Paul Mitchell The School Costa Mesa — Attraction in Costa Mesa

If you're considering enrolling at Paul Mitchell, please think twice and go elsewhere. Trust me, spending 7 months and $16,000+ here has been the biggest mistake of my life. I was a full-time cosmetology student from March to September '24, I was supposed to be graduating this week, but instead, I'm starting over in a new program. In September, I was suddenly terminated from the program for "time theft." I had stepped outside for a bit longer than my allowed break during a week when I had to evacuate my home due to a fire. I went through the appeal process, writing a whole essay explaining my circumstances. My husband, a firefighter battling the airport fire at the time, even wrote a letter to the directors. I met with them, explaining how detrimental their decision would be for my family's future, but no one listened or cared. Directors Kenda and Taylor denied my appeal without any explanation. I thought surely I'd be let back in; any legitimate school or employer would have considered my situation and shown compassion. Students take long breaks all the time because there's often nothing to do. If they were genuinely concerned about time fraud, they would have addressed students who were intentionally clocking in and leaving or having friends clock them in, yet those individuals still graduated. It feels like they targeted me simply because they didn't like me or because I raised concerns, I felt extremely unsupported as a student here. My peers at the school could vouch for the unfair and unequal treatment that I and select other students experienced. I have a whole list of grievances about the people in charge here. They're extremely unprofessional and just plain mean spirited, with clearly no leadership training whatsoever. Nearly all the students are miserable. We're treated as unpaid employees but somehow worse. I understand that free labor is part of training for a certificate but at least respect the people who PAY for an education. After the first 7 weeks of core, classes are just repeats. Hours upon hours wasted on sales training, up selling their product. The facilities are gross and unsanitary, I don't think our outside lunch tables were cleaned once the entire time I was there. One small refrigerator for hundreds of students, broken appliances, cockroaches and rodents outside where we eat. The list goes on. To say I'm disappointed with my entire experience would be a massive understatement. Anyone who knows me can attest to how dedicated I was to my education and the sacrifices I made to go to school here. Financially it was a huge burden. I paid not only tuition but childcare for my two kids, gas commuting every day, eating out because again, 1 refrigerator. I was doing makeup hours coming in on my days off to graduate on time, supported their BS fundraisers. I reached out to corporate about everything I've mentioned and more. I've reported this school to state board, the BPPE, talked to lawyers and will continue to tell my story on every media platform until I get the justice myself and other students deserve. I'm finding out there are sooo many other stories like mine about this location and others around the country; bullying, harassment, discrimination, overall people feel as though they've been scammed after enrolling here. I have not heard anything from the school since terminating me other than getting a bill for the rest of my tuition when I requested my transcripts. If you do decide to support this Paul Mitchell and get services done here, please tip the student working on you directly with cash, they are more than likely broke and having to buy their own tools, miserable and being taken advantage of by a "school" that makes thousands everyday off their labor,then being treated like trash. This place breeds negativity and misery and I recommend no one go here for any reason. I urge any future students to consider your options carefully, seek an environment that genuinely value's commitment to learning. Community colleges are a fraction of the cost of this school, and actually...

I’ve received several services here over the past ten years, but a recent experience was by far the worst I’ve had. I understand this is a school and students are here to learn, but when both the student and learning leadership are aware they’ve damaged a client’s hair and still charge over $100—there’s something deeply unethical going on.

I came in for a color treatment. While I understand the student, Tabitha, was still learning and hadn’t yet mastered this skill, she also failed to listen to the learning leader’s guidance. For instance, she couldn’t remember the bleaching ratio of 1:1.5, and the learning leader had to write it down for her. Every time instructions were given, Tabitha pushed back with odd justifications. Rather than using foil and applying the lightening solution properly to the ends of my hair, she began mid-shaft, resulting in an uneven application.

Instead of using the application brush and following the expected technique to make the V shape, she said, “I’m hand painting it”—even though this was supposed to be a balayage treatment on virgin dark brown hair. It also should not have been air processed.

But that wasn’t even the worst part. Tabitha didn’t use a timer during the processing time. You don’t need a professional license to know that leaving a client with chemical bleach in their hair unattended—without a timer—is completely unacceptable. To make things worse, with bleach still in my hair, Tabitha grabbed her keys, phone, and coffee and went out to her car. At that point, I became genuinely concerned.

When it was finally time to check my hair, the results were terrible. The bleach had been applied unevenly, leaving harsh chunky transitions from root to midsection, while the ends remained darker. When the learning leader came to check and pointed out what needed to be corrected, Tabitha stared at the leadership and silently walked away instead of asking questions or taking responsibility. Twenty minutes passed, and the learning leader returned to continue the correction herself. However, she had to step away for lunch and told Tabitha to use a timer since my hair was being processed again. Tabitha still didn’t take accountability or check in on the process.

Because the product had been misused, a second bowl of lightener was required—leading to additional charges. But my hair is barely past shoulder length, and a balayage treatment doesn’t require full-head bleach, so it felt unfair to be charged extra due to the student’s lack of technique and awareness.

What’s even more concerning is that Tabitha is set to graduate in September and plans to work at her aunt’s salon in Newport Beach, yet she couldn’t manage a basic bleaching service.

The original charge for this appointment should have been way less but I was charged over $100 because of misused products and a lack of oversight. I didn’t get the result I wanted, but I was patient and said , there’s still time and for Tabitha to practice, don’t feel rushed to make the corrections, I wasn’t mad or angry but I felt that I was taken for granted. There was no accountability or meaningful attempt to fix the issue, even though there was still time. I had to go to another salon afterward to get my hair corrected. Overall, when I reflected back on this, the leadership and the school itself should know the students skill set and matching it with the clients needs. I understand that phase 1 and phase 2 students all need to learn, but it wasn’t an experience skill that was lacking here it was a listening personality of going against best practice instructions. Yes it is a school, but importantly, a business and unethical practices like this harm...

Disillusioned. This location takes credit when the job is done well and deflects any responsibility when the job is subpar. Regardless of it being a school and their services being rendered by students, it doesn’t justify their unethical business practices, unprofessional leadership behavior, and poor customer service. Their quickness to deflect responsibility, blame it on a bunch of different excuses, and not deliver is a disservice to the clients they serve and the “Future Professionals” they pride themselves in training. This location’s leadership team has a reputation of shifting blame, not taking accountability, and being insensitive.

My experience does not match their claim to provide “premium service experience.” I had consulted over the phone prior to booking my hair appointment and was assured that they would be able to complete the partial foil work on my hair during the evening appointment. The appointment was purposely scheduled with a phase two student because they have “advanced technical skills.” The leading instructor that evening was Liz. Liz frequently walked by the student at work encouraging her to expedite her process without offering any additional support. The student finished the foil work at 9:09pm. They had me process until 10pm without the results we anticipated. The instructor spoke to me about the “bad news” and what my options were at this point. Because I took time off work for my birthday, I was able to come the following day at the time they provided me with. Liz assured me that she would leave detailed notes so that they knew about the next steps the following day.

The following day the receptionist had a difficult time “finding” my appointment. Once called by a phase one student, it was transparent that she did not know what I was in for because she asked me what I was looking to get. This reflected the lack of communication at all levels of the process. So, I had to explain to her and mentioned that Liz was supposed to leave detailed notes on my profile on what needed to be done to complete the job. The student came back to tell me that because of the lack of time they wouldn’t be able to complete the job at hand. This felt completely irresponsible on behalf of the leadership team. Jessica, the phase one leader on this day came to paraphrase the same thing the student was advised to tell me. At which point it was hard to not express my disappointment. Jessica emphasized that it was because they booked me at 1pm instead of 9:30am. This felt like they were blaming their own leadership team from the night before while actively not taking responsibility to make things right.

Nonetheless, they were not able to lighten my hair on the second day. And to make matters worse Jessica made the decision to tone the pieces that they worked hard to lighten the night before by darkening it. This ultimately undid all the efforts made by making it look like nothing was done to my hair. The expectation is to keep coming until they get it right - which is ineffective and inconsiderate given the reputation they claim to have. The excuse of the “work is done by students” is a poor way to minimize and devalue the learning process for the students. I’ve had experiences where expectations were surpassed at this location. This is evidence that the expectations were reasonable and attainable. This experience was beyond unsettling and...