I love My as a nail tech as she always does great work, however, the overall quality of the salon and management is entirely horrible. The salon owner is inauthentic and makes it very clear whether one is welcome or net depending not on how much you spend or how often you patron the establishment, but by the amount of melanin contained within your skin. I'd been a customer here for several months with limited direct interactions with her, however, I was able to observe and listen in on her conversations. Growing up in Montbello with many Asian friends taught me, not only to listen well, and I picked up on the language. Yes, I understand what you're saying, lady.
She is condescending and rude. At first, I thought I caught her on a bad day, turns out... nope, that's her personality. Ok. No worries. I can work around that as long as I have a great nail tech and no interaction with her. In comes My. She's so awesome! She does my mani/pedis flawlessly every time and they last so long. I really get mileage out of them and her time is worth every dime. I am very busy and she is always able to work with my schedule. My last visit, December 2017, was not only humiliating but infuriating and was my last to this establishment.
I called the day before to inquire about My's last appointment availability for the day. I was told she had an opening at 5p. Services? Mani- Dip, Pedi- gel equals time. My knows me, knows my services, and knows this will take some time. I arrived at 450p and My informed me she'd be with me after the walk-in she'd had was finished. I replied, ok. She prepped my pedi station. I sat at the pedi station for 25 minutes listening to the sounds of the salon. The woman My was with came in for full services: hair, mani, pedi, and waxing. She was going to be a while. In between her hair cut and wax, she performed my pedi. I asked her if she'd have time to complete my nail service today, if not, I could come back tomorrow. She said no, it was ok and apologized. Said the walk-in was assigned to her and she didn't know it would take as long as it had.
55 minutes.
still waiting for my nail services.
65 minutes... nail services begin.
A young woman walks in and asks for a pedicure. She tells about her horror story at another nail salon in the area. The owner listens intently and proceeds to engage in the gossip with the other patrons. She tells the woman it was good she came here because she hears terrible things about "them". WHAT?
Near the middle if my dip nail service, the owner walks up to me and demands that I pay now for all of my services before they're all completed. ?? This, I've never done anywhere at any salon, including this one. Highly irregular. When asked why, what is the reason, even while I'm in the middle of my service which my nails are not to be disturbed, she stated because I need you to do it now because we're about to close. Mind you, there were other patrons present, and they weren't asked to do so, even Miss Four Services. Nope. Just me.
My, apologized again. This caused me to ask her what's going on. Before she could answer, I heard the owner as the only other Black patron to do the same thing. Since she was there for the first time (nightmare nail Lady), my guess is she may have assumed this was how they do things here... nope. I side-eyed the owner, asked her why today when she knows I'm in here every other Saturday for the past 9 mos. She said, "I only remember seeing you twice before." What?? I have receipts!!! Seriously??? Ok!!
I nodded. Ok. I know this song. No worries. I will not be back to listen to the hook. Although I adore My, I had to leave and will not return. Since then, I've spoken to many other women to gauge their experiences, and they've experienced many of the same if not worse from nail mishaps to outright discrimination of many WOCs to what I experienced.
I was delighted to find a quality establishment near my home. I know I'll need t keep looking because this is not it. GL Salon needs a lot to become a truly stellar establishment and choice place in my community. Until the owners can truly know and understand their clientele, they won't be as successful as they can be in this community.
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