Awsum Salon — Local services in Gilbert

The name is a LIE.

I saw a recommendation for Awsum Salon from my neighborhood Nextdoor page. The stylist that was recommended is not who I ended up with when I called to make an appointment for a consultation for hair extensions. I wonder now if I would have had a better experience had I insisted on being booked with the stylist mentioned in the referral.

I was full of regret after cutting off 10 inches of hair, and after doing a lot of research about extensions I decided to go ahead and do it. My hair is naturally curly, and I love my curly hair (which I told Corey), and just wanted extensions that basically would erase the horrible mistake I made of cutting so much of it off. Corey told me that the curly extensions would be TOO curly (but never showed me what they look like) and said they wouldn't match my curl. She recommended wavy hair extensions which would mean having to buy a curling iron and spending a lot of time on my hair every day. Having curly hair, I've never owned a curling iron, but was willing to do whatever I needed to in order to "get my hair back."

The extensions were in a long see-through package and definitely appeared to be wavy. I now know that the extensions were actually straight...straight as an arrow, and only looked wavy because the packaging was shorter than the hair. I don't know if the wrong extensions were ordered or if the wrong extensions were sent BUT...when Corey took them out of the packaging, surely she saw that the hair was straight and proceeded to sew the extensions into my hair anyway. I had no way to see what she was doing in the back of my head or I would have said something right then and there.

Corey ended up sewing the beads in SO tight that no amount of Ibuprofen (as she suggested) was working to relieve the pain. I also could not find any position comfortable enough to put my head down to sleep, so I was miserable. I had her personal cell number and really needed to get an appointment to get the beads loosened but being 6:30 in the morning, I chose to text so she wouldn't be disturbed if she was still asleep. When she contacted me back, she made it pretty clear how unhappy she was about the early text, making no apologies for putting the beads so tight in my hair that I couldn't sleep. She also gave me a quick "I told you so" speech. The unprofessionalism continues....

When I arrived back at the salon the next day, I was informed that she had discussed this situation with "the owner" and felt it was only fair to charged me an additional $100 to loosen the beads. I was in so much pain that I didn't even argue with her...I just wanted it done. But really?! I had to pay her to undo the terrible job she did?? And being a new customer (and also enough to be her mother), I was very unappreciative of constantly being called "baby" like I was one of her friends from "the hood".

The positioning of the extensions was also an issue, one of the weft rows being attached so close to my ears that I had a constant headache. I decided that I just needed that row removed, to which she charged me another $25 on visit number three. I was lucky to find another stylist who felt terrible about my experience and was kind enough to take the rest of the extensions out at no charge.

I wish I had actually done some research and seen all the terrible reviews on this place AND the owner before wasting so much time and money. Also, not ONE person in this place wears a mask. Sadly, zero stars isn't an...

Awsum Salon is being sabotaged.

Dana has done my hair for 20 years and she is amazing! I have waist-length, ridiculously thick locks and she cuts and colors them to perfection. Whenever I am complimented on my hair, I give Dana all the credit. She’s truly a miracle worker.

When her salon opened, it was a vibrant, positive, sparkling place. Customers were naturally drawn there by her skills and the positive atmosphere. It didn’t take long for all of the chairs to be filled every time I was in on a Saturday.

Unfortunately, her business partner, Chris, is a petty, vindictive, jealous man. When I went for my appointment this past Saturday morning he had changed the locks, leaving Dana and me - a paying customer - literally standing outside in the cold. Even though the sign on the front window clearly says they open at 8:00 on Saturday. Even though I have seen him in there before 8:00 for every Saturday appointment I’ve had since they opened the salon. Even though my appointment had been in the books since November. Even with all of this and knowing that he had changed the locks the night before, he didn’t show up until almost 9:00.

Dana handled it as professionally as possible, especially since this was clearly designed to embarrass her. She called him twice to come and let us into the salon. He hung up on her twice. When Chris finally showed up, he unlocked the door and turned and walked away. He didn’t apologize to me (or to Dana) in fact, he didn’t say a single word to either of us. His childish behavior is completely unprofessional.

And frankly, it’s taking a toll on the business. For the first time since it was a brand new salon, I looked around midday on Saturday and saw more empty chairs than full. His unprofessionalism will kill Awsum Salon.

I can’t recommend Dana highly enough. At the same time, I cannot in good conscience recommend anyone else at the salon, as long as Chris is having his...

This was 10 days ago and Cody was the one who cut my hair and Chris wasn’t the one I wanted the appointment with but was told isn’t available but yet he was walking around doing nothing a hour before I got there and hour during my haircut he was cleaning up a kid who seemed to be his relative...... Awsum butchered haircut. Very disappointed with the haircut and the service environment. I got there 30 minutes before my appointment and 4-5 different people came to the front counter and not a single one acknowledged me even though we looked at each other dead in the eyes, didn't even care to pass a smile. So after 30 minutes of awkwardness and sitting there I finally asked one of the girls if the person I came to see would be ready for my appointment. I SHOULD'VE listened to my instincts and left instead of giving them a chance but lesson learned, the person who cut my hair was very nice. However, I got the feeling he was new to cutting hair because even after talking about what kind of fade I want he gave me this super high fade which almost completely messed up my hair and I knew for a fact at that point he was blowing smoke about how good he was. Didn't get the fade I wanted and then to make it worse, it was uneven ‍ fml. High uneven fade which a barber couldn't even fix. So after the fade was butchered I thought maybe he'll cut the top of my hair correctly but to no surprise that was a fail too, I was very cautious with the top and decided to just leave with what I have. In conclusion, seemed like the only good guy there but gave me a bad haircut and wouldn't go there again. Oh what was even worse than the experience, the person I wanted to get the haircut from was just chilling there killing time the entire time when I was told he's booked, no appointment came the entire time...