Honestly, steer clear from this place for highlights. This salon is WAY overpriced for what you get. I was in a pinch because my roots were growing out and I needed my highlights done for an upcoming event, and my usual salon was booked. Self had availability and I thought- wow they are charging top dollar so they must know what they are doing, so I decided to take a chance with this place. Big mistake.
I reached out to Self salon for an online consultation explaining my needs, and someone got back to me and said they thought Mino would be the best match for me. So I booked an appointment for a full head of highlights with Mino. While he was very kind, he did not even mention or seem to have any knowledge of the consultation form I had submitted, and I got the impression that he had very little experience after just a few minutes of sitting in the salon chair. My highlights came out uneven, sloppy, and orange (a noticeable difference in color from the rest of my ash blonde highlighted hair). Some highlights were chunky, some were thin, he applied them in different directions and some highlights were close to my scalp and others were .5 inch away. I expressed that I wasn't very happy with the result and he told me to let him know within the next few days if I want to come back and have him fix it. While I appreciate the offer, I purposely did not take them up on it because I honestly did not trust him to fix what he had done.
When booking the appointment the online reservation system said the appointment length would be 2 hrs. From my experience a full head of highlights can usually take up to 2.5-3 hours, however, I left the salon over 3 hours later unfinished with a wet head of knotty hair.
I also want to add that all of the product they use is white labeled in their own "Self" branded bottles. I don't know about other people, but I personally like to see what products someone is using on my hair when I'm in a salon. This irked me a bit and made me think they are using low end products that they put in their own bottles to hide it from customers. I could be wrong, but that's my assumption considering I couldn't even get a brush through my straight hair after leaving.
I am someone who has been religiously getting highlights for the past 6 years. I have never paid more than $250 for a full head of highlights in my life, so I would expect for $350 that they would be pros providing the highest level of service, using high quality products and you'd be getting the absolute best results.
Oh and when I got to the register to pay they told me they only accept cash!! That was the icing on the cake!! They already took my credit card info at the time of booking and failed to notify me that I would have to pay in cash at the salon, so I insisted that they use the credit card on file.
Based on the other reviews it sounds like there are some stylists at this salon who are just fine, but for a major color service there are much better salons in the area that charge a fraction of the price who actually know what they're doing... save your money and go elsewhere. (Shampoo Ave B in the lower east side is my usual and favorite spot)
Sorry.. I hate writing bad reviews, especially for small businesses during covid times.. but this is the review I wish I had seen before I booked an appointment here. read more