It would never even occur to me not to style it.

Well, I don't ever style my hair (just wash it, put some leave-in conditioner on it, and go--unless that would be considered styling it?), so nope.

Maya, and other curly- or wavy-headed women, what is up with stylists trying to straighten our hair?! Mine does it after she's cut it, because she wants to assess how the layers look (she says she can see the parts that need to be fixed better when it's straight), but the second I get home, I dunk my head under water and make it curly again! I can't stand how it looks when it's straightened.

I purposely don't pull it back into a ponytail or bun (as I do most days) and style it as I would wear it down (were I so inclined) for the reasons mentioned above (e.g., so I can say, "See, it's too heavy looking in the front here" or whatever).

Yep, I always style before I go. I'm usually coming from the gym and there's no way I'm going in with sweaty hair. Eww. Plus, I like her to see what they style is looking like so she knows where it needs trimming.

Jonesy, I can't speak for why stylists do this to truly curly hair, but I think with my hair, it's just not curly *enough* to justify styling it that way. My hair does not clump the way curly hair typically does, and the canopy is basically straight. Sometimes I really feel like I fit in nowhere! Curly girls scoff at my wimpy waves, and straight-haired girls shun my scruffy locks. Sigh.

I think a lot of stylists I have seen see my wavy ends as some sort of defect that they need to correct. It's sad.

Kim -- I do *exactly* what you do, and the very same thoughts *always* run through my head before a hair appointment! I love this thread. Makes me feel so sane. Haha.

I wash and style mine before going in. I find that I get a better cut that way.

I usually pull my hair back when it is wet and then let it dry in the bun or braid. This gives me either wavy or curly hair and I want the hair cut to look good when dry with this "minimal" styling assist.

Therefore I'll typically come into the stylist with dry hair that's come out of a braid or bun so they can see the natural texture/shape my hair takes and cut accordingly.

No, but I never style it anyway. In fact, I usually go with rather dirty hair because I get it colored, and the dye makes my scalp sting unless there's some oil on it! She washes it twice after dying and before cutting anyway so the dirtiness doesn't matter.

I used to think it was a waste of time, but now I style it as well because I want the hairdresser to get a sense of what I do with it and my personal style. Actually it was funny recently when I wanted to complain about my last haircut. I sat in the stylist's chair with the big mirrors everywhere, started turning this way and that to explain the problem, but was like, actually, today it looks pretty nice. Carry on then...

I'm a wash and go gal anyway and at 9.30 on a Saturday morning (my usual appointment time every 8 weeks) she's lucky if I've managed to wash my face let alone my hair!!! I usually try to wash it the night before x

I've generally take both approaches. If I haven't been to a hairdresser before, I actually like to go in unstyled, because then I can show them that I am *not* kidding when I tell them that my hair is full of cow-licks, curly bits, straight bits, frizzy bits and dull bits. I had the unfortunate experience once of going in beforehand with my hair nicely done to a new stylist and warning the stylist that my hair was tricky to cut. He totally seemed to disregard this and I walked out with the worst haircut ever known to womakind!

If I have been to the same hairdresser a few times in a row, I think it is pretty safe that they will remember my hair and I can go in with it styled.

I'm back going to the perfect stylist I went to thirty years ago. I now get it coloured so he prefers I don't wash it which drives me bonkers. Last time I went I washed it at 1 a.m. to go to an appt later that afternoon.

With all the grey and medication my curls are going wonky and straightening out and it is important that he see it like this. It is never the same if not freshly washed.

I don't style my hair before going to the hairdresser, in large part because I often wear my hair unstyled, so I want them to see what it looks like in that state. If I styled my hair every single day, I might do so for the hairdresser so she could see what it looked like/what needed to be fixed.

Maya, stylists always want to straighten my hair as well. Watching them is actually how I learned to straighten my own hair, but now I do a better job of it than they do. What I now want them to do is style it curly so I can watch and copy some of those techniques. The last time I went to the salon and asked the stylist to do that she was flabbergasted and honestly didn't understand what I was asking. I was like "I just want you to dry it curly instead of straight" and I literally had to repeat myself five times. She finally did, but with the warning "if you don't like it, I won't have time to go back and straighten it." Ummm...okay. I can just go home and straighten it myself if I don't like it!

Steph and Maya, I get the straightening bit sometimes, too. Like I said, I know both my Tahoe stylists outside of the salon as well (it is a small town, I guess) and so for them it's kinda fun to give me a different look twice a year than I normally have. But half the time we just dry it curly or not at all! Here in FL, I asked this last time to not have her dry more than just the growing bangs to see how they blended in. There is no hope of trying for a straight look in the Gulf humidity.

Mo, I was just in FL (St. Pete) and my first thought upon stepping out of the airport was that my hair would never survive there. Granted, DC is ridiculously humid as well, but at least we have the winter months where it's not that bad. (Sorry for going OT.)

Ok, while I don't fix my hair before I go... and while I'm more local designer than high-fashion... I totally think about what I'll wear. Might even wear a little make-up. Don't want to be disqualified from the salon... haha!

When I wore it straight, I'd usually pull it into a ponytail first. That's mostly because I could never get it as silky and perfect as my stylist could, and I'm ridiculously self-conscious about not being stylish enough when I go to the salon.

Now that I'm getting curly cuts (three cheers for a DevaCurls-trained stylist!), they tell me to leave it down and natural so that they can see exactly where the curls are.

(And Maya, no one ever said to me, "hey, this isn't really straight!," either. It's so nice to have someone who works with what's there.)

I'm very impressed that so many put in some styling effort before going to get their hair styled!

I guess I'm more the exception - even though it takes less than 5 minutes to dry & style my hair, I (hate doing it and ) only do it a few times a week. I love to schedule my hair appointment when it replaces one of those at-home wash & styles.

I usually go late in the afternoon, meaning I've been at work or whatever with that same hair all day, so I hope it's not *that* bad. . . but definitely not fixed up just for the appointment!

No, but then I never really "do" my hair. I never wash it the day of the appointment either.

Ironically, I "clean up" before the housecleaners arrive !

I make sure to wash and let it fully air-dry before I go (how I "style" it usually) specifically so my stylist can see what my curls are doing; he can then asses what will and won't work for my hair at the time of that specific cut.

Maya, I'm with you. Until I found this stylist several years ago they all would blow my hair out straight OR 80s perm-curl it. My current stylist generally won't do it straight unless I ask him, and always shows me how to do a polished curly blow-dry with whatever cut I just got so if I want to do more than let it air-dry I'll know how to do it. "Curly girls scoff at my wimpy waves, and straight-haired girls shun my scruffy locks. Sigh." This is exactly how I feel too!

Wow. I'm impressed by everyone who styles before they go in for a haircut/styling. I tend to do the opposite...let it look scruffy so my stylist knows how much I need her!

Exactly, nancylee! We make them feel like miracle-makers