This is going to be my honest, unbiased review of Rio Hair Salon. I found this place through a Facebook page and one of the stylists, Sarenna was offering a $10 off deal on any hair service. I've been meaning to do my hair for a long time, and I've grown my hair out so I could do balayage to it.
I meet Sarenna on the day of my appointment and I am very excited to get my hair done by her. She was so so nice, and seemed very professional. I loved the environment of the salon and I could tell that I was going to become a regular here. Everything goes well and she is putting in the balayage treatment, standard stuff. Then when we wash out my hair and blowdry it, it has BARELY lifted, my tips were orange. Oh yeah, she also mentions a little later that my tips turned green but she toned it red so it's okay now. She says that has never happened to her so she was worried. Okay this should've been a red flag, but I l ignored it because I DO have darker colored hair that has been tinted red by box dye a few months ago. Anyway, no change really to my hair but everyone kept complimenting Sarenna's work and my hair so I left happy.. I was excited to see what my hair would actually look like when I went back a second time.
All right two weeks passes by and my orange tips are now a tinted shade of green. I frantically contact Sarenna and she probably tells me about 5 times that the reason is because of the cheap box dye I put in my hair. Bad chemical reaction she kept saying. She told me that when I come in again she would fix it and it should lift and get the green out. She tells me treatment will be another $110. I paid around $135 last time. I'm getting kinda sketched out because this is getting pricy for a hair treatment that was 0% effective the first time. I was debating or not whether to go through with this second treatment, but I was convinced when Sarenna sent me a long text saying how she doesn't want me to think she's trying to get money out of me and that I'm a "sweet and kind girl" and she would love me to become a regular. She sounded confident that my hair would come out right the second time and the box dye shouldn't be a problem since lifting my hair would resolve whatever problem my hair has. If it doesn't come out the way I want, she wouldn't charge full cost.
Okay. So I come in for my second appointment. She does the same exact thing to my hair except she's using a treatment that's clay-based this time- should be stronger for my stubborn hair. She washes out my hair, and I don't hear anything from her. I already knew it was bad at this point and I asked her "is it green again?" and she says "want me to be completely honest?" (uh.. of course...) and she says "yes." Great. She puts red toner in my hair again to neutralize it to an orange. This time I have orange tips except I can still see the green. All of the other salon employees examine my hair and reassures me that it's "fine" and "not even noticeable." Well yes, for now, but what about in a week. Toner isn't permanent and my hair will be straight up green by then. Anyway, Sarenna doesn't charge me (makes sense, my hair is probably dead by now and it's just really ugly).
I come home and ask my friends to check my hair- they all tell me they can see green. Even my boyfriend, who literally does not even notice if I cut my hair 4 inches, asked me why I decided to dye my tips green. Wow. Everyone tells me that I need to go back to the salon and demand a refund. But I am a pushover and I didn't want to ruin business for Sarenna because she's so nice. It's been three weeks since my last trip to Rio Salon. I've cut off all the work Sarenna's done on my hair, seriously what a waste of time and money.My hair was literally falling out everywhere because it was so matted and damaged. I was so sad, I was so self conscious and was crying because I ruined my long healthy hair and wasted my money. I text Sarenna again asking what I should do. She keeps saying the same thing about how she can't do anything about my box dyed hair. She's very professional and polite, but bluntly put she has a "not my problem anymore attitude." She suggests I find a different salon to fix my hair, and she's done "everything she can" and "didn't even charge" me for the second treatment. Umm, hello? The second treatment did not fix anything, but made my hair absolutely disgusting.
Anyway, I am a reasonable person, and I don't doubt Sarenna's abilities as a hair stylist. This is merely my honest opinion and personal experience here. I believe Sarenna could've taken better precautions, but she seemed like she was trying the best she could at the moment. At the end of the day however, my hair is still green and I am still unhappy. It's mostly my fault for believing she could fix it the second time (she sounded very confident and reassuring when she texted me), and when she couldn't -she blamed my box dyed hair (I get it already). Definitely not recommending this place to my friends read more