In The Cut Salon — Local services in Montreal

While I was excited to try In The Cut, which had so many positive reviews, my experience was very negative. After being seated with my stylist, I found out she had two clients at the same time, so my hair coloring felt immensely rushed. I was there for a partial foil, and, rather than doing individual highlights, my stylist took sections of hair, at least 2-3 inches wide, teased it, and then put the mixture on the entire section minus the roots and ends, which took about 30 minutes. Later, I watched as my stylist ran around looking for someone to finish my appointment because she had another client coming in shortly. When one agreed to do it, he appeared annoyed, and, when I did try to engage in conversation, I would get short answers and rudely scolded for having my head positioned wrong. The entire experience made me feel unwanted and a burden, rather than a valued customer.

Upon receiving my bill, I was shocked! For partial highlights, which weren’t even true highlights, and a style, my bill was $270 before taxes. At the salon I previously went to, before my stylist left, they charge anywhere from $88-$138, depending on the stylist’s level of experience, and it includes styling afterwards. Not wanting to cause a scene, I paid and left. When I got home, my husband and I realized you could still clearly see my roots, and the toner, while not bad looking, wasn’t the correct shade. Due to this, especially after the cost, I reached out, thinking there was a billing mistake. I received a response saying the partial highlights were $220 and the styling $50, which is almost double what I paid at my previous salon in Montreal.

While I’ve never complained about a service in the past, I felt the need to inform them about my negative experience; if you’re paying these prices, the experience and results should be above-and-beyond. I received a response, and, while they apologized and offered to fix the toner for free, the tone of the email seemed to default all blame: “If the pricing was a concern for you, we could have discussed any questions you had before hand” (if you can’t afford any price we charge, you should ask up front), “We did over hear you had negative experiences and outcomes in the past, with other salons you’ve been to” (it’s you, not us; you’re just a complainer), and “Being said your hair did come out beautiful” (it doesn’t matter what you wanted because it looked fine in the end).

The negative experience I had previously, which I explained to my stylist, involved one specific stylist overdoing highlights and making my hair platinum. I gave that stylist three opportunities over a six-month period, paying the full cost of services each time, and it simply got worse. After that, it took two years and a lot of money to correct with a different stylist. Never wanting to go through something similar again, I declined their offer to fix the toner. Truthfully, the damage to my opinion of the salon, wallet, and hair has been done. I paid a total of $365.43 for a service that will need to be redone at another salon in several weeks rather than several months.

Every salon I’ve been to, both while living in the USA and Canada, has posted their pricing online, and, for anything that varies from customer to customer, they post a base price and then do consultations before appointments for a discussion involving needs and pricing. Additionally, stylists have only ever had one customer at a time, so their entire focus is on you from beginning to end. My previous stylist, who is out on maternity leave, would book four-hour long sessions for my appointment in order to ensure she had time to meticulously paint on individual highlights for a natural look. Then, she would wash, tone, cut, dry, and style my hair for a “photo finish,” which, prior to tax and tip, was $225.

While I usually only write positive reviews, I felt the need to share my personal experiences for this particular appointment. I chose In The Cut because of all the positive reviews, a system which has never failed...

Unfortunately, I cannot say that I had a positive experience at In The Cut.

I met for a consultation and was fully transparent about the fact that not only did I have my brown hair professionally dyed black, but I also went over it with black box dye afterwards twice to touch up my roots from home. I was told, understandably, that we may not be able to lift to the colour I wanted (blonde balayage + shadow root) which I fully understood. I was more than willing to come back for multiple sessions to get the colour that I wanted, but sadly, that’s not what happened.

Instead, my stylist used 40 volume developer to lighten my hair in fragmented sections, not in uniform pieces in order to create the look of a balayage. He frequently would get distracted as he was applying the bleach to my hair often not paying attention to the application time – having conversations around the salon on and off, looking at his phone, answering phone calls, and pausing for long periods in between (yet simultaneously claiming you need to “watch 40 volume like a hawk”). He then proceeded to burn my scalp with the bleach, and I’m not exaggerating because as he took me to the sink to rinse me off, he was barking at others around him for help because his own hands were burning from trying to remove the foils.

He was also generally quite rude to me – extremely boastful about his skill set, and yet was super apparent how nervous he was through his blatant reactive facial expressions AND by simply telling me he had no idea what was going to happen (lol – reassuring).

He kept reminding me that I had black box dye in my hair and how I shouldn’t have done that, and how most people would never have accepted a client like me (even though he knew this). I wish I was kidding, but this fact was brought up and rubbed in my face more times than I could count.

At one point it got loud in the salon due to the blow dryers running, I was standing waiting to sit to be rinsed, and I thought he told me to sit down, so as I proceeded to sit down he barked at me to stand and said “I said stay there and you try to sit, what’s going on here.” When I simply couldn’t hear him. I was baffled.

Not once during my appointment, that lasted from about 11am-3:30pm, was I asked if I wanted water, coffee, or anything of the sort.

After giving me the choppiest, most unblended cut I’ve ever received, I also left with black + blonde + copper hair with numerous hot spots, an egotistical hair stylist who, at one point, called himself a god (even though he was visibly panicking and clearly had no idea what he was doing). I didn’t see how bad it was due to the fact that it was curled and a treatment was applied + other products to give it more shine, but wow. I had to get this mess fixed and the hairstylist that fixed me up was as appalled, if not more, than I was.

Definitely one of the worst, if not, THE worst experiences I’ve ever had. The only regret I have is tipping and acting like I loved it to save face.

Those photos are unstylish and unfiltered. You can plainly see the poor colour application, doesn’t even remotely resemble a balayage (even the beginning stages) and the awful cut.

Before I get a comment replying asking me why I didn’t go get it fixed by the same person – it’s because I wouldn’t ever wish to go back to the same person that screwed me over who was also generally very unpleasant.

So,...

My hair looks nothing like the pictures I showed or the extensions I brought in. The staff was very friendly but my hairdresser left me midway to start another client and I ended up finishing with another barber instead.

I had blonde hair and came in to fix my regrowth since I am naturally brunette. I also have hair extensions that are brown and blonde. I only asked to get rid of the “yellow” in my hair and I now it’s almost black. My bangs are darker than the rest of my hair. I even brought the extensions with me and my hair doesn’t even come close to the colour and i’m pretty much screwed since I have an appointment to put them back in in 1 week. When drying my hair I asked where’s the blonde in my hair and she was trying to gaslight me saying its still there when it’s not but I was to shy to say anything else since there was no one left in the salon but me.

I had to wait 30 min after my scheduled appointment hearing a screaming baby since she was running late but I didn’t mind the wait. When we start there is no issue at all if anything it was great service and she seemed very understanding. I asked her when we’d finish because I was meeting someone for dinner and she told me i’d be out of there at 5:45 max. Another client of hers came in saying she sorry for being early and she doesn’t mind waiting. When i’m waiting with my foils in she starts her other client. We’re now both at the shampoo station. She asks another person to takeover for me and wash out the stuff in my hair. Still doesn't bother me but he was a lot slower than she was. I notice it’s past 5:45 and i’m still getting shampooed. I assumed she would leave her other client to check my hair at least but no she tells him to blow dry my hair. It takes him over an hour to so when I could normally do it in 20 min but I don’t blame him at all he was clearly inexperienced and I could tell he was doing his best. She only came over at the end to say it’s “perfect” when my hair was close to black and looked nothing like what I wanted. She finished with her client that came about an hour and half after me and I was still waiting for my hair to be dry. When she was done, she didn’t even come back to check on me or finish the client she started first and left the other person to do it when it was taking him double the time. I came in at 3pm and left the salon at 7:30pm with no one else left in the salon. The other barbers were closing up when I was leaving. My friend had to wait for for an hour and half when she could’ve easily finish me up an hour earlier.

I rarely go to salons but I decided to give it a shot and I am so disappointed. The only reason I decided to do this was to get someone experienced to take care of me and I ended up with someone who could barely do a blowout. I’m honestly so sad my hair look nothing like I wanted it currently has like 6 different colours in it and looks nothing like...