I came to this place a while back and finally have a moment to to write about my experience there.
I made an appointment for my three children to have their hairs cut at this sleek Richmond establishment geared towards children of San Francisco's upper-crust families with its expensive salon prices. We arrived and were assigned two hairdressers, one being the Asian-American woman who took my reservation and later greeted us from the front desk (I never got her name) . We asked them to start on our youngest 4 year old son and 7 year old daughter. They handed the kids some iPads to distract them, our greeter assigning herself to our 4 year old son. As is the case with parenthood-reality, our 4 year old unexpectedly failed to fall under the iPad spell, developed cold feet, and decided to spend a total of two minutes protesting the logic behind the decision to cut hair in the first place. We noticed this hairdresser-greeter was getting impatient, with passive-aggressive exasperated looks at us shouting "what should I do?", so we asked her to go ahead and cut our 8 year old son's hair while my better half and I would do our convincing/bribing. We were surprised because we assumed that, since this was a salon geared towards kids, their employees would not only be used to an occasional haircut protest but have their own ways of assisting the parents in convincing (beyond throwing an iPad at them.) I mean why else would you apply for a job there?
She finished cutting his hair and asked my shy 8 year old how he liked his hair and, as expected, didn't respond due to, well... his shyness. She did one of those 'slight head shakes with smirk', broadcasting her continued frustration due to his ostensible lack of appreciation. I looked at my better half and realized how crazy this whole Prepp screenplay-experience was turning out. So as not to disappoint, when we told her that our 4 year old was ready/sufficiently-bribed, she said she didn't have time because she had another appointment.
"But we switched the kids within a minute? How could we be out of time?"
"Unfortunately we don't have him scheduled."
"Ummm huh? What do you mean, I called and made a reservation for all 3, with you."
"Sorry. I only have two down" she said.
Well at least she admitted to messing up.
"So...ummmm... where do we go from here?"
"Do you want to reschedule?"
"No thanks, I live across town."
She raised her shoulders as if she couldn't do anything.
"Just forget it. I'll just pay now" I said as I handed her my credit card. She asked me how much tip I wanted to include and I was like "Are you kidding me... nothing."
I signed and we got out of there quick never to return again.
They give good haircuts. The place has a nice vibe with an amazing glossy magazine-packed waiting area with an adorable feng -shui outdoor chair and table setup that's great for convincing unconvincing children to get a haircut away from the judging stare of others. The iPads are a great idea too. So how could it be so ambiance sleek yet so human-lacking? I can only guess. I can possibly imagine that the employee I dealt with may shroud the owner's vision with her flatline emotional intelligence and atrocious customer service. Maybe it was a bad day for this employee. Maybe she knew she had double-booked and we were dealing with her anxiety. Or maybe this place is just geared towards the silver-spoon-in-mouth preteens and teens (the predominant demographic the magazines in the waiting room were geared towards), that developing toddlers who were familiarizing themselves with their new power of choice were persona non-grata - I don't know.
We ended up going across the street to Snippedy Crickets (now closed) to get the 4 year old's hair cut. The haircut wasn't as top notch but totally worked, but the people there broadcasted niceness energy, energy which ended up doing all the convincing for us (it didn't hurt that they also had toys you could buy right there so we could tangibly bribe/reward them with afterwards.) Not only that, but the CHILDS haircut was half as expensive. Too bad they are gone, now I am back to square one of finding a haircut solution.
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