Two years this week. It took me two years to be able to update my review without ranting and raving and crying like a mad person.
Everything I said before flew out the window when they carelessly over-processed my hair to the point of it ALL FALLING OUT. That's right, I'm not exaggerating. It took me two years to grow it back to a normal length, still not where it was before. I still have another 2 years to go to completely recover from this.
Everyone I know advised me to sue. I was too heartbroken to do anything. I know it sounds melodramatic, but I've always had long hair - and women hold their hair dear - can you imagine going bald? And not for a legitimate reason that was unavoidable - for a stupid one that was not your fault.
I even went to a wig shop in tears, to have the lady tell me my head was too big and she would have to shave off the little stumps that remained in order to be able to fit something. My mother recommended bringing back the turban. It was that bad. I didn't leave my house for almost a year and when I did it was wearing a hat and extensions (since it was so short the extensions didn't blend in so I had to cover the top with a hat). I limited hair washing to a week because I couldn't deal with the emotional turmoil of standing in the shower holding chunks of my falling hair. I would come out crying every time.
Remember how I was going on about how great it was that he encouraged me to go platinum blonde when I already had really damaged hair? I went to the salon to get it dyed DARKER, because my hair was so fragile. He recommended platinum. I was uneasy about the extra damage and first said no, but he reassured me that he could do it. And he was so convincing and professional, I was dazzled and decided to trust him. The first trip was very successful, my hair came out beautifully and I was incredibly happy. He made me feel very comfortable by using his formulas and writing everything down - a "true professional."
I went in for a root touch up before Christmas and it came out horribly patchy, plus my scalp was burned. There were blotches of bright yellow with other blotches of bright purple. It was terrible. So after the holidays I went in to get it fixed. They re-bleached, and then bleached again. For anyone who is keeping track, that's 3 bleach-to-platinum processes over the same line of demarcation (the line between your new hair and your processed hair) and more bleach over a scarred scalp. Of course, that made it snap off. Even a 15-year-old experimenting with home dyes wouldn't attempt this.
After the wash, a lady sat me in the chair and was carefully combing my hair, shaking her hand off every couple seconds. I thought it was strange but didn't look back. Then I looked into the mirror and saw an inch long stub shoot straight up from my head. I then ran my fingers through my hair and my hands came back full. I looked down and there was hair everywhere. I immediately ran out and cried. After calming myself, I came back and of course, Michael made it sound like it was my fault. He has a way with words.
- "It's probably from all that flat-ironing you do."
- "I don't own a flat-iron."
- "Well then you for sure did something else."
- "Right... it wasn't the bleach..."
I left the salon, still getting charged over $350 for them literally murdering my hair, but hey, they gave me a free conditioner.
Michael called later that week to check up on me, which is good follow up I suppose, and told me to come in to see what he could do. I told him to dye it back to my natural color, nothing damaging, so it hopefully stops breaking at some point and to just let it air-dry. Even then he insisted on going with a different color, probably so he wouldn't lose the business. I almost let him persuade me, and then Cisco noticed I wasn't happy, and until he whispered, "It's your hair, you should decide what you want", I realized it was true. So I insisted on dark brown, my natural color. And I'm glad I did, but Michael clearly wasn't.
You would think that at least this service would have been complimentary, but even this, he charged, saying "I don't usually do this, but I'll give you 50% off this visit." Oh, thank you! How sweet! So normally you charge $240 for plain color? Because I left with a $120 bill. And I'm supposed to feel grateful. Again, he has a way with words.
So now, two years later, I have yet to return to ANY salon. I've vowed to never dye my hair again and have my mom trim the ends. I hate writing negative reviews, but considering I didn't sue, this should be considered a win for them. I don't think anyone over there is a bad person - in fact, I think they're all great people, but what happened to me is unforgivable and I don't think I was treated responsibly, to say the least. I should have done something, but again, I couldn't bring myself to, I was too devastated. And I'm still recovering, 2 years later, which should never be the end result of a simple salon visit. read more