SOZO Hair&Make Tokyo【English speaking international hair salon】 — Local services in Tokyo

Stumbled upon an ad on Instagram about a hair salon that provides service in English. The hair stylists are trainees, so the price is lower than usual. The rating and reviews are extremely high, so I decided to give it a try.

The first misconception is that the stylist that assisted me in specific is definitely not comfortable speaking in English, and I felt a huge barrier while communicating, so much that after a while of some struggle I asked if they felt more comfortable speaking in Japanese, since communication is key specially when providing someone this type of service. You don’t want any misunderstandings, or else you can end with hair gone wrong, which is exactly what happened to me.

First of all, they shouldn’t advertise that they can assist in English, or they should have escalated someone else that could actually speak in English to begin with, since this was the main reason I decided to make an appointment with them. Second, I went for cut and color, and the stylist that assisted me wasn’t experienced with coloring as much, a fact that they told me AFTER they did my hair wrong. The cut is fine, but the color came out completely patchy (green, yellow, gray) and in a straight line (I asked for gradation style). Luckily I can still put my hair up, because I feel utterly embarrassed to be in public with my hair like this. The stylist was very apologetic after it was done and said that they might not have that much experience with coloring, and that they might have chosen the wrong way to do things. Additionally, the price was higher than when the booking was made, information that should have been disclosed beforehand. I hope this stylist in particular can work on what they have done wrong and from now on be honest and more communicative if they don’t think they have the abilities or skills to do what asked. I could have happily been ok with just a cut if they had told me that they weren’t sure about what they were doing.

To top it off, I felt like there was no communication overall, at times they would just expect me to know where to go or what to do, there was no advice on what I could do to fix it, an apparent senior stylist came to see my hair and they just talked between themselves, nothing was instructed to me and when going out I had kept 2 bags in their locker, and they only handed me one, which seems like a very small detail, but being a forgetful person myself I could have potentially just forgotten it there.

Note that I do realize that the stylists are mostly trainees, but I still should have been warned about their inexperience with hair coloring. I’m sure there are great trainees and that the school is good, but my experience has been nothing less than outraging, as I had to pay full price and wasn’t even offered a free or discounted “fix”. *The picture was taken the same day, just a few hours after the...

The service I requested was - retouch with bleach (since my hair is bleached), tone, cut, and treatment.

Why I'm giving it 3 stars: The outcome of my hair color wasn't what I exactly wanted but it wasn't terrible. I asked for an ash tone and I wanted my roots to be darker so when it grows it would not look that bad, like a shadow root, but it wasn't ashy enough to my liking for the rest of my hair. The weirdest part was they didn't even show me the color chart so that's a minus one star already. Or maybe I could've asked for the color chart, but whatever, too late now. I think they were trying to be friendly but the interaction with me and the stylist/staff felt dry, I didn't feel welcomed for some reason, or maybe it's me, I was on my phone at some times when they walk away. They are not thorough and consistent with the work. When rinsing the hair color (after bleaching/coloring), I feel like they didn't rinsed it properly because when I had to scratch my scalp at times after the whole process, there's a lot of hair dye left and I can see it through my nails. As I reflect on the whole process, it didn't feel like the assistant stylist took his time to remove the dye when rinsing, from other experiences, it usually takes some time to rinse it but it was quicker than I usual. I think my scalp is allergic to something that they used on me, it's definitely not the treatment though, they use schwarzkopf for the bleach and I've used it before without issues, so i know it's not from that. I was subconsciously scratching my head a few hours after I left the salon, realized it the next day that the itch wasn't normal since I was still scratching my hair after washing it. I gave my scalp a good look, and I got hives. It took some time to go away after taking anti histamine. In my opinion, I thought the price was a bit steep compared to other places i have gone to, maybe because they welcome foreigners. I know I could've gone somewhere else, but these are just my thoughts based on my experience, and I wanted to try somewhere else different. I'm the type of person who doesn't mind trying new places. My hair felt great after everything, but I wasn't super happy with the outcome for the following reasons. I asked for ash blonde, but it wasn't ashy enough to my liking. I also asked for my roots to be darker, but it wasn't.

For the ones who have great experience here, I'm truly happy for them. My experience was okay. I'm not sure if I'll come back here when...

I didn’t get to try the service to rate it due to their lack of customer service and understanding. I went total of THREE TIMES. I went twice first on 10/2/2024 to make the appointment which I explained that I want color, cut and treatment and I got the appointment for 10/4/2024 at 4:30pm. Then I went again on 10/3 hoping I can reschedule for Saturday instead of Friday because I wanted to go on trip on Friday however they said it’s not possible which was ok with so I asked to keep my appointment as it is and confirmed again the three services I want and SHOWED A PHOTO OF THE COLOR I WANT however the person (I believe he’s the boss) looked at it very briefly and said yah it’s ok so I thought oh ok he knows what he’s talking about and it’s a good sign. Because my appointment was in the middle of the day of course I didn’t plan anything. I went in for my appointment I was greeted by the same person very nicely and I was seated however I was told my appointment is at 5 not 4:30 I was ok whatever I’ll wait (the place is nice to sit) during that time no one came asking about the service (consultation) until exactly at 5pm I lady came introducing her name as my stylist. I showed her pictures of the style I want and the colors (different ones depending on my hair) long story short she said she can’t make the style I want because of the TIME and oh I forgot to mention that she told me there’s no time to do hair treatment only cut (ends only) and color. I got pissed at that point but I kept going with the color. She offered another style that fit HER TIME but I don’t like it (chunky highlights which I totally hate). So why no one checked with me about the style I want! I came TWICE and I’m a tourist so my time is valuable in Tokyo basically it’s paid time. I came all the way from California and cancelled a trip to get my hair done yet it didn’t happen! Very disappointed and regret all the time, energy and money I spent for the useless appointment. By the way, my hair is long and it’s VISIBLE to everyone and it’s dark black which is...