TL;DR my hair is the same colour I came in with, but more damaged, and I'm in the hole for £160.
I genuinely don't know where to begin. I have never had such a terrible experience as a customer of any place, ever. I decided on a whim to dramatically change my hair for the new year. I have dark brown hair and have never dyed it. I booked a full head colour, cut, and blowdry. I brought in pictures of the light grey hair I wanted. They said ok, but it was actually going to be highlights, and require foils, and cost £35 more. I said the full head of highlights was the same price as the colour, but agreed because I really wanted the change. I questioned it being highlights, because what I wanted and what was in the pictures I showed them was clearly all dyed, not highlights.
After rinsing out the bleach and dyeing my hair, I sat in front of the mirror in horror. I had chestnut and ashy blonde streaks through my hair. I had never been so upset to look at my hair. I said that I didn't understand why my hair is yellow, and was extremely concerned. He said "I can't lift any more colour from your hair. It's too dark," and showed me that one of the lighter streaks was falling apart. I was horrified and about ready to cry. He said to let him just blow dry and see how the colour looked, but I could already tell it was a disaster. He said ok, he would put more dye in, but it just was not attainable to get to how the pictures I brought in looked. Incredulous, I asked why I had not been told this when I arrived. I would have eschewed the idea entirely.
Someone else working could clearly tell I was distraught and believed the stylist I had did not understand what I was saying. He came over and said that my stylist isn't a great communicator, but is very talented, and it would be ok. I found a picture of darker grey hair and said if I couldn't have it as light as I'd wanted, could we go for the darker one instead? "Anything but these yellow streaks," I insisted. They said not to worry. The receptionist, who was lovely, came over to tell me she would no longer charge me the extra £35. Then she and the second stylist left.
I had some hope at this point, but when I sat down again, it was even worse. Ash-tinted chestnut and blond streaks. I was hiccuping back the tears at this point. I said very clearly that it was unacceptable, not in the same universe as what I wanted, obviously, but also just ugly, disgusting mousy colour in itself. He also basically accused me of lying about having virgin hair. I had NEVER dyed or bleached it before. He told me he thought it was nice and I should ask my friends what they think, but if I insisted that I go back to my dark brown natural colour, I could come back in a week. A week! I didn't want to walk out of the salon and go to work today (Monday), let alone go a whole week. I didn't know what to do at this point - the receptionist had left and I'd prepaid. I don't understand why I did this, but I tipped the guy £10 out of regret and guilt for his spending 4 hours on my hair and my being clearly upset.
I took pictures and sent them to my friends as he had told me to. Everyone agreed it was a disaster. At 8 this (Monday) morning, I called Wahanda. They seemed sympathetic but said since it was a service complaint it was up to the venue to do a refund. Regardless, the woman I spoke to (Holly) said to leave it with her and she would get back to me after speaking to them, but suggested I send my pictures to the salon with a description of the issue. I did so.
Holly called me back at around lunchtime to say she'd been having trouble getting ahold of the owner, who was in, as every time she called they said he was busy. I got a call from the owner myself a while later, and he asked me to come in. He acknowledged that it was a mistake on the stylist's part to say he could do what I wanted, let alone at once, let alone at the price I paid. I reiterated that I'd been clear I have no experience with this, and should have been told that it might take several attempts, might not work, might cost 3x as much (the owner said he'd probably charge £300. If I had known, I would NEVER HAVE DONE IT.
I said I would need to come in right away, as the current colour was horrifying. I went straight after work. He and another female colourist looked at it and decided it was too damaged to bleach anymore that day, would need to be cut, and eventually we decided to just go back to my natural colour - what I had wanted the previous night, right after I saw the results. The man who had been there to witness my disaster the previous night, who had assured me my stylist knew what he was doing, came to apply the dark dye. Another almost two hours and a severe headache later, the owner was blowdrying my hair and I was relieved it looked almost normal. I had to ask him to deep condition it to repair the damage, but he did. He also trimmed more off, and chatted to me pleasantly. I believed, at this point, that sur read more
