I'm absolutely in love with this salon! I was recovering from a horrific experience at another local salon and it had been well over two years since I trusted anyone to touch my hair. Needless to say, with my hair now past my tush, it was time to try someone.
I did tons of research on places in East Cobb, Roswell, and Sandy Springs. This salon had the highest ratings of any salon in that search area with the most competitive pricing. So I wandered in and spoke with Jana, the very nice receptionist, who helped walk me through their salon, confirmed pricing and suggested who she thought would be best for me to try. Reluctantly, I went ahead and made my appointment.
On the infamous day, I walked in to find the salon bumping. It was to the hilt with stylists and customers which help calm me a bit. No place could be that busy on a weekday if they weren't good. I was met by the receptionist who handed me over to a nice gentleman that gave me a quick tour of the facility and dropped me off at the changing room. One of the things I really like about this place is that it separates everything: there are color stations toward the back, with hair dryers and sinks leading down the hall back toward the front where the hair cutting stations are located. I sat down with my colorist, Meleah, and we talked about what I was thinking in terms of color. After my last experience, I came in hand with photos of colors and cuts I liked and she viewed them all and help me decide the right one for me. Before she even started, she grabbed my stylist for my cut, so that about 18" of hair could be cut off before we started coloring. I loved that they didn't put me through more pain than necessary with hair I wasn't keeping. After a quick snip, the color was on its way.
After my color finished and I tucked under the dryer, I was passed over to a nice gentleman who helped wash my hair out before heading to my stylist for my cut. He was super sweet and talked with me a bit more about the salon. Each stylist comes to the salon as an apprentice no matter what their background. During that time, they are taught the Van Michael way of doing hair. Here's the interesting part, they must decide to either be a hair cut stylist or a color stylist. Once they decide on a path, they continue their education in that field, which means you have a dedicated top notch stylist for each treatment. What I liked about this is that they stagger the appointment times so you're not waiting. Other stylists are always trying to juggle a haircut between a highlight between a color while washing out the color from 40 minutes ago. At Van Michael, everything ran seamlessly and I never had to wait as I was passed around the salon to the next capable set of hands.
My final destination was with Charlie, my hair stylist performing my cut. She was very sweet and help talk me through various options and reviewing all the pictures I brought along. She was sweet enough to take her time so that my tender scalp didn't throb throughout this visit. We chatted and had a wonderful time as she just snipped away. When we were at the point of blow-drying and styling my hair, she took the time to teach me a few techniques and tricks to ensure my blowouts at home looked as good as hers.
When I left that salon, I had a perfect color, perfect cut, and left truly enjoying my experience. I didn't breakout in hives of nervousness at any point while I was there. Everyone was so nice, helpful, patient and truly cared about being there to help make people look and feel great. The bonus part for me was that there was no hard core sales push for products at the end either. My colorist, , did stop by to remind me to use color safe shampoo and conditioner since anything else would strip this beautiful red from my hair. I ended up grabbing a shampoo and conditioner she recommended by Aveda and my hair is amazing! It has a nice shine, very manageable, easy to style and my color still looks amazing!
When you do call, be patient as the reception crew will take their time to ensure you're scheduled with the right person for you. There are different levels of stylist based on the training and years of experience and the prices fluctuate with that experience.Even with an upper tier stylist, which both of mine were, I ended up paying only $125 for both my cut and color! I actually had her walk me through the pricing because I didn't think she was right. The worst hair experience of my life was over $175 so I was totally stunned in a good way!
Take it from someone who has been burned by other local salons, there is no reason for you to look any further than this shop. I can personally attest that both Meleah and Charlie will be my stylists for life! This salon is truly a gem! read more