Mian Tian Sing Hair Salon — Local services in New York

I went in not expecting much considering I have type 4 hair. I read the reviews before of people who said they left with their hair puffy, got improper cuts etc. but I still decided to take a chance.

I will say, they were very nice. I went in with my previous silk press but I am trying to find a new place because my last experience was horrible. I went to a dominican salon where the stylist practically yanked out my hair and then charged me more because she did’t detangle properly.

The hair wash was nice. I’ve never had a massage before so it felt a little aggressive, but from the little experience I had it seemed like they were doing a good job?

After the wash, they sar me down. I’ve never been to an Asian salon nor had a male stylist so I didn’t know what to expect. Considering how foreign my hair type was, the man was surprisingly gentle (although I still don’t understand why stylists think they should brush through curly hair 🤦‍♀️)

Firstly some of the reviews were right. He was about to just dive in with the blowdryer without even touching the heat protectant. When I asked if they had heat protectant they did like two sprays on my whole head of hair. Alright…

However, as he was blowdrying I noticed it just wasn’t getting flat enough. Additionally he would just comb through it and the comb would stagger because there were still curly bits and he just wasn’t going over it enough. I will say that I likes that they used low heat, but it did mean my hair did not get flat and as a response he got trigger happy with the flat iron instead of just doing the blowout properly.

It didn’t look bas in the end, but it was a bit misty today and lo and behold, just as the reviews said, my hair resembled a startled pufferfish by the time I walked to the train station.

Additionally, as I was leaving, I went to pay. The man at the desk asked how much I’d like to tip and I said $5. (this would bring the total up to $50, which is how much my mom gave me to do my hair.) The guy proceeded to type in $55 and said that I have to tip $10 because that’s 20%. + Tax i ended up tapping for $57 and change.

I have no problem with tipping, but I’m a high schooler, i don’t have a job. My parents paid for me to do my hair. Now he decides he wants to dig into my personal money. My mom’s birthday is tomorrow and I have things to buy. Nothing makes me want to tip less than when someone is ungrateful for the fact that you’re tipping.

Overall it was not a horrible experience for the fact that this is my first time, but I would expect a little better. Guess that’s my fault for not listening...

I came here because I read pretty good reviews online and was drawn by the incredibly cheap prices for basic services (i.e. I did not want to pay £100 for a blowdry and polish change),and the fact that it was walking distance from where I was staying in the LES. The salon is in Chinatown so I was not expecting a luxury spa, and actually the salon itself was bright and spacious to my surprise. However, no one I dealt with spoke English (despite the presence of many non-Chinese customers) and I ended up with a stylist who had no clue how to do a basic blowdry on my curly but very soft and manageable hair. After a frustrating 30 minutes of watching him weakly holding the brush and my hair getting puffy and frizzy (not to mention I had to detangle my own hair as he simply could not hold onto the brush), I asked for another stylist. The new stylist also spoke zero English but seemed to be more comfortable with the brush in his hand so I relaxed for a minute - which was too soon as he proceeded to burn my forehead with the back of the blowdryer. I have no idea how that is even possible, but yet it happened, and I yelped in pain and he just laughed nervously and continued to blowdry my hair. I asked serveral times for ice or a cold compress, and just more nervous laughter from the stylist till I stood up myself and walked to the back of the salon where they wash hair and had to use sign/body language to explain to the ladies sitting there that I had a first degree burn and needed a cold compress immediately. Horrible experience and the manager did not seem to care at all. The only reason I am giving two stars instead of zero is because of the lady who did my nails, she did a decent polish change. Side note - a meddling customer thought it was his job to give me some words of wisdom « you are in Chinatown, this place is catered to Chinese people » - cute advice but this is NYC, if services are advertised in English then it is fair game for all who can read the sign. Enter at...

I love a bargain and this hair salon is definitely a bargain. But This is also one of those places where the term "you get what you pay for" is so true. I came here to get a haircut only, without the shampooing. When you walk in, a man, possibly the owner/boss asks you what you want to do. I told him just haircut, so he calls one of the hairstylists over to cut my hair. Can't remember the name of the guy I had, but he was very nice. He spoke very little English. Luckily I speak Cantonese, which he can understand, but cannot communicate back to me as he can only speak mandarin. No big deal. I just showed him a picture of the type of hairstyle I want and the length and he understood what I wanted. He was very careful as he was cutting my hair. But I can also tell that he was an amateur and is still in the process of learning. I could tell in the way he was layering my hair and trying to cut it evenly and straight. FYI the hairstyle I was going for was a long bob. Nothing too complicated. I mainly went because my ends were extremely damaged from a double bleaching done by a different salon. Anyway, I was happy with the results. Then when I went to pay, the lady said something in mandarin which sounded like "haircut?" Then I nodded my head, and she charged me $30. I thought this was a little pricy, but I didn't mind. Then as I got to the bottom of the stairs, she ran after me and asked me if I did shampoo and haircut. In my head, I was thinking oh no, I have to pay more?! After we cleared that up, she said "come back up here" so I went back up the stairs and she gave me back $10 because she overcharged me. I think my hair stylist was the one that told her. I'm so glad she did this because this made an average experience into a really good experience. She could've easily kept the $10 for herself but she didn't. Honesty in people is so hard to find these days. I would definitely come back here for a...