Smart Hair — Local services in Waitematā

Went yesterday after a long search for a nice cozy and professional curly- hair friendly service and after reading the lovely reviews I decided on this place. Though, the prices are not that great, so, I wished if I stepped one foot behind...

The staff was really struggling to deal with my hair (curly type 3b) and I was expecting that hairdressers are supposed to know how to deal with all hair types as you can't pick your clients, can you!?

I would give 2.6 stars because the place looked tidy and the staff looked like she exactly knew what I wanted, but hmmm.. not quite. It took literally 5 hrs to finish the service. I was asked if I never had dyed my hair and my answer was a definite "No". After doing the full head foil, the staff was surprised that the developed colour wasn't supposed to look like it did. My hair is black, very solid, and when exposed to sunlight some strands appear light brown, since I was a kid. So, I thought that henna might've contributed a tiny bit to the results although it's not technically a dye as there are different types of it (what I grew up using is called "neutral henna", which is used to treat scalp problems and I grew up applying to my hair as it's also a cultural thing). I kept on explaining to her that there are different types of henna, the one I used is called the neutral henna and it's NOT used as a dye, though I wasn't aware of any chemical reactions that might occur in the micro scale!!

As a first time experience in highlighting/colouring, I believe that she should've been more informative as I'm a first time client who has absolutely no knowledge whatsoever about that. She even told me that it happened before with a previous client who didn't know that henna might affect the result of hair colouring, so after that time they should've been more careful. I asked some of my friends who know hairdressers and who themselves applied hair coloring multiple times and they told me that I should've been informed about the effect of hair dyes, including henna! And some of them had no idea of the interaction either!

Nonetheless, I don't "hate" the final result but I don't like it either; it's not what I wanted. I paid more than $300 because of the toner that shouldn't have been applied. I was going for a more ashy-looking highlights but ended up getting a light brown highlights 😞, so, unfortunately, I'm quite...

I arrived for my appointment 15minutes early on a Sunday morning, to panic when the sign on the door said Closed Sunday’s. After emailing I was told they open at 11, so waited. Whilst waiting I noticed two girls on the street giggling and taking photos together... Once they were finished messing around they came and opened the salon late.

I was then told once they finally finished turning the lights on and setting up that the treatment I had booked in for was unsuitable for me and I couldn’t have it done. Which was a complete waste of time, they could’ve asked me the consultation questions when I booked, prior to my actual appointment. So after settling to have my treatment changed (because I’d travelled into the city especially), to something that wouldn’t last as long but was somehow more expensive. I sat and watched the girl who I assumed was the receptionist, but turns out to be the beauty therapist, who did half of my treatment... start to blow dry her own wet hair and get ready for the day ahead.

Both employees were young and unprofessional, didn’t know how to blow dry curly hair, making it excessively knotty and incredibly painful to comb with a fine tooth comb. I was also given a manual of what they were doing to my hair, which after reading, it was evident that she didn’t follow half of the instructions or treatment guidelines and when I questioned it said she didn’t need to.

Once the treatment was on I had to sit and watch the receptionist/beauty therapist on FaceTime to a man and listen to her personal phone calls. After that, both girls stood around watching YouTube videos while I sat without being offered so much as a magazine to entertain myself during the lengthy process.

It was 100% the most bizarre, unprofessional and unrelaxing experience I’ve ever had to pay nearly $400 for. I can’t say I’d recommend anyone to endure the same experience. I was very disappointed, especially when their website describes the salon as a (high standard of professional hairdressing which is...

Went in here for a haircut and colour ombre/dip dye/whatever they're called. Staff were very tolerant and friendly however the stylist did the colour way too high up so now it basically just looks like i dyed my whole head but have my roots showing. It doesn't really fade in super well. They didn't ask where I wanted it to go up to. The hairdresser showed me a photo of a woman who had an ombre that started at around the ears as an example and it ended up starting on my upper forehead. Asked the hairdresser not to take off much of the length (hair went down to armpits when I walked in) and he cut it basically to my shoulders, but of course I was charged for past-shoulders hair dying because they did the dye first. I also personally really dislike when hairdressers try to make my thick wavy/curly hair straight and thin by thinning it with scissors and straightening it with heat, because it's not what it usually looks like and it shows that the hairdresser has no idea what to do with hair that isn't asian or on a white girl from, like, Finland. I prefer if the cut suits my hair type. I wasn't consulted on whether I wanted my hair thinned or straightened, and received both treatments. I was visibly unhappy by the end of it and the hairdressers all kept giving me nervous looks as though they wanted to quickly brush off this customer that looks unhappy before they actually open their mouth about it, and of course charged me the full $364 for a long hair colour balayage with a haircut that made it barely long enough to qualify as past the shoulders in the end.

I didn't want to leave a mean review because the staff were very friendly, but I'm pretty unhappy...