A mom is calling out a children’s hair salon after they charged her to stay with her daughter while she got her hair done.
Mel (@nursemellymel2021) shared the incident in a TikTok video that has received over 1.6 million views. In the video, she explains that the salon had a clear policy: parents were not allowed to wait inside while their child’s hair got done.
The mom says she was informed of this rule during the booking process, but chose to go ahead anyway. She also made it clear that she had no intention of leaving her six year old alone with unfamiliar people. Instead, Mel says she planned to pay the $25 “non compliance fee” for staying.
After the styling appointment, Mel was first told her bill was $70. However, as she was about to pay, another stylist chimed in and asked if the non compliance fee had been added. It had not. The stylist stepped away to make the change but when she returned, she informed Mel the fee was actually $45.
When the mom inquired about the discrepancy in the fee, the woman said Mel had been misinformed earlier. Not wanting to escalate the situation, Mel decided to just pay the $45. But that wasn’t the end of the surprise charges.
After paying the $45, the stylist then informed Mel that the cost of a hair trim had been left off the bill as well. The new total was now $105, not counting the fee.
“You’re telling me a trim cost $35?” Mel says incredulously. “My trims don’t even cost $35.”
The mom paid the full amount knowing she would never be back to the salon. She ended the video asking for recommendations for a stylist in the Dallas-Forth Worth area.
Viewers call the policy a red flag
The video caused a number of arguments among users in the comment section. Several viewers thought that it was a major red flag to ask a parent to leave their child alone. They demanded Mel reveal the name of the salon. Some even thought she should report them to the authorities.
“Oh no ma’am. A fee for a parent to be a parent? That’s crazy,” one person said.
“Get Olivia Benson on the line. Bc why are they discouraging parents to stay with their kids by charging a fee? POLICE,” another person wrote.
Someone else wondered if the employees were even certified to be alone with children. They wondered, “Are they licensed in childcare with the state to be allowed to have children alone in their care? Are they CRR/First aid certified? This salon needs to be investigated.”
Mel pushed back against commenters implying that the salon was engaged illegal or unsafe behavior. In a follow-up video she emphasized that at no point did she get a bad feeling or suspect anything inappropriate.
Her main concern was that she simply did not want to leave her daughter alone on their first visit to the salon. Mel even clarifies that she did not have a problem with the “non compliance fee” itself. Her only intention in posting the original video was to call out the additional charges that were added on after the service.
Viewers sleuth out the salon
Despite Mel’s additional videos, viewers remained skeptical. Eventually viewers did research of their own and began sharing the name of the salon. This prompted employees from the salon, called Lady Tea DFW Hair Clinic, to also start commenting on Mel’s videos.
Eventually, Mel says, the salon’s official TikTok account allegedly posted her name and the name of the client that recommend the establishment to her. That post has since been taken down.
In one final video on the matter, Mel addressed the salon directly: “Lady Tea, girl, I had not said your name, but I’m saying it now because you’re so comfortable having my name and my picture on your page.”
“I said I saw there was a fee and I was willing to pay it because I was not about to leave my daughter there,” she says defending her actions, and adding, “This was a great opportunity to handle this professionally. You could have just turned your comments off and let it die down … But this is your response?”
The Daily Dot reached out to Mel via TikTok direct message and to Lady Tea DFW Hair Clinic via email for further comment.
@nursemellymel2021 I’d love a recommendation for a stylist who does children’s natural hair in DFW!
♬ original sound – Mel
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