Beautiful Cuts — Local services in Boston

Absolutely disastrous. I made an appointment with Touru and I arrived on time but waited more than 40 minutes to get the haircut. Touru was the only person there. Touru was dying a customer’s hair, doing a haircut and picking up calls all at the same time. When it’s finally my turn, Touru took around 3 minutes to shampoo and condition my hair and there was no head massage like they advertised. I felt pretty okay at this point because I was not in a rush and was okay with waiting, and understood that they might not be providing certain services as they advertised due to COVID.

Then I showed Touru photos of the haircut I want, which is an organic textured short haircut, and I ended up getting a generic bob that’s completely different from the pictures. What’s worse, the cut is very uneven, choppy, and have random trails of uncut hair left at the back (please see attached photos).

Throughout the entire process, I felt that Touru was hard to communicate with. Touru first sectioned my hair very randomly, and then cut each section to a very random length. When I asked them to cut the front of my hair shorter, Touru refused to do so and said that the current length is better for my face shape, while half of my face is covered with a mask. I have had many different haircuts and I know what would look good for me and thus insisted on having the front shorter, but Touru kept on telling me that the current length is good and did not cut my hair the way I wanted. When I told them that my haircut looked too round due to the way they were layering, they told me it’s because my hair has a big wave at the parts that look round and again did not change it in the way I wanted. It’s absurd because I know that my hair is extremely straight.

After the haircut was done, he blow dried my hair and then used a steaming hot flat iron to style my hair that eventually made it look super round, even more different then the haircut I wanted, and completely not flattering for my face. When I saw the hot steams rising from my head and felt the hot hair when it touches my face, I asked Touru to lower the temperature of the iron because I was very worried that my scalp and my hair would get burned.

I was giving 10% tip when I was paying due to the frustrating experience, lack of advertised service, and the long wait, but then Touru told me to tip around 25%. I refused to do so and explained my reasons.

The entire process felt very rushed and frustrating. I felt that Touru was not giving me the haircut that I wanted but rather giving what’s most convenient for them. For a price of $65 before tax and tips, I would expect a haircut that at least shows some professionalism. This salon was recommended by friend who has been here several years ago and it has surely changed over the years. I would recommend to...

Updated Note I haven't gone personally but 2 people I know who've gone told me that it seems like the owner has changed/Judy left and the service and cuts are not as great anymore/they would not recommend going.

Original Review My mother and I got our perms from Judy and Touru on April 15 and I wanted to wait and see how the perms turned out before writing a review.

Perms: The perms themselves were quite good and have lasted nicely for two months so far. I had gotten a digital perm and my mother had gotten an air wave perm (Judy and Touru had recommended these based on our hair types). If you are looking for more volume/a relaxed wavy look, I would reccomend an airwave perm. If you are looking more for a perm that's similar to what you would get from curling irons, I would reccomend a digital perm. The airwave perm is noticebly less curly if you let it airdry and you might need to use some styling products (curling cream) to help it look more curly.

Service: At first I was a little hesitant because I saw there were some poor reviews but I can say that I felt like I was in good hands. I came into the salon with a lot of hair (years of growing out after it has been damaged from box dyes) and Touru did an amazing job with cutting and thinning my hair out. My mother also enjoyed the conversations with Judy and liked how her hair cut and bangs have turned out. As there were only the two of them in the salon, they also had to pick up phone calls and help with other customers but I felt they had managed the timing quite well. The perms took about 3-3.5 hours and ended up costing ~$340 each.

I've attached photos of my hair (digital perm) the day of the perm and 2 months later (airdried, no products). The perm definitely gets a lot looser/softer in comparison to how it is in the first week.

Update: newest photo from the back is almost 6 months after the perm...

I decided to wait a few days before posting a review so that I can see what my straight-curl perm looks like after the products are washed out.

I have naturally curly hair that have grown wild over 9 months due to Covid shutdowns. I couldn't travel to Asia to get my hair done professionally at an affordable price, so I decided to sacrifice ~$300 to tame my hair. I ended up spending $350 + $40 tip. The cost hurt, but I am overwhelmingly happy with the result.

Touru, my new stylist, knew exactly how to use the perm products while protecting my hair. She did so with ease and wasted no time in between each step. The straightening is done with manual flat ironing, and the curl through digital perm. She also sprayed protectants before applying the different chemicals. Hair perms often damage hair, but I walked out with glossy soft hair that got even better after I rinsed out all of the products. The best part of this process is that you can blow your the curly part of the hair into almost any hair style easily after washing it.

A slight hiccup in communicating - I accidentally got a haircut instead of a perm at first. Not sure how that happened, but I would recommend clarifying your intentions before any cuts are made. I think I would have preferred a longer hair style, but I haven't had short hair for a while, so this is nice accidental change :)

I thought I'd attach my original hair...