I have been looking for a good hair salon let alone a good hair dresser for over a year in Geelong. I found Jackie D's review and thought I would give Racoco's a try.
When I rang to make an appointment it was VERY loud in the background and very difficult to hear the person on the other end. Needless to say, I finally got an appointment time/date. A text came through the day before to remind me of the appointment.
Upon arrival, I realized why it was so loud when I rang. There were rows of stations (about 4 rows with I think 4 stations in each row) and about 4 people standing behind the counter. I was escorted to a station straight away. To confirm what Jackie D mentioned about the T.V.s at each station.... there are but they just had the same trashy music videos playing on every single one (the T.V.s are inside the mirror and about 5"X7" big. The music from the music video's was blaring in the background along with the hair dryers, people talking etc. it was a tad bit overwhelming!!
My hair dresser was Jess, she wasn't overly friendly, chatty and didn't smile much; which was a surprise since most of the hair dressers were very chatty! She seemed to listen to what I wanted; low lights in the auburn/brunette range that blended well (my hair was a medium blonde with highlights). Either she wasn't in the mood to chat or she figured I was enjoying the magazine enough to not really engage in conversation; which over all was okay with me.
The trouble of starting out with new hair dressers always is realizing my hair is very fine and takes on color very quickly. So she had to rinse out 1/3 of my foils by the time she was finished my head, then another 1/4 rinsed out and finally after about 15 minutes rinsed out all the foils. By this time Jess had another client so I Hayley finished rinsing my hair and applied the toner.
Hayley did an AMAZING job with the head massage!! Oh my, it was one of those ones that I would just go back for the head massage!!! Plus the rinse stations had massaging chairs and the ability to put your feet up. Well when I got back to the station to finally look in the mirror after all the color had been rinsed out.... I realized there was ALOT of blonde!! I guess the communication was not as good as I had thought. So even though it looked good.... it pretty much was a freshened up version of what I already had.... which I had wanted mostly auburn lowlights with just a few blonde nicely mixed in.
Hayley asked what I wanted to do with my hair i.e. body, flat etc. I said body since normally my hair is quite flat. She took probably a good 20-25 minutes blow drying my hair to get some body! It hurt a lot because of the pulling, but in the end it was okay.
I found it interesting through out the time Jess and Hayley were attending to me, there were people floating around constantly asking how they were or how other stylists were doing. They would bring what ever it was they needed or set up stations how every the hair dresser requested. It was kind of like the gopher runs.... but very efficient and seemed very team orientated! Also one of the 'gophers' did a meter run for me.... which was very nice! Also the 'gophers' would go around and ask if anyone wanted to order food; the placemats are each station had menus for alcohol, coffee, simple foods etc. I did not take advantage of the food, but I saw a few yummy looking dishes go out and coffees.
Jess came back shortly after Hayley had finished blow drying. I told Jess that I had wanted a bit more low lights than it was... she said she would write down what we did that day and add more low lights next time. Which was a nice answer, I am not sure if she realized it until that second that communication wasn't great initially or I am not sure. But it was okay. She did a nice job on the trim.
I was very happy to have a smaller bill than I had anticipated!! As Jackie D said it was much less than many Melbourne Salons for similar service.
I will be back, which is another pleasant surprise as since I have been in Geelong for 15 months I have never returned to the same Salon twice.
I would recommend for everyone to experience Rococo's at least once, as it is definitely a different experience than other Salon's I have been around Geelong (which I have tried 6 in 15 months). read more
