I came in as a new client for a balayage refresh. I found the hairstylist at One Society Salon via instagram. She always posted about balayage work & was recommended for that service.
Overall, the hairstylist was not friendly & made several comments that rubbed me the wrong way. Maybe I'm not used to that kind of personality or she was having an off day.
When I arrived, we had a quick 5 min consult in her chair. I wanted to cut off a lot of length & have a blonder balayage with a blended root for low maintenance & an easy grow out. For length I said it was important that I can still put my hair up in a ponytail. She looked at me blankly &said "any length of hair can be put up. And no one even wears ponytails anymore. You have nothing to worry about." And then she was done with that topic. I just wanted my hair to be long enough to reach the ponytail or bun without short pieces falling out. I guess she didn't get that. I pulled up pics from Pinterest to explain the color tone/placement/cut so she would have an idea of what I wanted. Seemed like she didn't care at all. She said she wasn't going to do as many foils on me since I don't come in every 3 months. Um okay... She chopped my hair very bluntly to get the extra length off before starting the color. She said she would cut the style later. & we never discussed the cut later. I should have spoken up about this. For the color, she sectioned my hair in half horizontally across the back and never touched that bottom section. She put ~20 foils through the top. After the foils came out, she painted the root color along my hairline where I part my hair. Nowhere else. During the color service, she did nothing that resembled what I have seen/read about balayage color services. But I wanted to trust her.
She asked if it was okay to cut some shorter pieces around my face. I'm thinking face frame but she took that as "side bangs" & they were chopped before I realized what was happening. As someone that just spent 5 years growing out bangs, this killed me. Every time I said something she had a blunt response. I was so confused how to talk to her. I felt like nothing I said was going to make her happy.
She asked if she could curl my hair & I said sure. She asked if I had any questions about how to curl my hair. I said no. I am pretty good at styling my own hair & really like what I can do with mine. She gave me tips and advice anyway. She started to complain about how most girls are doing it wrong & it annoys her. She asked if I curl my hair the correct way like she does. I was so done at this point so I said "I don't know". She said that if I don't notice my technique, I must be doing it wrong. & now that she has pointed it out to me, I will be able to curl my hair correctly. I couldn't wait to leave.
I paid $205 for the cut and color. This was $20 off the regular cost. She reminded me to come back in 3 months to get the color touched up. When I got home I took a closer look at my hair. It was shocking. A blunt PANEL of blonde at the front section. There was no blending here. I couldn't understand. & my roots looked like grown out highlights that needed to be touched up. I sorted through the rest of my hair I found several more blunt highlight sections like this. & all the hair underneath was dark too since she didn't even touch that. I was embarrassed that I paid $205 for my hair to look like this. I've never paid so much. This was not balayage. I texted the hairstylist that night & asked if she could blend the roots more. She was very nice about it. I said I was free tomorrow, she suggested we wait a week because I might like it by then. So I waited a week. She was friendlier at the 2nd appt & agreed the color at the roots was not right and apologized. I pointed out the large panel of blonde in the front & she basically said that she did the technique correctly and that's just the way my hair naturally falls. So she did not change that. I did not have to pay anything for the fix. I will not be returning to this salon. The crazy thing is that the "after" picture she posted on her Instagram looks totally fine. The pictures that I took myself at home look completely different.
A few months later I went to Michelle at Salon B in Plymouth, MI for a color correction. This was a better experience in every aspect. Prior to my appointment, I sent a few pics of my current hair & we texted about what kind of color and look I wanted. This is how it should always be! I like that she wanted to plan ahead for the appointment. When I arrived, I showed her the pictures of my hair after the previous salon & she couldn't believe it. As she was doing my color, she said that whatever the previous stylist did made no sense to her. She couldn't understand the color placement or haircut. Michelle was so sweet and friendly! She did a great job & I was finally happy with my hair! read more