I was staying at the Ritz, and needed my hair styled, as I had an official dinner to attend. Unfortunately the hotel's hairdressers were fully booked at the time, so they recommended Michael John's hair salon.
I phoned up to check their availability and they told me that they were very busy and only one hair dresser was available in half an hour. I asked if there was any chance I could have gone in an hour, as I had something important to do, and I was at the other end of London at the time. They said I could not, so I had to abandon what I was doing and rushed to get to the hair salon on time. Upon arrival I noticed there were about 10 hair stylists standing around doing nothing, but chatting to each other. I was not entirely sure why I was made to rush so much, when there were clearly stylists available for later appointments.
The girl, who was appointed to wash my hair asked me if I wanted a head massage, to which I answered by saying I would like a massage, if it would not take more than 10 minutes, as I was quite short with time. She did not say anything, did not do the massage, and in fact was so clumsy whilst washing my hair, she kept hurting me by pulling it and scratching me with her nails, and also kept spraying water over my face. I did not say anything, but was not very impressed, as this is not what anyone expects from a hair salon, which charges a fortune.
Then, this girl took me over to the chair where I was going to have my hair styled, asked me if I wanted a drink, I said 'Yes, please, some water would be great.' after which she walked away and never came back with my drink.
The worst part came when my appointed hair stylist Adrianne Jones, who by the way is a Senior Artistic Director, came over and decided to ignore my requirements, which were not many, and did whatever she wanted to do with my hair.
I asked her to make a lose bun, nothing too pretentious, but still quite glamorous. She told me it would not suit me, and it will make me look old, which is bizarre as this is what Nicky Clarke usually does with my hair for my special occasions, and I always get tones of compliments on it. She also kept repeating this hair style was 'not me at all' (quite strange as she had only known me for 2 minutes, but was already ready to judge what was me, what was not), and kept saying she was going to leave my hair down and curl it. I said to her I have recently had my hair cut, it was much shorter than usual, and I was not comfortable with the length, which was why I wanted it to be up. I also said my face shape does not suit big curly hair, and I did not want her to do any curls. She ignored me, and kept repeating that hair up was 'so not me'. I gave up trying, so she started working.
To top up my frustration with her complete ignorance, she kept asking me exactly the same questions over and over again, which made it clear she was not interested in my answers, in fact she did not even care what she was asking me. She just probably thought she would come across nice, if she kept chatting. I have never thought I could be asked so many times in the course of 15 minutes where I was going for dinner!
After a while, I asked for my drink again, as the girl, who washed my hair and offered me a drink 20 minutes before that, came back and started watching Adrianne doing exactly what I asked her not to do with my hair.
As my hair styling was half way through I told Adrianne my hair does not hold curls whatever you fix it with. She ignored that and kept going with her master plan to give me big voluminous curls.
In the end I did not like the result at all. I looked ridiculous, and I could tell she saw it too, so she decided to put a pin on one side of my head to hide the curls, which she was convinced were going to look 'fabulous'. I repeated these curls were going to become flat in half an hour, as I know what my hair is like, so she decided to put half a can of hair spray to make sure they stayed as they were.
After all of that, she obviously saw my not at all pleased facial expression and decided to say to my partner 'I am worried your girlfriend might not like the look of her hair'. My partner, as annoyed as I was, but being polite and positive, and trying to get me out of there as quickly as possible, as it was my birthday, and my mood was far from good, thanks to the horrible service I received, told her it was fine. We paid a lot of money, and left. By the time we got back to the Ritz, which was a 5 minute walk, those 'fabulous curls' were gone, so I had to try and fix my hair style on my own.
It really is a shame as it not only was my birthday, but my boyfriend proposed to me later that night, so I would have appreciated it a lot, if she listened to my request for a second, and not just decided to do what she wanted.
I am never going back to this place again, and I am not quite sure how such an ignorant woman was made a Senior Artistic Director.
Disappointed beyond belief! read more
