DO NOT GO TO THIS SALON!!! I went in for the first time ever to get my hair dyed except for the fact that I did henna at home once. I asked for a caramel balayage with money pieces and I showed them my inspo (the second photo). They said they couldn't get me that light and I was okay with it being a dark brown. I actually did not mind the orangish color of my hair shown in the first photo if it actually looked like the inpso photo and not that they just colored my whole hair orange and only left the top black. I had a wedding to go to in the morning that was in Canada and I left for Canada right when I left the salon. I cried for 2 days because of my hair and ended going to Walmart while in Canada and getting black box dye and dying my hair black. I am happy I did because I cannot believe they let me walk out of the salon like this. I said nothing because I didn't want to be mean and I'm very selfless so the whole time I was being nice and saying sorry because the girl doing my hair kept complaining about how long it was taking. It genuinely shouldn't have taken that long but the girl was doing EVERY SINGLE strand of my hair instead of sections. I am very disappointed and I will regret it forever my hair is very severely damaged now too. Another thing I also realized was the fact that you could finish in 8 months which shocked me because they were all 18 year old freshly out of high school, working on hair for barely 8 months and then getting a job at an actual salon. Like that's concerning. I can't even explain how disappointed I am. The girl I had was very nice but complaining. I could tell she did not want to work on me. She left before the toner and didn't see my hair properly. Like girl if I was her I would have been so disappointed because I could've done this at home. I ended paying the $60 dollars and said nothing and cried the whole way to Canada. Words can't describe how disappointed I am please please please do not go here. DO NOT GO HERE TO GET A BALAYAGE!!! read more

Empire Beauty School - My hair after I left the salon - Cosmetology Schools Near Me - West Mifflin, Pennsylvania

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The greatest hair event for my head in a decade. Had my dark blonde hair bleached and colored platinum anf the cut and styled by Scott. It is fabulous. The back of my bobbed hair moves like the hair on those TV hair models in the Clairol and Pantene commercials. I am not easily impressed and I am actually blown away. Go there and get a shampoo and ur spilt ends done and start pampering yourself. But go big. Go there and go blonde. (pic post shortly) read more

Had a wonderful hair experience with Hannah. She was very good at coloring and styling my hair. I went out feeling pretty and confident. Thank you and I'll be back. read more

Empire in W Mifflin is frickin awesome Every time I go there I am blown away by the unbelievable service A great thanks to the staff and students for a job well done Today Cheyann cut my hair and I received lots of positive feedback from my fans read more

This was my first time at this beauty school and it was terrible. I came in to get a trim and a manicure. My husband also had an appointment to get his hair cut. Our appointments were at 6 pm, my stylist did not show up until 6:25 pm and my husband's did not show up till 6:30 pm. So already off to a bad start. Getting my hair trimmed was pretty bad. It started with a hair wash which was good and then we went back to her station and she asked about how much I wanted off which was 1-2 inches all around to get rid of split ends. She did not cut off more than half an inch anywhere on my head. My ends still look terrible and I will have to be doing them again either at home or at another place because I do not trust them to do a better job. At no point in the hair appointment did she ask if it looked good or if I needed more cut off or anything. She "finished" trimming my hair and then just blow dried it as normal. We then went over to get my nails done. I had booked my appointment as getting gel nails. When I showed up they informed me that they were out of the gel base and top even though my appointment was booked a week out. Though this was a blessing in disguise as I am so glad I do not have to try to remove gel nails. The nail station was missing multiple things such as clean nail clippers, cuticle pushers, and nail oil. She spent a good 20 minutes looking for "proper" supplies and ended up using tools from a random box in her locker that did not look they had been properly cleaned. Then she proceeded to use the cuticle pusher to scrape my whole nail to push my cuticles back and cut them off properly. My cuticles look worse now then when I went in. I asked that she try to preserve the length of my nails as much as she could while evening them out. My shortest nail was about a centimeter or so past the end of my finger so still pretty long. She trimmed every single one of nails with dirty and hardly working nail clippers to where they are at my nail bed. She then proceeded to just apply the polish. There was no filing of the nails or evening them out from the hacking they just dealt with so now I have jagged edges on the ends of my nails that I will have to deal with myself. The polish on my nails looks terrible and is bumpy and does not reach the edges of my nails and looks like a toddler did it. I will be removing the polish and properly redoing it at home. Picture for proof. This is not my first time at a beauty school but is by far the worst experience I have had. I have gotten hair and color done at a different school and it was amazing. Here the teacher checked in with the students a few times in the appointment but never interacted with me at all. Their check in was just to come over and say to the stylist 'you have any questions'. The teacher in no way checked the quality of work or anything. The other hair school I have been to the teachers were constantly checking in and making sure the stylists were doing what they needed to do and doing it well. My husband's stylist was a bit better than mine. She asked for help multiple times but did not interact with my husband other than through the teacher. His hair does not look too bad and we are pleased with how it looks. I will not be returning here as the quality of the work was terrible and the premises and tools do not appear as if they are sanitized and cleaned as they should be. The photos of the nails are after only 12 hours. read more

The last time I came here I think I was just lucky. I had a student who was enthusiastic, passionate, had good communication skills and did a good job with my hair. My trip here last week was the total opposite and I was very disappointed. I know these are students but there should be higher standards implemented as well as more enthusiasm shown about the profession they're entering. For a beauty school it seemed like half of the students did not care about their professional appearance at all: jeans, hoodies, ill fitting clothing, dusty clothing (students are required to wear black). I was shocked to see one student not have her hair done at all. It was like most of them just rolled out of the bed and dragged themselves in. The student who did my hair started at strong in the beginning by introducing herself and asking me what type of conditioning treatment I wanted to start off with. After that it went down hill: she initiated very little conversation and just appeared to be going through the motions. She used a DIRTY BRUSH on me that had red hairs in it and had a cloud of fine dust come from it with each stroke. When I told her not to use the brush on my hair because it was dirty she appeared flabbergasted. She knew that brush was dirty when she laid it out on her work station that morning. She cleaned the brush, it was then wet and she offered to use a small scrawny vent brush to blow dry my curly hair straight. Fortunately, her classmate- who was dressed nicely, chipper and who I had wished did my hair instead- had a clean and better brush to use. After my hair was blow dried and cut (too much), I caught the student just in time about to flat iron my hair. That was not what I requested- I haven't straightened my hair in 2 years. She asked how I wanted my hair styled and I said I'd like two Dutch braids. The student did not know what the difference between a Dutch braid or a French braid. When I explained to her that a French braid is braiding over and the Dutch braid is braiding under, the instructor stepped in, stated that I was wrong and that braiding under is called a "a simple cornrow." Okay, whatever. At this point I was ready to go. My student told me she was graduating soon. I wish her and her classmates luck and hope they continue to always learn, improve their customer service skills and get more hands on experience doing hair. As for me, I will look for a good salon that has someone with more knowledge and experience to do my hair. read more

From my experience and perspective as a past student, I consider this the "fast food" of cosmetology education. They want you in and out, with lack of care of the quality of education you are receving in between. I strongly suggest talking to past students, to hear their pros and cons, if you are considering taking classes at Empire. When touring, be sure to ask questions as there are things they do not tell you prior to signing up. Such as, services on the menu are not offered, like acrylic nails, even though they are posted on the board. Also they claim you will learn all about running the front of a salon, such as selling products and using the computer system. However, throughout my experience, this was very slacked upon and many missed out on the opportunity due to what I'll just call "poorly ran rotation schedules." All in all, I would not refer Empire to a friend. Also, if I could go back knowing what I know now, I would not have attended this school. read more

Great school highly recommend attending and or getting a service done here! All the students are friendly and always make sure their clients leave satisfied! read more

I'm writing a review for the salon services at the school... Went to the salon several years ago and was very pleased with the students and the services. Went there about a month ago and couldn't believe how the place went downhill!! The salon is dirty and the students are sloppy, services could have been done better at home and I couldn't tell the instructors from the students!! Price of a pedicure is only $10 less than the high end spa I go to and the pedicure was so bad I had to take the polish off before I got home! They should shut the salon down and stick with instructing. And teach classes on appearance and customer service! read more

Visited the West Mifflin location for a color and hair cut. The prices are wonderful and it gives the students experience. The manager/teacher, Miss W. was very informative about what color would work with my hair. I was very pleased with the end results of both the color and cut. My only concern was, I didn't notice the disinfectant being used on the combs. My biggest worry is head lice being past from one customer to another. I will definitely return and continue to get my hair colored and cut at this location. read more