J Rd
I contacted the salon back in January when I first moved to the area asking whether they spoke English and had experience coloring Asian hair. I said my hair was dark and thick and I have been dying my greying roots myself for a while. I wanted to get balayage done, which I had done previously in many other salons and the results were great. The response came quite quickly- yes we speak English and yes we have experience working on your hair.
Delighted, I booked my appointment first opportunity I had this past weekend. The appointment was meant to be 3.5 hours and I was quoted 170 euro for the service. I was fine with that.
I showed a pic of the hair color I wanted and asked if that was possible, without skipping a beat, the stylist started mixing colors so off we went. I am not a hair professional, I didn't know what they were putting in my hair. There was no communication whatsoever, not about the process, the expectation, length of service, none. We sat in silence for 2 hours straight when they finished coloring my hair, so I thought, until I saw another cart wheeled towards me with a similar mix and two stylists started opening the foils and applying more of the mix. This is when I asked the person who spoke a bit of English- is everything ok? I saw panic in two stylists eyes and the most senior one (the one speaks some English) told me, no your black hair is blocking the BLEECH, we did it TWO times over, but it's blocking it. It's because of your dye (which is only on my roots...and I am getting a balayage done)...your hair is now orange..
"What do you mean? You bleached my hair without my consent. Twice? And you didn't realize how my hair would react to bleach? of course it would go orange. now what are you going to do to fix it?"
More excuses came, more of the same, somewhere in between, they tried to give me a chemistry lesson.... Also apparently he did a Japanese girl's hair once and it turned out great.. wow silly me.
Long story short, after 4 hours in the chair, finally, they applied toner and the orange was gone. To be fair, my colour now isn't bad, despite it wasn't what I had asked. It's dark brown... which I could have achieved in much less time without the bleaching.
4.5 hours later I'm in the chair getting styled. I asked for a slight beech wave but I walked out looking like a poodle.
The final bill was 278 euro. I gasped at the price (100 euro more than quoted), he gave me the following excuses:
- twice the bleaching products
- overtime for 2 staff
- more products this more products that
- look it's dark outside already
The guy was getting more and more aggressive and yes it was 8pm by then and it was dark outside. I didn't want to linger any longer. I paid and walked off with my sculp tingling.
If they had told me what I wanted to achieve was not possible without bleaching, I would have said no and asked for their recommendation, like I have many times in other salons all over the world and received great advice.
If they had let me know what they were adding in my hair, I would have told them to stop because my hair would turn orange and it's not the way to go.
If they had owned up when I contacted them that they didn't have much experience working on Asian hair, I would have appreciated it.
If they had not charged me for the extra bleaching products which I had never asked for, I would have understood and let it go.
If you have similar type of hair- thick, dark, or if you want an honest service, don't go there.