No one wants to pay top dollar to have your hair damaged, be demeaned by a stylist in front of the salon owner & his client, or patronized. But that was my experience at OLP. I met Mark Cole at another salon where he gave me a $300+ keratin treatment. He told me he was moving to a new salon & suggested I follow him. It was closer to home, so I agreed. All was good at first. I was getting regular cuts & color, not questioning costs, which were definitely on the high side, right up until the color started to fade in barely 2 weeks. That didn't make sense to me because a good color has always lasted 3 1/2 to 4 weeks. This one was quickly fading on both sides & at my roots in only a few days. He told me that was because I was "turning completely gray" & not his fault. That made me feel terrible. Then he suggested I come in after hours "in an old t-shirt" & he would touch it up & send me home to wash it out & blow it myself so he wouldn't have to charge me. Never has a good, expensive stylist not done a correction at the salon. He said the only way he could do it "without charging me again" would be for me to do the wash & style myself. Ultimately, he finally agreed to do it at the salon the day after Christmas, the day before my birthday, but it was awkward & weird, with him being noticeably upset, so I just stayed quiet the entire time. It wasn't about the money at all at this point, it was about attitude & making a loyal client who spent good money with him feel terrible. I booked a next appointment anyway to get on a regular schedule to avoid this from reoccurring. I arrived for that appt hopeful. Mark cut my hair & all seemed good, but as we were finishing, he suggested a "gloss" to "tone down my highlights" which he said were turning "brassy". A "GLOSS." Ok, one more service to pay for, but I thought "shiny". Little did I know, gloss meant a DEEP BROWN color, completely covering up all of my highlights. Just FLAT, DARK hair. I was sort of stunned at the result & asked if it would lighten up. He assured me it would & discouraged me from washing it for a few days. I went 2 days with friends & colleagues commenting on how dark it was, looking in the mirror feeling completely pale & washed out. I texted Mark, asking how to lighten it because the first wash did nothing. He then encouraged me to wash it TWO to THREE times PER DAY, using shampoo, baking soda & dishwashing liquid! This was stressful while I was trying to work, have Zoom meetings with my team & clients and have to race to wash my hair 2-3 times a day & restyle it in between. With ZERO luck lightening it, I reached back out to him to book yet another appt to get it lightened (see below), with the first available being in 5 more days & the same evening as a belated birthday dinner I had set with friends. The appt was set for 5:00, with my birthday dinner 20 minutes away at 6:30. Later that day, Mark texts me he's running late & asks me to come in at 5:20. I explain that I can't due to the dinner & that I needed to get the dark brown toned down. Well, evidently, that upset him. I get to the salon at 4:50 for the 5:00 appt & he looks straight at me in FRONT of a client & well within earshot of the owner & his partner and says in a VERY SHARP TONE, "Did you read my text? If not, you'd better!" What!?! I looked at my phone, nothing. So I sit there & wait, knowing I'm now going to be late to my own birthday dinner. His client finishes & leaves and he approaches me IN FRONT of the owner AND the owner's partner & starts SCREAMING at me. Basically, he puts everything on me, that he can't make me happy, that he's not the stylist for me, etc., never once admitting the gloss was his idea, that the color is too dark for me, & says he will NOT do my hair. I immediately got that sick feeling you get when a bully is berating you. The owner's partner just stood there after shutting the door to help mute how Mark was berating me, but didn't stop him from yelling at a client. When I spoke up, Mark stormed out. The owner's partner walked over and gave me a card for another stylist in the salon he said "would be better" while repeating how "beautiful" my hair was, how "great" I looked, etc. He also said there was nothing they could do because the stylists are "only renting" chairs. WHAT!?! It was the ultimate dismissal of my feelings & a solid gaslighting job coming from someone I'd never met who had just watched one of the stylists in THEIR salon scream at me. No apology at all! Come on! Apologize for the temper tantrum & stop the gaslighting! I reminded him I had a birthday dinner to get to & asked him to have the owner call me, which he NEVER did. Good luck to them! Word gets around quickly in Palm Springs. Keep treating good clients this way & watch your business go down the drain! Try some common courtesy & anger management courses for your renter stylists! (PS -- I waited almost 2 months to post waiting for the owner to contact me. He never did.) read more