I've honestly never had a bad experience with Aveda until now. I'm a stay-at-home-mother and days at the salon have always been therapeutic for me. I'm only able to visit an Aveda salon a couple times a year because of our families budget, so I had been looking forward to this appointment for months. It was my second time visiting this particular salon, but the first time being seen by this particular stylist.
I asked for a hair trim, ombre color, and root touch up. The stylist told me that she had no idea what "ombre" was, but assured me that she could figure it out after I showed her the hair inspiration pictures I brought. The other stylists in the salon gave her tips on how to go about doing it. I told her that there was no pressure and that I didn't want her winging it if she didn't feel comfortable, but she acted pretty confident and wanted to do it anyway. She ended up foiling my entire head, which took three hours, and then touched up the roots. I am not sure how exactly one goes about doing "ombre", but I don't that's how it was supposed to be executed. She then applied toner to the bottom of my hair, which ended up stripping the color anyway and leaving it an extremely dull grey-ish brown tone. I now realize that this must be my real hair color that I haven't seen since I was 12 yrs old. It is awful.
When she had finished cutting my hair, she had another stylist come check to make sure she did okay, and the stylist went off on her telling her how she did it all wrong - in front of me - saying that she "didn't even bother to separate it to blend my layers." The stylist also yelled at her for leaving dye all over the back of my neck and face (which is still there). While the senior stylist was checking my hair to see how my stylist did, she kept asking her why it wasn't done correctly and told her that she did the same thing with her previous client. She also scolded my stylist for not layering my hair and blending my choppy bangs (which never ended up getting fixed by either of them) all in front of me making it very awkward for everyone's sake. I don't understand why the other stylists encouraged her to do something she had never done before and acted as if it would be a piece of cake, which it obviously wasn't.
The attitude I got from my stylist was rude, like she had given up on even making my hair look good since it took her 4.5 hours to do, and the attitude of the senior stylist was even worse because I'm sure she was upset that she had to try and fix her mess without getting paid for it.
My stylist also commented on moles I had on my head, which we joked about for a while, because they are hard to look at and I am getting them removed this month, but she continued to go on talking about how "gross" they were and how she was surprised I wasn't embarrassed to come in and get my head touched by someone else. She kept making jokes that she was afraid they were going to fly off while combing through my hair.
It was so hard for me to hold back tears, because I knew everyone around me could hear what she was saying to me. I was completely mortified, so upset with the end result of my hair, and never want to go into that salon ever again. She ended up charging me $140 for a cut, foil, and eyebrow wax. I was so upset, embarrassed and tired after being there from 12:30-5 that I just paid her and left so I could get home to my children after making their babysitter wait that long.
After my horrible salon experience and now fried hair, I am never stepping foot in that salon again. I am currently waiting to hear back from the manager to see if I can be refunded, although she says it's against their policy.
by Moriah
xxx.xxx.136.112
August 30, 2011
