Balayage Me Hair Salon — Local services in New York

Honest review! I was pretty worried going in bc some reviews said they pressure you to write a review on the spot, so the good ones might not all be genuine. After going, I overall thought it wasn’t bad and might’ve given 4 stars if not for 2 factors I mention below. For anyone else who’s nervous or unsure with the reviews, I’ll address all the points I’ve seen mentioned by other ppl based on my personal experience:

-Service: it didn’t feel like they were rude at any point, but it does feel like they don’t care very much. I went in with low expectations due to other reviews, and in some ways it wasn’t as bad as I was dreading. Inesa was my stylist and though she can come off as blasé, she felt motherly at times. Two reasons I thought the service was clearly lacking was 1) she would pull down the hood dryer without looking, so that once it hit my head as she walked off. Her assistant noticed and helped me to readjust it (the assistant was very sweet). 2) At one point, she left a comb dangling from my hair while she attended some other business. I feel like positioning the hood dryer without bonking my head and taking two seconds to remove the comb before attending other business are really the bare minimum one could do, just as person to person beyond staff to customer. If not for these two happenings, I probably would’ve given 4 stars.

-Feels rushed: yes but personally not in a bad way. I didn’t want to spend too much time doing my hair so I wanted it to end quickly anyway. Overall took an hour ish, most of the time spent under the hood dryer and waiting for the toner to set in. If you want a more laid back experience, go elsewhere; if you just want to get your hair done and leave, this is fine.

-Result: not bad! It’s definitely not the color I asked for, but maybe bc I was so worried going in, I was relieved it turned out okay. It looked best the day of, but not bad after several washes. Since I went in with an open mind, I came out satisfied.

-Asking you not to use groupon: yes. When I called them to make a reservation according to their instructions, the guy who picked up asked if I “could buy from them instead of online”. My returnable date had already passed so I couldn’t do that. Maybe it’s a good idea to take the deal off of groupon if you don’t want customers using it?

-Pressuring you for reviews and tip: they do become suddenly much nicer when it nears the end (lots of hugging) and ask you multiple times to rate them + stare at you while you venmo the tip. But it’s not like they demand you to write a review right there and then and you should just go in with a reasonable tip range in mind. I did give a generous tip compared to the quality of service I got even based on original pricing, but I went in planning to give that much since I had a discount and didn’t mind as long as the service wasn’t terrible.

-What constitutes a partial balayage: the crown area and the sides, basically what’s visible from the front and not the back.

All in all, service-wise it was definitely the coarsest I’ve received in a hair salon, but if you go in with low expectations it’s actually okay. My result was satisfying, but if you have a specific picture in mind, they don’t talk through it with you very much so it might not turn out similar. I don’t think I would pay the full price for the experience I had, but I walked out content...

September 2024- I was going to buy a Groupon at $116 for a balayage toner, haircut, olaplex traitement, and blow dry and called Balayage salon instead who offered to honor Groupon’s price. They told me to go online and make the appt as a root touch up, pay $20 to secure appt online, which would be deducted from the Groupon price. My stylist - firuza - did a sloppy job on every thing I asked: color, cut, & forgot exactly half of what was included in the Groupon. Previous to this, I'd colored my hair in Italy and gave her the mix that the Italian stylists told me to give my next hairdresser in NY. Firuza said that their mix wasn't good for me and chose a darker color. She being the professional, I said ok. But it was too dark. When I showed her the hairstyle I wanted, specifying long layers to the front (framing face), she got it completely wrong! my hair wasn’t anywhere near the photo I showed her. The layers were too short in front, so hair looked choppy, disjointed and awful! Layers didn’t flow like before. I had to ask her after these fiascos about the rest of the Groupon and they said to “come back” for the rest. Imagine! So I paid the $116.00 in cash that they asked for to avoid credit card fees and taxes, got no receipt and left with the idea of coming back. I was so aggravated I forgot that I’d paid $20 already and left. I had to return for the rest of the items included in the Groupon deal, which I thought I could just mention next time and they’d adjust the price. But when I went back the 2nd time and explained to the man in charge - David - that I'd given them $116 when I should've given $96 since I'd already paid $20 to book online as per the Groupon price. I even showed him the credit card purchase for $20 but he was unphased, unapologetic and sent me back to firuza to tone and condition with olaplex treatment. No cape was provided to wash and tone hair and when firuza was done she asked if I wanted blowdrying at $50. There was not even a redeeming courtesy for blow drying after doing half the job the 1st time, the wrong color, the wrong haircut, having to go twice for one appt and paying for the full Groupon price plus $20. Another very irksome thing was the wet back and clothes each time I went there and left the salon! They should've blown dry my hair instead of my wet clothes and back the two times I went there! How didn't it occur to them to put capes over clothes before washing hair or blow drying or putting a client under the heat with dripping wet hair? That is the first thing other salons do! In the end, David never offered to give me back the $20 I paid more over the Groupon price and in fact showed me what the other Russian speaking woman entered in the computer for the 1st visit: $104, not $116 or the $120 I’d given her in cash. I don't know who the dishonest one was: the woman who took the money and entered less on the computer, or David. Whomever it is, it's outright dishonest. I will never revisit this place but since I depend on reviews before going to a new place, it is imperative to leave a review to warn others of my disappointment and experience. I cannot understand how they have many positive reviews though! This is by far the most unprofessional place...

Update: Increasing to 3 stars because the salon has called to try and work with my wife to make it right. While the gesture is appreciated, she is deciding not to come back.

I do not understand the good reviews on here. My wife booked an appointment for a Balayage and haircut. Right off the bat she is treated poorly when she mentions she has a Groupon. So my wife cancels the Groupon and books with them directly.

Once there, she shows a photo of what she wants to the stylist, which is a typical blonde balayage. The stylist says “we don’t do that here.” For a place called “Balayage Me,” you would think that wouldn’t be the case. So instead the stylist gives my wife chunky blonde highlights. She tells the stylist that’s not what she asked for, and instead of trying to work with her, the stylist tries to blame my wife as if she asked for highlights.

As they overbooked themselves, my wife was waiting with toner in her hair for 40 minutes. They even asked her how long she was sitting there for. When she told them “40 minutes,” they argued that it had only been 20 minutes. Luckily, she took a photo of herself as soon as the toner was applied and it was time stamped. Only then did they rush to wash it out.

The general vibe of the place is just not friendly. There was another rude employee (must have been in her 50s or 60s) who spoke with the stylists and other staff in their native language, and then would stare intensely at my wife for minutes with a nasty face.

To top it off, they were extremely rude to another patron by calling her out in the entire salon about it being her second time coming in with a Groupon. IF YOU DON’T WANT CUSTOMERS TO USE A GROUPON, TAKE YOUR BUSINESS OFF GROUPON! The whole point of Groupon is you pay them a fee to give your business more exposure. If you don’t need the exposure, what are you doing on there?

Lastly, my wife was trying to pay by credit card. First, they try to charge her more even though she paid a $20 deposit. Then, the stylist demanded my wife pay using Venmo claiming that she doesn’t want to pay the fee. The thing that really upset me was that she demanded tip using Venmo or Zelle. My wife tried to tip on Zelle and the payment didn’t go through, so the stylist holds my wife’s credit card hostage until the tip goes through. If any other customer experiences this, please note you are well within your rights to demand they hand back your card or else you will call the police.

She was also charged for an “olaplex” conditioning treatment and my wife kept asking during the process when they would do it. She was told “don’t worry,” and in the end they never did it.

I’ve included photos of what my wife wanted versus...