I made an appointment with Cristi and am very glad I did so! She was very careful about how to go…read moreabout coloring my hair as I had already had highlights done. I really appreciated that she took the time to separate the strands of hair that were already bleached, so as to not damage them further. Overall, I am super happy with the results!

I've been going to Fox and Belle for about 5 years now and Vichida does a beautiful job on my…read morebalayage. Fox and Belle is so welcoming and friendly, I just love it there. Vichida is the best; she's so sweet and always knows exactly what I'm asking for.

I had an appointment with Nina, and she genuinely made my whole summer! We had such a good time…read moretalking together and she was the sweetest when taking care of my hair. When I tell you that I left the appointment feeling like a new individual it is so true... I haven't seen my hair so smooth and glossy until today! Can't wait to be back :))

Irina is such a perfectionist and really takes her time with every section, but somehow the whole…read moreappointment is so calming that I feel like I'm mediating. She understands thick and fine Asian hair incredibly well and knows how to shape mine so it goes from ratty and generally unkempt to polished (and so much lighter). It can be surprisingly hard to find someone to do this kind of haircut (long fine hair) in the East Bay, but Irina really listens to the look you're going for. Her recommendations are always specific to your hair type, and I leave feeling less like I always have bedhead and more like I could be an art gallery girl in west village (iykyk).

Alex is a great stylist! Alex was very knowledgable and my haircut turned out beautiful! I can't…read morewait to go back for the next cut with Alex again!

This is the BEST salon I've ever been to. Nick is a miracle worker. I've never had better haircuts…read morein my entire life than the six months I lived in Berkeley. I've also never been a regular hair-cut getter, but Nick changed all of that. I got three haircuts in six months and every time it got better. He would cut my hair in such a way that it dried with perfect texture and layering, without any additional heat tools. I brought several friends to see Nick as well, and he did a fantastic job with each of their hair types and textures as well. Cannot recommend him enough!!!

Itzel, in bullet points:…read more * Dedicated, hardworking and incredibly detailed-oriented * Takes pride in the sophisticated hair-coloring craft and never rushed the process * Asked me to send photos of the ash blonde highlights I had in the past that I liked to make sure the color formulation is done right. Ended up creating a slightly cooler tone that works even better for me personally * Spent HOURS on my hair waiting for the highlights to come out properly * Recommended salon toner treatment and silver shampoo to maintain the ash tones I like * Warm, friendly and easy to talk to but also extremely competent and informative. I learned a lot from her during the appointment * Focused on long-term hair health and maintenance not just the service that day. Also knowledgeable about curly hair which for me personally can be a real struggle * Made what could have been a routine salon maintenance appointment into a genuinely enjoyable experience. And if anyone from the salon is reading this: Promote her, give her a raise or clone her! I've been frequenting dozens of high end hair salons in the Bay Area (primarily San Francisco) and I can say with certainty - stylists like her are hard to find.

Itzel was amazing!! I was super nervous about getting bangs but she absolutely ate down!! Showed…read moreher my reference photo and she gave exactly what I wanted. Will definitely be going back to her for future cuts

Emma is incredible! She completely rescued my badly damaged hair and gave me the most amazing…read morebalayage. She listened perfectly to what I wanted and executed it flawlessly. Highly recommend her if you want a stylist who genuinely cares and has amazing skill!

Went to Annika yesterday for a long overdue trim and she did amazinggg work!! Absolutely love it.read more

From rockstars to grandma, as well as striking high end artistic hair color, this salon has it all…read more To still be in business for twenty five years speaks for itself. I just get a trim for my long hair, but I see some impressive hair out there on social media.

I recently moved to the East Bay and was looking for a new salon. I found Prem on Instagram and…read morescheduled an appointment. I was very nervous to have someone new cut my hair but I was very quickly put to ease. We discussed what I wanted. I showed her a photo of a shag cut and she executed it perfectly. Highly recommend Prem. Very easy to talk to and makes you feel very comfortable. I'm very happy with the cut and style.

I'd been in Berkeley for three weeks straight, about two weeks past my last haircut, and the…read moresituation was becoming untenable. I was not scheduled to return to LA for several more weeks. We were having an 87-degree day in West Berkeley, which -- for those unfamiliar -- is hot for West Berkeley, a neighborhood where the default setting is breezy and cloudy and lovely and sixty-three degrees, the kind of microclimate that lets you own one jacket and never think about it. Eighty-seven degrees in West Berkeley is an event. Eighty-seven degrees with hair that's two weeks past due is a crisis. I have Asian hair. I've written about this before. It is coarse and thick and grows outward like a porcupine asserting its personal space, and my coping mechanism in Los Angeles was to throw $85 at a hipster barbershop every three weeks to make it stop. This worked in the way that all expensive coping mechanisms work -- reliably, but at a cost that quietly compounds until one day you do the annual math and feel ill. 2026 being what it is, and a dollar these days being asked to do about a dollar forty's worth of work, I needed a new tack. I asked an AI assistant for a good cheap haircut in Berkeley and got several suggestions, which I then searched on Yelp -- yes, the very Yelp you are looking at, imagine that -- for reviews. One thing I noticed about La Petite was that people mentioned Asian women cutting hair there, and the photos confirmed it. I had a thought, the kind of thought that sounds reductive when you say it out loud but is grounded in lived experience: Asian women probably know how to deal with hair like mine. This is not a stereotype. This is pattern recognition developed over decades of watching non-Asian barbers stare at my head with the quiet bewilderment of someone asked to solve a math problem in a language they don't speak. No shade intended, just facts. So I gave La Petite a go. You watch closely when someone new is cutting your hair. You can't help it. You're tracking every snip in the mirror, reading their hands the way you'd read a stranger's driving in the first five minutes of a road trip -- are we safe here, does this person know what they're doing, should I have said something three turns ago. About halfway through, I watched her take volume out of my hair in a way that hadn't been done in years -- not just trimming the length but actually understanding the architecture of thick Asian hair, where the bulk lives, how it falls, how it will eventually grow out, where it needs to be thinned so it lies flat instead of projecting horizontally from your skull like it's staging a protest. She knew. I knew she knew. I had my new stylist. Twenty-eight dollars. Twenty-eight dollars, and I walked out with the best haircut I've had in longer than I'd like to admit. That's $57 left over from what I was paying in LA -- enough to buy groceries, or three martinis at happy hour, or a pizza at June's, or whatever you buy when you realize you've been dramatically overpaying for a basic human service because you confused a cool neighborhood and exposed brick with competence. La Petite has neither exposed brick nor a cocktail menu. What it has is someone who looked at my difficult hair and knew exactly what to do with it, which is the only thing that has ever mattered and the only thing I'm paying for from now on.

I went to get a haircut Friday afternoon for a special occasion and showed them exactly what I…read morewanted: a classic Ben Affleck Bruce Wayne-style haircut with regular-sized sideburns, just like the character. They asked me if I was graduating, and I said no, I was meeting my fiancée's mom the next day. Five minutes before the haircut was finished, the stylist took a big chunk off my right sideburn. She cut it too high, which ruined the whole haircut, especially since my face shape doesn't suit short sideburns. I told her I didn't like it. I didn't overreact or yell, I was just uncomfortable. The hairdresser said, "Too bad!" and tried to dismiss the issue. I told her again that she should have asked me about the length. She then took it personally and told her boss that I was making things up so I wouldn't pay, saying, "They do this so they don't pay." What do you mean by "they"? Not only did I feel dismissed and treated unprofessionally, but also disrespected. I was upset after the whole situation, but even then I was willing to pay and didn't want to leave without paying because I didn't want to prove her point. Plus, it's not that expensive. At the end, the stylist said she had 40 years of experience. Well, after this, it feels like you wasted 40 years and somehow skipped the basics of customer service. Not coming back, even after being offered a free haircut. I would rather pay three times what I paid today for a standard service where you're treated with basic courtesy.

Karen cut my 13 year old son's hair in Albany at Grove Salon on Solano Ave. She listened intently…read moreand compassionately to what my son wanted even though he didn't know exactly what that was. She gave him a great and stylish haircut that he is thrilled with. Five stars!

This review is late, but better late than never. Sara was fantastic! The care & time she took with…read moremy son Jordan, who is 9 was so appreciated. I feel most hair stylists rush when they see a kid and don't put care into it. When we arrived she offered him something to drink (just like they do when I come for my appointments) and I thought that was nice. She stopped plenty of times to ask my son how he was feeling about the way the cut was going and she asked for my input as well. Jordan ended up with a cut that still kept enough length that he was happy and the layering in the back has been perfect for me because his hair no longer turns into a matted mess each night with the accompanying brushing battle in the morning. Also, you can still his hair extend out of the back of his hockey helmet, which I love, Perfect!

I started going to Simone because of the reviews mentioning her hair cutting skills, as well as her…read morefocus on and attention to hair health. Those reviews were not wrong! I'm happy to say that my hair is the healthiest it's been in a very long time and that I get a lot of compliments on my cuts. She asks a lot of questions so that she can always understand the current state of your hair - what you've been doing to it, what products you've been using etc. She uses this information to not only approach your hair in the right way but to make product recommendations and give other care tips. I'm really appreciative of her knowledge, expertise and professionalism. I want to re-iterate her skills when it comes to hair cuts. I've had many great hairstylist over the years, but none of them had the cutting skills beyond a basic trim. She is truly unique in this way. Simone is also really fun to talk to and I've enjoyed getting to know her! And, I'd be remiss if I didn't add that she is always on time and never double/over booked. Thank you, Simone!

Simone has done my hair several times and each time I walk away looking fabulous! From short curly…read morecuts, dye jobs, to silk presses...she can literally do it all. She gets even more cool points for being a fellow Leo ;)

Heather is great! She takes time to listen to what you want and to ask questions to assess if the…read morehairstyle upkeep is actually feasible for your lifestyle. At first, I wasn't feeling the cut, not her fault, she gave me what I wanted. BANGS! enough said. But now two weeks into it, the grow out/settle of the cut is really nice. I like it more and more each day. I have been in search for a stylist I can keep going back to for a long time. I found her

Needed a change and did a big chop. So happy I did the extra research to track Heather down at this…read morenew location. She listened to all my concerns and gave me the perfect cut to suit my needs. I'm a once a year haircut kind of gal and lower than low maintenance so Heather worked some serious magic and poured much needed tlc into me.