Assort New York — Local services in New York

Honestly, my experience at Assort was just okay. I wanted it to be great because I was really excited about going to a highly acclaimed international Japanese salon (that has become very popular on TikTok and Instagram), but many parts of the process didn't live up to my expectations.

For some background, I've gotten my hair bleached and toned four times since 2020, so I have a good understanding of the general process. I have usually done single color bleach and tones, so this time I decided to do something different and go for silver hair with black lowlights. Unfortunately, I booked a highlights appointment that didn't allow enough time for the lowlights design. I wasn't aware of this until I sat in my chair and started the consultation with my stylist, Aiuna. I realize this was my mistake, but it would have been nice to know ahead of time since I did submit a "hair inspo" picture on my appointment. But that's okay, we decided that we would at least get a normal, double process bleach and tone in.

There was an immediate red flag during my consultation with Aiuna: she didn't ask me about my hair history. I feel like it's quite standard for hairstylists to ask clients about what their hair has gone through in the past year or so, but I wasn't questioned about my hair at all. While it was virgin black hair, it could have been box dyed black from bleached hair for all she knew.

When we moved on to bleaching, another red flag popped up: Aiuna started bleaching my roots first. I was really confused because my hairstylists have always told me that roots are bleached later because they process much faster than the ends. I asked if bleaches usually start with the roots, and she said "yeah, but it depends." Well, because of the decision to bleach my roots first, my ends took much longer to lift, while my roots became platinum blond by the end. Also, Aiuna applied the bleach onto my hair without any foils; maybe she wanted to save time by foregoing them, but this resulted in my hair being a big wet blob, and whenever she came back to check on the lift, she would rake through the hair with a brush, pulling my head with it. I was pulled backward and sideways every time she did this. I was thinking to myself: "have I ever had my head pulled this way before??"

When I asked if she usually doesn't use foils, Aiuna said "yeah, but do you want me to?" I mean, I don't know, you're the hairstylist so I'm just going to go with what you usually do... she ended up adding foils anyway halfway through the bleach, probably because the ends weren't lifting fast enough.

Also, throughout the whole appointment, I was the only one asking questions. Aiuna was silent, chewing her gum. I understand if light conversation is not her thing, but she didn't even bother walking me through the different steps of the appointment. The already tiring four hours were dragging on.

When we washed out the bleach, Aiuna uses HOT water on my already irritated scalp for TWENTY minutes. Again, I was shocked, and this time, in pain. When we finished washing and blow drying, Aiuna started applying toner without even saying anything. I had to ask, "oh are we doing toner now?" because we had never confirmed the color—during the bleach, I expressed my interest in doing a whiteish/platinum blond color rather than silver since we weren't going to be able to do the lowlights. She said that the color would fade within two weeks, but that's all we said before continuing the bleach. To just start applying a toner without even showing me what color it is (on a chart or a picture) took me aback.

Overall, my whole experience at Assort fell short of expectations after watching the salon's social media. The consultation was barebones, the bleach and tone process was amateur, and the haircut was not worth the $100 add-on. In the end, the result was good, but not what I was looking for.

I do think the other stylists that I saw at Assort may provide a better experience. As for my own experience, I would not particularly recommend Aiuna or Assort...

At first it was a nice experience because I explained my hair history, the color I wanted to achieve eventually, and that I was realistic about my hair. We chose color 73 which was a light brown hair. After sitting in the chair with going through the process of bleach, treatment, and tone for almost 3 hours, I was left with orange hair, bright roots, and dark ends. After showing my hair, my stylist then tried to blame my hair history as if I didn’t make it clear my history at the beginning of my appointment and that I wanted to be realistic. She was ready to kick me out of the chair without fixing the issue because her next appointment was in 15 minutes. I asked her to please fix it and she left me with darker roots that are not blended, the rest of hair an orange color, and she cut the ends of my hair while the darker hair dye was marinating in my roots. For the amount of money spent, it’s really disappointing to leave the salon the way I did because I no longer felt like a paying customer, but a nuisance. I did so much research on this salon and was looking forward to this appointment for weeks. It is truly disheartening how I was treated towards the end of my appointment and leaving unsatisfied with orange, instead of light brown hair. I would never recommend this...

Natsumi is absolutely the best!!!

I have gone through many salons, with many sob fests after. Natsumi was the first, and only, hair stylist to actually consult with me about what my hair can and can't do. I wanted a perm, and the goal was to be a poodle. Fortunately, and unfortunately, my hair was virgin (grew out a bad haircut) and too strong, so it didn't curl as much. But, I still look stunning, and it was the only time I ever got a haircut, and styling that matched exactly what I asked for.

I initially wanted my hair cut blunt cut, but Natsumi told me I should leave the back a bit long as it'll give a better layer effect. I trusted her, and she was 500% correct! If I cut it short, I'd look a little bald. Natsumi was also able to teach me styling tips that match my extremely low-effort hair styling. Most other places would do something so complicated, I would not be able to replicate.

I have never felt so "me" and am so happy. I even told my cousin to come, and Natsumi was able to transform her broken bleach ends into something at least - workable, and with a great haircut at that.

I'm coming back for as long as this...