Scheduled an appointment with Manny after reading positive reviews. I didn't have such a good experience. Manny was either overbooked or trying to service too many people at once, and he did not listen to me when I tried to explain what I wanted.
When I arrived, Manny was in the middle of a highlight job, and eventually passed that customer off to someone else to complete. I was seated at what I thought was his station and he briefly discussed what I wanted, and then sent me to the back for a shampoo. When the shampoo was over, there was someone else sitting at the station. They had to move me down two seats. Manny was across the room talking to a customer in another chair. Keep in mind that he now had three on my side of the room he was working in addition to what he was doing across the room.
Manny finally got to my chair and started cutting. In the end, he gave me a cut that I seems like just a standard beauty school cut that someone else might like, but was TOTALLY OPPOSITE of what I requested. I specifically stated where I wanted length removed, and where I wanted it left to grow out. He cut 2-3 inches off the areas I am trying to grow out (when you have collar length hair, that is a lot of length - he cut off more than half of it). He left long the areas I told him I wanted shorter - particularly my bangs. It's like he had a cut in his mind and just defaulted to autopilot, completely disregarding what I requested. It will take me months to regrow what he cut off. Also, the layering on one side is shorter than the other... I actually pointed it out while he was cutting, and he didn't correct it. I had to come home and cut my bangs myself to get them to the length I wanted (which is what I requested ... I stated it several times). There is nothing I can do about the chop job he did on the rest of it except wait patiently for it to grow out.
I won't bore you with the details - just suffice it to say he either has a language/English/communication problem or he was so distracted by all the customers he was servicing at once that he flat out didn't pay attention to what I said or forgot it all by the time he got back to me.
Another observation: the entire time I was there I never saw one single style that I thought was particularly attractive. There was a LOT of overprocessed hair in that studio. Before I could even get out of the chair, Manny moved on to the client sitting next to me. Her hair was very long - down to her shoulder blades - and crisp and damaged from past treatments. It was apparent Manny had done the previous job, and was getting ready to add more highlights. He wasn't even discussing with her the need to special condition any of it, or cut off any of the damaged length. I saw this throughout the shop. A lot of treatment damaged hair and quite honestly I didn't see one color treatment that looked very pretty or complimentary to the client.
If you are Asian or have that particular type of hair (straight, etc), your chances seem to be better that a cut from this shop will turn out ok. The techniques that give great styles to that type hair are not always good techniques for other types of hair. If you have curly hair, beware because many of the techniques used on straight hair will make yours frizzy. Manny began texturizing my hair and i said I don't like the way texturizing makes my hair look, and he CONTINUED TO TEXTURIZE IT. He honestly doesn't seem to know how to cut hair in different ways - just the techniques that are his routine, which again will probably be ok if you have the kind of hair he is used to cutting.
This salon is about 25-30% cheaper than the really good salons. I tried it because I read such good reviews and was interested in saving a little money. The old addage applies - you get what you pay for. I won't be going back. read more
