Moxie Salon and Beauty Bar - Denville — Attraction in Denville

The Worst Salon Experience I’ve Ever Had – Moxie Denville

This past Sunday, I booked blowouts at Moxie Denville for my friend’s bachelorette dinner. I scheduled both appointments for the same time. It was our first — and absolutely my last — visit. This is hands down the worst Moxie location I’ve ever been to, and quite possibly the most unprofessional salon I’ve ever set foot in.

We arrived 10 minutes early and were checked in. I asked for a blowout and pin-up — and received nothing but blank stares from the two “stylists” as if I’d just spoken in another language. No follow-up questions, no confirmation — just awkward silence until we were finally led to the shampoo bowls.

Right off the bat, it was clear we were in for a disaster. The stylists looked like they had just rolled out of bed — disheveled, unkempt, and with the exact attitude to match. Not even a hint of professionalism. Their appearance alone set the tone: they didn’t care.

The shampoo was atrocious. No massage, no technique, no effort. I’ve seen first-week cosmetology students do a better job. My crown to nape was barely touched. It felt like a chore for them — not a service.

Things went further downhill from there. While I sat at the bowl, the stylists began loudly trash-talking a co-worker named Autumn, saying “She’s lucky there are clients here or I’d pop off.” This wasn’t just unprofessional — it was toxic and made the entire environment uncomfortable.

One of them asked me if I wanted makeup done (which I never booked). I politely declined — only to be asked again later like they hadn’t even heard me. We were brought to filthy stations with hair all over the floor, grime in the corners, smudged mirrors, and dust bunnies everywhere. The salon wasn’t even busy — they had plenty of time to clean, they just didn’t.

My stylist began rough-drying my hair without a single product, and after maybe 3 minutes of halfhearted effort, she walked away and didn’t return for nearly 10 minutes. I sat there with wet hair for 45 minutes — no update, no apology, nothing.

And then I witnessed something truly disturbing: this same stylist started doing makeup for another client — with filthy brushes, a used beauty blender, and a non-disposable mascara wand. She applied foundation straight from the product to the skin. This wasn’t just disgusting — it was completely unhygienic and illegal. As a licensed professional, I was genuinely horrified.

Eventually, two other stylists jumped in to finish my blowout after I voiced my frustration to my friend. They didn’t acknowledge me at all — instead, they whispered and argued with each other, and one even said “I’m tweaking” while coughing over my head.

And after all that? I was charged for the blowouts — including a ridiculous upcharge for a few bobby pins, which cost pennies wholesale at Salon Centric. And guess what? Neither of our blowouts were even dry at the root. I wanted my friend to have a nice and relaxing experience to make her feel special before her dinner celebration, this was far from that.

This location is a joke. If the Moxie founders saw how this salon was operating under their brand, they’d be absolutely appalled. It’s unsanitary, unprofessional, careless, and embarrassing. This wasn’t just bad — it was offensive.

Do not waste your time or money...

I did my hair and makeup here for my wedding. I called roughly 2 months in advance to book the appointment and the first thing I asked was are you able to do four people at once because we need to leave by 1 PM. I was promised that there would be four stylist for the four people in my party working on each memeber individually. When I got to the salon they did not start working on us until 15 minutes later and started off with one of us. 30 minutes after we entered goes by and they start working on my second brides maid. They only had 2 people working on us at a time instead of the four stylist they had promised us. They did get us out by 1:05PM roughly though. However, this did not justify the bare minimum of a makeup they did on us. Our makeup artist were both very beautiful women who clearly knew how to do makeup on themselves. However, they did not do too good of a job on my bride'smaids. The first bride's maid turned out okay. She had asked for a glam glowy natural look and it did look good from a far. However, my second bridesmaid asked for the same look as the first and she did not end up with the same look. She had a very smoked out eye look which was nothing like my first bride's maid. The second issue my brides maid and I had was that we were not properly color matched. We were both done too dark to the point where we looked like a completely differnt race. It looked fine in the salon with all the bright lights but by time we were outside takeing photos not even 1 hr later, we noticed how bad it was. All of the party left with severly cakey makeup on that started to fall of of our faces not even 1 hr later during our photos at 2. I noticed all the makeup products that they were using were not the right ones for someone to wear for a couple of hours. Lastly, I did notice that the makeup was too cakey when I was in the salon, but I genuinely did not have enough time to complain since we were on a time crunch and had to be at the venue by 2PM. I understand that I should have done a trial run before my wedding but I saw all the good reviews and thought how bad could it be? I've gone to the salon before and got my hair done and it was great. Overall, I would say I was given the bare minimum of a makeup job. Basically it was done. In all honestly if I knew how much of the bare minimum was going to be put into the makeup I would have genuinely have just done it for myself. It was not worth the ~$80 for makeup. The hair was...

If I could give this salon franchise zero stars, I would. My experience was an absolute disaster from start to finish. Both locations I visited turned out to be equally terrible, leaving me with fried, damaged hair and a coloring job that can only be described as a catastrophe. They are masters of gaslighting. Expect to be showered with empty compliments about how "beautiful" you look, even when the mirror screams otherwise. Don't be fooled! They'll tell you anything to get you out the door, regardless of the mess they've made. My biggest issue was the coloring. They clearly have NO CLUE how to achieve golden tones. Instead, I ended up with a brassy, orange mess after they tried to "fix" their initial screw-up. It's like nobody there understands the basics of toner! The result was so bad I had to spend an additional $300 at a reputable salon just to salvage my hair after throwing away $400 at this place. This salon is essentially a Great Clips with even worse coloring skills. The only reason they're constantly sending out coupons is because they desperately need customers to offset their consistently terrible service. Save your money, save your hair, and save yourself the frustration. This is a coloring franchise gone horribly wrong. Run...