This review is specifically for Lauren Parsons of Salon 437 and Sierra Mountain Brides which I couldn't find a Yelp page for, but I believe is Lauren's new hair and makeup business.
Lauren was terrible to work with. I recently got married in Mammoth Lakes CA. I had a difficult time when searching for vendors in Mammoth because it's such a small town and despite looking for hair and makeup vendors early on I still had a difficult time.
I came across Lauren when reaching out to a different hair salon who connected me to Lauren. I was able to find Lauren's instagram and from there felt I had enough info to confidently hire her based on her work, boy was I wrong. I reached out to her via text and heard back from her relatively quickly, later that day. We set up a time for a call to go over her contract. She ended up asking to push the initial call back to a different day and time, I believe it was 8pm or 9pm in the evening that worked for her. At this point I was getting nervous and eager to book someone for my hair and I looked past that and decided to book her anyway.
Second mistake was booking her despite the fact that she required 50% of the total cost of all ladies in my party getting their hair done AND 20% gratuity up front. I now know that she must have learned that she has to require the tip upfront because if she didn't anyone with a brain would refuse to tip her. She was that terrible to work with.
Long story short, less than 2 weeks after giving her half my total amount (nearly $500) I tried to reach her via text and phone call and for an entire month (I'm not joking), I could not get ahold of her. Not a single text explaining she was busy and she'd get back to me asap. NOTHING. I got so worried that she took my money and ran that I spent an afternoon on the phone with my cc company trying to dispute the charge. Unfortunately, that wasn't possible. I emailed, left voicemails and texted her that I was very worried an unhappy with the lack of communication and I would like a refund so I could move on and find someone else willing to help me answer a simple question and schedule my hair trial. I explained to her I live nearly 5 hours away and needed to book lodging in order to do my hair trial. It wasn't until an entire month later and several messages explaining that I wanted a refund that she finally texts me back. She apologized and made excuses about being swamped at work. I still don't know how you can run a business and think that any of this was okay.
One of the reasons I was trying to get ahold of her was because I had a bridesmaid I needed to add on for the wedding day that I originally thought didn't need hair services. Lauren initially said she needed a week to find out if this was doable. I gave her the benefit of the doubt and gave her the week she asked for. TWO weeks go by before I hear from her again. I explain that I'm unhappy with her service so far and I didn't feel comfortable moving forward with her. I was planning a wedding and had enough stress and just wanted this nightmare to be over. She finally responds and her answer to this was giving me my additional bridesmaids hair for free. That was nice, but I was still super nervous and extra stressed having to move forward with someone I wasn't sure would even show up on my wedding day. I eventually was able to schedule my hair trial with her which I left feeling okay about, until a couples hours later when my updo was completely coming apart. I honestly debated cutting my hair the entire time leading up to the wedding so I knew she couldn't mess my hair up and worst case I could do it myself if she was a no show. I went forward with what we agreed upon during my trial. The wedding day she showed up and got everyone done on time. My hair looked good for the ceremony, but by the time the reception started my hair was coming out and I had to add additional bobby pins to keep things in place. I eventually surrendered to the fact that my hair was just going to be a bit of a mess and I did my best the rest of the night to tuck hair where it needed to go, but I'm sure it looked pretty disastrous in the back.
I expect someone working in Mammoth to be able to keep an updo from coming apart before the reception begins. You would think you're hiring someone who would have enough experience with the weather to know how to keep hair up. Overall, I had the best day ever and I won't let my updo coming undone ruin our day. Working with Lauren wasn't pleasant. She added much more stress than necessary which is the opposite of what you should do for a bride planning her wedding. I understand being busy, but I literally had two questions to ask and a hair trial to book which I was told to book early so time slots wouldn't book up. Lauren was extremely unprofessional.
Two starts only because my hair did look pretty for the ceremony which I'm grateful for and she tried to help by giving me one of my bridesmaid's hair for free. read more