This review is not the about the Salon or Lauren. It is about one of the stylists, Victor. I normally tip 20% for anything service related I get, from massages, to facials, to meals, 25% if it's great. For the first time in my life, I tipped almost 10%.
Lauren and the girl at the front, I think her name is Marina, are wonderful, and the Salon is beautiful, but I had the worst hair experience ever. I waited 5 days before posting this, to see if the situation still bothered me, and well, it does. So here goes.
I'm a bridesmaid in a wedding 3 weeks from now so I wanted to prep my hair. My appointment was for 11am. I was taking advantage of the Spa Week special and getting my roots done, some highlights and a cut. At 10:45 I received a call that Victor was running late. He was coming back from Palm Springs and stuck in traffic. I live over 30 minutes away from the salon and was almost there, because I always try to arrive early. So I said, since I'm almost there, let's just figure it out when I get there. The girl spoke with Victor again to try to get an ETA, but it was sketchy. Could be 25-45 minutes.
Lauren, the salon owner, came in and was super apologetic. She said, without me even prompting her, that of course she'll take an additional percentage off my bill. Now I'm pretty low maintenance, and realize sometimes things are out of our control. I couldn't really reschedule and Lauren assured me that Victor was the best person for my hair type and what I wanted, so I agreed to wait it out.
Victor came in around 11:40. I didn't really get a genuine apology from him. He immediately started bitching about the rental car breaking down, AAA showing up, etc. etc. I'm a jovial, friendly person, and listened to him for a bit. Of course, that would all affect your mood, but now shake it off a bit and be professional. He sort of looked at me, ran his hands roughly through my hair and asked what we're doing today. I was very, very specific. I want to cover my roots, and add a few very subtle highlights. Very, very SUBTLE, not chunky, and NATURAL looking. And add a few more layers to my curly hair. I felt like he barely listened before going to fix the dye for the roots.
He applied the dye, continuing with his grumpy attitude. I've had my roots done enough to know that he was not taking good care of me. He sort of brushed it on, paying no attention to where the hair ended and my skin began. He left tons of dye around my forehead, ears and neck. I thought, maybe this is a different type of dye that won't stain my skin. Normally my other stylist will take the color remover to get all the dye off my skin before leaving me there for 40 minutes. Not Victor. He just left me there, checking on me once in 40 minutes. After the assistant washed it all out, both of them had to spend several minutes scrubbing the dye off my face with the alcohol stuff. He said let me know if it hurts, but seriously, how else are you going to get these brown stains off my face?
As of 5 days later, parts of my forehead were still red from the color removal being scrubbed 40 minutes after sitting on my face.
Now come the highlights. Keep in mind, he still had a pissy attitude. He was actually on his phone talking with other clients while looking at my hair! He almost started putting more dye on before I kind of pulled my head away waiting for him to get off the phone. I reiterated, again, that I want very very subtle highlights, just barely lighter then my dark brown. I've had these before, so I know they're possible. He pissingly said "yes". So I trusted. Perhaps I put too much trust in him.
I walked out at 2:30. My hair one big frizzy mess with highlights that did not look the way I had asked, (they were practically blonde, not subtle at all, and a little chunky), roots that didn't even match the rest of my hair color, and two salon clips in the back of my hair (the long silver kind that you usually use to hold up hair when you're cutting it)
I had a meeting to go to at 3 and at this point did not have the time to say I was not satisfied. I was pissed. When I went to pay, he didn't even say he was sorry again. Just sort of put the bill in front of me. I only got one half-assed apology in the very beginning and that's it.
Again, I've been in the service industry and I know that shit happens. But you can't take it out on your clients!
For the first time in my life, I tipped less than 15%. I could not justify giving him any more than that for such poor service. He didn't really listen to me the way a hair stylist should and treated me as if he didn't care.
Now, after trying to save money, I'm going to have to spend a ton more getting some color correction.
I can't say anything about the other stylists there, but I would never ever suggest Victor.
I'd give the salon and it's owner and front desk girl :
4 stars
Victor
half star read more
