Perhaps she has had recent bad experiences with clients who insist on talking politics, religion, etc.

I’ve never had my eyebrows done by soneone else, but thinking maybe moving one’s face during conversation slows down or affects the process?

Maybe it's not that stylist or technician does not want to talk to the clients, but more that other clients do not want to listen to other people's endless conversations.

Because there seems to be an increasing fraction of people who talk loudly and incessantly about personal topics that really shouldn't be for general consumption.

And as usual, policies like this are reactions to the extremes that affect everyone else. Because you can't really say " You can talk, or you can't talk, to individuals, or you can talk about A but not B".So, regular, normal, intermittent conversation gets forbidden as well. And who will be the biggest breaker of the policy? The individuals who make the policy necessary in the first place.

My first thoughts were exactly what Lucille and lisaam said.

My hair stylist also does eyebrows (in a closed room, not open to the whole salon) and she has mentioned both those things to me regarding some of her eyebrow clients.

With eyebrow services like hers, they generally rent out rooms in salons or other places, and it is only you and them in the room. If you arrive early for your appointment, you wait outside the room.

And I would think that if it's a matter of not moving your face during the process, it's something she can tell you once she starts waxing or tweezing or whatever, rather than putting it in a dozen places on her web site.

Maybe it is just a reaction to some bad experience(s) she's had. But I think for a lot of women, beauty services are a way to feel pampered, and being told to shut up beforehand seems a bit off.

I can understand you feeling off about it, sas. It might be an initial ’rule’ that will be relaxed as you get to know each other.

I get my eyebrows threaded and gosh, if it takes more than 5 minutes I'd be surprised. Maybe people are staying in the chair to chat after their service and it's messing with her schedule?
(Edited to add - I've never seen the "rule" before.)

Odd, but I would love it. I get rather tired of hearing some of the chat from my personal groomers.

I've never had my eyebrows done but if chatting moves your eyebrows around it can affect their shaping. Instead of "No talking" (!!) maybe explain why speaking can cause eyebrows to move around, it wouldn't sound like a crabby librarian.

Why are eyebrows typically done in a private room? At Ulta, it's right in the middle of the store.

No, chatting does not create a problem with the service. IME brows are done lying down… in a private room, i suppose like any waxing service. I cannot imagine it sitting up but ymmv. Maybe just shaping?

I have no experience having eyebrows done, but if her reviews were otherwise good I might give it a try. It does seem odd to plaster it in multiple places on the website, but the experience itself of not talking during the procedure might be pleasant.

Man, I wish I could get the woman who cuts my hair to shut up. 😄 She does a great job on my hair but endless mindless chatter isn't my thing. I just smile politely and let her ramble on....

I agree with it being odd, but if it were someone who I thought would do an exemplary job, it wouldn’t deter me. For my eyebrows, I currently go to a spa/salon. The spa side is all dim lights and soft music. The woman who does my brows and I chat up a storm once we get into the little room, but we are quiet in the waiting room and the hallways.

I actually love this. I have mine done in a nail salon, no private room. After exchanging pleasantries, K goes to work and I don’t see a reason why we should be talking during the process. Mine are threaded with some plucking and done sitting up. I do not like waxing.

When i go to a nail salon, I appreciate quiet. A previous one had a litte sign that asked for consideration of others.

I usually go on off hours to my current one so it it usually empty.

Just out of curiosity, i would ask why this policy started

What type of brow service do you have done?

The expectation might be coming from the brow tech. I can imagine all kinds of reasons why one — okay, why I — might want to not have to navigate conversation and social ”stuff” while I use my aesthetic and technical talent. Also, I haven’t had my brows done in 30 years, I’m going to kook for someone like that.

Not ever had my eyebrows done, but do remember years ago how a hairdresser destroyed my hair because she'd gotten herself so worked up over a family issue and was telling me all about it. I'm always super careful now to keep any convo light and pleasant. I'd rather silence and she concentrate on the job rather than that!

I think it is a delicate balance. If you are in the beauty industry, you need to create a book of business and that entails being good at what you do, but also, generally, you want your clients to like coming to you. How do you do that? It is not the same for everyone.

Moreover, if you go to a salon and stylist for years on end, it would be almost unnatural not to get to know one another.

I switched stylists a year or so ago and I felt a little bad because i liked the person. I hesitated switching but her salon did not offer brow work and so it was an extra trip, and also when she HL my hair it never added body, and it usually does IME. I told her that but it did not change.

My new person is excellent but barely talks to me at all; the stylists banter with each other a lot, which is odd and borderline rude. But they have good WIFI, lots of outlets and hand out lapdesks! Oh and a doggie, I like that better than stylists trying to make convo with the same list of questions all day.

Sounds like she is trying to drive it home about not talking. I would imagine the reasons for this are many, but I wouldn't hesitate to use her. At least give it one shot.

I've never had my eyebrows done or even my hair done in the last 25 years. The last time I had my hair cut in a salon, the owner who did my hair wouldn't stop talking. That was in between her ex calling her at least 4 times while I was in the chair and she actually answered the call each time. I would have welcomed the "no talking" rule.

Totally agree Mtn. Everyone is different, and likes different things. Part of it may be introvert vs extrovert personalities, and even banal chatter these days can wander into "I'd rather not "go there" with my hair stylist" - and especially while she is holding scissors over my head. (I too had one bad cut bc she got herself all twitterpated, I felt like her therapist trying to calm her down and have her not butcher me in the process.)

It is a balance, and I guess it is rare to get right all the time.

Lapdesks! I want a salon that provides lapdesks!

I think the chatter thing is so American. Silence would not bother me a bit and I do not find it odd at all. The technician must prefer that and perhaps it helps her to concentrate.

I forgot to mention, my dental hygienist is wonderful. He is warm, likeable, handsome even. It definitely makes me more likely to make/keep regular appointments. I used to go to a dentist where the hygienist always seemed to scold. I would put off those appointments.

The dentist affiliated with my new hygienist is, by contrast, a cold fish. Not worth changing over, but he is just ... cold.

But... the hygienist talks "too much" and will stop so I can answer, which seems so inefficient! I feel like I should reply monosyllabically, but he converses like we were having coffee. It is kind of funny to me.

I like quiet, too, and am not a fan of the endless chatter. My former colorist drove me up a wall because to her, 10 seconds of silence was unfathomable, but I soldiered through it because she did a good job on my color. But usually, when I see my hairstylist, my brow person, whomever, I usually start with the usual pleasantries like how's the family, did you have a good holidays, etc. And then the people I deal with know me enough over time to know I don't need the continued conversation, which may or may not be a relief for them as well.

I would have no problem not having much conversation during most any service. But having someone say to me "you can't talk" is ridiculous, IMO.

Maybe I missed it, I haven't read all the replies closely, but perhaps it's not about personal preferences, but that the salon is trying to provide for customers with sensory issues, like some people on the autism spectrum - or perhaps the owner themself &/or employees are in that category as well?

I have a hair stylist in NY and one in Florida. The Florida salon is in a My Salon. Each has their own little shop. One customer at a time. I prefer this to my NY salon. Constant bantering between other customers and stylists talking about things that either do not interest me or include me. Eh, it is what it is. Not much of a choice as I prefer Kevin Murphy products.

Sas, what you just said reminds me of something I saw that came through on my FB.

The stylist charges a fee with ” therapy” or without ! When the customer starts trying to talk, she duct tapes her mouth shut!

The longer we get to know each other, more personal details are shared.

Eld, that's funny! My colorist is in a thing similar to My Salon. I just love being the only person in there. My stylist is in a regular salon, but the chairs are really spaced apart and though the atmosphere is somewhat "buzzy," I can't hear the conversations going on with the other stylists.

Mtnrd, I never got that thing with hygienists asking questions and such. It seems rude if you don't answer, but many seem annoyed if you do.

My hair stylist has a private room. It’s so nice and peaceful. Each room in the salon has a door with a full window that overlooks a beautiful courtyard with fountains, plants, benches, bistro tables. I always ask her to leave the door open when weather permits because I love the sound of the fountain. I’ve known her for nearly 30 yrs, so we always have a nice conversation, catching up.

I really like not being in a busy, open, noisy salon.

ETA: Each room has its own sink and dryer, so that’s really nice, too.

This is a good topic, glad you brought THIS up. I always wonder what salon etiquette I might be breaking. Maybe THIS "no talking" makes sense....based on what's been said here.

I looked up gym etiquette for a steam room. It said NOT to talk. The steam was supposed to be relaxing.

true - you don't talk in a steam room unless no one else is there

Soooooooooooooo....a guy sat down in the steam room yesterday and asked "How is everybody?", out of 6 people, 3 answered "fine". Maybe there should be a "quiet" sign on the door.

I'm glad the eye-brow salon tells people what is expected of them...so they can comply.

No matter the service - cut, color, mani, pedi - I love minimal convo once past the initial pleasantries and discussion of services/style/colors. By giving only short responses, nods or mm-hmm I'm able to keep chit chat within my tolerance level. But having a website plastered with directives not to speak is odd at best. I would have to ask about it.

A few years ago, a woman who used my stylist was often in the chair just before me and loudly discussed not only her brand of politics but her opinions on all manner of topics not suited for a salon. The stylist asked her repeatedly to refrain, went so far as to have a sign made for his station that asked for no political discussion yet she continued. I noticed her absence after a while and asked - the stylist said, "I had to fire her."

I discussed this topic with the woman who just did my mani-pedi. She had a different take on it. She said some clients get so chatty that they go over their appointed time. She said some not only chat, but they want to show her pictures, etc., which burns a lot of time.

My BFF fired her hair stylist because the stylist was too political. For a long time my friend just ignored these comments and made no comment, hoping she'd get the hint. Than one day the stylist, who seemed to mistake silence for agreement, asked my friend about some news story point blank, and my BFF answered honestly. The stylist pushed back, and my friend decided that was enough.

People who serve the public should know better. If they tip their hand, I am likely to go elsewhere.

I agree. My hair stylist likely has different political beliefs than I do, I hear many who sit in his chair (mostly men, for what its worth) loudly expressing similar beliefs. But he's an intelligent guy and lets them talk but doesn't ever chime in with his own opinions. He owns the salon, and I think he's definitely smart enough to know that it wouldn't go over big in the NYC suburbs with his majority female client base. If he were to be vocal on the subject, I'd likely leave, too.

It might be prudent to not annoy your stylist — particularly when they are weilding scissors or tweezers (or a Sharpie). You could end up with no eyebrows or inked in brows.

Soup Nazi, meet the Brow Fascist.

If you go this person, just ask them why. And let us know. LOL

I’ve been going to the same nail gal for 25 years. She’s Vietnamese and always been at full service salon, not a nail shop.

I make it a point to let her talk about herself because most others just blather on incessantly about themselves without actually having a conversation. Also, her story is facinating and we have many things in common. Sometimes we sit in silence.

If you go this person, just ask them why. And let us know. LOL

I'm not going. Made an appointment with a different person. She was fine. We didn't talk much, but she didn't order me not to.

Where I go for hair, it's a small cape cod type of house that's divided into suites. The walls are pretty thin.

When I was a hairdresser, part of my success was being able to read the clients and whether they wanted to talk or not and how personal they would want to get. I had customers that I know told me things they’d never told anyone else and women who appreciated not being chatted up. I never talked about myself unless asked. The most challenging thing was working alongside stylists who wouldn’t shut up about themselves and/or who were so embarrassingly ignorant about things they talked about and subjected me and my clients to listen to it all.

Social graces have changed dramatically amongst many younger generations (and some not so younger) that I can almost imagine asking everyone to please shut up!