Aveda Institute Jacksonville — Local services in Jacksonville

I just wanted to share about the experience I had at this location last Tuesday, November 28th at 12:30pm during my hair trim. While the customer service was great and everyone I encountered was extremely nice, I had the worst haircut of my life. I had long brown hair down to my hips, and I figured a student stylist could handle a small trim to get no more than a few inches of dead ends off of my long layers. The instructor on the floor checked in with the student when I first sat down for the consultation portion of the visit. We discussed cutting a maximum of three inches, which I was comfortable with. I overheard the instructor mention that she’d show her how to trim my layers since she had never worked on layers before. I felt nervous when I heard this, but I trusted the instructor would be checking in on us throughout the haircut. After getting my hair washed, the instructor came back and trimmed some of my layers on one side, demonstrating it to the student. She walked away before the student began. I wasn’t turned towards the mirror for 95% of my haircut, so I couldn’t see what things were looking like, but I kept getting the feeling that way more hair was falling to the ground than just a few inches. Unlike the instructor who trimmed my layers by sliding the scissors down the hair, the student stylist seemed to be straight chopping each length of hair in a much less blended way. In the moment, I didn’t speak up because I didn’t want to assume she was doing something wrong, but I really should have said something. The instructor did not check in at all for the remainder of the haircut, until the very end- after my hair was blow dried. Side note: I was also confused by the blow drying process. I’m so used to stylists using a round brush to blow dry my hair and give it some volume in the process, but in this case, she was brushing my hair down flat as she moved around my head with the blow dryer. My hair was still slightly damp when she was finished- I didn’t realize the haircut was supposedly over when it ended. Looking in the mirror at the end, I couldn’t quite tell how uneven the haircut was, but it felt off. I was more so saddened at how much hair had been chopped off- at least six inches. I didn’t speak up because what was done was done, and I was kind of shocked. The instructor arrived to sign off the student paperwork and didn’t say much after looking me over and putting her fingers through my hair. In hindsight, I am shocked that the instructor did not attempt to fix it at that moment. It makes me hope that she just didn’t notice, but then, if she didn’t notice, should she really be instructing other hair stylists? When I got home and noticed just how uneven my layers were, on top of how much length I had lost, I wanted to cry. When dividing my hair equally and pulling both sides to the front, one side was noticeably longer and heavier than the other side. I put my hair into braids to avoid looking at it, and even one of my braids was longer than the other. Just totally unacceptable. Two days later, I visited a different salon to ask them to fix everything up and even it all out, and my new hair is now growing on me, but I am still very sad to have lost the long hair that had taken over a year to grow to that length. In the end, my hair is somewhere in the realm of six and eight inches shorter than when I walked into Aveda. All I wanted was to freshen up my dead ends. I went into this knowing the risk of receiving services from a student stylist, but I truly didn’t think a trim could turn into this. I’m upset that the instructor didn’t speak up about the end result of my cut or attempt to even out my haircut with the student. I’ve definitely learned my lesson and have no intention of ever returning for a haircut, but I really wanted to pass this along, in hopes that the instructors at this location can learn from my story. Attaching three images to show the change. The beanie photo was my original length; grey sweatshirt was after my haircut at Aveda; and white v-neck was after getting it...

I have had good experiences at this location but today truthfully left me in tears for a while… I came in for some highlights and a TRIM yet they scheduled me for a balayage (they said because of the time block). And they needed it because I was there from 10:30 to 4:15 because of how much 4 different people had to do to fix my hair. My girl, Natalie, was nice and did her best, but messed my cut all up. It was so much shorter on one side than I ever wanted but at that point what could we do but cut it all to the same short length. I’ve never had it this short since the last time I cut it and I asked for a chop! This is even shorter than then… Because of how many times I had to go shorter to fix to align it with the “guide” that the instructor Natasha made for Natalie. That guide itself was already even shorter than I wanted. Natasha was rough on my head and neck and went in aggressively with hard cuts and lines and you could visibly see in my eyes and in the mirror how it didn’t fix the problem. I was later told that Natasha was new and I really wish she hadn’t worked on my hair. 😓 Natalie went in with various layering techniques and thinning of the edges to make it not look so bulky because my hair is extremely thick. She did okay on the highlights but I did say that I really didn’t want them all the way to my roots because I don’t get my hair done that often and when they grow out I didn’t want there to be a definite line. And I tried to kinda tell/imply a few times that a wet brush is all I use on my hair anymore because she was using a regular brush that was pulling and yanking my hair and it was getting all knotted… And I was surprised she didn’t spray or put anything in my hair like a heat protectant before she went in with the hairdryer or flat iron… A wet brush and heat protectant really help my hair… anyway, Later on an instructor named Jennifer came to the rescue and tried to help blend the layering with some alternative cuts and then eventually just said if it sits straight you’re always going to notice differences in length, but if you bevel it and curl it in word with a flat iron it will kind of hide those. But what if I want to straighten it? I appreciated what she did but I’m not going to be able to wear my hair down straight for a long time until all of these harsh edges grow out. Cory, another student also tried to help give some advice and I appreciated that as well. They knew it wasn’t what I wanted and that it was much much shorter than we both had acknowledged. Everyone acknowledged it. Both Natasha, Natalie, Jennifer, and Corey, but yet I was charged exactly what they said at the beginning and no less even though I was leaving extremely disappointed. I kept a really good attitude and didn’t make a scene but it’s sad that the people who do react strongly get the lower prices yet people like me who just except it and try to move on have to pay for $78 for an entirely wrong cut and highlights that I wasn’t exactly pleased with. I didn’t have the guts to ask Jennifer if she could do anything about the price, but now I’m debating if I ever even want to come back. If I could get like 50% off of my next visit I might come back again but I just didn’t feel that they allowed the price to reflect how much they messed it up. Natalie tried really hard to fix what other people had done and she even admitted that she messed up too and that at the end of the day my hair was just extremely thick and there’s only so much that can be truly done. I understand that and appreciated her honesty. I hope we can make this right so that I can return on good terms because literally I was tearing up in the chair with them all around me. I’ve been truly growing my hair out for six months and this is shorter than it was when I started that process so all of that length and time was totally wasted. As soon as I got home I burst into tears with my husband not ONLY because of how short it is, but because of how much I paid for something that wasn’t even close to...

I came in yesterday for a full head color. I'd gone blonde almost a year ago, and in August I'd gotten galaxy hair for my wedding. The wedding colors were mostly washed out, leaving my natural strawberry blond with a few grays at the roots and several inches down, but the ends that had previously been the dark galaxy colors had faded to pale green and pink. We'd decided to go with a bright vibrant purple, an the student found a great picture I liked.

The plan, as discussed with my student and her teacher (after a discussion on price and trying to lightly bleach a test strip) was to use one color, with the understanding that it would be a bit darker at the roots, which I was fine with.

That's not what happened. I noticed that the third cup of color was a different color than the third. She said that they were using a demi color on my roots. I was instantly confused because that was NEVER asked for. I remembered later that I had mentioned to her that was what my previous stylist had done with the galaxy hair in August, so perhaps she got confused. By that point, she was already working it in my hair, and I decided to not make a fuss - perhaps it would look nice.

I was horrified when I was my hair. It was not the color we discussed. It was so dark it was almost black, you could only see the purple at all in the back or in the sun, and the roots were lighter than the rest of it and red tinted, not purple. Also, they'd forgotten to take out the bleach from the test they did, so there was a white streak in the back that had been fried. I was trying so hard not to cry that I only mentioned the white strip when the teacher came, and all they did was dye it by hand, and then stray wash the strip, which left wet dye in my hair until I could go home and wash it.

I didn't complain there, because it was seriously taking all my composure to not cry, and a tantrum wouldn't fix anything.

Afterwards, I ran into a friend who saw my hair. Her response was, "Oh my God! A salon did that? I thought messed up doing it yourself with a box dye?" I cried then and there in public.

I'm giving a 3 and not a 1 because I've been going there for years and this is my first bad experience. The student was kind and young and screaming at her wouldn't fix anything.

I'm sharing this so that people can keep in mind to have your wants super clear.

Edit : one week later.

Shortly after responding to this review, Aveda did reach out to me. We had a pleasant conversation, and I was assured that everything would be fixed, an appointment was made to correct the color situation, and I was assured that it would be free and include a botanical treatment. I was specifically told to expect to be there for 4 hours.

When I got there today for my appointment there was a huge problem. Neither the student I was assigned to nor her teacher were told about the situation, and I was only scheduled for a shampoo...

I almost walked out. I immediately got emotional, because I felt my trust has been betrayed by this company.

Thankfully the teacher and the student were really great and did the color correction. They worked really hard to put me at ease and were extremely understanding. They did a wonderful job. Even though there was no way to get my hair as I wanted it after the damage of the first visit, they balanced it out and even though it's not what I wanted, it looks good and I don't feel ashamed of my hair anymore.

The student, Angela, and the teachers today were amazing, but my rating is staying a 3. Aveda, get your communication game together! Calling me and making promises does little good if you can't let your people know what to expect. You put a client that was already having a hard time trusting you in a position that had them crying in frustration within 5 minutes of entering the salon, made your students scramble to reassign time slots (because they only planned a shampoo), and wasted so much time making the client explain what happened in detail - again- while on the...