Hairdressers get brutally honest about the cuts and colours you ask for.

Image via NBC.

Whether it’s a colour, cut, major restyle, or all of the above, we all have ideas of how our hair will look when we stroll out of the salon post-appointment. Often the reality meets your expectations; in many cases, it doesn’t.

Then, there are times when your beloved stylist will flat-out refuse to grant your hair wishes, no matter how much money you’re willing to throw at them.

In a recent Ask Reddit thread, stylists shared their stories of refusal. It’s eye-opening, to say the least…

1. “There are tonnes of hairstyles I say no to – and this is quite common in upscale salons. If you come in wanting to look like Rihanna and you’re white with thin blonde hair… Yeah, no. Not gonna happen.”

RELATED: Top hairdressers reveal the 10 most highly requested celebrity hairstyles.

2. “I’ve said no to women who wanted chemical services that would have severely compromised/damaged or broken their hair off. The threat was always, ‘I’ll just go somewhere else then!’… It sucks to lose that commission, but I’d rather not have my name on a disastrous head.”

3. "One guy wanted half of his head shaved, diagonally. Like from the corner of his right eye to the back left corner of his hairline. The rest of his hair was a couple inches long and he just wanted to leave it. I tried so hard to convince him to do something else, but he said he'd "seen it on a guy and it looked awesome," so I finally gave in and did it. It looked ridiculous. 

"I remember the way he kind of sighed and said it didn't look like he was expecting. I asked what he was expecting and he said he wasn't sure, but it didn't look like that random guy that he'd seen. He was super nice but I really wish I'd said no."

RELATED: Sorry, but your hairdresser totally knows you're lying about these 8 things.

4. "It's about finding a good negotiation between you and a client that's about to drop $300+ for you to make them look good. If they pick a sh*t style, I will not make them look good. I'm a hairstylist, not a wizard, Harry."

5. "I did tell a woman no to a mullet, though she kept referring to it as a 'scene shag'. I explained to her that what she wanted, short on top and long in the back, is indeed the hairstyle we have been trying to boycott for 20 years."

Obviously, a lot of thought goes into this — and according to Alexandra Newman of Chumba Concept Salon, it's not an easy situation to navigate if you don't know the client well.

RELATED: How to tell your hairdresser you hate what they've done to their hair and not ruin your relationship.

"When consulting with clients its always really important to look at face shape, hair texture, and growth patterns. If the style they are looking for isn't going to suit it's most defiantly our job to inform them of that," she says.

"In some cases clients are really insistent or feel like they have the personality to pull it off, so that's when it's cool to break the rules but I think you have to know that client really well, I would find it really tricky to challenge the normal rules of the client canvas on first visit."

Has this ever happened to you? Did you come to a compromise?