the 4th time?

Well, heres a story I want to share...my camry is going in the shop for the 4th time for the same thing in 3 weeks. That thing is the burning smell of oil. No one has been able to diagnose the problem correctly, as it keeps smelling and it has recently smoked after shutting it off. I've told several mechanics that it was coming from the cylinder head. Though as with anything, it could be a number of things, but I was thinking more along the lines of a valve cover gasket leakage problem. Having told the mechanics (I've seen two different ones and one other for an opinion but no actual work) all have seemed to ignore the fact that I was telling them smoke was coming from the cylinder head. Yes the oil pan gasket was leaking, but still it was smoking from the valve cover even after the oil pan gasket was replaced. I'm a female, and though I'm not very mechanically inclined, I know smoke when I see it. Tommorrow I am taking it to my mechanic that I trust, which is what I should have done to begin with. Is this normal for a mechanic to ignore a customer when they see that see smoke coming from a specific area of the engine and instead look other places (which is fine but I want them to look at the cylinder head!) I'm at loss for why this is.