I've been going to Sandton for 3-4 years now and was happy with their service up until the lady I usually got to do my hair left the salon. Since then, their quality has taken a downward turn. My recent experience with them has made me decide to never go back to Sandton as they failed to understand my requirements, overcharged me on two occasions, and I ended up with an overpriced dye job that I was very unhappy with and had to remedy with a $10 pack of dye from the supermarket.
In December 2014, I went to Sandton get a cut and foils as well as a root touch up in preparation for my wedding in February. The cut was nothing amazing. The lady who served me failed to ask questions to understand what I wanted regarding the colour of the foils before she started, and instead made a lot of assumptions. She was hesitant to use bleach on my black hair to give me foils, and so decided to "lift" the colour instead. This was ineffective. There was absolutely no colour difference in the supposed foils compared to the rest of my hair. I should have refused to pay then and there, but I didn't. When I called up the next day and told them I was unhappy, I was told to come back in the new year for the job to be fixed and was given the impression that this would be at no extra cost.
On my second visit, I was told that the repair job would not be free of charge. Instead it would cost me around $150. The same lady (who supposedly was under close supervision of the professional colourist) bleached my hair and toned it. The final product did not turn out to be the colour I chose - it was much more yellow - a rookie colourist mistake. The toner hadn't worked, and my hair was over bleached. When I explained that the colour needed to be more red to match what I had wanted, I was told that this would be another $40 as it would be classified as a "colour change". No attempt was made to compare the final result with the colour swatch I had chosen. Again, I should have refused to pay for what they had done, but I was made to feel that it was my fault that I didn't like the outcome. I left without paying the extra $40 as I simply could not afford it - I had now spent close to $400 on a hair job that I was not happy with.
I ended up getting a friend to remedy the "professional" dye job with a $10 packet of dye from the supermarket so I could look decent on my wedding day.
I am extremely disappointed with Sandton and I will not be going back. Their quality has dropped dramatically from when I first started going there, and the service is over priced.
Approximate cost: $400 read more