Nine months and four hair appointments later, I need to write an update! I'll just hit the highlights: July 2013: I came to the salon to get waist-long senegalese twist for the summer. I was writing my dissertation and I couldn't be bothered with doing my hair everyday. Rita (I believe that's her name), came in especially do my twists. They looked AHHH-mazing! Not to sound conceited, but I received compliments everywhere I went. My total came to £90, which is more expensive that other London braiding salons. However, the quality definitely made it worth it. September 2013: My hair is natural, and I've come to the point where I'm no longer interested in wearing straight or wavy weaves. As someone told me, "you can't be Indian in the front and African in the back!" But I still like weave/extensions. So, I started wearing afro kinky weave. I asked Hannah, the owner of Honey Hand, if she had ever installed a weave like that. She hadn't, but she was confident that she would be able to install it as a versatile weave so that I could wear ponytails. Versatile weaves cost £70. I went in for my appointment, but the salon was overbooked and understaffed. After waiting for TWO hours, I walked out pissed (hence the star rating decrease). I rebooked my appointment for later in the week, and luckily Hannah was able to complete my sew-in. However, she (nor anyone else at the salon) is not familiar with natural hair care. I'm not entirely sure how one can manages a black/afro hair salon and not know how to treat our hair in its natural state! This lack of knowledge also contributed to the 4-star rating. Anyways, I simply asked her to comb the weave out into an afro and I did a twist-out when I got home. It looks amazing! Two months later, and I'm still getting showered with compliments from people I know and complete strangers (I promise I'm not vain!). You can find a picture in my profile. read more

Absolutely pathetic customer service! Never have I witnessed such an unprofessional, incompetent and outright shocking service. I'd been getting my hair done here for a good number of years until a time when I went in and experienced an extremely bad service from Hannah. This deterred my from going there until last year when I decided to give it a try again. I went in today to have a weave and closure fixed and had emailed Hannah prior (an email she unprofessionally failed to acknowledge) Got in there and she quite rudely said she's busy with other customers hair and her simply fixing my closure (which shouldn't take more than 10 minutes) would delay her. I informed her I'd rather she did as that's why I came in. She went ahead rushed and VERY BADLY attached the closure. I informed her the closure wasn't straight and if she could adjust it. What happens afterwards was MARVELLING! She stopped, raised her voice, demanded no one got involved and purported to talk at me in a very demeaning way. This followed with her REFUSING to fix the closure (a closure she had already taken out) asking me to leave! A truly uncomfortable experience and not one I'd ever again want to be in! Hannah, you need to acquire and learn BASIC customer service! You lack the professionalism, competency and tact when dealing with customers! You are arrogant, pompous and condescending! With this attitude, your business won't hold up much longer!! Makes sense why all your staff left and why the salon is frequently empty! You are a poor excuse for a business owner! read more

Booked an appointment for Ghana braids for my mum a week before the appointment. At 7:50pm the day before the appointment I receive two phone calls from a number I don't recognise, and then a text message saying the appointment's been cancelled. When I call back to ask why, I am told that if they cannot confirm my attendance they cancel appointments... interesting theorem?! Anyway, managed to get the appointment confirmed after all. The following day we arrive at the salon five minutes before the appointment time, and receive a cool greeting, and sit and wait...for 50 minutes before my mum even gets in a salon chair. In the meantime Hannah styles two other ladies' hair. She then went into the staff room to eat for 30 mins; didn't bother to inform us or anything. I've dealt with rude hairdressers before, but one that wants to confirm hair appointments the night before, and not complete them the day of is that new new! When she returns she asks my mum about the style she wants and then, wait for it! Asks me to help her with the extension hair. Although I don't mind helping out, didn't expect to be working on my day off! I'm literally sat on a stool pulling extensions... The only reason I was willing to do it is because let's face it, we both wanted to be out of that establishment pronto. The braids came out ok, but Hannah's rude attitude was inexcusable. I will say that the stylist Rita was very polite, and came across as she did on the videos uploaded to Youtube. Also the lady's weave that she styled looked fantastic, so maybe the strength lies with Rita, who knows. Hannah on the other hand was very abrupt and seemed completely different from the person she presents on her videos; I was not impressed. It's a real shame, as I thought I'd found a decent hairdressers but it's all smoke and mirrors. read more

From the moment I walked in I did not feel comfortable, the staff working were not very friendly, it was like a factory one did cornrow one did the weave and the started sweeping. The other did the styling. And no one even asked for payment from me. Or explained how they worked as it was my first time there. The weave wasn't bad and the girls who plaited me had a nice gentle touch, and would actually give them 4 star for that. But customer service and communication was almost non existent. When I pay £70 for hair I expect to be greeted and welcomed and feel like I am pampering myself. If I wanted to be ignored I would have gone to £20 hair shak up salons. read more

Similar to the first comment I had three people do my hair. One did the cornrows, another the sew in and then finally the main stylist did the cut and style. All that work for an ok finish. I was hoping I would get Hannah to do my short weave from start to finish. She did the style on the YouTube advertisement of it and it was great. It is a shame that they were unable to reproduce it on the day. The style wasn't bad but it wasn't great either. I hate having the feeling when you leave a salon that they haven't done their best job for you. On a positive note the staff are friendly and very welcoming and the salon is well presented. read more

The staff are friendly and atmosphere is professional. I had my hair done there yesterday because I had heard raving reviews about the salon. They were very busy as it was a Saturday and they had managed to slot me in for an appointment because someone had cancelled. As it was so busy, they were running at a schedule so i did not get the personalised service I hoped for. This is where they do not differ to any other run the mill salon. I had one girl do my cornrows, another the sew in and the main stylist did the final cut and style. I went in to get the short weave and showed the first girl how I wanted it done. Unfortunately the style did not turn out as I had hoped. I assume this is down to the first girl who designed the parting and cornrows setting the stage for an overall average hairstyle. It was good but not as good as the style shown on their YouTube video. I feel the main stylist tends to do a lot of damage control and fixing of the styles that are not up to par. The salon is very good at long weaves but for short styles I feel it would be better for one person to style it from start to finish because for me it was just so and so in the end when it could have been great. read more

It was just ok, I sent my mother as I knew there was hype about honeyhand, but it was just literally ok. Maybe it is because its the new cross branch but was not great. The stylist was friendly but that was all. The premises was clean however this is to be expected. We are not "wowed". She came from Kent all the way to London and all I can say is a ok.... read more

First appointment, my weave was pulled so tight that I had to take it out after 3 days, though the very noticeable inflamation around my hair linelasted about 10 days. In my years of weaves, I've NEVER had something like this occur! Furthermore, I had left in the middle of a meeting to be on time for that appointment, only to be kept waiting for 1.5hours. Next appointent, as it was right before my wedding and I didn't have the time to kill, I arrived half hour late. Honeyhand cancelled my appointment, so I had to do my wedding hair myself. Will NEVER be going back. read more

I have been to Honey Hand last year and they did my hair reasonably well. I say reasonably as I had to keep on instructing the girl who sewed in my weave how to sew it; which I have never had to do. The lady who styled it however was very good. Additionally, the young girl who plaited my own hair did a bad job. My own hair is very silky and she did the plaits way too big and too loose. I wanted an appointment for my birthday and was shocked to hear the wait list was 6 weeks! So I had to go elsewhere. I made sure that I booked up in advance for my next appointment, which was for an occasion. They have called me today to say they have to cancel my appointment for a gas leak. The appointment I booked 6 weeks ago and have been waiting in anticipation for. They are not making alternative arrangements for the customers who they have to cancel. The girl on the other end of the phone didn't really give a care to be honest, they expect me to wait on the cancellation list and if no one cancels they said I can go to another salon in east London!! Lovely. They've just lost a semi satisfied customer and I will be passing the word on. read more

Went to have hair coloured, but big mistake! Poor customer service - colourist dropped the phone on me. Manager refused to let me take my hair back. Lied and said they would drop it where I live. Never heard from them again! Stole my hair and my patience. Over £200 down the drain. Avoid them like the plague! read more

I went to HoneyHand earlier this month for a short styled wig cap. my appointment was for 9:30. The person that greeted me wasn't very welcoming and while she was cornrowing my hair I could just sense that she would rather be doing something else. I was then told that the person who was supposed to sew the weave in to my hair wouldn't be at work that day so Hannah had to sew in my weave. But I'd have to wait and hour for her to get in. Having made the appointment to get my hair done a few weeks in advance, I didn't have any other options, so I was forced to wait. Hannah finally came in and was kind of apologetic. I showed her pictures of how I'd like my hair to look but the final product wasn't the same as either of the pictures, but by that time I was so frustrated I wanted to leave. I also felt that the whole sewing in and styling process was very rushed. Which was probably why the end result wasn't as slick as it had been on the first occasion that I'd visited the salon. As stated before, although Hannah was apologetic I feel that I shouldn't have been charged the full £70. That could have been a good will gesture for wasting my time and making me wait for an hour. ON closer inspection when I got home I realised that the hair had not been cut properly, there were stray strands that should have been cut everywhere and as the weave wasn't sewn in in the right place at the back, so the wig 'cocks' up around the nape of my neck. My first visit to HoneyHand was when they originally opened and I'd really enjoyed the experience, I thought I'd found my 'go to' hairdresser. As I'm still able to wear the first wig cap that I'd had done. It had been completed with a lot of care and attention. It was sewn in properly and had been cut VERY well. It just seems that now a few years later the staff have become very lax, rude, unwelcoming and unprofessional. This salon had the potential to be great. but unfortunately it has turned out to be just like the others. Which is a great shame, as from the many YouTube videos and Instragram clips Hannah is a master at what she does when she does it right. read more