I don't write reviews but this experience is unlike anything I've ever had so I'm taking the time to do so.
I had been going to Vincent for over 3 years; terrific haircuts and he persuaded me to do low lights for my graying hair which worked out beautifully. I'll add here that once, quite awhile ago, he made the color too dark. I always hate to go back and complain but I called him, went back in and he agreed it was too dark and fixed it.
Then I returned for my usual cut and low lights this past summer after a longer gap than usual as I had been sick. For starters, apropos of nothing, Vincent remarked that my hair was "a gray, frizzy mess." I have, btw, curly hair which at this point in my life is actually more wavy than curly; and thankfully I have never had frizzy hair. I let the gratuitous, mean-for-no-reason remark go but I suppose the man is only interested in dealing with poker straight hair without any gray. That way you're not vulnerable to super mean comments.
At any rate, this time I left with what can only be called bizarre yellow low lights. My hair looked dreadful. Again I hesitated but again I called. Vincent was prickly on the phone but told me to come back in. I did and he again fixed the color with what surely looked like my original formula, which he had surely not used to achieve that awful yellow shade. All's well, I thought. No problem.
And then, for my final appointment--cut and color--I went in and V. started to apply the low lights. I looked at the bowl and saw what looked exactly like the yellow shade he had applied in the summer. I am not color blind and I do not need to be a colorist to SEE what the shade was and to know it wasn't what I usually get.
So I asked him if this was my usual formula, fearing I'd wind up with that vile yellow color again, and . . . the man completely exploded. Just short of yelling, he told me he couldn't "work this way", that I don't know what I want, that he damn well knew it was the right color, that I am "impossible", that I should mix the color myself, and that nothing pleases me.
This last was especially incredible and patently absurd. I had been going to him for three plus years and always said, "Thanks, this is great," after each time and meant it, period--minus the two exceptions I'm describing here when he screwed up.
But he went on and on and on. And that not being enough for him, he began hurling personal insults at me. . . that when I first came to him I had gray hair and he saved me or some such garbage, as if I'm the only woman with graying hair who has ever gone to a hairdresser, and the only one who has ever had her hair colored.
It was all well beyond inappropriate and unprofessional; it was out and out over the line, hurtful, verbal abuse.
I tried to talk to him but he was having none of it and continued to harangue me. As close as you can get to tears, I got up and left without saying anything else.
Simply put: This is a horrible person. I had no idea. Do not ask him questions, even in a low-key, respectful, and wholly innocent way. Because certainly a client--and a long time one at that--has no right to say anything but sit there and let the "master" do whatever he's doing. Apparently Vincent, unlike virtually every other hairdresser in the universe, has never made a mistake.
This man should get back on his meds and, if he isn't on any, he should start.
PS: In the end, he did me a favor. I got a friend's recommendation for another salon, went this week and had a fabulous cut and color--minus the drama and the venom. read more
