I had been going to Erica before April, so this was not someone I had just randomly gone to once. I…read moretrusted her as my stylist, which is exactly why this entire experience has been so disappointing.
In April, while sitting in Erica's chair and discussing getting a new set of extensions, I ordered the hair myself based on her recommendation. She recommended that particular brand, but she did not do a color match before I ordered it, and the color ended up being off. The hair was installed in May, and I continued to trust that she knew what she was doing because she was the professional.
I saw her again in August, and after that appointment, I started realizing that my hair no longer looked remotely acceptable when I tried to style it myself. I ended up getting a second professional opinion, and that's when I learned how much had actually been done to the extensions.
I was told that more than half of the extensions had been heavily chopped and thinned out in an attempt to blend them. I'm not talking about simply losing length the extensions had been cut and thinned so much that the hair was significantly compromised and had lost a lot of its fullness. This explained why I was having such a difficult time styling and blending my hair.
What is especially frustrating is that I had trusted Erica to handle my hair as a professional. I am not a hairstylist. I shouldn't have been expected to sit in the chair and monitor every cut and question how much hair she was removing in order to know that something was wrong. I trusted her expertise and assumed she was doing what was appropriate for my extensions.
I messaged Erica on August 17 about the situation. And this is where things became even more frustrating.
She offered to replace the hair herself. I didn't demand it. I didn't have to beg her. She offered and told me she was happy to replace it. Naturally, I trusted her word and expected her to follow through.
Instead, I was given the runaround for four weeks.
Now it's September 10, and after an entire month of waiting and communicating about this, Erica has suddenly changed her position and is claiming that she has a two-week policy and therefore won't be helping me.
She's also saying that my hair looked good when I left and that I should have said something at the time.
That is extremely frustrating to hear. Again, I am not a hairstylist. I trusted the person I was paying to be the professional. If I had known exactly what was happening to my extensions while I was sitting in the chair, obviously I would have addressed it. But I didn't know I was supposed to sit there and nitpick her work as she was doing it.
And if this two-week policy was going to be the reason she refused to help, why wasn't that the response when I contacted her on August 17? Instead, she offered to replace the hair and said she was happy to do it, then proceeded to give me the runaround for four weeks before suddenly bringing up a policy and backing away from what she had offered.
The issue isn't simply that I'm unhappy with my hair. It's the lack of accountability and the way this entire situation was handled. I trusted Erica with my hair, trusted her recommendation when purchasing the extensions, trusted her to properly color-match and blend them, and then trusted her again when she offered to replace them.
I gave her plenty of opportunity to make this right. Instead, after four weeks of waiting, I'm being told that her policy means she won't help me after all.
A professional's word should mean something. If you offer to make an issue right, you shouldn't be able to string a client along for a month and then suddenly change your position.
Unfortunately, after this experience, I would not recommend Erica. The extensions, the lack of a proper color match, the excessive thinning and chopping, and especially the way my concerns were handled afterward have left me extremely disappointed.
I expected professionalism and accountability. Instead, I got a month of excuses and a completely different answer than the one I was originally given.