Why is it impossible to find a good hair salon in Harvard Square? I just got back from Gino's and…read moreimmediately logged on Yelp to write this review.
After getting a life-changing Brazilian Blowout in Southern California last summer, I was hunting for a good deal on something in the Boston area to tide me over until my return home next summer. There was a special on Gilt City for Gino's -- $75 for a keratin express blowout. OK, now not as great of a deal as I got in So Cal (my heart belongs to Abby and the crew at Madison Salon, particularly for that $99 BB from Groupon!), but good enough.
Because I can weave a long tale of woe here, I'll just break it into the good, the bad, and the ugly in hopes I can keep it all straight:
Good:
1. Close to my apartment
Bad:
1. I called on Monday to schedule an appointment (forgetting that my certificate expired at the beginning of February (the 3rd) instead of the 28th as I'd been thinking. I didn't get a call back until this morning. That was after calling twice on Tuesday and getting no call back either. They said there was an appointment cancellation for later in the day and I could come in today. Harbinger of things to come?
2. The hair styling tools were awful. The brushes seemed cheap -- like the kind you'd buy at CVS or something. Because I have very curly, coarse hair (uhhh, the reason I'm getting a keratin treatment, duh), usually paddle brushes, boar bristle brushes, etc. work best. These brushes were crap.
3. Instead of sectioning off my hair and blowdrying it as I've had done at every. single. hair appointment I've had in the nearly 20 years I've been getting it professionally done, Evelyn did this thing with the brush where she was just haphazardly flicking the brush in my hair while blowdrying it. All this did was tangle up my hair and rip hair out. I could hear my hair being pulled out and I'm sure that I have a metric ton of split ends now.
4. Keratin treatments can be harsh on your eyes. Yet, the hair was allowed to fall all over my face and eyes with no regard. At one point, my eyes started burning and watering because my hair was over my face like Cousin It.
5. Though it was an "express" service, it took almost 2 hours. That's basically as long as a regular Brazilian Blowout/keratin treatment!
6. The woman at the station next to Evelyn used her blowdryer to get hair off her station from a haircut she'd just completed. My bag was on the floor near my feet, not quite all the way under the styling counter. She blew bits of hair all over my bag -- and inside, since I'd recently opened the tote to pull out a book and hadn't closed it. Absolutely no regard because she saw it and just kept going without moving my bag as if blowdrying the station was super important
The Ugly:
1. Although the staff was nice enough to me, they were very snappish with each other. Just during my service, I experienced Evelyn being snappish with the shampoo girl and another assistant. She was clocking someone's break time like she was going to tattle if they were late back (which, to be fair, I can understand the frustration but there's no need to have those discussions in front of clients).
2. You know when you're communicating about someone who is pissing you off when that person is present -- you roll your eyes, make pointed glances, and smirk behind their back? Yeah, that's what the people were doing with me. I don't know if it's because they're not used to people who don't have the standard European texture of hair or what, but there was a lot of that snarky bitchery about my hair going on. Excuse me for living. Next time I'll take my money elsewhere.
Because I'm a sucker, I paid the tip on the full service and went on my merry way, but I absolutely would not return and would advise anyone I know to stay away. The only reason it's a 2 star instead of 1 is because it was super cheap through Gilt City.
