Before I begin I should lay some groundwork for my story. A local high school sells some fundraising cards that offer coupons to a lot of local businesses. I bought one and frequently use said card at a local haircut chain that offers $3 off each haircut.

The closest haircut chain place to me closed about 8 months ago. The fundraiser card only works in two cities, and the store that closed was the only one of its type in that city. The other city is at least a 20 minute drive for me. Meanwhile there’s another place right on the border of my city/other city but technically not either of the cities listed on the card. They offered me some good other coupons for switching over to their store post-my store closing, but after those ran dry, I’ve been asking if they’d honor my coupon card which they've said yes to 3 times.

So I’ve been going to this place, getting my usual haircut, which is basically a buzz cut. Everyone always comments on how super easy it is. I don’t know if that’s hairstylists commenting on how they enjoy easy ones sometimes or if they genuinely believe it’s a haircut that isn’t worth their time.

During my haircut my hairstylist (whom I've had before) gets an insane amount of hair off per swipe and pushes it off my head down the front of my face. Not just once or twice, but a few times in a row. My eyes and nose are caked with hair and I’m having a hard time not starting to tear up cause it’s irritating my eyes. I didn't say anything, since I'm an introvert by nature and secondly, you don’t really want to piss off a person with a razor.

Hairstylist says nothing either, uses her fingers to wipe off most of the hair on my face a few minutes later. We finish up after less than 10 minutes and I go to pay with this fundraiser card coupon. It takes bringing over the manager to get the coupon added. I never made a big fuss about it, just explained how I went to the old store, it closed, and would like to use it if I still can.

After it’s all settled, there’s a screen on the card reader that asks for a tip. You have to manually press a button to type in the amount and each time it makes a noise. It's obvious if you tip or not cause the hairstylist can hear an amount being entered in.

My hairstylist says “here’s the tip screen! Remember that?” I unenthusiastically say “yup” and just hit continue so I can swipe my card. Out of the corner of my eye I notice her face pales a bit, but she hands me my receipt, thanks me, and I go on my way.

I really feel awful about when people skimp out on tips as a society. I’ve never worked a tip job so I don’t know how much it actually is necessary as far as their wages go. Am I the asshole for not tipping after my poor experience, even after what they did for me with the coupons?

TL;DR: my old haircut store closed, got good coupons with them, had to move to a new store within the same chain, got a subpar haircut, asked if they could honor the coupon, then didn’t tip based on the haircut I received.