I booked with a new hairstylist. I was running about 5-10 minutes late — not great, but traffic, life happens — so I messaged her to give her a heads-up. When I got to the salon, surprise! The door was locked. No code, no instructions, no “hey here’s how you get inside.” I was just standing there like an awkward little goblin outside the building, texting her for help. (She admitted to forgetting to send me the entrance instructions.)

She took a few minutes to respond, and by the time I actually entered the salon, found her little unit, etc. it was closer to 15 minutes late. Fine, whatever, I’m finally here.

Now, you’d think the first interaction would be something like, “Hey! So sorry about the door!” or “No worries, glad you made it!” LOL NO.

Instead, this woman (who, reminder, I have never met) sits me down and immediately hits me with, “Just so you know, if you’re this late again, I won’t have time to see you,” followed by calling me “sweets” in the most condescending tone. Not even TOUCHING MY HAIR she legitimately is wasting more time lecturing me. She has a attitude now and tells me I’m wrong when I say it took her a few minutes to respond and shows me her phone which says she replied a minute after my message but my phone says 3 minutes so I say well we are wasting minutes doing this.

At that point, my soul just straight-up left my body. I politely said that yes, I was late, but I had messaged, and also maybe the “abandoned outside in the elements” situation didn’t exactly help. I even offered to shorten the service if needed. But between the locked door, the passive-aggressive lecture, attitude and the “sweets” that felt more like a slap, I realized: I don’t need this.

I tell her that the vibe between us is not conducive to a good rapport nor is it a relationship worth having.

So I left. Didn’t pay, didn’t pass GO, didn’t offer a consolation, didn’t re book. I just grabbed my stuff and headed home.

I told my friends, and now they’re joking that I went “full Karen” for walking out. So now I’m second-guessing myself.

AITA for walking out of a hair appointment after being locked out, getting attitude, and deciding my peace was worth more than this.