Aveda Institute Tucson — Attraction in Tucson

I received a haircut by Silvia today. I’ve been coming to Aveda for a couple years now and I’ve never had an unpleasant experience until today. Her work itself was good, she gave me a good haircut but unfortunately she would not listen to me. I get the same haircut every time, long layers, bang trimming and face framing. Very straight forward. When I came in I told her I wanted to “touch up on my long waves (I meant to say layers but I mixed up my words)”, instead of doing follow up questions she simply rushed off to find a teacher because “she didn’t understand me”. Once teacher gets there she asks questions about my consultation and the girl clearly doesn’t know how to respond because she didn’t finish asking me. Then she starts taking creative freedom and basically tells the instructor what she thinks I want. I step in to save the girl and save my haircut and start addressing the instructor on what I really wanted. Halfway through haircut her friend starts popping in over to gossip, while it is unprofessional it personally doesn’t bother me. Until they start saying very nasty things about fellow classmates, referring to them in vulgar language but most importantly one of them said “I’m so happy she (pointing at another student) fell in front of me, I hate her” proceed to laugh together and they go on about how they enjoy being mean to said person. Back to my haircut, she finishes, rushes off to get my hair checkout off. Comes back realizing she never asked my opinion and now asks “oh sorry did you wanted anything different” and I said yes I wanted my shortest layer to be below my cheekbones (she left it below my chin) and she had not done the face framing. Again, before I can articulate what I want she starts cutting me off. Her friend comes back, she’s cutting my hair while looking at the friend, finally I interrupt her and let her know I still want her to go shorter than what she’s cutting and once again say says she doesn’t understand what I want and calls over the instructor. Once instructor gets there she tells her what I asked for but she said it in a condescending tone to make it seem like I didn’t know what I was asking for. Instructor even said “yeah?” Because even she didn’t understand the confusion and explained to the girl that what I had just said made perfect sense and she just showed her how to cut it. At the end of the day she still didn’t take the length off and never trimmed my bangs as asked 3 times and after being told by the instructor 2 times too because “she didn’t understand me”.

At the end of the day, even though her skill it’s there, her customer service is awful. Also this is more a concern than a complain but Silvia needs to protect herself better. It was my first time meeting her and she told me (without me asking) the exact location of her work, her position, the area in town when she lives, and where her parent live. Just an overall...

I was to get my hair listed below as this color, and was ecstatic when coming in person for the first time to make my appointment. I came to my appointment the prior day and was excited for looking like my inspiration photo. I did understand that coming in with darker hair that lifting the darkness to get to a light color to be able to achieve would be very 50/50. To my surprise and to the other educators and students, my hair lifted really well, and my color provided should have been able to be met. When the educator came over to check my hair, they said the roots and additional bleach could not be added since my hair became stringy and was about to completely fall out. I believed this would be a 2-3 (max appointment, but I was there from 9 a.m. (opening time) to almost 8 at night, just for my hair to be bleached/toned, and color added with highlights. I do not have hair like Rapunzel, and I understand that students are learning, but if they are about to graduate in a couple of months, this is not going to fly in the real world at a professional hair salon. I was very sad with not being able to get my results. When the first time my hair was washed, it was a bright yellow, orange, red (in that gradient). I could tell the educators were a little scared how this was going to turn out. I kept on saying I liked the service since I really wanted to go home after not eating the entire day. My plans had to be delayed, and I even told my mom to cancel her appointment since the hair services are unpredictable. I wanted a blonde balayage and was told it would be more brown (and they added brown). This is like an auburn, and I look like Dolly Parton. Jolene “ Jolene, Jolene, Jolene, please don’t let my hair get bleached and fall ouuuuttt”.I will not be returning, and I advise people to be very wary if they want services from this place. On top of that, the haircut took forever, and the blow out did not look like a blow out. It looked like I jumped out of a moving vehicle and tumbled down a grassy hill. I was refunded thankfully, but I would never recommend this place or the services to ANYONE. (First photo is the result, and second photo is...

Okay for basic services, not highlights or balayage. My root touch up was fine, however the color stayed on my hair for more than 4 hours which caused a burn or dryness that made my scalp peel. I asked for a touch up balayage and had two students work on it (per the instructor). The students did as they were instructed (no fault of theirs) however the results were uneven (more color on one side than the other). Several instructors gave different feedback on technique, some instructed open bleach, while another said to use foil. My hair definitely dried out due to the several reapplications of bleach on my hair (open technique) and I have breakage!! The instructors did not check my hair during the process at all. I left with sopping wet hair, because they were closing and couldn’t dry it, which means they couldn’t check the color. I need a color correction, which the manager (Jen) lead (Jackie), and Katy all denied and said I should “get it done professionally as I went to an institute not professional salon service.” I think they are missing several points: good instruction, review of work during the process, letting a customer go with wet hair and not checking it, then not color correcting. I’ve read several salons fine print, most offer customer satisfaction with color corrections. They refunded my money so I could get the services done “professionally.” I understand they are students learning, however the instructors are not hands on, nor setting a good example of professionalism or for corrective learning. It was disappointing. I recommend basic services here- basic hair cut, one over all Color, avoid highlights, balayage and...