Meet the Hairstylists Exposing Bad Clients on TikTok

Hairstylists on TikTok have taken to the clock app in droves to spill all the major tea on some of their worst clients. No shade to any of the stylists, though. They just want to set the record straight on how stressful cutting and styling hair can be. In fact, these videos are primarily light-hearted, usually in the form of a reenactment or storytime delivered straight to the camera. (The so-called “bad client” is never actually in these videos.)  

The hashtag #WorstClientStory has over 61 million views on TikTok and #HairstylistStories has drawn an audience of 7 million and counting. Allure asked two hairstylists to recall why they decided to tell their client horror stories in the first place. 

Ever look back on a stressful situation and wish that you could’ve used that energy to just have a laugh? That “aha” moment is what prompted Dallas-based hairstylist and makeup artist Michaela Paskell to recreate an unfortunate encounter with a client — played by her sister — and share it on TikTok. 

In the 45-second video, Paskell reenacts giving an ungrateful client a blowout and a pair of false eyelashes while recounting the client’s deluge of complaints. “Once I start curling her hair, she starts complaining that her hair’s not soft enough, that I put too much product in it,” Paskell says in the video. After the services are complete, the disgruntled client tells Paskell that her salon setup is ugly and begins to rearrange it. To anyone who needs to hear this: Don’t be that person. 

Paskell created her video mainly for entertainment purposes. It may have been slightly therapeutic, too. Paskell tells Allure that she saw similar videos on TikTok and decided to hop on the trend as well in hopes that her story might help other stylists see that sometimes the only way to get over an entitled client is by having a good laugh.

That’s partly why North Carolina-based hairstylist Madison Gegland shared her experience, too. Gegland’s three-part odyssey is about one very demanding client. The story begins when a woman walked into Gegland’s salon and asked if she could get a haircut on the spot, with no appointment booked. Gegland agreed to take the walk-in but was still tending to another client’s hair. The client started to barrage Gegland with questions about when the cut and color would be done.