This is not something that keeps me awake at night but it still niggles me a bit.

I saw my ex-hairdresser for about 10 years. He's a great cutter but I found that towards the end he perhaps thought I wanted a more conservative haircut than I did and with a bit of gentle persuasion he could have got me to have more interesting cuts. I guess I just felt like my custom was being taken for granted and I was a comfy old slipper customer.

Then when I rang and they couldn't fit me in for ages, it was kind of the last straw. I'm not a primadonna but it peed me off. Not their fault but they could have just been nicer about it.

So I switched. Thing is ex-hairdresser's salon is at the end of my street so I see him quite often. Usually when I'm looking dreadful. There was one memorable incident when I'd had a bit of a mad "how hard can it be to cut my own fringe" morning and absolutely massacred it. And then promptly bumped into ex-hairdresser.

I guess what I'm really asking is if you've had a hairdresser for a long time have you felt like you should offer them an explanation for why you switched or do you just think that's what happens in their business and no explanation required.

I feel bad because I saw him for years but just switched without saying anything.