I am so sorry to be giving a one star review to this salon. I called today to request a refund for…read morethe worst haircut I've ever had. The very kind person on the phone explained that the salon absolutely offers refunds when clients are unhappy, but that they cannot do so in this case. The stylist I had, Michelle Clifton, only leases a chair at the salon - she is not an employee of Salon Joseph. But I feel I was treated terribly, and each time I see myself in the mirror I want to cry, and I do not know how else to seek recourse or record my experience.
I had an appointment with Michelle last Wednesday, where I expected something similar to what she had done a couple times in the past (longer layers, some shorter ones around my face). By the end of the appointment, I raised concerns about the shortest layer seeming too short and too big at the back, and blunt and uneven at the front. Michelle seemed to strike a defensive tone, told me that I should take a couple days to get used to it, and that I would love it.
I got home and asked my husband to confirm that he saw what I was seeing. I emailed Michelle the next morning (Thursday) with pictures, saying I was very concerned and hoping the back and front could be fixed. She replied Friday morning and said I could come in midday for an adjustment, which I appreciated. When I got there and reiterated my concerns, she indicated that 1) short layers was what I asked for, and 2) I just did not understand what short layers were supposed to look like, since I wasn't used to them. Even if I had asked for short layers all around (and I did not), the photos show that the shortest layer was blunt and uneven, and sat like a shelf above the rest of my hair. When I showed Michelle the picture with the blunt diagonal line in the back, she said it only looked like that because I had used a flat iron. (??) In any case, she did some adjusting. I thanked her and left.
When I got home, I realized that the front still looked uneven and unblended, and I emailed expressing that I was upset and was unsure what to do. Michelle said she was "genuinely sorry that we weren't able to land on something that felt right for you" and suggested I find a new stylist moving forward. I replied that I would find a new stylist, but that I was now going to have to pay someone else to fix my hair, and the situation had cost me a great deal of time and money. I said I would appreciate it if she would consider a partial refund (I paid $180 -- 150 for the cut and 30 for tip). She replied that she was not able to offer a refund due to "all the time she had spent," but offered to return my tip as a "gesture of goodwill."
When I went to another salon on Monday, I asked if the stylist could even out the fringe/layers at the front. She said - unprompted - "Do you also want me to address the back?" I said I could not see the back and thought it had been fixed. She said, and I quote, "It looks like a haircut on top of a haircut." She also noted that the layering was blunt and uneven overall. She spent an hour trying to blend things out but couldn't fully fix it, and encouraged me to come back in a couple months for more blending. (Indeed, the short layer still pops up like a helmet unless I blow-dry and use a flat iron, which I don't have time to do every day.) I paid full price for another haircut, though the new stylist charged me less than Michelle's rate of $150 because she felt so bad for me!
I wrote to Michelle that I was disappointed about the offer to return only the tip, and puzzled by her reference to "all the time" she had spent. I was under the impression that it was industry standard to offer a complimentary adjustment and then a refund if the hair is too short to correct, as mine is. I mentioned what the other stylist said about the structural issues with the cut, and that I believed my concerns had been valid. Michelle sent me my $30 tip.
Each step of the way, from the concerns I raised at my first appointment, Michelle made me feel gaslit, like there was nothing wrong with the haircut, that this was the outcome I asked for and I was simply too picky and difficult to please. I hope it is evident from the photos below that I was not being unreasonable.
I appreciate that none of us is perfect, and we all make mistakes, even professional hairstylists who ordinarily do amazing work. But when mistakes happen, I do not think it is right that the client should have to pay for it, especially when they have no choice but to wear the result.