I scheduled an appointment Monday night at 6 PM with the receptionist so that I could have graduation pictures taken this week. When I arrived Wednesday morning for my appointment, they did not have me on their schedule. The receptionist had to go around asking stylists if anyone could take me.
The girl I ended up with was super nice. She was originally scheduled to be there a half day but stayed five hours to work on my hair. I tipped her because I knew she was missing out on plans with her family, and she was very kind.
However, the experience with the school overall was not okay.
Pricing was unclear from the start. Online, color services are listed as starting at $50, but the instructor quoted me closer to $150. I told her I needed to stay under $100, and she said that wouldn’t be possible. I asked them to stretch the product and do a weave instead of full color. I don’t get my hair colored very often, so I’m not an expert on pricing, but 3x the listed starting price felt excessive, especially for beginners. The whole reason I came here was to save money as a college student on a tight budget. Instead, I ended up needing to spend even more to fix my hair afterward.
I saw her ask the instructor if she could pull a certain student to assist, and the instructor said no pretty bluntly. It was awkward. Eventually, another student close to graduating came to help, but they were grabbing different amounts of hair for the weave, and the assisting student would sit down and take breaks multiple times.
I showed inspo pictures of what I wanted. I was told multiple times by the instructor that my hair “looked beautiful,” but the color wasn’t quite what I expected, which I was fine with until I got in my car and saw it up close.That’s when I realized what had actually happened and why I felt rushed out of the salon.
There were polka-dot splotches all over the side of my head, and part of my face had been dyed. Before leaving, I asked them to help remove product from my forehead and cheeks, and the instructor asked if I could just wipe it off with makeup wipes. I don’t carry those around with me every day, and she acted put out that I would even ask.
When my family saw my hair, they started laughing because of how bad it was.I called the salon crying from my car because my mom is a hairstylist and told me instructors are supposed to fix student mistakes.
When I called, they refused to let an instructor fix my hair. They offered another senior student, even though two near-graduating students had already worked on my hair. I asked for an instructor even naming one, and was told that was against their policy.
I was transferred to the manager, who reiterated the same thing.
I then asked for a refund because I would now have to go somewhere else to get my hair fixed. I was only offered a partial refund, which I never received.
I’ve seen responses from the owner publicly offering to have instructors step in and fix services. That was not offered to me, even when I directly asked.
For comparison, I’ve gone to Paul Mitchell hair school before and haven't had a problem. For a haircut, they always included a wash, scalp massage, and blowout, and the supervision is noticeably better.
Also worth noting, many of the students behind me never worked on a client or mannequin the whole 5 hours I was there. They stood in social circles chatting and snacking for hours.
That night, my head was on fire and extremely itchy. The next day, my new stylist at a different salon could still smell strong chemicals in my hair. She was appalled the instructor passed that off. On top of that I need to go again to my new stylist in a month so that she can fix it.
I understand this is a learning environment and mistakes can happen. I was patient, kind, and tipped well. But the lack of organization, inconsistent pricing, poor supervision, and refusal to take accountability made this a really disappointing experience.
I really don’t like to complain about businesses and try to leave positive reviews, but this experience was honestly unbelievable.
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