Vanilla salon — Local services in Costa Mesa

Kaitlyn gave me a lazy partial when I paid for full highlights. She took 6 hours and left an absurd amount of dark new growth in between her 20 lazily placed foils. When I confronted her about this, she tried to upsell me a completely other service of "baby lights" for "next time". I've been getting full highlights for 15 years with no issue. It wasn't a toner issue or an issue of the bleach not lifting, it was barely any foils placed and too much darkness/new growth left in between the foils. She is a scammer and did not finish or even attempt to correct her lack of service I paid for, but blocked me when I tried to message her once again after leaving the salon. I was not looking for a free service but to achieve the hair goals I had paid for and was seeking, that she promised. She then tried to explain it was a "root melt". One, I don't want a root melt. Two, this was not a root melt. She left the entire back of my head unfoiled but then charged me for a full. Why did she do a partial, and then try to upsell me for "baby lights" as an entire new service? When I got home, my boyfriend said "It looks like you didn't even get your hair done". Very disappointing and upsetting and I had to pay another $300 a week later to get what I had paid for at another salon. I've been getting highlights for years with no issue. My hair is not difficult and I''m not seeking some crazy service or confused about terminologies and I'm not just looking for additional servicing. It's not a personal preference issue, it's a scamming lazy issue and my hair had never looked so ugly. It literally looked untouched. She then tried to raise the price at the end of the appointment and claimed "I won't charge you for a hair cut", because she didn't give me a haircut. She claims she "dusted" the ends. The entire sides, roots, and back of my hair was filled with dark grow out and honestly she probably placed 20 foils when I normally get 100-150. DO NOT BOOK WITH KAITLYN. I am very upset with the salon, their false advertising as a "blonde specialist", dishonesty about pricing, and their lack of concern or effort to make things right. I would like...

Updated 9/16: Vanilla had me back for a complimentary recut. I saw Roni and she did an incredible job. It's clear she knows many hair types and worked to give me a cut that looked a lot like my reference pic. I appreciate that they made it right. I would be back to see Roni.

Original review: If you have wavy or curly hair, this may not be the best place for you. I spent $150 and left feeling very disappointed with my experience with Elle. It became clear during the cut that she wasn’t very familiar with working on wavy hair, and she mentioned it was only her second time using a diffuser. I would have appreciated more transparency about her skillset upfront, so I could have chosen to see someone else.

The appointment took two hours for a simple cut. I requested shorter bangs multiple times, but they never got to the length I wanted, and I ended up with face-framing instead of the bangs I specifically asked for.

The salon itself is lovely, but I wasn’t offered a drink, the washing station was uncomfortable, and one of the stylists was watching TikToks on a loop at full volume. The price for the cut was listed between $95 and $125, but I was charged $125 without any explanation as to why it was at the highest end. I honestly felt like the result was worth about $75. After tip, I left having spent $150, which was super disappointing, so I will not...

i booked an appointment with bri for a partial highlight & cut. the salon is beautiful. very clean and layout was simple. bri was good with communication. i showed her pictures of how i like my hair and how a stylist usually does it. i am new to this salon. we discussed course of treatment and recommendations. everything was going good until the very end when i was getting blow dry that i notice my hair wasn't turning bright and that it was dark. once finished, my hair wasn't very warm blonde. it didn't quite match the picture of what i showed her. i understand that each stylist does partials different so when i asked she did explain how the partial worked. i'm bummed that the color didn't come out as bright as i wanted. it's a little too dark for me and i was expecting a warmer brighter blonde. also, when i booked the appointment online, when i clicked haircut add on it did not have a price next to it like the other add on has so it seemed like it was included in the partial treatment. to my surprise, it was not. i was expecting to only pay a certain amount with tip and i spent over budget. overall, i liked most of the work she did with my hair. the cut came out great, the hair treatment felt good & refreshing but the color did not come out as bright blonde as i wanted. i would consider going back for the hair treatment but probably not...