HAYATO LONDON — Local services in London

I've bee trying to find a skilled/available and decently priced hairdresser in London for almost 8 years. Before moving to London I've been using the same stylist for almost 25 years so it has always been hard to find someone who could compare. I'm happy to say that for now my search is on hold as I was lucky to meet Martin. My biggest pet peeve regarding hair salons in London is that regardless of where you go (being either a cheap or an expensive salon) stylists never want to say "no" to you regardless of how bad your ideas are and when asked "what do you think would look good on me" then they go into a kind of panic because they don't want to disappoint. Thing is, I'm not a hair expert, so I wish to rely on a stylist experience to tell me what could work on me and my hair and what not, but I've almost never been able to find someone willing to have this conversation. I could open another discussion about how it's also hard to find someone that has experience and expertise (and it's not absurdly priced) but it will take long so let's just say it's not easy and many times I ended up having amazing customer service (Wine! Food! Lots of attention!) but very average haircuts and colours, which should be like, the main goal? When I met Martin, my current stylist, I was desperately in need of a root retouch as my previous stylist (from another establishment) was (as more often than not) not available/busy so I ended up at Hayato's as it has good reviews and it's near my workplace. I was about to go on holiday and I wanted to look good. Martin welcomed me, offered me a drink and started our consultation. In less than 5 minutes he turned down my idea of having a perm (my hair were too damaged) wanted to go for a slightly darker root colour (the one I choose wouldn't give my grey hair the coverage required to last) and asked me if I'd agree to have my hair cut (I didn't plan to) When I asked him why, he didn't reply straight away but in the end he told me that he thought my volumes were not right and he would be able to give me a better hair cut that the one I had. I was both surprised and elated, finally someone with enough guts to give me an honest opinion! Eager to see if his firm opinions would be matched by a strong expertise I went ahead with all his suggestions and boy, he delivered. Martin knows how to use scissors, after years of dull cuts that would look awful after the first shampoo at home, he gave me dynamic and balanced layers that hold well the test of time (and my distinct lack of blow dry skills) He also knows how to do colour as the colour he choose for my roots was not as dark as I feared and it covered my nasty regrowth way better than my previous one without leaving unsightly halos on my forehead and temples. On my subsequent visits I've got highlights (he turned down my balayage idea as my hair were too short for it) and he made them into a little work of art, my hair never looked so healthy and natural looking (yes, highlights if done right can look natural!) Now we are slowly chopping away my strawy and damaged hair (I've used way too much curling iron in the past) and my hair keeps looking better and better. I must add that he also gives a great back massage (on par with ones you can get from a masseur) which is a pretty lovely cherry on top. Probably Martin is too candid for his own good (and I can't honestly fathom why people say he's grumpy??) but if you want to have your hair done really well, from someone who has experience, expertise and he's not scared of suggesting what's best for you,...

Please visit if you want an unprofessional unskilled stylist :)

Why is no stars not an option? Anyways, I've been a client of Taiki's for nearly two years however have completely lost any trust I've had. After this past lockdown, I booked a day off work and went in for a light ashy grey color but after 5.5 hours I have been sent home with a blotchy hack job. This terrible experience has made me doubt he even has a hairdresser's license! When I told him that I had extremely patchy uneven hair, he said he didn't notice during my appointment!? Grab anyone from the street, they'd be able to see! His excuse? That it was probably that the hair dye was too light and created the patches. Let's use this analogy, if you were to color a blank/yellow paper with a light grey color, how can a 'random' patch appear? Even if the bleaching process was done flawlessly with no patches, then that means you did a terrible job applying the dye! So either way, you are clearly not skilled at all! When I asked for a refund and solutions to fix his mess, with no mention of the refund all I was offered was: option 1, to cover it with a darker color. How does this fix your mess when it will still be there once the color washes out?! Option 2 was to use a lightener? and to try for a darker color than before. Are you sure you are a 'Director Stylist'? My hair has just been bleached and colored not even a week ago and you want to do all this? What about my hair condition?! Totally unable to trust him with my hair, when I went in for a refund, all I got was the most insincere apology and 5 wasted minutes waiting to get my money back! Did he even look at the mess he created? No. How unprofessional is this? The least you can do is look at your mistake, see how you have ruined someone's hair and see how you could potentially learn from this. Honestly shocking how he couldn't admit his wrong doings and apologize, instead tried to hide the fact that he messed up and came up with excuses. Last few words for this 'stylist' are: please go get your eyes tested. I am honestly worried something must be wrong if you could not see the patchiness. I mean, can you even see scissors when you cut hair? Actually you clearly can't, looking at the condition of my hair right now. Also, seeing as you can't even properly apologize for ruining my hair, I'm sincerely worried about your 'career' as a 'stylist' in the future. Good luck in...

I had a disappointing experience at this salon due to what appeared to be a lack of the necessary skills to complete the service to a professional standard. The stylist did not mention during the consultation that they had no experience working with Caucasian hair — this only came up once I was already seated and the appointment was about to begin.

The entire process lasted six hours, yet the result was far from what I requested. The balayage was uneven, patchy, and incomplete — more like streaky highlights than a smooth, blended finish. Despite at times I was the only client in the salon, and the stylist visibly struggling, no other team members offered support or guidance, which was surprising for a professional environment.

When I returned home, my husband immediately noticed clear patches of incomplete colouring at the back of my head — areas that weren’t visible to me but should have been obvious to any professional stylist. This only reinforced the lack of attention to detail and skill involved in the service.

Although the stylist did attempt to make corrections twice after I raised concerns, the overall quality remained below expectations. I paid a full £255 service fee for a six-hour appointment, which is difficult to justify when the stylist had no prior experience with Caucasian hair or balayage on similar hair types. It’s especially concerning that they were not supervised or supported by a more experienced colleague at any point.

Additionally, although bleach was used throughout my hair, I was not given any aftercare advice or guidance on how to maintain the colour or protect the health of my hair. After just one wash, my hair already feels extremely dry and damaged — nothing like my natural virgin hair. Given how fine my hair is, there was no need for such an aggressive bleaching process.

For the price, I expected a competent, professional result — not an unfinished, unbalanced dye job that clearly reflected a lack of fundamental hair...