Privé Salon — Attraction in Winter Park

I really never write reviews but I honestly had to for this. I have never gone to a salon to actually do my hair, I have really curly hair and am really picky about it. I finally decided I wanted a change and to avoid a salon I did it myself at home.. a mistake everyone does at least once. I moved to Orlando for college and didn’t know many places so I googled to find a salon. Prive came out as one of the best, and if I was going to do my hair for the first time, I wanted the best of the best. I called, set up a consultation and it went great. I was told all the hairstylist are knowledgeable in curly hair as it is a requirement. I then came back for my actual appointment and after the service left with my hair wet, due to this I had to wait for my hair to dry to see the final result. Once dry, I cried. Nothing even close to what I wanted. I called and sent them the pictures of how it came out and they quickly responded and told me to come in so they could fix it.When I did come back, I did the fix with a different hairstylist. She was super nice and I felt like she understood what I wanted. When I was at the bowl rinsing I felt my hair and it was super damaged. The ends were super stringy and when I asked they told me this was normal, I trusted them because they know better. When I left the salon and my hair dried it was exactly what I wanted, the result was what I wanted. The problem comes weeks later. I did this in the the last week of September going into October so it’s been roughly two months. I wanted to give it time to see if it gets better. My hair is in the worst state it has ever been in. It has been breaking horribly, it is super thin and nothing I do fixes it. I feel like my only option is to chop it off but as it is my hair isn’t very long. I just really wish they would have prioritized my hair health over just dying it again, giving that the third time it was bleached was due to their mistake previously. I would have been very understanding with them telling me it’s not able to be done then and to wait a couple months. I’m a college student so the $450 I paid wasn’t easy for me but I wanted the best of the best and to get the best results. My hair has never broken like this before. If you have curly hair just think twice. They were all super nice and did make me feel comfortable, just wish my hair health...

Very disappointed. I requested an appointment online for a blowout that included my top two choices of appointment times. A girl called me to solidify my appointment and asked me when I wanted to come in. What was the point of me filling that out if you aren't going to look at it? I thought maybe she was implying nothing was available and I needed to pick something else, but that wasn't the case. My top choice was available, she just didn't look. She also had me on speaker phone so it was difficult to understand her. She already had my info from the online request so I said thank you and was about to hang up but she jumps in with "we aren't done yet." Oh... Excuse me. She needed my card to hold the appointment. That's fine, but that's not how you say it. Overall, the call could have been much more polite. This did not give me a good first impression for what I thought was a high-end salon. I didn't book with any specific person. When I got there, I had to wait 20 minutes for anyone to be available despite my appointment. The gentleman at the front desk was very polite, offered me a drink, and kept apologizing for the delay, so that was pleasant at least. Due to the lack of masks worn by the majority of the people in there, I declined the drink because I didn't want to have to take my mask off around them. When I finally get taken back, the stylist asks me what I want. I was very clear that I wanted my hair simply blow dried straight. She tried to convince me that I should get something more styled. I explained those styles never hold in my hair any time anyone has tried so it's not really worth it. I just want it straight. She kept pushing and pushing. She said if my hair were soft that it might not hold but since mine isn't that it should be fine. Thanks for insulting my hair on top of not listening to what I want. It takes her an hour and at least three styling tools to end up with my hair looking terrible, just as I was afraid of. I just wanted it straight so it would last me several days but I ended up having to wash and style it myself the next day because it was obviously an even bigger disaster after sleeping on it. She also criticized the products I use as her sales technique to get me to buy theirs. Sorry, that doesn't work. The whole experience was so so disappointing. Short story long, I'm...

I really wanted to like this place since it has good reviews and is centrally located to me.

I've given it 4 tries (all in the hopes that things will improve), but it's just not worth it to give anymore chances.

The main problems: They make you wait, so long Beauty school students are the ones doing most of the work No robes or towels to cover your clothing for hair cut Subpar coloring/cut

WAIT TIME Each time I've waited, and waited, and waited, and typically spend about 3 1/2 hours to get roots touched up and simple haircut. I usually have to wait 20- 30 minutes after my appointment time before I actually get taken back.

BEAUTY SCHOOL STUDENTS There are beauty school students that do most of the work (and the actual colorist and stylist do very minimal). This past time was the worst - tugging at my hair to brush it, applied the color barrier cream on my ENTIRE forehead and down my ear canal, instead of just at my hairline, and was just terrible at color matching. If I wanted beauty school students working on my hair, I'd expect beauty school salon pricing.

NO ROBES OR TOWELS They don't use towels or ropes over your shoulders when doing the hair cut. So, be prepared to have hair EVERYWHERE. And, just using the blow dryer and a lint roller at the end does not get it out of your bra, or other areas. I always have to plan to go home to shower, and change.

SUBPAR COLORING/CUT Just once my hair was cut nicely, but that stylist left. The other 3 times have been awful. I've had to actually cut my hair on my own bc there were chunks longer than the rest of my hair. My color is way darker at my roots and it is all over, which happened bc the beauty school student applied the toner wrong.

Luckily there are plenty of salons in the area that are customer focused, and have professionals working, and I'll be checking those...