Unfortunately this spot did not work out for me. The owner was a friendly woman with a lot of personality. Fun to talk to, confident, and bold.
I went in to get my color corrected. I liked my red color, but it was spotty, and had dulled within one wash, so I wanted it to be brought back to life and preferably done well.
I showed her what I didn't like, discussed what i wanted, and she brought me her color books. I instantly picked a warm auburn shade in the 'natural red' family, and she responded with a " gosh, no, that's boring". She pointed out the brighter red shades, showed the same colors to me in 3 different books, and said they would go great with my tone. I agreed it was beautiful and shiny, but hesitated to argue that it seemed too bright, as she had said it would suit me, not be boring, and presumably fit with what i had asked for during consult.
While she applied the color, there was a point where she described herself as someone who wouldn't hesitate to give their opinion since that's why we went to a hairdresser in the first place. As an example, she stated "like when i told you not to pick the first color since it was boring".
As the color started processing i mentioned how it looked much brighter than i wanted, and she said not to worry, it would darken. Once rinsed, it was a vibrant unnatural shade of cherry red. I again said it was not at all what i was going for, but she brought out the color book and showed that it was exactly like the sample she had shown me. Whether it turned out like the sample or not, i was not planning on entering the clown business, so i was dismayed. She kept raving about how beautiful the color "I chose" was, and how well it went with my green eyes (they are blue) and i decided to see if it would grow on me.
I met with a student shortly after who just looked at me and said "woah". Later my boyfriend tried to avoid the topic until cornered, at which point he said "it's bright" and finally "i liked the bad color better". I realized it wasn't just me being boring, and called her up to see what could be done.
This is when things went wrong. I can fully acknowledge that i should have insisted on boring... I knew what i wanted, and shouldn't have let myself get swayed, even by a confident pro. However, it ruffled my feathers that she was argumentative and playing the blame game. "But it's such a beautiful color" and inexplicably "did you tell your boyfriend that you picked it?".
"No... i told him that you thought the color i picked was boring and told me this color would be better."
"You picked this color in every book and talked about how beautiful and shiny it was"
.... and on it went.
She supposedly called the company for advice, and the only option was to darken it. When i returned, she initiated another blame argument, in which she again stated that it looked exactly like the swatch that "i picked", so she hadn't done anything wrong. Fine. I get it. You want to be proud that you strongly advise your clients, but blame-free when they aren't happy. A simple "I'm sorry, i was sure you would love it, but let's get it fixed" would go a LOT farther with ANY client than the torturous back and forth she put me through.
I asked about the color change "so it'll look more natural?" And she laughed, stating that there was no direction to go in that would put my current color on the natural spectrum. Not encouraging when i had asked for natural during consult! She said her instructions were to apply the new color and monitor it for when to wash it out. She had me look in a mirror shortly after application, and i said that it already looked much closer to what i wanted... and then she walked away to her desk. I wasn't near my phone, wasn't offered a magazine, and sat there contemplating life and my itchy scalp for 30 minutes. She walked back, rinsed, and then dried my now deep purple hair. So much for monitoring.
It is a blissful improvement from the clown-red, but the brown correction was left in way too long. My boyfriend agrees it is better than the red, but still liked the 2-tone sloppy and dull red that I asked to have corrected better. My contractor laughed at me...
I also discussed how i need to leave town to get my hair cut properly because no one in town is trained in the DevaCurl method. She says she was. I was enthused and asked why she didn't come up online - but slowly realized she didn't seem to know what Deva Curl was. I followed up by asking if she dried hair curly and then cut the individual curls, and she said no, that's not the only way to get a good curly cut. Well, her cut was better than the one i went in with, but it is by no means a good cut for curly hair. It was the very standard long layers cut at an angle (aka triangle head for all you curl girls). I'll be wearing it straight (and purple) until i can get to a proper city with a DevaCurl salon. read more
