I'm not sure where the five-star reviews came from. I went into my appointment with healthy virgin hair that has not been processed, and I keep up on my trims on a regular basis. After hearing good reviews from a friend at work and on Yelp/google, I made the decision to book an appointment to do a natural looking ombré (a style I have had my eyes on for a while now). The week before my appointment, I stopped in to have a hair consultation with pictures of what I wanted and I was assured that the look was possible and had complements on how healthy my hair was.
I showed up for my appointment a week later, and that's when this "hair journey" took a turn for the worst. I showed Lisa the pictures of the colors I was looking for, and she assured me that she did not need to reference them as "the picture is in my (her) head now". She did not pull out a swatch book, and she seemed like an experienced hairstylist (plus the good reviews) so I trusted her color judgement.
Lisa was quick to pick up scissors and go chop happy when I explicitly stated that I have been growing my hair out and I was concerned about keeping length. She insisted I needed a trim even after I told her that I just had one recently, and after a lot of arm twisting she started cutting and "texturizing" because my hair "needed shaping". Due to the chair being placed way below mirror level, I could not see how much she took off until she walked away to mix color and I was able to look down. A solid 2-3 inches of hair was on the ground BEFORE she even touched my hair with color.
She then came back with the bleach and dye, along with foils. She proceeded, the process taking a little over an hour (which seemed normal to me) and then she placed me under the dryer and walked away for a solid 20 minutes. I'm no expert, but I know that heat speeds processing time up. I was concerned that she didn't check the foils periodically, but again I was naively trusting her experience. She washed, dried, and curled my hair. Just as she was finishing curling my hair, her next client walked in and she seemed to rush me out of the chair towards the register. Again, the chair was way below mirror level, and I did not get a solid look at my hair. The lighting was also not sufficient (mistake number one...), so I did not notice the color my hair actually was. I paid and tipped, as normal and went out to my car and that was when I saw my fully finished hair... it was yellow and green and brown! The natural/subtle highlighted look I was craving was reduced down to chunky, splotchy, poorly-placed highlights. I did not go back in because I did not want my hair to be damaged and messed up even further, so I went home and researched what I could do and somewhere else to go to fix it.
I did not expect to need to book a color correction and to fix a botched haircut the very same day AT A DIFFERENT SALON to fix the damage that was done to my hair. I invested $150 to have my hair done by Lisa, and I trusted her judgment. I had to spend an additional $90 at the Alpine Ulta to have Lauren fix my hair to a more normal color (Lauren was awesome by the way!!!). I now have to wait for my hair to grow out for about 8 weeks to finally get the hairstyle I wanted in the first place.
If there is any sort of positive to this situation, it was that I finally found an amazing stylist at a completely different salon. read more