Elaine Sterling Institute — Local services in Atlanta

I have always supported Elaine Sterling, been a loyal customer, and recommended the Academy. This experience has permanently changed my perspective. I requested the same the student for all my appointments. She was exceptional in the past. The time was chaotic due to insufficient meal breaks and poor leadership. I am in shock by her regression. I walked in today at my scheduled appointment time. I was told by the supervisor that the student took a late lunch after helping another client. I waited patiently with a smile, eventhough my last friday appointment was rescheduled due to her morning classes which unknown to me until the time of my appointment. Today, I even suggested she take a longer lunch to ensure my hair was done correctly, not rushed due to her hunger. To my disappointment, I was combing my hair. I have long and short strands on all sides with burnt parts. I told the student that if she could please slow down when my hair kept snapping as she was pulling too hard on it with the flat iron. She was rushing to finish my hair which was in compliance with the supervisor who emphasized the the 4pm cut off time loudly several times. The student was not doing her normal routine. I questioned manner in which she was doing my hair. She started humming songs over me. Prior to her rushing my hair service, the supervisor kept asking what service was being done on my hair. The supervisor pulled the student aside to discuss my hair. The student came back saying she only ate for 15 minutes in an upset manner and needed to take a break immediately after finishing my hair. Her urgency was noted by me when she started pulling out my hair. I had no problem with her taking a break while doing my hair if she felt hungry. I do have a problem with my hair being burnt and butchered. Going forward, the supervisors should allow students to take lunch for the alloted time after a certain amount of hours worked. My hair is now permanently damaged. I cut it off. My first two experiences was great. This last experience clearly demonstrates that the student cant focus when hungry. If a student doesnt want to do hair, feels tired, or missed lunch, they need to notify the client, not rush the process. I would have kindly left like Friday morning and came back once again. The final result is very uneven pieces of burnt hair that stick straight out. If this happened before, I would never have requested her for a third time or left Friday and returned. I am shocked to comb through my hair. I do not blame the student. I am disappointed that an upcoming graduate made such poor decisions or felt need to be spiteful when asked to stop. I think her supervisor should have let her eat for the correct time..the supervisor had a cut off time of 4pm..I arrived at 2pm. My hair normally takes three hours. The cut off time from supervisor made the student rush. She couldnt perform under pressure and hunger which is result of my bad hair today. I allowed the student to remain anonymous despite her actions. She should have stopped and slowed down when told to by me. She continued as directed by the supervisor in hurried manner. This is a result of poor leadership and lack of integrity. The supervisor who influenced the student will continue to do this since her cutoff is 4pm with incoming students. If the cut off times mentioned by the supervisor several times is imperative , then dont take clients after 2pm. This is a teacheable moment for the student and Supervisor..they should both be held accountable unless Elanie Sterling silently empowers these actions. I always give a tip..I know it is not a paying job. Maybe, I should have gotten a purple weave like Lisa which requires minimal time, looks amazing, and causes less damage to my real hair. Destiny also took her time on her client which was duly noted and looked like a five star salon...

I apologize for any confusion. Here is the revised version of your review, made sincere, empathetic, professional, and polite:

I would like to share my experience and provide feedback on the recent appointments I had at your salon. I had a hair appointment during the day, which I must say was outstanding with no complaints. However, my evening nail appointment did not live up to the same standard. I believe it is important to address this discrepancy in service quality between the two appointments.

During the evening appointment, I noticed a lack of polish selection available, which was surprising considering the high-end location of your school. It made me feel somewhat embarrassed, as I expected a wider range of options to choose from.

Additionally, I experienced a 20-minute wait before my service began. While the student assigned to me had an amazing and professional personality, I felt that her skill set was not yet at the level required to serve clients independently. I found myself having to guide her through each step of the process, and it took an hour alone to remove my gel polish. I raised my concerns to the teacher and requested assistance, particularly in properly clipping and filing my toenails due to time constraints and the student's lack of expertise.

Unfortunately, the extended duration of the service resulted in me not being able to enjoy the scrub or paraffin treatments. Despite this, I maintained my patience and politeness throughout the appointment. I genuinely believe that the responsibility does not solely lie with the student. The teacher should have recognized the issue given the considerable amount of time I spent there. It was evident that the student felt embarrassed and ill-prepared, as if she had been thrown into a challenging situation. I reassured her that it was okay and offered to guide her through the remaining steps, allowing her to complete the service. Although my polish turned out to be thick, I had her remove it after the service. I commended her for her perseverance and reassured her that with time, she would improve her skills. We all start somewhere, and she has the potential to become an excellent nail professional.

Subsequently, I shared my experience with the teacher, expressing my concern regarding the student's readiness to provide services independently. The teacher apologized for the situation and mentioned that the student usually leaves when it's time for a demonstration. In my opinion, if this was known, it raises the question of why the student was assigned to clients when she required further training. This led to a significant waste of my time, particularly as I had a flight to catch the next morning and had to subsequently tend to my own pedicure and address the short and uneven state of my toenails with acrylic.

Overall, I had an unfortunate experience that serves as a valuable lesson for both your salon and the education of beginner nail professionals. I hope this feedback helps in recognizing the importance of ensuring students are fully prepared before serving paying clients. I appreciate your attention to this matter and your dedication to improving the quality of your services. If I were not a licensed professional myself, I don't think someone who is not would have had the same level of patience, empathy, and consideration towards...

Prepare yourself because I just graduated out of the nail tech program last week and I am about to go in depth at the mess I and my classmates endured. I was a day time student and started in October, since then I have went through 4 instructors. With that came different teaching methods, lack of organization, confusion, and an entire whirlwind of mess. Our initial instructor was not following the instructional guideline given by the board and revised her own lesson plan where we weren't leaning in any true order. Not only were we cramming multiple lessons in during a school day, she decided it would make sense to teach us both level 1 & 2 theory all together. When i brought this concern to one of the higher up's, Jill, she replied back once and failed to do so after. My classmates and I have a paper trail of where we have done everything from send emails to writing out personal complaints and hand delivering them. At no point did the staff follow the procedures given by the accrediting agency and BOE when this occurred.

We lack basic supplies on so many occasions (down to basic monomer or even nail buffers) that students purchase their own because its frustrating. When we put in a request for certain supplies we've waited over a month, its a cheap replacement or we just did not get it at all. Our tuition was almost 10K and our implements and kits are the cheapest thing in the store. We didn't have hot water in the bathroom on our floor, our learning environment wasn't even ergonomically friendly to do services and yet these are the basics of what you learn when working in a salon. The classrooms have no door allowing you to have a quiet and able learning environment between the diff levels and activity on the spa floor.

The first instructor we had that was finally able to create some structure ( aside from the night class instructor, she is amazing) around the mess arrived in early Feb. If students are lucky she will still be there because she is the only one who seemed to know exactly how things were to go and created an atmosphere where we all could be taught together. I crammed a majority of my hands on learning in the last 6 weeks because she was able to actually teach. The truth is, if Elaine doesn't teach and treat her staff the right way then you create a domino effect for all of these things to happen. The lack of structure says a lot about the owner, many of us have personally seen her talk down to them and I'm honestly not surprised at this sh-- show. When they give you a tour, they make it seem amazing but they create a new class of students EVERY MONTH with no real leaning environment to dedicate to their needs. Please know exactly what you're...