Sine Qua Non Salon — Attraction in Lake View Township

Edited upon receiving comments from the owner: only visit Sine if you’re ok with the personnel and the owner being in denial of the work delivered poorly - and with getting derogatory comments instead of discussing ways to mitigate the issue if something goes wrong. Dreadful customer service that is absolutely unacceptable in a client-facing business.

The salon looks great and the personnel is very friendly; however, the experience is truly hit and miss - and when it’s a miss, you’ll be accused of having wrong expectations and not paying enough to make the hair look nice. I spent my summer in Chicago for work, thus needed to find a hair stylist in the city and headed straight to Sine Lakeview because of great reviews. My first appointment with one of the top-stylists (Carrie) was awesome, so I eagerly booked the second one with her. Unfortunately, it didn’t go well at all.

First and foremost, the color match for the roots was wrong, as the selected color was even darker than my natural hair and created a stark contrast with the rest of the hair that has highlights. The outcome is a combination of a horizontal line separating the touched up roots and a vertical(-ish) zigzag-style dark line that looks as if the hair color leaked from the top and was not blended. Second, the toning done by another professional who was helping Carrie turned out to be haphazard and sloppy - either because of the wrong timing (the toner was washed off too quickly, compared to my average wait time) or the lack of skills. There were some other hiccups as well, e.g. zero diligence in washing the color residue off from the skin / hairline framing the face, despite having to wash the hair twice during the appointment (Carrie must have spotted something was off), and a very weird hair quality right after the appointment (the hair got dryer than before which never happens after proper conditioners / hair products). However, I would have ignored them if all the rest was done well.

I had to reach out to the salon the next day to see how the problem can be addressed. In all fairness, the personnel was very responsive and willing to help. However, the only option I was given when coming back was to re-tone the hair to make it darker overall due to the tight schedule of my stylist. I know the downsides of this approach, as I went through a similar color correction a few years ago, and the result was not satisfactory (a lighter color was very hard to restore later on and the darker even color didn’t work for my skin tone / undertone); therefore, I politely declined the offer and asked what else could be done. The suggested alternative was to come back and pay for partial or full highlights; Carrie admitted she suspected that the root touch-up on its own won’t be aesthetically pleasing, given the hair length that had to be covered; however, she didn’t raise any concerns or discuss downsides of the approach with me beforehand. She was also the last person to handle my hair over the last few months, so the argument of not knowing what other people did with the highlights before doesn’t make much sense (there were no issues / weird color reactions during my previous visit, in the first place). Finally, the highlights were done at the end of April, and I’ve never had to re-do them in less than 6 months to achieve a non patchy hair color; normally, a root touch up + toner worked great.

All in all, $150+ pre-tips for the hair color that looks worse after the appointment than before and resembles a bad experiment with box color, is hugely disappointing. Also, I clearly mentioned I have to travel on Saturday (the original appointment took place on Wednesday night), therefore I needed any stylist to correct the work done, not necessarily the same one. I fully understand Carrie had a tight schedule for the day. However, in the end, I was left with an unsatisfactory result and need to book another...

I have been a client to Sine qua Non for over 20 years and I have reviewed "hi 5" in the past, however, I think this incidence is worth posting and informing clients for the time when there is a dispute. There has been many times when I had issues with their short comings and inconsistencies and poor attitudes of stylists, but because I liked the "concept" in their hair design and was loyal to the owner, I continued to refer and even took my three children there from their first haircut.

I grew with their business from the time they were at Lincoln Ave to all other locations. I would often trust any of their stylists, for haircut at any location and fit myself to their availability without being picky.

This time though, I was faced with the dark truth about this salon, which I had suspected, but never believed my intuition due to my patronage and loyalty.

For a very important event next week, I booked a haircut and color and talked to hairdresser ahead of time and sent pictures and we all agreed. However, the stylist ruined my color and cut and even offered to re-do hair color if after wash I did not like it. She knew she did a bad job with color, but she told a different story to owner apparently.Just look at the pictures I will post and judge yourself what a mess was done. There was no arguments or poor interactions and tip was left for 25% regardless.

When I approached to get color corrected , the owner, with her "assumptive and accusatory" email wrote back that she would block my future bookings AND for my THREE children as well, who are now teenagers and independent clients to this salon. Due to strict management of this salon, my guess is that the hair dressers end up fabricating a one sided story to owner to justify themselves and owner never calls to hear clients side.

I am in fact more upset as to how she is blocking kids who had been their client for years and NEVER had any issue. Even with me the dissatisfaction I had belonged to 14 years ago with one of their hairdressers with many personal issues that was gradually reflected on her work, though she was also very talented and the salon was aware. However, the owner comes back retaliatory and blocks my whole family. Isn't that totally odd?

I learned throughout years and today in a hard way, that you can never criticize CONSTRUCTIVELY at this hair salon as they think they are PERFECT and you have to "take it or leave it". The way they run business is wrong and humiliating to clients and use intimidation as their form of never apologizing and over charging instead if you do not like their errors. Mistakes happen, but how this salon manages their mistake is wrong. It just hair, and our style and presentation but let me be the first one to tell you that after all these years, it's NOT worth the experience or your loyalty and patronage and patience.

I will not recommend this place and be careful!! After your first dissatisfaction don't be patient like I had been, and let go and use other stylists in other salons . Just move on and enjoy a pleasant and happy salon who knows your respect and cares for how you feel about your hair and doesn't take the upper hand or defame you. It's not worth it to be treated this way, only because they think they can cut hair...

In June I took the online questionnaire to get matched with the appropriate professional to color and cut my hair preferably before the first week of August. I called the salon at the end of June explaining to Kelly in great specific details that I would be having a "big" color job that would consist of all over color/base, and full head of highlights along with a cut. I told her that I matched with Josie and Jenny. She told me that she didn't have a consult open for Josie til then end of July and appointment late August. For Jenny it would be September. She preceeded to tell me that she could be book meet for a consultation with another great provider since they would all be able to accommodate my request as long as there is an opening. She offered Stacia. She described her as very experience in coloring and major color changes as well. I was booked for a consultation on July15th at 8:15 am. I meet her and sat in her seat and had her look at my hair which hasn't been colored professionally in 4 years. By the way in full transparency I did tell Kelly this when she was searching for a replacement for Josie/Jenny for me! During our consultation Stacia, went on to tell me than she specializes in Balyaga. She wasn't comfortable in doing my base and highlights. I asked if that would mean that I would not be allowed to lift my base and she would freestyle highlight keeping my current natural dark brown hair. She said yes. I told her I hate my current natural dark brown. I told her that I wish I was told this on the phone with Kelly. For godsake I was on the phone with her for about 35 minutes. She told me that she isn't the person for me and that maybe Josie or Jenny would be better suited for my needs. Obviously there were no availability til end of August and into September. I need to have my hair colored and cut for an important event in September. If I was told upfront on the phone after all the specifics I gave to Kelly I could of tried other salons. I lost out on 3 WEEKS where I could of found another Salon or better yet have an appointment already to get my hair colored they way I want it and always have. I am upset and disappointed in the way this all happened. I cannot get my 3 weeks back. Now I have to start again from square one. I picked this place because of all the raving reviews. I guess I was overlooked and disregarded and was not listened to and wasted my...