I went in to get my hair colored as a walk in. I showed the stylist a few photos, and got an estimate of how much it would be. She told me she'd likely have to do a full set of highlights which on the board it was listed at $99 and then said there'd maybe be some extra cost for extra highlights, which was fine with me. I asked if I should plan on about $150 roughly and she said yes.
I showed her one specific picture a few times, which was a big change for me, so I was a bit nervous. She then grabbed a chart and asked me what picture jumped out to me the most, so I picked 2, and said mainly one that I guess was a face framing set of highlights. When I asked her after she started foiling, how much was going to be colored on top, she said she wasn't doing that, she was just doing more of the face framing highlights.
I told her I was worried it wasn't going to be as much as I wanted and I had my friend with me and expressed the same to her. I think I got a total of 6-10 foils put in my hair and she stuck me in the dryer. She washed my hair and I opted to wait and see it after she styled it because she told me I was going to love it and made it seem like it was going to be this gorgeous, drastic change. Before we started she had said she saw breakage in the back and explained it was because I don't cut my hair often enough so she wanted to trim it, which was fine. After the wash and trim; she blew out half of it and curled it, without asking me if I wanted it curled... She told the other gal she was doing bombshell curls for me, which I noticed was listed at an extra $55 on the board.
Once she turned me around I really didn't see a huge difference. I mentioned again what if I don't think it's enough and she told me to wait a few days and come back if I didn't think it was enough, she'd add more on the house. I was in the middle of traveling so I was leaving Thursday early AM and it was Saturday night, she was booked Sunday and Monday off Tuesday and booked Wednesday.
The next day I got ahold of her saying I liked my hair but I didn't love it and asked about her availability. She asked me to show her a picture of exactly what I wanted, which I had already done that the day before.... But then said it would be more for product but there would be no service charge. I said that was fine to let me know her schedule since I was leaving soon and she didn't contact me until Monday evening saying how full sh was until Thursday at 4pm.
After spending $130 (for 6-10 highlights, a trim, a blow dry, and 'bombshell curls') I was pretty upset. I've never had my hair professionally colored before so I wasn't expecting $130 for something that didn't look very different from my hair already. I ended up going to another stylist at LaBella in town and getting what I asked the first stylist for for under $100.
As the LaBella stylist was sectioning out my hair, she noticed I had several "cheetah spots" where the girl at Ulta had dropped or splashed some random color. With being busy getting ready to travel I had been wearing my hair in a ponytail or it had been curled Saturday, Monday, and Tuesday evenings. Wednesday night while brushing it out straight, I noticed that my hair is uneven. I have a choppy trim job on the left side and it's about a half inch shorter, and noticeable than my right side.
I am super disappointed that the stylist decided what I was going to have and gave me the "excuses" of how much less maintenance it'd be and how I was going to love it because I seemed nervous. She said she dealt with women everyday and she "knows" them, and said I could come back but made very little effort to make me completely happy. On top of that, she offered me some shampoo and conditioner which I purchased, but she suggested a conditioner (sterling silver) that she told me I should use every time I wish along with the shampoo... The conditioner is a purple conditioner to use 1-2 times a week. As someone who is a "professional" in the hair business, I'd expect a little more knowledge. I'm highly disappointed with my trip, and I felt the stylist was too casual and relaxed to take my wants serious. Just because I seemed nervous about a hairstyle change, doesn't mean she should decide what I should get. Definitely not worth the $130 I had to spend... Absolutely not happy with Ulta at all. read more