CYPRESS, Texas – A Cypress hair salon said a customer walked out without paying, after a stylist spent nearly four hours dying her hair.
Lenlee Sackett has worked as a stylist at the Classic Hair Salon on Spring Cypress Road for the past 16 years.
“I do everything,” Sackett said. “Updos, styles, colors, perms -- you name it, I do it.”
But on Wednesday she saw a first, when a customer asked to go outside to get her credit card to pay and then never returned.
“She seemed super sweet. It was crazy!” Sackett said.
She said the customer wanted her to fix up a bad hair dye job.
“I was really little nice to her because she had been showing me pictures of her kids and her family,” Sackett said.
In fact, she even decided to charge the customer $187 instead of $200.
“I didn't charge her for her blow dry because color corrections can get pretty pricey,” Sackett said.
She watched as the customer walked out to her car to get the credit card, but then Sackett realized she was never coming back.
“One of the girls was laughing at me because I started screaming, ‘Oh my gosh! She's driving away!’” Sackett said.
The salon owner said similar situations have happened at least three times over the past four years but this time around, surveillance cameras captured the customer leaving the store.
“I'm the only money earner in my family so that is money out of my pocket,” Sackett said.
“I just want to let her know that it was kind of tacky, taking that much money from somebody.”
The salon owner said from now on if a customer has to grab a wallet out of the car, the stylist will be required to hold on to that customer’s license until he or she returns.
The Harris County Sheriff’s Office is investigating the incident.