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Postal Worker Goes on Violent Salon Rampage Over Botched Hairdo, Police Say

By Irene Plagianos | July 23, 2014 7:50am | Updated on July 23, 2014 2:28pm
 A postal worker in uniform had a meltdown in a Financial District salon July 18, 2014, police said.
A postal worker in uniform had a meltdown in a Financial District salon July 18, 2014, police said.
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Joe Raedle/Getty Images

FINANCIAL DISTRICT — A disgruntled United States Postal Service worker, furious about a botched hairdo, went on a violent rampage in a Financial District salon last week, cutting another woman as she tore through the shop smashing beauty products and throwing hair-styling tools, police said.

Rachel Meyers, 26, who was wearing her USPS uniform, got into a heated argument with several stylists at the Century 27 Beauty Salon at 24 Beaver St. on July 18, blaming them for “screwing up her hair,” police said. The woman, who had dashed into the salon while on break from work, then went berserk, throwing items that hit a client inadvertently caught in the melee.

“She was yelling, cursing at the hair stylists, saying they had knotted her hair,” said the fellow customer, who wound up with a gashed knee after Meyers hurled a heavy, metal box with sharp edges that held curling rods.

 Century 27 Beauty Salon, on the second floor of 24 Beaver St., was closed Tuesday.
Century 27 Beauty Salon, on the second floor of 24 Beaver St., was closed Tuesday.
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DNAinfo/Irene Plagianos

“I walked over to calm her down initially, but she shooed me away, saying it was the employees’ fault and they needed to fix it,” the 52-year-old victim said.

“The women in the salon kept trying to appease her. They took her over to the sink, apparently to try a different conditioner on her hair, which had somehow ended up with knots — and then all of a sudden, it seemed like she just really snapped.”

Salon owner Favi Ramirez told DNAinfo New York that she and her stylists did nothing wrong to provoke the woman, who walked into the salon for an unscheduled afternoon hair fix-up.

"She came in with knotted hair, and laughed about it initially," Ramirez said. "She was wearing a weave, but took it out, to have her hair conditioned, to have it washed and set."

Ramirez said the unexpected flip-out started because Meyers was becoming impatient and started to yell about needing to get back to work.

"We were trying to be nice, to squeeze her in between clients to remove the knots, but we weren't working fast enough for her I guess," Ramirez said. "We kept trying to calm her down, saying, 'please this is going to take time to remove all these tangles,' but she was just getting angrier."

The young woman started throwing whatever was in her way — chairs, hair dryers, shampoo bottles — crashing through the small second-floor parlor in an angry fit, said the victim, who lives in the Financial District.

“It’s a small space, maybe six hairdressers in there, a few clients, but we were all just shocked,” said the victim, who asked not to be identified.

“Suddenly this like 20-pound metal box was being hurled at my head, so I ducked and somehow it hit my leg. I don’t think she was throwing it at me — I was just in the way of this crazy scene. I felt like I was in a movie — it was that dramatic."

The victim said the spree lasted only a few minutes before police arrived at about 3:20 p.m.

She declined medical treatment for the cut and bruises on her left knee.

Meyers was charged with two counts of third-degree assault, fourth-degree criminal possession of a weapon and second-degree harassment. The charges, all misdemeanors, carry a possible sentence of up to a year in jail.

A lawyer for Meyers did not immediately return a request for comment.

The salon was back open for business Wednesday, after closing to clean up the shop. Ramirez said she hasn't figured out how much it will cost to replace the broken and destroyed items — including cracked mirrors, damaged hair dryers and the massive hot-iron stand that was hurled at her customer.

"We're all still shook up, but we're okay," Ramirez said. "We're trying to just move on and keep working with our customers, who know what a good job we do each day."

The USPS did not immediately return request for comment.