How to break up with your hairdresser, according to a salon owner

At some point in your life, you’ll probably find yourself wanting to switch hairdressers. It can be a delicate situation: Do you need to tell them you’re leaving? What do you say?

Calista Carreon, 26, a hairdresser and co-owner of the Montreal salon and barbershop Hair Anatomy, says clients who come and go is just a part of the business.

In this instalment of Trade Secrets – a series of conversations with everyday experts offering their advice on daily life – Carreon shares how to best approach a hairdresser “break-up.”

How long have you been working as a hairdresser?

I’ve been doing hair for six years. I’m originally from Toronto and went to hair school there in 2019. Then Covid hit. My fiancé, Nick, was a barber in Montreal and I decided to move here in 2021 so that we could open a salon together. We have both hairstylists and barbers at our salon. Some of my clients have been seeing me for the past five years, ever since I moved to Montreal.

Have you had clients break up with you before?

Our first location was in the Old Port, then we relocated to Downtown Montreal in 2024. When we moved, I had a couple of clients who said that they weren’t going to be following me to my next spot because the location was inconvenient for them. It was a little bit disappointing, but honestly, we see so many clients and we’re constantly meeting new people all the time, so I didn’t feel upset. That’s just the industry. I’m not usually offended when clients stop seeing me. I know there might be other factors in their personal lives that have nothing to do with me or my services. For example, some clients have talked to me about having to file for bankruptcy or struggling with work.

Do you like when clients give you a heads up when they leave? Or would you rather just be ghosted?

I think it depends on the relationship with the client. If it’s purely professional, I think it’s okay to leave a hairdresser without saying anything. But if you’ve made a deeper connection with the hairdresser, if you’ve become friends outside of the salon, maybe that warrants an explanation. I think sending a text would be fine for that because it’s less awkward than doing it in person or over the phone.

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How often do you discover that clients who’ve left without saying anything are seeing another hairdresser?

Sometimes I wonder about clients that haven’t come in for a while. I remember seeing someone’s Instagram wondering if they got their hair done somewhere else. I was looking through their pictures, zooming in and looking at their hair colour. But I did it more out of curiosity as opposed to feeling offended. I haven’t run into an old client in public before. But if I did, I wouldn’t confront them about it. I’d compliment their hair if I genuinely thought it looked good.

Have clients ever left you for another hairdresser at your salon?

This happens. We have another women’s stylist here and some of my clients have booked with her because of her availability or her price point. I’ll say hi to those clients when they come in. Honestly, I really don’t mind. I’m glad they’re still coming into our salon instead of going somewhere else.

If I wasn’t satisfied with my haircut, how would you recommend I approach this with my hairdresser?

If you haven’t completely lost faith in them and believe they’re capable, I would definitely reach out expressing that you’re unhappy and give them an opportunity to fix it. If you don’t want to see that same stylist, you could reach out to the salon owner or manager and see if they can offer someone else to fix it. As a hairdresser, we would much rather have the opportunity to fix it for you than for you to never come back. We want to leave our clients with a positive experience.

As told to Andrea Yu. Responses have been edited and condensed.