S-Kape Salon & Spa — Local services in Leonardtown

Alright guys, this is going to be a long one. I’m not one to leave reviews, but after thinking over it this past week I couldn’t not warn people. First, let’s start with a little background on my hair. I have naturally light brown curly hair but I’ve spent most of my life with heavy highlights. My hair has always handled bleach pretty well, been fine after, and still felt good. I never went full blonde because I knew it was a lot of upkeep. I’ve spent the last 5+ years keeping bleach off my hair and getting financially stable so I could take the plunge and go fully blonde like I’ve always wanted. Full disclosure, my hair has been whacky the last few years which I now know is because my hair/scalp reacts poorly to toner. Fun fact I found out after my appointment, the original hair stylist who did my hair for years never used toner on my blonde. So now it makes sense why my hair went wacky and changed textures after hairstylist number 2 started putting toner on it. Apparently some people’s scalp can react badly to it… I’m some people. I decided it was finally time to go full blonde. I was nervous that my hair wasn’t going to react well to the bleach even though it had always reacted great before. Anywho, I went to the consultation with TJ, who had done my hair twice previously. I showed her pictures of the blonde hair I wanted and also showed her a picture of the blonde hair I had before. For reference, think Blake Lively blonde which I also mentioned to her. Here’s where the important part comes… I am someone who loves to wear her hair curly and knows how important it is to the integrity of your curls to not fry them which is one of the reasons why I always dyed it a golden shade of blonde instead of a white blonde. I made sure to stress during the consultation and the day of my appointment that I did not want white/yellow blonde hair. I’ve seen way too many people destroy their hair/curls by over bleaching and it’s so hard to get white blonde hair anyway as it tends to go yellow. Imagine my surprise and horror when I looked in the mirror and saw my hair was white white, we’re talking bleached to the nines white while teetering into yellow at the ends (and this was after the first color was put on) Not only was my hair severely over bleached many shades lighter than necessary, it was completely ruined and the exact color I stressed I did not want. I knew there was no fixing the damage that had been done to my hair and definitely no chance of getting the color I actually wanted. At this point I could only hope for something better than what it was so I allowed them to tone my hair again. Which did turn out better the second round (it really couldn’t get worse) but still quite awful. Also, what baffles me is that she was confused what the problem was? Overall, the damage is pretty devastating and my hair is completely fried. My curls are gone and my hair still feels terribly gummy and knotted which sucks. I’m mostly just sad and devastated I spent so long keeping blonde off my hair just for this to happen. So, if you want to burn $330 for fried hair and a color you hate… go here:)

Let’s address these claims shall we. No, I wasn’t advised to do highlights and lowlights… the only recommendation was no blonde and I was actually told she “never pictured me as a blonde.” And I’m not even particularly mad at the damage even though it was significantly over bleached to a shade it did not need to be to achieve desired results. You are more hung up on me saying it was damage and not the fact the color was to a T what I said not to do. My hair didn’t need to be stripped and colored to nearly white. The color wasn’t even in the same stratosphere as the photos I showed. I gave a second chance, why on earth would I give a third? No one’s hair could handle that. Also, why would I buy products from you when I’ve bleached my hair many times in my life and know exactly how to take care of it?? I was blonde for 15+ years like get real lol. The warning to all is find a stylist who knows how to do blonde hair the color...

Edited 6/14/19: Shortly after posting this, one of the staff members (Torie I believe?) got in contact with us about our experience. She agreed that a gel should not be flaking after 4-5 days, and set about finding the an appointment to correct the issue. She also corrected me about the nail art issue, which isn't an offering from this salon. That was likely my mistake and I got it mixed up with another salon as I had been looking at several salons before I settled on s-kape.

My girlfriend just came back, they removed the old, failing polish and reapplied. It's obvious they took their time, no polish on the skin, polish continues the full length of the nail and it has a beautiful luster. They did excellent work this time.

As such I'm updating this review, the service has been par excellence at every step, both with the initial appointment, the follow on from the initially negative review and the follow up appointment. Many places would ignore you, blame you or make it an unpleasant experience. The folks at s-kape have been fantastic at every step of the way, and they've taken every opportunity to make my girlfriend comfortable at every step.

I would recommend this place, and I doubt you could find better customer service in St. Marys.

I'm leaving the former review so that others who may have issues know that s-kape is willing to go above and beyond in correcting issues.

End edit.

Was a rather disappointing visit.

I brought my girlfriend here for her birthday, she'd never had a manicure before and this place had good reviews.

After paying $40 and being assured it should take roughly an hour, she returns not even 45 minutes later. Based on their site I had expected some phenomenal art, but not even. Two basic colors, no gradient, no patterns, no appliques. Polish on the skin that hadn't been cleaned off properly. Other then being gel instead of standard polish you could do a better job at home.

I've been told a gel manicure should last at least two weeks, so if it fails before then I'll definitely be returning to complain. From looking at other salons in the area, this type of manicure normally goes for 25-30, so it was overpriced for what it was and even if it wasn't, save your money and do it at home.

The folks however were very friendly, and the place has an upbeat, eccentric atmosphere and is very clean. Maybe the other services are better, but I would avoid it for manicures...

Okay, it has been a month since my service. I didn't want to write the review upset so I did give it some time.

This was my first time coming here. I got a hair treatment, facial, haircut and brows done. I was leaving to Texas for a week so I wanted to pamper myself.

I want to say that the people that worked on on my services were amazing and sweet people. However.... the only service that I was happy about was my facial.

I would never come back here to get my brows done. I left the salon with completely two different brow shapes. She messed up the "easier" brow and somehow managed to just give me two completely looking brows. Luckily I know how to fill them in, but it's now a task that I have to do everyday or I will look crazy.

My haircut!! This pains me to say this because she was incredibly nice. But geez, did she mess up my hair and I have to wear it in a short ponytail every day. My hair was very long and I have a lot of it. I wanted it trimmed to my bra strap and lots of layers so my hair can have body and movement. I showed her a picture of exactly what I wanted and she completely missed the mark. When she was "done" she realized that my hair still looked like a blob. I told her that it was not enough layers. She refused to use the texturizing scissors , not sure why... Somehow more layers turned into cutting my hair shorter. So she cut my hair to my collar bone and now it's at the awkward growth phase length with still no layers or movement. I honestly expected more from a level 4 stylist.

So now I have mismatched brows and a horrible haircut.

My facial was great, and I appreciated the attention to detail.

I would return for a facial however, I would not come back here for a haircut or to get my brows done.

I also wanted to add, the girl at the front desk wanted to cancel one of my services when I arrived because the timing did not align. I had called numerous times to make sure that scheduling was good as I had added a service (eyebrows) a week prior. Apparently, someone overbooked someone idk. But instead of coming up with a win-win-win solution or strategy she wanted to cancel one of my appointments, a customers, instead of accommodating.... I told her to not cancel my appointment and that I would wait. I waited no more 10 minutes, everything was fine!

It was definitely not a great first impression...