Several years ago I met Ale at a hair show through a friend who was modeling for him. Even though our encounter was brief, I considered him for my next hair stylist. I was needing a haircut badly, and wanted to find the right person. The fact that he had been doing my friend’s hair for a long time made me think he would be a good fit. I already followed him on social media just because of his popularity in the area, and because several of my friends in the hair industry knew him as well. I heard through the grapevine that he was a creep, but I didn’t know how serious these claims were due to them mostly being made up of rumors. He had reached out to me on social media several times before, asking me to hang out even though I continuously denied his advances. About 3 weeks before my appointment he started to continuously message me, asking me to come out to 7th Street to ride bikes with him or go get a drink with him. This was all during the initial Covid-19 lock down, so I used that as an excuse to not go around him or socialize with him. I wasn’t interested in seeing him at all, but I didn’t want to hurt his feelings or risk losing the appointment. So instead of being honest I would just lie and say that I couldn’t because I didn’t feel safe with the pandemic. He didn’t care though, choosing to message me very late into the night asking repeatedly me to come over. He told me that he and his girlfriend had just broken up and he was lonely. Regardless of how many times I said no and how many reasons I gave, he did not respect me. I kept receiving messages from him leading up to my hair appointment.
My appointment with Ale was scheduled for around May 2020. I had booked a haircut, which said it included a wash, cut and style out. First off he did not cut my hair at all like I wanted. It was like he either ignored me in the consultation or just didn’t listen to me. My hair was incredibly long and he cut it way shorter than I asked. He cut it so fast too, only spending 15 minutes cutting it. He also didn’t style it at the end even though the service said it was included. Most importantly though, he made me feel uncomfortable the entire time I sat in his chair. He kept telling me how beautiful I was, saying that we just needed to hang out because we would have so much fun together. Because he was cutting my hair and I was in his chair, I felt like I had to play nice. I agreed that we could potentially hang out at some point, but as a paying client it was incredibly unprofessional for him to put me in that position. I was uncomfortable the entire time and felt thoroughly creeped out. I quickly paid him, left the salon and cried the entire drive home. He had ruined my hair and made me feel disgusting by hitting on me the entire time. When I got home I blocked him completely on everything. Then something really weird happened. My friend who had recommended him to me reached out to me and asked what happened at my appointment, and why I had blocked him. I hadn’t spoken to her in a while, so she wouldn’t have known when my appointment was. This makes me aware that he not only tried to reach out to me on social media after I left the salon, but when he realized he couldn’t get in touch with me he asked her to message me for him. He’s blocked to this day and will remain that way.
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