Van Cleef Hair Studio — Attraction in West Chicago Township

They ruined my hair. I should have listened to the negative reviews, especially the last one regarding hair color.

I made the mistake of getting my hair colored at this salon. Now, half my hair is gone. To be fair I was transitioning from a dark to light color. The 1st and 2nd color appointments seemed ok. I styled my hair just 1 time using a hot tool and all was good. Then, I went into a protective style for about 5 - 6 weeks where I had a head full of healthy hair. This style was also done by this salon. When I took the style out I did use a hot tool/blow dried my hair. I noticed before washing my hair or anything it seemed different but I summed it up to shrinkage.

The next day I returned to this salon for coloring again to try to reach my preferred look. At the point when I was being styled and done I was shocked because my hair was significantly broken off and shorter. The stylist suggested cutting it shorter almost ear length. Thank God I decided against this because it would have made it much worse because it is uneven. I think the stylist offered a terrible suggestion.

In the moment I was trying to make sense of what could have happened and trying to be fair. Of course, when I mentioned using a hot tool on my own the stylist focused on that as the cause. I don't think it was my hot tool alone because I used heat protection and I only did this 1x. I suspect my hair loss is because of this salon but maybe my use of heat might have just made their damage worse.

I believe I probably should have waited longer to color again. I question if the protective style this salon installed and said was okay put too much tension on my hair that may have been too fragile because of multiple bleaching.

I was going to return for another protective style until I learned their method which I think would have damaged my hair more. I did consult with other salons to fix this mess of my hair now and...I found I was likely correct about some of my concerns.

Not to mention the stylist who did my hair was very upbeat and acted very confident but...her silk press was not the greatest. Even before my hair got damaged the silk press was not sleek.

The only reason I stayed calm was because I genuinely was trying to figure out what went wrong. I am glad I canceled any future appointments and I am with a new salon/stylist that is more skilled.

Not to mention I easily blew about $2,000 only to have hair loss. This is because this salon is over priced for their real skill set. I'll pay someone's price but please truly understand hair care.

I didn't make any formal complaint which I should have. I have decided to move on since a little time has passed now. But, I am angry and annoyed with outcome of my hair.

Proceed with caution.

UPDATE: Adding more comments mostly for potential clients because I wish the salon stylist told me this beforehand.

Breakage from bleaching may happen days or weeks later after the service. You may think all is well when it isn't. In my case, I do believe the salon should have noted this. Despite having my hair bleached about 3 different times a few weeks apart it was still risky. As I stated in my initial review placing my hair in a "protective style" like braiding for weeks probably added tension to my weakened hair from bleaching and offers some explanation for my breakage once the protective style was taken out. It would have been helpful if the stylist suggested giving my hair more time to recover from the multiple bleaching.

I wanted a natural looking color but ended up with literally 4 different colors in my hair for a very unnatural appearance. I believe there is a better way to get a more natural looking dimensional blended look than what the stylist did.

Going from very dark hair to blonde in one setting or weeks apart may not be safe. Giving much more time might be helpful. The stylist told me she'd bleached very dark hair before successfully which motivated me to try. Moral of the story if it sounds too good to be...

Prior to this encounter I had been to Vancleef several times with no issue. Gina and Shanoah do great work. For this visit I had a stylist that was purely aggressive and rude. Anytime I asked for her thought or opinion she took a big sigh and rolled her eyes. The way she kept huffing and puffing at me when i asked for her expertise was so confusing. I started running through my memory to see if this was someone I knew or someone who had issues with me. The sew in was so loose and I couldn't say anything for fear that she'd punch me in the face for just having a question. As if this wasn't enough, she did a lazy job and my sewin was unraveling hours later. I left an initial thorough review that detailed the events of her aggression step by step. The salon reached out to me and stated that the stylist had received a death in the family and it was her first day back to explain the emotions she was exhibiting. I felt really bad and deleted my review. They offered me a redo of service. I emailed them back and to this day, this is months later, I have not received a single response back. I understand people go through things but I also don't want to feel threatened in a chair for 5 hours for a $450 sewin that doesn't last a day. Attached is my appointment confirmation and what my sew in looked like literally 4 hours later. FOUR HOURS LATER. Highly disappointing.

Update UpdateIf the business could not accommodate the time then why not respond with different times or even say that? I was just simply ignored. I asked if those times were available and got no response. I didn't demand any specific times. Why would I be calling this business continuously to chase after a service for actions they wanted to make right? I am telling God's honest truth that I did not feel the least bit safe in that chair. The stylist was nothing but angry and aggressive to me when I barely spoke more than 6 sentences and the work was terrible. This review is not malicious, the service was. I showed grace and understanding and deleted my review. After no response, I didn't chase for a refund or a redo. I left it alone and found elsewhere. While what she was going through was tough, I am patronizing a business, not sacrificing myself to the mercy of how someone is handling their situation. It was only when your social media video of the stylist was posted on instagram that I was reminded of the trauma i endured on that chair and decided to come back and leave my honest review. I simply ASKED if there were any slots open Saturday and Sunday and got no response. Where was the care for service then? At no point did you reach back out or attempt to make it right. This isn't an issue of community, lack of grace, or coming together. Bad service is bad service. I'll delete the appointment confirmation with the stylist's name, and the other not so nice detail, but you are not going to gaslight me as if I got the product or service I paid for. That is inherently insane. There is not a single lie in the review I left. WoW. To attempt to politicize this when all it was was bad service, bad customer service, and bad follow...

Having not been to a hair salon in 5 years (and doing all my styling and trims by myself), i wanted to get an honest trim and blowout for my natural hair. I had read reviews for several spots in Chicago, and was deciding between Van Cleef and Huetiful Hair Salon (specializes in natural hair). I went with the former since it was in closer proximity to me - a decision which i sincerely regret.

Now all the reviews I read indicated that this salon would be able to accommodate natural hair types. I even checked with the person booking my appointment to make sure my stylist could accommodate natural hair. I got to the salon with my hair already washed and detangled, thinking it would make their lives easier. I was absolutely mortified when i sat down and the stylist starting ripping through my hair with a comb and small brush to blow -dry. Don't get me wrong, I know that that's the widely accepted way to get a completely straight blowout, but I could literally hear my hair snapping with each brush. I asked her to be more gentle, and she did, but the amount of my hair that was on the floor at the end of the visit was appalling. I had a minor freakout moment in my head that this lady had just cleanly ripped out 5 solid years of hard work.

The icing on the cake was when she told me AT THE END of the styling session that she cut her natural hair and stopped trying because it kept on getting matted. If YOU don't even know how to take care of YOUR OWN natural hair, how the HELL could i trust you with mine? She asked if i wanted her to straighten or style, and I flatly denied. If she had done anymore i would have left bald. I called later that day to let the managers know that although she was a sweet girl, she should not be assigned to natural hair clients and I felt like my hair was being pulled out.

Suffice it to say, I'm glad this salon is such a hit for my relaxed sisters, but naturalistas - spare yourself the devastation of walking out of this place with only 50% of the hair you came with and go to a salon that specializes in natural hair. I will NEVER go to this salon again - and honestly, I'm not sure that I will ever go to one PERIOD for a long time. This was such a horrendous experience that reminds me why I avoided salons for 5 years in the...