Ever walked into a salon expecting to emerge looking like ______ (insert a celebrity head of hair here) only to wind up as dejected wreck trying to hold back the waterworks?

Welcome to the club. One which, as the Wall Street Journal reports, has a whole lotta members. Evidently, we as a gender are not communicating any better with our stylists than we are with our mates. Sigh.

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"A lot of clients say one thing, but they don't understand what they're saying," Patrick Melville, co-owner of two salons in New York City tells the paper, explaining that coming in armed with a photo -- or 12 -- will help your (and his) mission succeed. "I get an idea of where they want to go -- and whether it's realistic for them."

Caveat: It's important to realize that however great J. Lo or Jennifer Aniston's hair looks in a picture, they probably had a pro work on it for a while before being snapped and, in the case of editorial images, most likely had a few swipes of the Photoshop stylus help them achieve your dream look.

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That's not to say that you can't get the cut, style and color you want, as with any relationship, you just need to be honest with your stylist (how much time are you really willing to devote to styling each day?) so that they can work within the confines of what will be practical for you in your real life.

Another tip? Dress like yourself. Resist the "It's Saturday, I can wear schlump clothes" urge and wear an outfit -- replete with accessories -- that is a good representation of your true style. "Everybody communicates without speaking," Fuat Celik (a.k.a Cedric) of NYC's Frédéric Fekkai salon says.