Asian Women Share Their Most Awful Beauty Service Moments

When someone goes into a salon to get their makeup, hair, eyelashes, or other services done, it’s only right they’re expecting to come out feeling pampered and glamorous. Unfortunately in a society where western beauty is idolized and considered the norm, Asian clients sometimes encounter stylists who aren’t as well-versed in our features, or even worse, are just downright ignorant.

Here are some cringe-worthy experiences:

Cindy

“I showed her a photo of what I wanted to get done, and it was just a basic glam eyeshadow with a cat eye. I really just wanted to see what the difference was professionally compared to how I did my own makeup (and the fact that I didn’t know how to apply falsies at the time). But the entire time, she kept commenting that she never did Asian eyes before and that she was going to try her best. And it made it worse that my boyfriend’s family kept commenting how my eyes were so small and that wow, the makeup is ‘soooo good and it makes your eyes look so much bigger!'”

Nancy

“The make up artist (WHO IS ALSO ASIAN) said to me in Cantonese, while applying my false eyelashes, ‘I love doing white girl’s make up because they don’t need false eyelashes. Their eyes are way more beautiful than Asian eyes.’ I sat there with my jaw dropped.”

Srikripa

“I got told my hair wasn’t normal, it is thick and the stylist got very upset because my long thick hair was taking her a while to work on. I left the salon crying when she used a metal brush aggressively on my hair and kept commenting on how she should charge me extra.”

Trish

“Well it was a makeover in that I was getting contacts… doctor’s assistant told me that people with eyes as small as mine / have my eye shape have trouble putting contacts in… so it’ll take me a while to learn how. I jammed those suckers in my eye the first time and it hurt so much but I wanted to prove her wrong.”

K

“I was trying to find a new hair stylist who could bleach my hair blonde and found someone’s work great online so I emailed him to see if he could do my hair. He asked me for photos of my hair, my hair coloring history, what color I was looking for… I answered all his questions and finally made an appointment. Then he says, ‘oh by the way, what ethnicity/race are you?’ I replied that I was East Asian and he replied back with, ‘nope sorry I can’t help you go blonde anymore.'”

Soojin

“Sephora always gives me such orangey foundation and nothing that actually fits my skin color.”

Courtney

“I love doing ch*** eyes like yours”

Karen

“I live in a less-populated Asian area. I don’t trust anyone to cut or layer my hair in my town because they’d always compliment how ‘smooth, silky, and straight’ it is, since they’ve never seen hair like mine before. They usually end up botching the cut and it’s uneven as they’re talking away LOL. I only go up to the closest Asian hair salon, which is 3-4 hours away from where I live.”

Tina

“I went to Sephora to do one of those mini makeovers and the lady flat out said she didn’t know how to put eyeshadow on my eyes (monolids). She ended up putting some very light brown eye shadow on the bottom of my lid and it wasn’t noticeable at all when I opened my eyes.”

Alexandra

“I’ve only had my makeup done once by a professional (it was for my junior prom) and the lady just washed out my face making me look paler than pale and completely messed up the shadow for my eye shape. And like I know I’m only half Asian but when she was done they took my picture and said ‘Wow she looks just like a chinadoll.'”

Siti

“Right before the Lash Artist started, she went off into another room ‘to get silk lashes’ for me and I believed her (we had spent a few minutes discussing how asian lashes may not hold the extensions as well as other lashes. My colleague the next day said to me the lash artist put on the cheapest lashes on the market. $330 down the drain and has put me off eyelash extensions for good.. Oh well.”

Leanna

“I went to Sephora and the makeup artist got black brow powder for me… my hair was bright red and pink. Then she said that my skin has a ‘golden tint.’ The worst part though was when she said doing monolids like mine are tricky… I have double eyelids. Pretty sure she fit me into a generic ‘Asian girl’ protocol.”

Jin

“When I was in middle school, I begged my mom to take me to Sephora to get my first makeup stuff. When we got there obviously neither of us knew where to start and this MUA girl offered to help us out. I sat in the chair for like 15 minutes and when I looked in the mirror, I had the tackiest smoky eye, I looked like I’d just been in a fight. The worst part was that she literally drew creases onto my monolids and I never even asked for them. She tried to convince me that all her Asian customers want double lids so she didn’t think she needed to ask and got defensive. She kept trying to convince me it looked great, but it was clear from everyone’s reactions, including her co workers, that I looked like I had a black eye.”

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