying in the hairstylist’s chair. She said, “Oops, something went wrong, we got a bit darker hair.” Moreover, they burned a strand of my hair during styling and it simply fell off, and, of course, they didn’t inform me about it. I have been trying to grow it back for the last 2 years. Since then, I’ve had no desire to visit a beauty salon.

• What my sister asked for vs what the salon did vs what my mom did after the salon disaster © Unknown user / Reddit
• Lesson learned: go straight to Mom next time. © raiden18 / Reddit

• I showed my hairdresser the photo and said I only wanted a pattern if she could manage it, and she said she’d go for it, then it came out like this. I didn’t ask for a refund either because I’m a bit shy/awkward. But yea, zero shame in saying you can’t manage something to avoid screwing up someone’s head. © prettys*****kitty101 / Reddit

• This was 2 years ago. I paid $200, they didn’t refund me, and they said they did it perfectly. Ever since this happened, I’ve never wanted to go to a salon again! I do my own hair now! © ElfenLied518 / Reddit

Manicure

• Anna: I had a situation in a beauty salon that squashed my desire to go there ever again. The manicurist wrapped foil on my nails and asked me to sit like this for 25 minutes. I clarified whether removing the upper layer and applying a piece of cotton with foil would be easier. I heard the answer, “Are you trying to teach the master?” After this reply, I kept silent and my face was quite tense. When she started to remove the gel, she started to file it off in a very rough manner and it was obvious that she filed off some fragments of my natural nail. I continued to keep silent, which was a big achievement for me. Then she looked at me and said, “Why are you making such grimaces? You don’t like something?” I was shocked to the core. I answered that perhaps my face reflects all my emotions about the process and that I believe it’s not suitable to make such remarks from her side. Then she asked me, “Are we going to put the coating on your nails or not?” I answered that I didn’t want her to do anything else with my nails. I went to the front desk and calmly described the overall situation. She went to the nail artist, then came back and said, “Why were you grimacing? It’s your fault!” Checkmate!
• Christine: One of the reasons I’m afraid to visit nail salons is due to insufficient disinfection. Of course, the tools get disinfected after each use but I’m not completely sure that everything gets done according to the rules. Because of this, I started to ask the staff whether they have air recirculation in the salon, whether they air the room out regularly, and how many artists and clients can be in the salon at the same time. The answers are quite disappointing. But still, I can’t do my nails as well as they do at the salon.
• Irina: Many years ago, I would use shellac without taking breaks and would adjust my schedule to get signed up for a procedure with my manicurist. When my son was little, I would go to the salon with him. This year I stopped this vicious cycle and went back to my natural nails. I am not going to coat my nails anymore. What freedom! I only go to the salon for basic procedures (without coating) or I do the manicure myself.

"My sister’s nails for a wedding — what she asked for vs what she got"

• Carine: Once, I refused to visit nail salons and didn’t go there for almost a year. All because at some point, it started to seem like all the trendy designs actually looked awful. I would spend a lot of time choosing what nails I would have for the next 4 weeks and would get annoyed because I felt like I had some kind of obligation — as if someone was making me do it, not because I wanted it. Moreover, I was wasting my precious time. Eventually, I started to take care of my nails myself and was feeling happy seeing my natural nails without any coating on them. After some time, I suddenly felt that I was missing having red nails and decided to go to the salon again. Now I know exactly what I like and that I never get tired of nude or red on short nails. My annoyance is gone. Now when I visit the salon, I get to spend time with my nail artist who has also become my good friend over the past several months.
• Yasmine: Say no to gel nail polish. The procedure regularly injures a healthy growing nail, and the quality of the coating itself is often bad.

• Mariana: My dermatologist told me that if a girl doesn’t have an iron cast nail plate, she had better not coat her nails with gel polish regularly because they can become thin and even peel off. It happens more often if dark colors are used. Now I’m afraid to get manicures and pedicures.
• Anastasia: I haven’t visited a nail salon in a year. Once, they removed the coating on my nails and I saw emptiness all the way to the middle of the nail. I thought it was a fungus. I rushed to the doctor to get my tests done and waited for their conclusion for a month. But I was lucky — it wasn’t a fungus. Apparently, they simply injured or broke my nail plate. When the nail grew, the emptiness was filled. After that, I didn’t visit nail salons for a long time — I was afraid of the files that they used before.
• Aytalina: I refused to get gel polish for the sake of ecology. When the coating is removed, it turns into dust, which is essentially microplastic particles. Rhinestones, sequins, etc. are the same thing. I don’t think there’s a need to speak on the harmfulness of microplastic. Moreover, salons use a huge amount of disposable materials such as orange and cotton swabs, gloves, files, and much more. This also has a negative impact on the environment since these products are difficult to recycle. What’s worse is I think they’re not even recycled but simply dumped to a common trash bin without even being sorted through. Too much harmful trash for one client.

Pedicures

• Julia: I refused to get manicures and pedicures in salons. First of all, it feels like I’m wasting my time spending several hours with a stranger who, as a rule, is a person I’m not interested in speaking to. I also don’t like to spend my time going back and forth from the salon. Secondly, I don’t like to depend on the nail artist — if some of my nails break, I should be able to solve the issue myself in 15 minutes. But with the nail artist, I have to call her, sign up for an appointment, and go to the salon to get my broken nail fixed, which, again, is a waste of my time.
• Anna: Last time I visited a salon, I got my pedicure done extremely badly. The nails on my big toes started to grow incorrectly and they hurt. Now I don’t visit salons.
• Catherine: The only thing that can stop me from visiting a beauty salon is the lack of money at the moment. I haven’t done a pedicure myself in ages. Once, I got infected with fungus in the salon, but that still didn’t stop me from getting my pedicure done in the salon again.

Facial procedures

• Norah: I’ve been having issues with my skin since age 18 but still, I visit cosmetologists quite rarely because I always get disappointed in them. Once, a new beautician explained everything about my skin type, its problems, ways to solve them, and she wrote instructions on how to take care of my skin at home. Now I can choose beauty products by looking at their composition and comparing it with the instructions. I do everything at home now and the issues with my skin are gone.
• Natalia: Once, I got injections with hyaluronic acid and paid $500 for it. I didn’t notice any significant effect. This procedure requires lots of money all the time. There’s no sense in doing it only once. And I have no desire to repeat it again.
• Margo: Never in my life have I visited a cosmetologist. And I will unlikely ever go to a salon after hearing what happened to my friend. She got “beauty injections” done and now she looks as if she has a washboard under her eyes — everything is uneven. And all because the salon bought some new and cheap beauty medicine and my friend had a bad reaction.

Depilation

• Anna: I’ve said goodbye to wax depilation and sugaring. I kept suffering from ingrown hairs, it was extremely painful to remove the hair, and I always had an irritation on my skin. The procedure itself, as we all know, is unpleasant. I shifted to laser procedures and have been removing my hair with this method for 4 years and I am very satisfied with it. However, it’s a lie that this procedure can help get rid of body hair completely. There are always some hairs that keep growing back no matter what.
• Tatiana: I have sensitive skin so I decided to go for the most gentle (as it seemed to me) way of depilation, called sugaring. I was ready to see irritation and redness but I ended up having bruises. The waxer assured me that it was a normal reaction. I tried to hide my legs until the bruises were gone. When they were gone, my hair grew back and I had to repeat the procedure. So eventually, I went back to shaving.

Beauty procedures for brows

• Polina: The procedure I will never repeat is getting my brows tattooed. 2 years ago, I did it and was quite happy about the results because they got a very nice shape and the ends of my brows were vivid. However, after 1 year, the color of the dye turned to a blue shade and I’m still trying to remove it. I have already gone through 4 procedures of removing the color with laser treatments but the blue shade is still there. However, I’m still happy with the current shape of my brows. Now I have to always cover the blue shade with a brow pencil to hide it. Moreover, the procedures of removing take both time and money — each one takes more than an hour and costs $40.
• Marina: I started to do my brows myself because the salon I go to didn’t work for some time this year. I dye them whenever I want and correct the shape the way I want. Though the master I used to visit was good, she would sometimes do something wrong or do something different than what I wanted.
• Norah: I refused to do micro-blading once and for all. The pigment that was used for the procedure turned into a red color so I had to get it removed with laser treatments. Now, after 2 procedures, it’s almost not visible. Perhaps I’ll get the third procedure done for a perfect result. I now only do laser epilation and hair cutting in salons.

Bonus #1: “The manicurist kept telling me to trust her.”

I recently moved to Europe and had to say goodbye to my amazing nail tech back home in Canada. I found this woman online and figured, how bad it could be? Her pictures looked legit. This cost me €45 and another €65 to fix. What I had and wanted is in the left pic vs what I received is in the right pic. It started as a normal gel fill. The shape was awful but I thought I could deal with it. Next, she used a pot of thick gel polish with a cheap little brush then dipped them in cheap sparkles. After that, she did 3 topcoats. Even after the UV light, they were a sticky, rough, tacky mess. © sarahtisme / Reddit

Bonus #2: Alyona never visited a beauty salon.

• I’m 26 and have never visited a beauty salon, nor have I ever had my nails, brows, or eyelashes done. I’ve never even visited a beautician. No, I don’t consider it to be something wrong or bad, I simply don’t want to spend my time on it. All in all, the main thing is to love yourself. And I am quite satisfied with the care I give to my appearance; I don’t feel any necessity to visit a beauty salon. I don’t exclude the fact that one day I’ll seek help from beauty experts, but I’m not categorical in this matter. As for now, I feel comfortable without them.

What beauty procedures do you regularly get done in salons?