Help. How do I break up a ten-year-relationship with my hairdresser?

Oh gawd.

When we saw this question lob into the inbox of Ask Bossy, our agony aunt, it made us want to curl up and dye.

Because it’s a dilly of a pickle.

Desperate and dishevelled

Dishevelled writes:

Dear Bossy,

I’ve been with my hairdresser now for maybe 10 years. I really like her company. I’ve tried others over the years, but the chatter is awkward and annoying, or their style is too loud, or they just seem to be trying too hard to be trendy. My hairdresser is real, no-nonsense and knows when to talk and when to leave me alone.

Have you noticed I haven’t mentioned the actual cuts?

In about 10 years I’ve probably had three or four cuts I really liked. They were almost perfect, and I just wanted to freeze them.
But it seems like I can’t make it happen again.
I’ve tried everything: giving a simple brief (length and layer/not layer), brought in photos, said how much I liked the last cut and can she do it exactly the same… Some are post-mortems – ie: what doesn’t work.
Each time, it feels to me like she understands. But each time the result seems different.
It's a mystery to me. I still don’t know if my hairdresser can’t understand what I want, or isn’t capable of doing it? Maybe it's me, I can’t communicate my brief, or I keep changing it based on what seems to be working/not working? Maybe she doesn’t understand my hair? 

The bottom line is I feel I need to break loose to see if I can find someone who understands what I want, and my hair better.

But even if I just do that only once and decide to return to her, she will know and I will feel bad.
Is there a nice way to do this? How can I ever walk past her local shop front again?

Hear the full answer here...(Post continues after audio.)

Crikey. Would you lie your way out of it? Fess up after ten years? Pretend you had to move interstate and then every time you walk past the salon, don a wig and a fake mustache?

What would you do?

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