That time a client's color correction turned into a 7 hour marathon

A client came in wanting to go from black box dye to a cool blonde, said her friend did it at home in 2 hours. I knew it would be tough, but I figured maybe 4 hours tops with a good color remover. The color remover barely lifted it, so I had to do a full bleach bath, then two rounds of actual lightener, then a toner. The whole thing took 7 hours from start to finish, and my back was killing me. I had to completely rework my whole afternoon schedule. Anyone else had a simple request blow up into a full day event? How do you quote for that?

3 comments

3 Comments

rowan4221mo ago

How do you even start quoting for a color correction like that? In my experience, you have to charge by the hour for the actual service time, not just the goal. I tell clients it's a day rate if it goes past a certain point, because you lose other appointments. It's the only way to make it worth your time when a simple request turns into a marathon.

marktorres1mo ago

Yeah, "charge by the hour" is the only way I stay sane on those jobs.

ryan95220d ago

That 7 hour thing happened to me once. I read a blog post from a stylist who said they ALWAYS quote high for black box dye because it's a total crap shoot. @rowan422 is right about the day rate thing, I lost two other clients because of one job like that and it was NOT worth it.