Shan Hair — Local services in Brookline

It has been over a month since I got my haircut at Shan Hair Salon. I am relatively new to the Boston area and had put off finding someone new to take care of my hair, for a while. After a lot of research, I finally decided to make an appointment with this salon. Now when I originally called to schedule an appointment, I was told that they were too busy and that I’d need to go online to schedule. That made me a little nervous considering I had never been to this location and would of liked to directly speak to someone about what I was getting done before I went in. Despite being hesitant at first, I scheduled an appointment for a DevaCut a week from that point. I suppose I should state the condition of my hair before I got it done. It had been well over two years since I had anything done to my hair. Yes...two full years. My hair is naturally curly but overtime my curls turned more into waves and the ends were completely fried from applying too much heat. My dead ends were probably and inch or so long and so pin straight that I couldn’t wear my natural hair down anymore. You can only imagine how ready I was for this cut!! So the day of my appointment came. When I entered the salon, I was greeted by who I am assuming is Shan. He was extremely pleasant and told me to have a seat and feel free to get comfortable while I wait. The salon itself was really cute, cozy and I appreciated the cleanliness. If you’re someone who tends to get overwhelmed by big salons with tons of people walking around, then this is definitely a great place for you. Not only is the salon nice, but you can tell that the staff have a genuine respect for one another and seem to have a great relationship with their regulars. Fortunately for me, my stylist was Antonella. Right off the bat I knew that my hair was in good hands. She was extremely friendly, personable, and obviously had knowledge of what she was doing. I told her that I obviously wanted to remove all of my dead ends and keep my hair so it’s at least touching my shoulders. It was my first time ever experiencing a DevaCut and honestly, I don’t know why I ever let anyone cut my hair differently. This is by far the best haircut I have ever had in my adult life. Over the years I have suffered through some bad cuts which is why it even took this long to get it done. Antonella did a killer job and because of her I finally don’t feel insecure about my hair anymore. I’ve gotten so many compliments since then and will definitely be revisiting for...

My hair type is 3c/4a and I scheduled a deva cut and partial pintura highlights with Mikayla. The cut took about 30 mins, and she decided that using foil for the highlights would show the color better so I just let her do her thing. So the result ended up being more like regular highlights, with big chunks of my hair being the new color rather than looking like pintura highlights (especially on the top and bottom of my hair, the very bottom is basically entirely black).

Overall its not bad, I still think it's cute and I really like the color, it's just not really what I wanted. And it's awkward to say this to a stylist who's been working on your head for a while, and she was nice, so I decided to wait till I got home and washed/prepped my hair myself. I'm not sure where the $240 price came into play. (I also accidentally pressed 15% tip lol so it came up to $276, but I let it be, that was my fault).

I definitely expected more hair care in general for that price. The cut was 30 mins of her quickly parting my hair (which created LOTS of breakage due to how quickly she pulled through it, curly girls know you have to spread slowly while parting to prevent breakage), and cutting a couple inches. I can't recall her doing any cutting when it was out as a fro, just in parts. Then she did the foil highlights, and of course a wash afterwards. There was no treatment applied, when I felt her rubbing something in and asked what it was, she said it was gel, which I would've stopped from happening if I knew beforehand, since I don't use gel at all. Then I went straight into the dryer for a bit.

I'd rather give a 3.5 star rating but that's not possible... Just because I...

The space is beautiful, though not wheelchair friendly, as there is a huge step up and into the shop. They offer you water upon entering.

As I was early as usual, their receptionist , Julie, had not made their water yet, which they process through a BRITA water filter and add fruit and lemon. She brough me a glass, that I think was just tap, as the back of my throat was a bit itchy. The water I had later from the main pitcher was fine.

I got a Detox Mask ($25) w Deep Conditioning Treatment, Braids ( My Natural Hair- No extensions) $125. My total was $150, but with tip and tax was $172.50. This is the most I have ever spent for my hair.

My stylist was KiKi. She was talkative and professional for the most part. She had a personal appointment later that day, and another client after me. Enough time was not allotted for my hair style though I had even sent pictures of what I wanted. She was attempting to rush my hair and the braids got larger as she went up, and I called her on it and she tried to brush it off as my hair density, and said all the box braids were the same size though they were not. The braids in the back are much smaller than the braids in the front. She even stopped braiding my hair to cut and wash another client's, which was a bummer, as my hair took 6 hours instead of the normal 4. TIP: Make sure to ask the stylist for a time estimate for how long your hair will take and send a picture beforehand.

They do social media post and videos. They may ask to record the stylist doing you hair. I declined, and they didn't make a huge deal about...