Swella Braid Bar — Local services in Charlotte

I had high hopes for this saloon but it fell short! I got medium knotless, bohemian box braids. The 2 areas that didn’t meet the mark for me: First, as it relates to the quality of the hair, the hair is TRASH! The braid hair is very itchy to my scalp. The human hair used for my bohemian hair pieces mattes up like crazy, it’s super frizzy and isn’t holding the wave pattern no matter how much upkeep maintenance I do to it. I had to cut several pieces of the bohemian hair out because it was just a hot matted mess. My question is, is this really human hair? For the price point this saloon is at, the hair quality should be much better than what it is—ITS EXTREMELY POOR QUALITY HAIR! As a matter of fact, my scalp is on fire even now while writing this review ( 2 weeks post my appointment)……The second area of concern, this saloon charges for EVERYTHING! My final bill was at least $530+. They charge for the fake human hair, then there is a charge for certain colors or for them to do a custom mix. Mind you, the custom mix is simply putting certain colors together because they’re not mixing any chemicals or anything. Thank God I wanted shoulder/mid back length because of course anything longer, there is a charge for that. Which that’s standard practice for Braider’s.I got caught in terrible traffic, and traffic was rerouted around the time of my mid morning appointment. This threw me late for my appointment, so I was charged for that—I understand the late charge tho, because business is business…..But at the end of the day, to leave a saloon paying $530+ for my hair, I should really be in love with it, but I’m not. It itches like crazy and I’m so ready to take it out. I’ve gotten braided up by kitchen beauticians, loved my hair, and payed much less. All that being said, Swella is a no for me. I work too hard for my money to be overcharged the way this saloon over charges, not to be pleased with my hair…. Oh, I forgot to mention, the location, saloon ambiance and look of saloon, and my Braider were all good. I’m tender headed and my Braider did not...

Like others mentioned, the salon itself is clean. There’s a lot of “at-home braiders” in CLT so I enjoyed the shampoo bowl. On the other hand, these “knotless braids” I received for nearly $500 are basically box braids. Way too much product was used. My scalp is highly irritated. It’s been a few days and my tension headache won’t go away. When I tell you I was wincing at the pain with the beginning of every braid and wondered if I got box braids instead of knotless the entire appt.

It was 6 hours for medium “knotless braids” - I asked for them to be shorter than mid-back (like chest length) in hopes of speeding up the appointment. Stylist said yes and I still left with mid-back braids. I know that the lack of customization is this salon’s thing, but I need to go somewhere that cares about the integrity of my own hair and my scalp. My appt notes that included I was tender-headed were very much ignored and they do not ACV rinse hair here (confirmed via email)! If your scalp is sensitive to braiding hair, oh well.

For the price point, this is absolutely not something I’ll be going through again. 1 week later - human hair is matting up like horse hair despite spraying & combing down. It was straw-like upon install. Still shocked at the quality for the price.

Update Since Swella wants to lie. Swella reached out to offer... "a braid takedown, including a shampoo." I told them I took my braids down shortly after they were done because of the poor quality, look, and feel. This "offer" was useless. I was not given a refund. I hope this business suffers for its lack of customer service and concern/care...

The worst hair braiding service I’ve ever experienced. I had such high hopes but they completely botched my hair to the point where it’s unwearable after the first day and offered me $36 back in return when I paid $400. You would think with prices so high they would be more accommodating and would produce better quality but apparently not. Please do yourself a favor and avoid at all costs.

To address your response:

I asked for a little longer than shoulder length. Putting in a ponytail was never the issue. I’m fine with the length. The issue was that the style I asked for was not given and that the majority of my braids are unraveling. I was expecting boho ends like the picture I showed the stylist. At all of my check points, my braids were half way braided. I asked at the check point if she would be fixing the ends and she said she does that part at the end. Instead of doing boho on the end of my hair she put the ends of the braiding hair in rollers and stuck in hot water to make curly. However, as you can see in the pictures I sent you today. The curls didn’t even last a day and my hair is now unraveling. Your solution to fix a style that I didn’t ask for to begin with is not a sufficient solution. Your partial refund of 10% ($36 out of the 368 I spent) is not sufficient. At least 50% of what I paid should be returned. I don’t require a take down since I only have 20...