Ulta Beauty — Attraction in Pohatcong Township

I want to preface this by saying I've never written a review like this before but I want to make sure this doesn't happen to anyone else, especially someone who wouldn't speak up after paying for an unacceptable service. Over the weekend I booked a last minute appointment with a master stylist for a haircut at the salon. I had long hair, and wanted a shorter length with long layers. The stylist was friendly and talkative, asked me where I parted my hair, though added that the way she would cut the hair will allow for a part on any side - this is important later on because I didn't bring it up or ask for that; I only ever part my hair on one side. She styled it very differently than I would (blow out, super flouncy) which looking back now I think was to hide the mistake. I got home, washed my hair, and styled it the way I would. I IMMEDIATELY noticed a huge mistake. It was like I had 2 different haircuts at the same time. One side seemed okay, but the other looked like a mullet. There was no blending, no gradual length change...just a 3 inch dramatic drop from one spot to the next, that spanned from the front of my face to back behind my ear. There is no way to hide this. Because my appointment was the last one on Sunday evening, the store was closed and I couldn't leave a message when I tried calling. I called first thing in the morning and no manager was in the building. I was told they'd call as soon as they came in. I waited a couple hours after the time I was told I'd get a call back, and finally decided to just call again. The manager Vickie is the one who answered, and while she wasn't unkind or rude, she definitely tried to invalidate my feelings and experience multiple times. The first thing she said was that she's never had an issue with that particular stylist when getting her hair done. Great, I'm glad she was able to cut her manager's hair properly, but that wasn't the case with me. Then she offered for me to come in and have another stylist fix it. I declined because I paid extra for a "master" stylist to cut my hair the first time, and I was no longer comfortable with anyone from that salon trying to fix it. Fast forward, I went into the store to show her my hair. She immediately told me that she has done hair for over 20 years and knows what to look for. She looked at the obvious mistake and instead of apologizing or agreeing, she said "Well, she cut it evenly. If you just part it in the middle it would be fine." I explained that it is not even, and I only part my hair one way, ever. I told her that this was explained to the stylist and that the stylist cut AND styled my hair with the correct part, so this shouldn't be an issue. On top of that, I DID try to part it in the middle at home after seeing the mistake and trying to find a way to fix it, and parting in the middle did absolutely nothing but make it look worse because it is unnatural for me. Again invalidating, she said "well it's even, but I guess I can see the disconnect." I had my young daughter with me and in no way wanted to argue so I left it at that and waited for my refund because I now need to go to another salon and attempt to get this fixed, if that's even possible. I've never complained about a haircut or service in my life, so this was difficult for me as it was, but to have a manager completely act as though she was doing me a favor by refunding me is completely unacceptable. Like I said, she wasn't unkind or mean, but she was definitely purposeful with her words and tone in such a way to make me feel like I was overreacting and there was nothing wrong with my haircut. I do not recommend the Phillipsburg Salon at Ulta, regardless of the...

Ulta Salon Services: 0/10

I encountered uneducated and unprofessional women during my visit. While their technical skills may be decent, but their business ethics, courtesy and fairness in communication, were completely absent.

The women I interacted with were Katie and their manager (who refused to provide her name)

Here's what transpired:

I went for a consultation to transform my hair color from black to light brown. The stylist, Nicole, recommended full head highlights to achieve the desired results. Trusting her professional advice, I asked her to book me for the service. However, due to a scheduling conflict, I was instead booked with a different stylist, Katie, for an appointment 13 days later.

When the day of my appointment arrived, Katie examined my hair and informed me that in order to go lighter, I would require a full head bleach rather than just highlights. I agreed to the bleach plan, I didn't mind it. However, Katie refused to perform the service on the spot and insisted that I come back another day because full head bleach would take a longer time. This put me in a difficult situation, as I had a day-light event to go to on the following day. I then requested that she simply proceed with the highlights, as initially suggested by the previous stylist during the consultation. But Katie was adamant that highlights would not work for me and wasted 30 minutes discussing the matter, including their manager in this conversation. In the end, I implored her to at least provide the highlights to cover the gray hair for an upcoming event. To my dismay, she responded that she no longer had time for even the highlights now. Frustrated, I thanked them and left.

Sitting in my car, I made several phone calls to different salons, hoping to find a place that could accommodate me as a walk-in. Unfortunately, none were able to help.

Feeling upset about the situation, I called Ulta to express my dissatisfaction. This is where the maximum display of unprofessionalism occurred. The manager on the phone accused me of dictating how their stylist should do her job. She claimed that I was yelling and showed no accountability for their actions. In the end, I informed her that I would be writing a review about the experience, to which she responded dismissively, saying, "Have fun with that," and hung up.

Ulta should definitely consider providing behavioral training for their staff upon hiring, as it ultimately reflects on...

I went to Phillipsburg Ulta for highlights as I’ve been a diamond member for 2 years and thought “how could I go wrong? I’ll get points and get my hair done”. I’ve been there for braids, facials and haircut and have always been happy. I tried to get my hair high lighted and somehow my hair came out darker. My hair was blond and grown out but I assumed my high lights would blend with my grown out ends. It was a bad experience from start to finish. To start, I was asked to slouch back because she had frozen shoulder and couldn’t reach. She didn’t weave the hair at all. She separated but never weaved so it was like direct coloring and did not focus at all on my face. Everyone I’ve ever gone to has tried to brighten around the face as it’s the focal point and that wasn’t done either. The water was luke warm and I was never asked the if the temp was okay. I live for a good hair wash and got no massage of my scalp at all. She could barely blow dry my hair due to her shoulder so I said she could let me go home with half wet hair. She told me my hair lifted nicely but I saw no brightness. I know my hair very well and I knew because it wasn’t fully dried it would appear darker and when I blew it out right away the next time I washed it I’d be nice and bright. So the next morning I showered and blew it out and it was still dark. Bummer because I was going to a shower the next day. I gave it a few days, idk why I guess I was hoping for the best. No change. My ends are also darker. It’s like I didn’t get highlights I got low lights. I called the salon twice to complain with no call back. I work in the service industry so I was doing everything I could to accommodate my stylist to make her comfortable and not in pain so obviously I didn’t complain when I had to adjust my position or sacrifice my experience so she wasn’t in pain. I was willing to sacrifice all of this to be nice and bright and blonde again. Turns out, my first experience with high lights with a company I love going to left a terrible taste in my mouth. When I called to complain i really just wanted a credit to get my hair actually high lighted again. But now that 2 times I’ve called and no manager has called me back I feel like I have nothing left to do but review my experience and disappointment in public and hope for a better customer...