Craft Collective Salon — Local services in Denver

Writing the review I wish I would have read before getting my hair done at Craft Collective.

I was nervous to find a new hairdresser after relocating from San Diego. My hair has had a hard time adjusting to the dryer climate and I decided to put it's health first and adjust from my usual balayage to a darker, more natural tone.

I saw Mick, the owner. We had a consultation first and he seemed to totally get what I was going for. I didn't show any photos mainly because in the past I think sometimes the hairdresser and I maybe latch onto different elements in the photo so I'll admit, in retrospect, maybe this was a mistake. But, we seemed to be aligned, darker, richer, more natural.

I was given an estimate during the consultation which was also helpful. It was expensive, $800, but I was assured that was a first big appointment and it would require minimal upkeep, maybe once every six months of maintenance after that, and those appointments would be much less expensive. We also discussed trimming 2 inches for maximum health.

Pros: everyone, including Mick, was truly super nice and lovely. Mick's dog was an absolute angel and a treat to pet. It was also a fairly quick appointment, which after years of balayage, I was not accustomed to. Being upfront about the pricing was great too, no surprises. Also, there was plenty of parking and in Rino that is impossible to come by.

Cons: I was not happy with how my hair turned out. I was surprised that the soft dimension we spoke about did not feel soft at all. I felt like I had racing stripes. I was pretty mortified to see pics from my vacation just two weeks later. It was completely my fault for not saying something in the moment but honestly I was mic'd up with a camera on me so as a shy person to begin with I was too timid to say something.

Additionally, the two inches we agreed to was more like four inches and with my wedding just 7 months away I was doing some quick math and realizing my new goal was just to have my hair back to my original length it was before I stepped into the salon.

If I would have shared my honest feedback in the chair I'm sure Mick would have received it well. It was just too hard for me to be confrontational and I decided maybe it was just the shock of the change especially because the color was new AND the length was the shortest it had been in years. I decided to give it some time and see if it grew on me. I was traveling the month of July anyways so not much could be done at the moment.

I returned from my trip feeling pretty upset about my hair. Over $800 spent to feel like I was missing how it was before my appointment and with my wedding coming up, I wanted my hair to be the best it's ever looked, not the worst. I gathered my courage and gave them a call to explain I was surprised at how my hair had turned out so different than what we had discussed and I wasn't sure what my options were but would appreciate a call back to discuss.

What was most disappointing about my experience at Craft Collective was that after spending over $800 there, I could not get anyone to speak with me on the phone. They texted me back to let me know that their policy is that adjustments have to be made within the week but that a toner appointment could be made for $180. I was a little confused because a toner appointment seemed like the suggested solution was taking it back to how it looked when I left the salon, which I hadn't liked. I texted back saying this is a difficult conversation to have via text, would it be possible to hop on a quick call. They continued to text back and reiterate the options of a toner appointment or seeing another stylist. I would hope that after such an investment that a phone call to try to help better understand the issue at hand would be a minimum level of effort.

Ultimately I decided this wasn't a good fit for me. I found Alex Westerman who immediately put a six month plan together to get me where I want to be for the wedding and the cut and color of my first appointment was a huge improvement for a...

Since my original review was removed, I am posting again:

Really gross experience. Low customer service and even lower people. I had my color appointment on 10/02/24. My hair looked fabulous when I left the salon and 10 days later when I did my first wash, the root & all-over-toner completely faded. My hair looked stained in several areas throughout the roots creating some awful lines of demarcation and my beautiful ashy blonde went brassy yellow immediately. This was especially frustrating since one of the main things I asked for was a high contrast look. I explained that the hair needs to be either my natural dark base color or level 8 or above blonde. I did NOT want any third colors or transition colors in my hair. I was very clear about that and unfortunately that’s exactly what I ended up with when the root toner faded to a light brown copperish color. I reached out to the stylist for a resolution and we went back and forth while I asked questions trying to understand why this had happened. I became frustrated when she offered to fix it for me at my next appointment which was about 6 weeks away. There was zero sense of urgency from her in getting my hair fixed. She had openings in her schedule she was posting but obviously it wasn’t a priority to get me in since she had already gotten her money from me. I finally had enough when I asked her to share the formula she used on my hair and she refused. At that point, I called the salon hoping they would be able to facilitate a resolution. I ended up asking for a refund and the manager of the salon advised that the stylist rents a booth at their salon and that she is responsible for her own refunds. I reached out to the stylist on instagram (screenshot posted) explaining the situation. She refused a refund referring to the salon’s policy. At this point I realized that either the manager at the salon was lying or the stylist was lying about the refund policy. So I called her out on it. Afterward she suddenly decided to go ahead and process a refund. Funny how that works! But then the stylist decided to double down on being a liar and didn’t process the refund like she said she did. She blocked me on instagram so a month later after I still hadn’t received my refund I had to call the salon. Through the text conversation attached, they informed me they had just processed the refund of $200. I had a friend call the salon days earlier to ask how much they charge for the services I was supposed to be refunded. I already had a feeling they were going to try to scam me. Without my $100 tip, they refunded a total of only $100 for the services and then claimed that they calculate pricing based on the “look”. If their pricing was truly “look-based” then I should’ve gotten 100% of my money refunded based on my hair looking like crap. The whole thing was super scammy. I hope the lying and outing yourself as a gross person was all worth it at the end of the day for a couple hundred bucks. Beware, there’s a ton of booth renters working here. You won’t get any kind of help from the salon/management if you run into any issues. I don’t think Craft Collective even vets any of these stylists. They’ll just let anyone work out of their salon to help pay their rent. FYI, the pictures don’t even showcase how bad my hair looked. It was hard trying to capture the colors correctly on my phone. This was the best I could get but in real life my hair was 10x worse. Oh and never mind the fact that she showed up late to our appointment. I had an appointment at 9:00 a.m. and I’m standing outside of the building messaging her because it’s closed and no one is there. She finally rolls up and doesn’t even apologize or acknowledge...

RESPONSE TO OWNERS POST: your response is EXACTLY why I did not come in for an adjustment. Literally gaslighting me with lies to try and justify why things were done incorrectly AGAIN.

These photos of the color I wanted 100% were shown to Destiny, not only at the consult but also at the appointment, so that is a lie saying that I did not show her photos. She specifically asked me to show her photos. On top of that, it was talked about multiple times that we were going to do the same hair color that she has….. so she could’ve just looked in the mirror but no, she asked for specific photos and her and I both went through our phones on Instagram and looked at photos for her reference.

Again, it is a lie saying that she cut my hair curly. She 100% did not cut it curly. I came into the appointment with my hair straight how I usually have it and she cut it dry. After she washed my hair, we had discussed her showing me how to style my hair curly which she did and I appreciated. The scissors were NEVER picked up after my hair was washed, so again that is a lie that it was cut curly.

At no point was pricing spoken about - which it should be if you make people come in for a separate color consult and are going to charge them $400 to color. Adrian on the phone said that my friend who saw Destiny a couple weeks before was only charged $330 for her cut and color because it was a touchup…… Again, a complete LIE. My friend had a full head of bleached highlights done and a cut. So pricing is just made up.

The way that this has been handled is disgusting. Again I was completely taken advantage of and will tell everyone not to go here because $530 for a trim and color is ridiculous, on top of it looking terrible and nothing like what I wanted. Thank you so much for stealing $530 from me.

ORIGINAL POST: I paid $530 for Destiny to give me a minimal hair trim and color that looks nothing like what we spoke about. Also took 3.5 hours for her do to…. I was also beyond embarrassed walking out with the way that my hair was styled. My bangs were literally standing straight up (photo 1).

When I called to ask for it to be fixed, they offered for me to come to fix it the following week but continued to gaslight me and say it was my choice to come in for 2 separate appointments, making it more expensive…. They make you do a color consult before you can actually get your hair colored, but don’t go over pricing. My friend - who has 10 times as much hair as I do and gets her hair fully highlighted and cut - was charged $330 from the same stylist a couple of weeks before…. I feel completely taken advantage of.

A couple of days after the hair cut appointment when I washed it, I noticed that there were two chunks that were an inch and a half longer than the rest of my hair. Destiny said that happened because she cut my hair curly…. Which 100% did not happen either. She styled my hair naturally curly but did not pick up the scissors after washing it. She cut it dry and straight.

I am beside myself for having to spend that much money for color that looks a shade of blonde - when I said multiple times during the process “it won’t be blonde though right?” And she said no, she would be toning it….

I asked if the owner could give me a call to discuss and Adrian said “no. He said to just come back and have Destiney fix it.” Great customer service.

(3rd photo is the color we...