Let's face it: Any job that requires you to work with the public is emotionally taxing. To put it even simpler: It sucks.
Redditor dreamingofwealth––don't we all?––is responsible for today's burning question, which delves into another side of customer service jobs: "People who wax others for a living, what's the worst horror story you have of a client?"
"My nail teacher..."
My nail teacher told me this one:
A very large lady would ask for a Brazilian wax, which includes the butt crack. She already had strong body odour and when my teacher waxed the crack, the wax strip was caked in feces. She just about threw up on the client.
"She and her girlfriend..."
Not me, but this happened to a friend of mine. She and her girlfriend decided to get Brazilian waxes together. It was her first Brazilian wax, so she had no frame of reference for how much it was supposed to hurt. First strip, okay, few more, fine, then one more pull and MEGA PAIN. The waxer looked terrified, but then just smiled and just quickly made gestures for her to get dressed and come out front to pay (this happened in South Korea).
When she got home, she inspected the area, and the waxer had actually ripped her labia. She had to immediately go to hospital to get stitches to have it repaired. All my friend did was go back to the salon with her hospital bill and demand that they pay it and call the matter settled, which they did.
"I was a hairstylist..."
I was a hairstylist and we really only ever did facial waxing and offered to clients as an up-sell. A regular client of mine was traumatised by a prior waxing experience (with a stylist that was not my self years prior) and declined. Well, the stylist went to wax her brows and dropped a giant clump or of wax on her lashes! Then proceeded to take a long time to remove the wax (I think like an hour) with only water and no oil residue remover that would have made the wax side off instantly.
"Client story..."
Client story - went to a waxing studio I had never been to before and got a Brazilian done. The lady did this with bee wax (I think) which you just put on the skin, it dries quickly and you pull it off without a cloth/paper. You have to apply it at a certain thickness for it to work.
The lady begins and at first, everything is going well, she works her way to the "more private areas" but I can tell she works pretty hard (I have strong hair and this was after 2-3 months of growing). When she gets to the labia, the problems begin: she can't seem to rip the hair off.
Her solution is to apply more wax on top, but still no budging. More wax is applied and she starts slightly spreading it out too, so I am now covered in warm, thick wax almost everywhere, which feels a little like wearing a small harness.
I get a little scared and just hope that she knows what she's doing. She however chooses this moment to inform me that it's possible to rip off skin as well and to kind of scold me for having thick hair. Incredible people skills, so comforting. Luckily, she somehow managed to get it off. Never going back there though!
"I asked this question..."
I asked this very question to someone who was waxing me. Their worst is normally hygiene related, like a woman who'd clearly had sex at some point just before the appointment and hadn't cleaned out properly.
"Most stories..."
Most stories have to do with bad hygiene, some with clients attitudes or actions, and some will just be plain old problems getting the hair off. I haven't had a REALLY bad one in awhile, or maybe I just am not phased by it anymore.
A favorite of mine was the girl who came in for a brazilian and was shaking from nervousness before we even started. I'll spare you the details but it took over an hour to finish the service (usually takes 15-30 minutes, 45 is the MOST it should EVER take) and at some point she had a full on anxiety attack. I was being as gentle as I could considering I was ripping hair out of her body and after every pull she sat up, cried loudly, and then dropped back onto the bed. She got off the bed still half naked and started pacing back and forth loudly sobbing and hyperventilating.
I was trying my best to keep her calm but honestly, it was all in her head. Getting your hair ripped out always hurts but her hair SHOULD HAVE been an easy service, she let herself panic and the fear got to her. After she left I sat in the break room, took a deeeep breath in....and starting sobbing lol. I was so glad to be done with it. She was sweet otherwise, no smell, easy hair to work with, but God that was the most stressful service of my life. She actually came back a few more times after that and we finished in 20 minutes, no more incidents :).
"2 or 3..."
Giphy
2 or 3 layers of skin came off with the hair, it was on a guys genitals and there was a lot of blood and yelling.
"A new client..."
A new client came in right after having sex, and leaked all. And she wanted me to finish the job, so cleaned herself right in front of me, completely nonchalantly! I couldn't look her in the eyes.
And another one, but service wasn't rendered. I was 18, working at my first salon, alone. It was this huge place in a really good area, but new so business was slow. This guy steps in, wearing a super nice suit, and asks for a back wax. I have him step into the wax room, ask him to remove his coat and shirt and lay down facing down. I go to grab some towels as extra precaution to lay over his butt so his pants aren't ruined. Come back to see him naked, and he's asking for a Brazilian wax.
Caught off guard, I just kind of stand there before realizing what a situation I'm in. I have no experience in that, and it's not a service we provide for men. I try to explain that to him and ask him to dress, and he tells me it's not a hard thing to learn, to practice on him. At this point I'm freaking out. I still have an advantage point of running out the front door as he's butt naked and we had two security guards for the plaza, but the situation kind of locks my legs together. I don't even remember how but he eventually listens and dresses and leaves. It kind of taught me about the risk of working alone in a building where I'd need to take clients into a room in the back. I made friends with the security guard that day and got his number in case I ever did need him to step in.
"In high school..."
In high school I had a friend who was smart but lazy. To get him motivated to get better grades, my friends & I made a bet: if he didn't meet a certain average then I'd get to wax his armpits. If I didn't make that same average, I'd have to do 50 push-ups on the cafeteria table.
He didn't make the average so I had a pool party at my house with my friends & him & we all gathered around to watch me wax his armpits. He was lying on his back on the family room ottoman & I was sitting beside him, leaning forward to do it all. We also recorded it on video. He spent the entire week hiding from his bigoted dad cause he was scared he'd get in trouble for having incredibly smooth armpits.
Fast forward to a few months after, when I had a school project that involved making a video. So I took the camera to my teacher to show it to her. This camera shows the history of most recent videos, so since the waxing video was the only video before my project, she saw the thumbnail of me leaning over my friend, lying on the ottoman, but you can't see what I'm doing with my hands....after freezing & seeing the confusion on her face I tried to quickly explain "myfriendlostabetsoihadtowaxhisarmpits." I stuttered & struggled a lot with that.
I don't think she believed me. That little thumbnail honestly looked like the intro to very bad amateur porn. I still got an A on my project though. I also never had to do push-ups in the cafeteria.
"A waxer..."
A waxer once told me that she had 'accidentally' waxed a girls tampon straight out. The string must have got caught in the wax. Neither of them said anything for the next 30 mins.
"Frequently..."
Not a waxer, but an eyelash technician. One time I had a client come in with crabs in her eyelashes which was obviously the worst thing I've ever seen. Frequently people come in for fills and haven't bothered to clean their eyes for 3 weeks thinking it will make the extensions stay on longer resulting in a nice layer of yellow crusties all along the lash line.
"My sister..."
My sister was an esthetician and refused to do 'LAs' (lips and @ssholes) because of issues with people's hygiene and how gross it could be. Her co-workers gladly did them though (better tippers, in general, when you're waxing their @sshole and don't hurt them too bad lol).
Sometimes people come in and their super sweaty, and it's hard for the wax to stick to sweaty skin, so, usually, they just pat some baby powder on them and problem solved.
One day a younger woman came in; she was super sweaty, so the esthetician decides to haul out the baby powder, dabs some on and turned to get the pot of wax to do the job...I should mention the woman getting the wax was on all fours on the table, as they usually are. So, esthetician turns to get the wax, woman on the table lets out a fart. Just a little slip, but still, baby powder went everywhere, all over the table, all over the esthetician, and was hanging in the air.
I asked if the girl was embarrassed, and my sister said that apparently she just played it off like she didn't drop a bomb, but the baby powder evidence told the truth. Plus, it reeked. But the esthetician was a total pro and didn't even phase her...that would have been the end of my waxing career lol
"A regular client of mine..."
Not so much a funny one, but a bit of a story nonetheless.
A regular client of mine that I had been seeing for about half a year came in for her Brazilian wax. Everything is going fine as normal and then I get to the labia and as I'm spreading the wax I notice a golf-ball sized lump deep under her skin. I remove the wax and investigate a bit.. not an igrown hair, nothing surface related. I let her know and she tells me she'll see her doctor ASAP. I never saw her again. Still wonder if it something serious :(
On a funnier note, had a woman come in for a Brazilian who clearly hadn't done any maintenance in a LONG time. I remove the towel that's covering her ladybits for privacy while we enter and leave the room and I actually out loud said "whoah". Hair had to have been almost 4 inches long. Not my most professional moment. Client laughed though.
"I went to beauty school..."
I went to beauty school for massage therapy and was talking to an esthetic student during lunch one day. She said a guy had come in for a back wax looking like a shag carpet. Being that there was so much hair and surface area, it took quite a while. He one-upped every conversation with his Dungeons and Dragons game and even after the service was over, kept talking her to death about it, and didn't tip. He also moved and got a quarter-sized drop of wax on his arm and just left it there the whole time.
"We laugh about it..."
Client story - not as dreadful or gross as the others here but...I tried a new place that promised to do full Hollywoods in 15 mins.
I walked about 10 minutes to the salon on a freezing cold evening.
The girl slathers on the hot wax all over my front garden and starts to pick off the wax. Only she can't. She laughs nervously and says it's probably because my skin is ice cold still. After 10 minutes of humming to herself nervously, she calls in the manager, who calls in another beautician. I now have 3 women all working together on my lower region while my legs are akimbo and I'm panicking thinking I'll be the laughing stock of the A&E. Eventually the manager just fucking goes for it without warning and rips it off in one piece. I scream "OOH FUCK OFF" and everyone is suddenly feeling a mix of relief and upset. They are devastated how terribly it went, I'm devastated because the original girl is still upset. I assure them they didn't rip off my labia and henceforth would not be leaving a bad review on Google. We laugh about it afterwards though. They gave me a complimentary treatment which went well and I've been a regular since.
"I'm a cosmetologist..."
I'm a cosmetologist so I am trained in waxing, but this happened to my instructor during school, not to me - although I was watching her demonstrate.
A woman came in for a Brazilian wax but was a little "unprepared". She said she'd just had sex with her husband right before her appointment and hadn't cleaned up afterward, so there was some...residue and some pretty gross smells going on. My teacher cleaned her up and began the wax, and suddenly the woman started moaning. She asked if she was okay or needed to stop the wax, but the gal said to keep going. Obviously she was getting off on it and with every tug of the wax strip, her moaning got louder and louder until she finally climaxed. My poor teacher was obviously horrified and just did what she could to get that woman of there as fast as possible. It was a ridiculously uncomfortable situation and to be honest, I would have told the client to leave if I had the courage to speak up. Totally weird and not appropriate.
"It was made even worse..."
Not an esthetician, but a client. I got a manzilian wax once and accidentally "leaked" a tiny bit of semen during the wax. I was horrified and it wasn't even my first time. I wasn't aroused or anything and it just happened. I apologized profusely and she said it was fine and that she'd give me a towel and step out the room to clean up. It was made even worse because I had just minutes before asked her about her horror stories. Now I'm hoping I'm not one of hers.
"It is not uncommon..."
It is not uncommon for clients to have dingleberries when coming in for Brazilians.
My personal story is a client who had WHITE blonde eyebrows. These things were impossible to see, and there was a LOT of eyebrow hair. She said she loved my brows and wanted hers like mine. I laid her down on the table (also note: she had foils in her hair as she was getting her hair done) and I get to work. I am a new esthetician and so I'm slower with my waxes. I am trying to be meticulous with my shaping and at one point I could feel my armpits get spicy and I think to myself "I can't fucking do this." I finished one brow before she had to have her hair rinsed out and another stylist finished her other brow. I am still ashamed.
That kind of thinking, however, does little to keep us from feeling dejected for days on end.
Curious to hear from heartbroken strangers on the internet, Redditor whitecheeks-24 asked:
What's your sad love story?
Death never comes at the right time.
A Difficult Decision
"The love of my life and soulmate who I was married to for 20 years and together for 24 passed away about 8 months ago. I feel alone and empty inside. I have nobody to love or to love me. My life is an empty waste of space now."
"I took her off of life support because I know that's what she wanted and I had to respect her wishes but I sometimes wish I was a little more greedy. I just want my doll face back."
– StraightSho
Deep Despair
"I am so sorry. I had to do the same thing with my love, married 40 years. It's been 28 months and I'm sinking deeper into despair. We had so many plans, did everything together, and I am honestly lost without him. I send you warmest regards."
– imrealbizzy2
The Shy Admirer
"I was a shy teenager, in love with a cute neighbor. His sister and my mom were friends. He died in a car accident. Nobody knew how I felt about him. I overheard his sister tell my mom that he was in love with me. We never got to share our feelings with each other."
The Illness
"I think a guy I found on match.com died but I have no way of knowing. We had only been dating for 2 or 3 months and we were taking things slow. Then he got sick..tumors in his back and he needed surgery. We still hung out but he was in a lot of pain."
"At the time I was frustrated because I felt he was pushing me away. I just adored him and he was sending mixed messages. Now looking back.. I'm thinking he was just trying to survive. He went in for surgery and I never heard from him again. I didn't know his family and he didn't have social media."
"My mom would check the obituaries in the paper for me and I just always wondered. I hope he didn't know how to end things and just felt this was easier. It's been 5 years and I have a family of my own now but Michael..I hope you're okay."
It's hard for these Redditors to accept the fact their love was never meant to be.
Long Distance Fizzle
"I had to leave my first boyfriend behind because I moved out of state and didn't even get to say goodbye because I didn't know we were moving when I left. We left to see my aunt who had been traveling and was diagnosis with brain cancer in another state, she was too sick to travel home so they rented a house and stayed there essentially until she passed away."
"My mom liked the area better than my hometown tho so we ended up staying, our stuff was shipped to us so I never got to say goodbye to my boyfriend in person."
"We kept in contact for a couple years but being 16 and 18, it wasn't easy for me to just pack up and head back to move in somewhere with him. We both knew we weren't ready for that so we tried our best to keep the long distance romance going."
"Eventually he messaged me one day and told me that he can't do it anymore and he didn't want to hear from me again because he couldn't handle it."
– MotherOfBorzoi
Unrequited Love
"When I was in my early 20s, I've had a love at first sight experience. It completely broke me. He actually was into me too, but not in love like I was."
"I had never had a boyfriend before and I got so excited, I came in like a wrecking ball to cite a great poet. Long story short, I scared him off, he broke up, I couldn't get him out of my head and couldn't imagine a world without him, so I tried to kill myself."
"Though let me reassure you all, it's been years and I'm over him (as long as I don't see him IRL, I just know that I'd fall back in the spiral), I even had a long-term relationship after him."
– marie-llama
Tough Reality Check
"I got left out of a 5 year relationship. I got injured, lost my job, and had to go take care of my dying mom. I was not in a good way. I come back from the ER and she calls our entire relationship off because I was not 'passionate' any longer. Right."
"My entire life fell apart. Lost the house we had gone in on. Lost the dog we had gotten together. And I lost my girl. She was my bestfriend, my first love."
"Huge reality check but at least I'm only 22. I'm glad I saw her true colors when things went bad. Easy to stand by someone when times are good. Saddest part is I would take her back in an instant. I lost a piece of my soul with her."
– schassis408
Some of the biggest heartbreaks come when someone shows their true colors.
Deception
"FOUND OUT MY BOYFRIEND WAS MARRIED WITH KIDS ON THE INTERNET. I was happy and in love for two years. One day while doing my research for a client work, I come across a research paper. The research paper matched what I was looking for, scrolling through it, I realized the owner had some names as my boyfriend."
"But this time he acknowledges his wife and two children for being patient with him as he was busy doing the thesis. I got curious, I took a screenshot and sent him a picture and asked if it's his paper."
"Also, I asked if it's true that he has two kids and a wife and he why didn't tell me. He answered 'DOES IT MATTER '. That was the end of my relationship. Never talked about it, never told any soul what happened."
– MURKOMEN
Heartbreaker
"I finally got with my best friend and soul mate. He knows more about me then anyone and knows what I've been put thru my whole life. When we first got together he promised he would never do anything to me that others have."
"One year later he cheated, lied and and broke my spirit. Something i never thought was possible with me, yet he accomplished it. It's been a year since i left him and he still tries to get back into my life. The sad part is I know he doesn't love me and I can't stop loving him."
– shortgirl1978
Ungrateful
"After four years of supporting my lover through his depression and alcoholism, he announced tonight that he is leaving me. I'm pretty depressed."
– Jackie_Mojica
A Devious Scheme
"Wife moves our small family across the country for a promotion at her company. When we arrive and settle into our house, she leaves me for her boss."
"The move was a scheme for her boss to leave his wife and kids, and for her to leave me, while being able to be close to all their children. So I unknowingly left my career, family and friends behind to move to a state where I don't know anyone so she could be with her new guy."
– ramos1969
Unexpected tragedy will always be, to me, the saddest break up story.
A co-worker of mine used to date a young man who was a patron at the store where we both worked.
Their budding romance was new and exciting and absolutely adorable to watch.
He told me he planned to propose to her before he went away on a family vacation, but sadly, my friend never got the proposal. The guy drowned in a horrible boating accident during his trip.
Although my friend is now happily married with two kids, I wonder if she still thinks about him.
If you or someone you know is struggling, you can contact the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-TALK (8255).
To find help outside the United States, the International Association for Suicide Prevention has resources available at https://www.iasp.info/resources/Crisis_Centres/Want to "know" more?
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I swear if every single person was forced to work in the hospitality industry for at least one month in their life, y'all would be beside yourselves. The amount of craziness and laziness could keep you eating at home for every meal until death.
Play Big
martin scorsese casino GIFGiphy"Casino dealers really do want the players to win. We don't work for the house. We get paid crap hourly rates and rely on tips. Unless the player is super nice they only to tip if they win so we really do want you to win." ~ thedevilsgame
Not the Good Stuff...
"That you can take a gallon of paint and give it a different label, price point, and warranty depending on the store it is sold in." ~ big_d_usernametaken
"My professor told me the same thing. He was a job coach and erased the due dates on food products with I believe acetone or some product in nail polish remover."
"Would slap a new date on it, and the food would get shipped to poorer neighborhoods. That crap blew my mind." ~ Additional_Bar_2013
"Oh crap, I may actually go to jail."
"That if everyone being charged with a crime insisted on it going to trial, no plea bargaining, the system would crash." ~ mikenyle
"When I was a juror, the judge also commented before everything started that trial by jury is the only thing causing people to plea bargain and "getting the system moving."
"Many trials sit in limbo for years, and it's only the threat of "Oh crap, I may actually go to jail."
"That really negotiations start. That's exactly what happened in my case - jurors got selected, and that afternoon (after being 2 years in the system), the defendant pleads out." ~ zealeus
Fake Care
"Safety. It's not really about your health and well being. It's about saving the company money from medical expenses, lost time, lawyer costs, etc. Very rarely does your company actually give 2 craps about you, no matter how much they preach safety, they just don't want to pay if you get hurt/killed." ~ WhenThePiecesFit
"pen to paper"
New Girl I Give Up GIFGiphy"TV/screenwriter here. If you're established and well connected, it's very easy to coast and be a TV writer for YEARS and do very little actual writing. Most of TV writing is just talking in a room with other writers spitballing."
"This is why there's so many old, unfunny dudes still "writing" on TV shows. They're hired by their friends and in TV, a lot writers don't actually do much "pen to paper" writing. Plus everything gets rewritten to death." ~ GardenChic
So much mess. Someone hire me to write for TV. Why are you just giving away jobs to unqualified people? Life is so unfair. This list makes me mad. Let's continue...
Carbon Copies
mail GIF by RabbidsGiphy"I work in the print industry, we print cheques for companies and there is so little security involved in hiring, or keeping the materials secure, or running the actual work, or shipping the work to customers. I'm shocked we haven't had a problem with stolen cheques." ~ Jeff_Cunningham
Followers
"Advertising. I keep reading that advertising is leading people to be more woke, or multicultural. Companies don't lead, they follow. They do lots of research and know where the future markets are."
"I worked for a very conservative global brand. 5 years before gay marriage became legal, they told us it would happen and we needed to start targeting the LBGTQ community." ~ leftside72
"connection"
"Visa agent and I've seen people be refused because the manager didn't like their face." ~ Ok_Albatross9395
"Omg this happened to my sister. She couldn't start her semester in time because she kept being refused a visa even though she fulfilled all conditions."
"Finally my parents found a "connection" in embassy to see what's going on; turns out someone just didn't like her when she came to give her papers the first time. I never knew if I can fully believe that story." ~ animal7239
So much typing...
"I'm a writer, among other things. I used to ghostwrite. You'd be amazed how many popular books are partly or fully ghostwritten. I specialised in taking people's crappy first drafts and rewriting them so they were actually good. Not "good" according to people's taste, which is subjective."
"But objectively better in the sense of being properly spelled, not having gaping plot holes, making sure characters were consistent. By the time I was done there was often very little left of the draft the "writer" had created, but there was a marketable product."
"Pisses me off no end when I see all the bull the publishing industry comes out with about how writers submitting a manuscript must make sure it's perfect because only excellence will get you anywhere."
"I don't know how they can say that and still sleep at night, knowing full well that they're hiring people like me to do large-scale rewrites (or to take a half-baked plot and create a draft from scratch)." ~ iwillckingbiteyou
Thieves
Joseline Hernandez Facepalm GIFGiphy"I work in payroll. The number of payroll reports I see where people are conned out of their overtime is saddening."
"Also, taxes paid by a business shouldn't actively dissuade them from paying employees less. The system shouldn't be based on paying a percentage of employee salary in taxes (FICA, Workers Comp), in other words." ~ ThongofSekhmet
I think some investigations need to be launched. I always knew payroll departments were running a scam. Too many people are being ripped off. Time to expose some people.
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