Picture this: Your hairstylist just finished your haircut, and they spin you around to face the mirror. You see a monstrosity on top of your head. You’re probably thinking, “What the heck!?” but you’re either too scared or too nice to say anything since it’s too late. So, you sit there with a mix of emotions.

These are the haircut stages that many people go through each day, and there’s no in-between—you either like what your hairstylist did or you don’t.

The dislike of a haircut normally starts with nervousness beforehand, but all of that only intensifies once you see yourself in the mirror and you hate it. It’s too late, and there’s no going back. No matter how many times you do a double-take in the mirror, it seems to get worse each time. Ultimately, it can go one of two ways: you try to get it fixed, or you just accept it as your new life now.

On the rare chance that it does go to plan, all that previous anxiety and nervousness melt away. You look at yourself with bliss and thankfulness that the hairstylist did not mess you up. This leads to the next stage: the home stage. You get home, happy with how it went, and go on with your day or night.

But when you wake up the next morning, one of two things could happen. You might have no idea how to style your hair and have to go to school looking that way, or you might know how to style it thanks to those YouTube or TikTok tutorials. When you finally get to school, you either get hit with the “school air” and everything disappears, or you get to go through your day receiving compliments from friends and maybe even someone you like.