dear God, please help me find a good hair stylist in AZ

I decided it was time to cut my hair, once I hit the point when my hair doesn't leave the pony tail/giant ball of hair for weeks something needs to be done. 

Just like I did last time, I decided to go to the hair school for a $10 cut and $7 conditioning treatment.  This way if I walk out looking like crap I only spent $17 + tip.  Thank God for that.

I took a wrong turn and ran a little late, I called at the time of my appointment and made sure I wouldn't mess up the schedule, I was told it would be fine.  I walked in very apologetically 5 minutes late and checked in, I then sat for 45 minutes.  When she finally came over she said that no one told her I was there, the front desk girls said she didn't know she had an appointment.  Whatever, water under the bridge just someone own the mistake and stop passing the buck.

I showed the girl a picture of what I wanted, this picture:

I wanted it short, collar bone short.  I told her to add soft layers.  We talked for about 2 minutes about how I want the layers but when she brought her instructor over she said it was a straight cut, I chimed in, "no we just talked about the layers" grrrrr. 

She did my treatment and started on my cut and stood there for what seemed like forever trying to figure out how much to take off, I told her cut what she thinks and if it's not short enough she can just cut more off (seriously, is that such a hard concept?).   After 3 times through she decided it was short enough, I told her that I thought a little bit more would do the trick but she said it would be where I wanted once it dried.  Amazing that she knows so much about the hair I've had for 30 years. 

Aside from her second guessing every cut she made her hands shook like crazy which I didn't know if it was from nerves or that she needed a cigarette.  If you want to smoke that's your choice but I would never choose a stylist who smokes, you might think you don't smell but you do.  I understand that these are students so she's learning which is what you get for $10 but still, if you shake that much maybe you need a little more time on one of those dummy head things.

When the cut was done she started her blow dry, I told her I like to wear it straight and she decided that means load it up with product and hope for the best.  She didn't even attempt to make it wearable, she used her fingers and that was it.  I told her that this was a missed opportunity on her part (yup, I'm one of those people but after waiting 45 minutes and having essentially 3 haircuts I felt it was OK), any high end saloon would expect that she knew how to blow out curly hair and mine was perfect to practice on and she didn't even attempt.

I should have take a picture of how she expected me to walk out, it was so pathetic, I couldn't even tell if the cut was correct because it was a ball of frizz.  This is what I looked like when I walked in the door after pulling it into a ponytail:

ignore the color, this was taken in the bathroom

 This is how I should have left:

I showered, washed the 47 products out and blew it out myself and guess what, it's too long.