This review is for Clara's wok cutting and dyeing my very short men's haircut…read more
Pros: friendly, very accommodating of my fragrance allergy (the shop itself is not fragrance free, but they let me bring my own semi permanent color and shampoo and conditioner, and used that on me), chill atmosphere.
Cons. Quality of work low, price outrageously high at nearly double what I was quoted, no accountability for mistakes and total lack of pricing transparency.
I made this appointment with Clara for A short haircut buzz/trim, bleach, and color. I was quoted in the mid $300s, for 3hrs. I arrived on time and she saw me right away.
She did a beautiful job with the bleaching as far as appearance was concerned. however as far as the health of my scalp was concerned, she was really sloppy about it and that made it hurt. I'm not normally sensitive to bleach when it's applied correctly, ie on the hair, but not on the skin. But she got it all over my scalp, so it took twice as long because it started burning my skin, which meant she had to wash it off and try again. When she applied at the second time, she did a good job avoiding my scalp, so she was capable of doing that the first time and just didn't.
For the color, it took a little while to negotiate what color I wanted, and for her to make a custom mix out of the colors that I brought. I have no problem paying for that part.
But then she again did a sloppy job with the application, leaving a bunch of patchy uncolored areas so the color needed to be put on again. And when she did it the second time she again got it all over my scalp.
At this point, I'm not even upset because I feel like it's fine. She's learning to work with a new product and she's not acting stressed about it. I asked her about the time because I know we're getting to if not over our scheduled appointment time, and she says it's no big deal, she's got nothing else to do that day. I'm a little irritated at having color all over my skin, but I know how to get it off and can do that at home.
But then it came time to pay the bill. And instead of the 330 something dollars I was quoted for haircut, bleach, and a couple hours of potential color they wanted to charge me almost 600! I had only been in the building for four hours and 20 minutes and she wanted to charge me for five hours, and included in that was the time it took for her to fix her own mistakes.
I spoke up and said that I didn't feel it was fair to charge me for that time and they took an hour off so I paid $469. It was something, but it doesn't account for all of the time I was mischarged for. If you take out the second bleach and the second color, and count for the fact that I was only there for four hours and 20 minutes. It actually ends up more like the three hours, which is what I was originally quoted. I should not have been charged more than that.
And that's just the time piece. On top of that is the fact that is not a $469 experience and I'm not leaving with a product that reflects that amount of money, or even the $330 I was originally quoted. I have 4 in.² of hair, a lot of of which is thinning so it's not even a full 4 in.².
It's really hard to find a hair salon that will accommodate fragrance sensitivities and so it's incredibly disappointing that this happened. My wife got a beautiful haircut from them and we were planning on coming back repeatedly. I was planning on coming back to get bleached at least because even though I can bleach my hair, she did a great job of doing it without damaging it, which is something that I cannot do.
As it stands, neither of us will ever set foot in there again. I should've been clearly informed if I was going to exceed what I was quoted for the extra time, because I would've just gone home and finished coloring it myself.
If that time actually was spent giving me a high quality dye job, I would absolutely pay it. As it stands the fact that that number included the do-overs when she misapplied both the bleach and the color is outrageous, unfair, and shady asf. $600 for this color job is not even SF prices.
I hope the owner sees this and makes it right. If they do, I'd consider going back for the things that they did well, and only those things, with a consistent pricing method.
But this experience was ridiculous and if they don't make it right, I think other people need to know about it. I don't generally leave bad reviews even when I have a bad experience because it's hard running a small business. But this is egregious.
