Garbo A Salon and Spa Northcross — Attraction in Austin

I normally go to my home salon out of state, where I’ve been a client for over 10 years and NEVER had a problem. When I can’t get there, I’ve used this salon in between — and when I’ve seen Eli, it was great. Unfortunately, my last two visits with Evelyn, and today’s attempted correction with Jasmin, have been very disappointing.

With Evelyn, I first came in for a root touch-up and left with a completely mismatched, lighter color. At my next appointment with her, I asked for an allover color with warm/golden blonde highlights, showed photos of what I wanted, and referenced the lighter shade from my previous visit. Instead, I left with the darkest base I’ve ever had and ashy highlights — the complete opposite of what I requested. When I raised concern while the color was processing, I was told it only looked that way because it was wet, and I was turned away from the mirror during styling until the very end.

Today, I came back to use the 2-week guarantee. When setting up the appt, the front desk was excellent — they reviewed my photos with me and did their best to set me up with who they thought would be the best stylist. Marina, the esthetician, has also been consistently wonderful and is the one who told me about the guarantee.

Unfortunately, when I sat down with Jasmin, she wasn’t interested in really trying to fix the problem. She did glance at the pictures, but instead of working toward the look I showed, she focused on her conversation with Evelyn and her idea of what she was going to do, she used technical terms I didn’t know and said the picture wasn’t possible. When I pointed back to the picture to clarify that was the look I wanted, she still dismissed it, minimized my concerns, and said the cut I wanted had already been done, even though it clearly didn’t look like the photo. At that point, I didn’t feel heard or respected, so I left rather than risk another mistake.

I spent over $600 for the all over color, partial highlight and cut, none of which was correct and now I will still need to pay someone else to get it corrected. The front desk team and Marina deserve recognition for their great customer service, but my experiences with Evelyn and Jasmin showed me that the results and professionalism here are very inconsistent.

I’ve never had issues at my regular salon, so I know the problem here wasn’t me or my expectations — it was the service. If you’re thinking about this salon, be careful: the quality is very inconsistent depending on who you see.

If you can get in with Eli for hair, you’ll likely be happy. Otherwise, my experience has been costly and...

I setup an appointment with Jen today after reading good reviews on Yelp. Jen's pricing was a little steep but I wanted no surprises with my hair for my upcoming anniversary vacation. I reached 15 minutes early and was offered some delicious flavored water by a nice lady while I waited. Jen was wonderful from the beginning and seemed to listen to what I needed from my haircut. I have long hair and was trying a simple U-cut to freshen up my edges, while trying not to lose inches off my hair. The hairwash was wonderful and I was pleased with the haircut end result, which was almost exactly like I had hoped for. I was impressed with Jen's conservative approach/recommendations of not trimming too much of my hair length while still giving my hair some freshness, bounce and movement. After my haircut, Jen suggested an Aveda hair color tint product and mentioned I could try it for a couple of weeks and if I was not happy with my product, I could avail a refund within 2 weeks of purchase. It somehow occurred to me while billing, to confirm the refund policy again and was told by a guy working at the front desk, that the refund would be only in the form of a store credit. My transaction was complete until I realized the limitations on the refund and changed my mind about buying the product. The guy at the front desk mentioned it was too late and that I could not return the product. I tried talking to the front desk that I had not been told that the refund would not be credited back on my card and I would have appreciated clarity on the refund prior to my purchase. The guy at the front desk got all upset while finally reluctantly mentioning that he will make an exception and credit back the return on the product and angrily completing the refund process.

Mistakes happen even by the best of the people, and businesses should be able to handle exceptions, and this return was no big deal, especially when the refund policies were not communicated well and since I never left the store with the product. While I have no complaints about businesses having their own policies on their products and services, and although I appreciate the fact that I was able to return the product and get a refund back on my card, the guy who handled the refund could have handled my issue a little more elegantly and not snapped at me. Hence, dropping a star...

I received a haircut on Friday September 16th. I want to start out by saying I was soooo excited to actually go and have a hair cut. I mostly cut my own hair or have a coworker do my hair. I specifically went to Garbo because I worked there years ago and I thought I’d be getting an amazing service I knew they used to give. Honestly I should have walked right out when I saw what it looks like in there now. To start with I wasn’t greeted the front area was backed with random items for sale… idk where I was supposed to sit and wait. My stylist ended up greeting me and realized I was her client. We walked back to her station. The salon floor seemed overly crowded and not well lit. But I showed my stylist the pictures of the hair cut I wanted I showed her pictures of myself with this cut (because I’ve had this cut many times) as well as some shorter options since I had baby bangs when I walked in. All my pictures were the same cut just at different lengths. I told her I was pretty laid back about the lengths. After talking we decided not to go shorter than a 5 on the sides. The stylist had to borrow clippers from someone else. That should have been red flag number two for me but being a stylist myself I gave her a chance. She didn’t cut my hair at all like how I showed her she also styled it combed back and it looked terrible. Nothing was blended or even. I paid for my haircut and even tipped her well because I’m a stylist as well. But honestly I wanted to cry so bad. I ended up calling my coworker telling her I was going to shave my head luckily my coworker fixed the mistakes that this stylist made on my hair. But I’m so upset with this whole experience I paid alot of money for a terrible haircut. I don’t do nice things for myself and all I wanted was to be pampered alittle. I would have been better off having one of my stylists cut my hair from the beginning and saved my self the $100. I used to hold Garbo to such a high standard and I’ve even recommended Garbo to my clients wife’s and daughters since I no longer do women’s hair. But I will not recommend you guys to anyone...