Speaking French
How to say the haircut is going wrong, in French
If you are in the chair right now
Excusez-moi, c'est un peu plus court que ce que je voulais.
Sorry, it's a bit shorter than what I wanted.
If that gets brushed off
Ce n'est pas vraiment ce que j'avais en tête. On peut rattraper le reste ?
It's not really what I had in mind. Can we make it work with the rest?
Say it while there is still hair to work with. Use vous with a hairdresser you do not know, and keep the conditional close: j'aurais aimé, j'aurais préféré. In French the conditional is where the politeness lives, and this is the conversation that proves it.
There is no chapter for this. You can book the appointment, name the length in centimetres, and still be helpless at the only moment that matters: a third of the way through, when it is going somewhere you did not ask for and the scissors are still moving.
If you need more than one line
softest
Je peux vous dire quelque chose ?
Can I tell you something? Buys you a beat before the difficult part.
neutral
J'aurais aimé garder de la longueur ici.
I would have liked to keep some length here. The conditional does the apologising, so you don't have to.
neutral
Vous pouvez laisser les côtés un peu plus longs ?
Can you leave the sides a bit longer? Say it with your hand where you mean.
firmest
On peut arranger ça ?
Can we fix this? Impersonal, so nobody has to be at fault.
Two things worth knowing
You already know «court». That is not the problem.
The conditional is the complaint department
«Je veux plus de longueur» is grammatical and lands like a customs declaration. French moves the same request into the conditional — «j'aurais aimé garder de la longueur» — and suddenly it is a wish that history failed to honour, not an order aimed at the person holding the scissors. Hairdresser, waiter, hotel desk: the conditional is the register French complains in.
«Un peu» is doing heavy lifting
From a French client mid-haircut, «c'est un peu court» means it is genuinely too short. Understatement is the convention, and it is read at full strength by anyone who grew up with it. Adding «à mon goût» — for my taste — files the whole thing as your perception rather than their mistake, which is the difference between a comment and a complaint.
What Camille actually said
What you have to get done
- Say politely that it's not what you had in mind
- Explain what you actually wanted
- Decide together what to do with the rest
Camille
So, how is it going so far?
You
Um… to be honest, it isn't quite taking the shape I had in mind: I wanted something longer and more layered, if possible.
Camille
Oh, I'm sorry, I misunderstood: I can keep more length and add soft layers to the rest.
You
Yes, thank you — let's really keep the length and go for very soft layers from here, checking as we go that it matches what I asked for.
Camille
Of course, I'll keep the length, do very soft layers and check with you as I go; all done, thank you very much and have a good day!
The whole conversation, unedited
A real run in the app, nothing scripted on Camille's side. The transcript above is taken from this recording, and the objectives tick off on screen as they are met.
Turn sound on to hear it.
Now say it yourself
Reading that is not the same as producing it with someone waiting, which is the entire difficulty. You can have this exact conversation in the app: Camille is a third of the way through, and you have three things to get done.
It is free, it takes about a minute to start, and the first attempt is allowed to be terrible.
Practise this conversation
