is. Salon Yaletown — Local services in Vancouver

WARNING! Not a pro hair salon, do not trust with hair highlighting. Hear me out (my first ever negative review, but I must warn people)

I read great reviews so I thought I could trust them with hair. I called, told them I have had a traumatic experience in the past had to wait 5 years to grow out my hair out before trusting a hairdresser again.

I only wanted two front strands of my hair colored a cool color. I sent an inspo pic. Simple.

Asked for their BEST professional, most experienced - explaining that I had long black curly hair.

Red flag #1: stylist - not hairdresser. A sweet young girl in her 20’s, Taylor is a good stylist but not a professional hairdresser (which I now understand is what my hair needs). Even Salon owner doesn’t do hair at all.

Red flag #2: Felt like she had no idea how to treat dark curly hair, what tools to use, how to avoid deep tangles. I lost some hair over this.

I was naive and trusted their word. In retrospect- They should have told me they didn’t have the right person for me, sent me to a different salon.

Example 1: I asked to check on me often while I had the highlighter in, because I had some past trauma - and despite that I was put under a hot blow dryer over my foils to speed things up. Till it was too hot to bare - I feel like it caused some areas to over-bleach.

Example 2: When we put on the highlighter, my hair was long so was pushed up into the foil, tangling it. For curly long hair that causes knots.

When my hair was being washed I could tell something was off… I tried to shake off the feeling, but when I came out, both sides of my hair were attached in big dreadlock-density level knots. (Not over-exaggerating)

Can’t express my level of horror.

She tried to use a brush to detangle it, Eventually calling Claire to come help me, who immediately told her to use a comb and I had to step in too. It took 45 minutes to untangle, while tearing and pulling out my poor damaged hairs.

[In their response below they claim I combed my own hair - firstly it wasn't an hour and secondly, yes I had to ask to comb my own hair after losing trust]

These were hairs I could not afford to loose as I had been suffering some balding spots at the front, and mentioned how fragile that area was to me 🫣😳

Did she apologize? No. She said: “this is normal when highlighting hair”. Big red flag if this is normal there 🚩

Example 3: She treated other clients while treating me, I was at the salon from 2-7:30pm The first day (for two strands!) and 1-4pm the next. 10 hours.

Example 4: When the color barely showed at the end... I asked to come correct it the next day. She agreed to correct.. but only after charging $300, mentioned they may charge me extra to correct. A correction should not cost extra.

This was so unprofessional and I am so angry.

They knew they were working with someone in her 40s, with past hair trauma, who has long dark curly hair. I mentioned this when I came. Not okay to have ignored this.

I still don't have the results I came for, I lost so much hair it will take years to recover. Front pieces of my hair now breaking off and short.

People at their salon cannot lie to people. I've been lied to a few times. They should have sent me elsewhere. Even though I have never written bad reviews I feel I have to protect others.

In regards to their response below - notice they did not disagree with any of my story. Just blamed me for defaming & said I combed my own hair (and I did because I lost trust and saw my hair being torn) - the rest is untrue:

1. I am not defaming. Said she was a good stylist. I looked up the difference between a stylist and hairdresser. I also spoke to her and she moved to BC because it required less credentials there. Facts.
2. Why I sat at there an extra hour? I was waiting for Taylor to check me out (she was treating another client parallel). Also had to have a snack after many hours there. How does this accusation defend anything?
3. My only one IG message was to say sorry for this review and wish her growth from my feedback.

Take...

Update July 23rd:

Christine (management) called me and offered for me to return, at no charge, to ensure I was satisfied with my hair. I was booked in with Rebecca, who did much to make me feel at ease and redid my entire haircut. The bangs now lay correctly when air dried and styled with curl cream. Rebecca was friendly, knowledgeable, and provided guidance and explanation for the steps she was taking to fix my hair. I do appreciate the communication from management and the actions taken to remedy the situation.

Original review: Came here for a haircut and scheduled through the online booking for an end of day haircut. I received a 20% discount because it was my first time visiting this salon.

I told my stylist that I was thinking of a trim or going short, but definitely wanted curtain bangs.

For context, my hair is naturally wavy/curly and I wear it naturally with a bit of light product and refresh with water spray every morning.

We sat down, talked through what I wanted, did a wash and began the hair cutting process.

While I was initially confident in my stylist’s skills, this confidence wavered as she began to ask me questions about my cut that I didn’t have the technical expertise to answer. I didn’t know how much adding texture would affect my bangs. Also, I asked her advice for whether going shorter would look good on me, and she didn’t give me any clear direction.

She cut most of my hair wet, but when it came to my bangs she cut them dry. This isn’t too uncommon. I’ve had them cut wet by a curly hair expert and dry by a different salon in Seattle, who followed up to see how I like them afterward.

She never showed me the back of my hair with a mirror, even after I asked how it looked in the back. She did ask a couple times whether I thought my bangs looked okay.

I told her I was unsure because they were dry and I didn’t know how they would look when curly.

In the past, my hair dressers have understood that the cut may look differently when styled at home and told me come back if we needed to tweak the bangs. While I have never needed to do so, it was nice they extended the courtesy. They made me feel like they cared about whether I liked my hair.

After we finished, I asked if it would be alright to come back if the bangs didn’t look right when styled normally. She was not receptive at all to this questioning and told me that I needed to tell her now if anything needed to be changed. I told her I didn’t know if anything needed to be changed yet, and it was very difficult to know without seeing my natural curl pattern.

At this point, communication seemed to break down. She told me that I could always book another service or call management and allow them to handle the problem if I was unhappy, but that management really wants people to address any problems while at the salon.

This alone has kept me from contacting management directly and led me here. This is contrary to almost all other salon services I have received in the past, where they want you to tell them if you’re unhappy with the service at any time.

I am hesitant to return to the salon, even though my bangs do not look good when dried and styled the way I normally wear my hair. Will another hair dresser at the same salon think I’m a “complainer” or will I have to pay again to address the cut I am unhappy with?

Not to mention, the stylist seemed in a hurry to get the haircut over with, tangled my hair in the wash basin and didn’t comb it out while wet, and made a comment about my hair being tangled and how it’s probably due to coloring my hair. (I color my hair every six months and do NOT have problems when I detangle in the shower.) It definitely made me self-conscious.

It’s an unfortunate turn of events. I’m sure other stylists here could be good. However I will be looking for a different salon to better address my needs next time.

All in all— don’t love my bangs but the rest of the cut is (hopefully?) alright. I don’t know because I haven’t seen the...

I DO NOT RECOMMEND THIS SALON!

public reply to the salon’s response since you should know what you’re getting into before spending crazy amounts of money

I attached two more pictures of my hair with the dates, in hopes that other women find a better and more considerate hair salon, as it is obvious that they are not the same as they were two years ago.

1- I had my appointment a month ago, not two; September 27 to November 4 is MUCH closer to a month than two. The picture taken was from the very same date of my appointment (see picture) and I didn’t write a review earlier because I gave it a month and a week (and a half) in hopes that the cut would soften and become less obvious, which did not happen.

2- I was satisfied with the cut when wet, a state in which it is almost impossible to tell the difference by an untrained eye, and the poor cut was only visible once my hair was straight, which leads to my next point.

3- The stylist purposefully used a curling iron and told me that she could achieve the soft blowout look even though I disagreed and asked to leave with my hair undone - I never agreed to an alternate style suggested by the stylist (mentioned in your reply).

4- I cancelled the extra appointment you offered after looking through your social media and client pictures thoroughly. I also never commented on the colour, and the fact the salon itself pointed out yet another issue with my hair just proves how poor the execution was.

Original comment: I went to this salon to get partial highlights and a haircut, all reviews were positive. The start of the session was very good, the stylist was super nice and seemed competent enough to provide the results i expected. The entire process was very nice, but as soon as I saw the bleached highlights I could tell they were nothing like the picture and description I provided. She assured me that it would be solved once the second/third layer of toner went on, and we continued. Once we got to the haircut, I asked to add SOME layers in order to add dimension to my straight hair, I also asked for face framing, I highlighted that I did not want too many, and that it was for straight hair. While brushing my hair the stylist commented on how tangled it was, and offered to thin out my hair, that is already thin when you look at wavy hair, which really made me realize she was not trained i the slightest to work with LIGHT wavy hair. Once the haircut was done I asked for a soft blowout, or straight with the ends curled in, I showed pictures and highlighted that I did not want my hair curled. She said she couldn’t do that hair style, so I asked if I could style it myself, to which she said no, the I asked if I could just leave with my hair natural, and again she said no (which is just absurd considering that it is my own hair and her service was done). So I said yes to her using a curling wand to try and achieve the soft blowout look, which did not work. I left and straightened my hair at home, which revealed the terrible haircut i was given, you may say that that’s what layers are, but I specifically asked for very few layers, to add dimension to STRAIGHT hair. The result was as if she took a knife and cut off an inch from the highlighted layer, and the highlights were not scattered around my head, but rather a layer of blonde-ish hair. When I called to ask for a refund ($100 haircut), they could only offer me a new stylist to try and fix the cut, but I could not trust them enough due to the terrible result from the first appointment. I have attached a picture of my hair and the inspiration pictures provided. I paid around $379 for this session...