IF Hair Salon — Local services in Taipei

I want to start by saying the people who work here are really kind—but unfortunately, I had an extremely bad experience. I spent a total of 10.5 hours here for what ended up being the worst hair experience I’ve ever had despite giving them multiple opportunities to fix it.

I booked an appointment months in advance after seeing how popular this place was on Google. But honestly, the number of reviews and ratings doesn’t reflect the actual quality or service. I came in wanting a straight perm with the ends curled inward and a simple root touch-up. Instead, the appointment dragged on for over 6 hours because the stylist was juggling multiple clients at once and wasn’t at all focused. I was left waiting a lot, which was a bit frustrating given I had a reservation.

My hair ended up dry, frizzy, and curly—opposite of what I was expecting. Looking back at my before photo (attached), I was significantly better off not coming here at all. I've had my hair permed many times before and it’s always made my hair smoother and neater.

After sitting for hours, the result was disappointing and not even that much cheaper than salons in the US. I don’t mind paying a premium if it’s worth it, but the roots didn’t blend properly, and my scalp was stained by the red dye. The stylist asked me to come back to fix the bad coloring. Even though I’d already wasted so much time, I figured I’d give her another chance since they’re so friendly.

I requested a convenient day for the touch-up, but she didn’t work that day—so I rearranged my entire schedule to fit hers. I arrived 10 minutes early, but she didn’t start on my hair until 30 minutes after. If she was too busy, I don’t understand why she’d offer that day in the first place. I was constantly respecting her time and being patient, yet she didn’t seem to take mine seriously—especially considering I’m traveling and already lost a whole day.

Things only got way worse from here. When she started dyeing my roots, she used a super bright neon purple dye (see photos). I immediately felt uneasy because it didn’t make sense to use neon purple dye to blend in roots with brown hair. Still, I trusted her. But once it was rinsed out, my roots, mids, and ends were all different shades of purple. I told her that was unacceptable, and she tried convincing me it would eventually turn brown after washing. I’ve dyed my hair enough to know that’s not how it works.

She apologized and asked for another hour to fix it, while still working on another customer. I was hesitant, but agreed because I couldn’t walk out with purple hair. After re-dyeing to "brown", she blow-dried it and…it was still purple. At that point, I gave up and told her to just dye it black. She kept insisting on fixing it again, but I had given enough chances for her to redeem herself already. It was insanely purple and she was gaslighting me that it was fine. Nothing she was doing made sense and she kept making mistakes after mistakes.

After going black, it looked better, but I still have intense purple undertones underneath when I never asked for anything remotely close to a purple color (last photo). My scalp was stinging because she wasn’t even applying the dye properly—she was literally rubbing it into my skin, and now my scalp is still stained purple.

I really wanted to love this place, but I can’t even say the service was mediocre—it was a mess from skills to customer service. I deeply regret coming here and especially trusting her the second time. Unless you want to gamble with your time and risk ruining your hair, I’d strongly recommend staying away from here.

If you're looking for quality service, I’d suggest checking out Round2—the salon I went to in Taiwan a year ago. They were amazing from start to finish and are super professional.

Update: I got my hair fixed at a different salon and was told that they cut too many layers and damaged my hair by overly processing my hair from the perm/dyeing it 4x, so the frizzing was extremely bad. They did give me a refund though and apologized, so I...

BEWARE!!!! Coming here has been my biggest regret. See photos. Imagine paying for a hair cut so poorly, your friends laugh in horror as they ask you what the hell happened.

I don’t know where all these 5 star reviews are from because no hair stylist in their right mind would ever let a customer leave with their hair cut this way.

I looked into many salons before making an appointment here, ultimately trusting a haircut here based on all the positive reviews. When I arrived, the hair stylist took a brief look at my inspiration photo and immediately started cutting. After it was cut, they began to wash and condition my hair.

While waiting for my hair to be dried, I asked if they will be doing a touch up because just from the front view, I could tell there were a lot of uneven pieces. My hair stylist replied of course, and began to do some additional trimming.

She took her time with it and once she finished, she took a mirror and quickly bounced it behind my head saying, “see? It’s all good now. You’re done.” At that point, I should have known better than to take her word for it because I’ve never had a stylist so quick to get me out of the chair without a good look at the back of my head.

Well, the end result was I walked around the city all day without knowing I looked like I let a five year old cut my hair. When I met up with my friends for dinner, they laughed in horror upon seeing the back of my head. There were also many strands of hair that were completely untrimmed (an extra 7-8cm longer!!!).

Even more upsetting was the fact that I had cut my hair short. I wanted to get it fixed immediately, but couldn’t do so because my hair was too short for it! I waited as long as I could and paid to have it fixed by a proper hair stylist at a different salon.

Let me tell you, my second hair stylist was in SHOCK at how badly it was cut. He asked a ton of questions like where I went to get this haircut, how I found the salon, whether they even bothered to wet or straighten my hair for clean details, etc. There were lots of comments about how she did terrible job because it was all over the place and cut extremely unevenly.

And in case anyone wonders why I didn’t go back to IF Hair Salon to ask them to fix it - would you trust them with the remainder of your hair after this?!

Don’t trust these reviews and get your haircut here. I would gladly have paid more money to get it cut elsewhere. OR asked my 5 year old nephew to cut it for me for free for the...

This salon and all the staff are amazing. I easily booked my appointment via their Facebook page.

But on the day I missed my appointment (my fault) due to jet lag. My original stylist Lisa was so patient and understanding. She tried to work something out but unfortunately she was fully booked and could not take me on which is absolutely understandable. I asked the salon if any stylist had any availability within the limit timeslot I had (basically I needed another appointment within the next two hours and also had to leave the latest by 4.45) and the salon was also very patient and accommodating and fitted me in for a 4pm appointment.

I arrived a little earlier and Anna knowing my annoyingly limited time worked with me to give me an amazing haircut, washed my hair and dried it all with so much care. All within the time so I could leave before 5pm. She gave me tips and advice for my hair health. She communicated with me to understand what I needed.

If you're looking for a hair salon in Taipei. Please come here. All the staff are kind, generous and very skillful. Anna was amazing. Lisa was amazing. Thank you again! I would definitely come back next time I'm...