Ouidad Salon — Local services in New York

I never leave bad reviews bc I try to be as understanding as possible but I really had such a bad experience at Ouidad. COMPLETE WASTE OF MONEY. I’ve been here once to get my hair styled by Horlenny and it looked great! I wanted to book my haircut with her, but she was unavailable, so I went with Keesha…

Keesha had no idea how to work with my hair lmao…She asked me a the same questions over and over about how I style it and how much product I use and how I diffuse my hair etc. like she was clueless. I have 2c/3a hair and it’s pretty low density - I would’ve expected a curly hairstylist to know how to work with it, instead of asking me what to do. I never have to walk my hairstylist through my appt at my regular salon.

Keesha also made a lot of snarky/unnecessary comments to herself while touching my hair, calling it “so sad”, “so dry”, “so mad”, “so angry” - amongst other things. She also found the tiniest knot in my below-waist length hair & acted so dramatic about it lmao. Meanwhile, my hair is super healthy - the only dry bits were my ends which were dead, as I haven’t had a haircut in nearly a year - which is the whole reason why I was sat in her chair in the first place. Not to be bullied over my hair’s imperfections?? 😭

Keesha styled my hair really sloppily. She didn’t section it at all and kept layering a bunch of sprays. Who uses hairspray to style? Not only that, but the man who washed my hair did such a rush job… He washed my hair in LESS THAN 2 minutes. I’ve never had such a fast wash at a salon in my life it was insane. He didn’t massage my scalp or leave me feeling like my hair was rly clean by the end of it. He also left in conditioner and I had to clean it off my forehead and neck. That wasn’t the only time I felt rushed - the whole appt was so rushed compared to my usual salon (City Curl Studio).

Anyway - My hair had to get rewashed, restyled and and re-dried bc the first time these 2 finished with me it looked HORRIBLE. Idk what they did to me but I’ve never seen my hair look like that before lmao. It was just dull and dingy and weighed down with product. Zero volume. Zero definition. It had less life and curl than what i walked in with - which was day 6 hair (I only wash once a week and lined it up with my appt). It was also stressful how she and Nicholas tag teamed styling and drying my hair and kept messing with the same sections over and over again. Such a total lack of personal attention!

By the time my hair was restyled, it looked a lot better, but it didn’t look as good as I can style it myself and im no professional. It didn’t look half as good as my usual salon styles it for me. Just a super disappointing experience. Keesha tried telling me it’s bc i must have some super specific way of styling my hair but I literally do nothing crazy at all lol… plus I use Ouidad products haha.

I highly recommend people of alllllll curl types/porosities/densities to visit City Curl Studio bc they get everyoneeee right. You won’t be disappointed. Only problem is it’s a long commute (for me) & their calendar is fuller than Ouidad’s but it’s worth the wait for sure. Price point is about the same, I honestly pay less at City Curl Studio for way better results. Lesson learned ! I wanted to walk out without tipping anyone but didn’t have it in me. I regret it.

Important difference btwn other curly hair salons & Ouidad is that most curly hairstylists perform dry cuts - Keesha cut my hair wet and kept muttering about how she “can’t even see my texture” now that my hair was soaking wet (I wonder why??🤣)

P.S. do not waste your time or energy filling out the new client form at Ouidad. They don’t read it or take it into account at all during your...

I scheduled an appointment for my 3 year old daughter and myself with stylist Jessica who at the time was a Tier 3 stylist. I chose a curly hair salon to be my daughters first experience since I wanted her to receive professional care by curly hair experts.

On October 8th 2020 at approximately 6:45 PM Ms. Jessica asked who was first, no introduction and proceeded to untie my daughter's hair in a rough manner. My daughter was scared and began to cry.

Ms. Jessica proceeded to wash my daughter's hair while she cried in pain, she harshly detangled her hair from top bottom. Witnessing her lack of concern, I suggested to detangle from bottom to top which is known to be less painful I even offered to detangle her hair myself. While my daughter continued to cry Ms. Jessica mocked her by yelling "we can harmonize" and proceeded to made loud noises over my daughters cry in front of customers. Moving forward to the haircut, my daughter is still crying because Ms. Jessica shows no concern. Ms. Jessica abruptly stops halfway, and states "Uh! I need a break" and leaves for about 5 minutes, when she her returned I asked if she was okay and she responded "Yes I just can't take the crying, people pay lots of money to get their hair done and she keeps screaming and crying" ( she was concerned of other customers except for my daughter who was also her customer) I replied "what is that supposed to mean? when I scheduled the appointment someone should have told me this was not a kid friendly salon, I wouldn't have brought her" Ms. Jessica then replied "you could have at least detangled her hair before bringing her" (all while customers were staring at us) I requested to speak with the manager Ms. Joanne and cried of humiliation. Ms. Joanne apologized on her behalf and introduced me to Ms. Kimberly who took the time to speak to my daughter and made her feel safe; my daughter stopped crying. Jessica could have declined to work on my daughters hair in a respectful manner. The way she proceeded was extremely unprofessional and unethical, her complete disregard towards my daughter and her comments indicated some form of bias. Frankly, I felt discriminated against.

I would like to emphasize that I chose Ouidad for my daughters first salon experience because of the testimonials on the website. I left feeling so humiliated and while the managers and staff tired to ameliorate the grievance, my 3 year old daughter was treated with cruelty and 3 years later my daughter does not want to step foot in a salon. I am very disappointed in the entire Ouidad establishment for failing to respond to my complaint which I submitted via their website.

Note: I'd like to thank Joanne for conveying empathy, Kimberly for demonstrating concern for my daughters experience and finishing her haircut, Naisha for offering my daughter a Mannequin doll to entertain her and the stylist who offered my daughter water. Thank you all so...

FYI: I started going to this salon around 2015-2016. I have type 4 kinky hair, 4a-c. Medium length 10-14 inches of hair. This is the only salon I trust with my hair. I have been going to them for over 5+ years and my hair always grows out beautifully and styling is easier/detangling after a proper trim/cut/shape. I didn't truly appreciate this salon until I moved out of NYC and had to start visiting other salons which were no match in professionalism, education/expertise and care. You get exacltly what you pay for at this salon and then some. They truly take time to educate you about your hair their products and make sure you are satisfied with the end results. I can't wait to come back to NYC for a proper cut again. It's worth flying back in town for LOL. At first, it was a little bit daunting to have white people style my thick kinky hair but they KNOW their stuff at this salon, and even when a stylist is learning they are very respectful and delicate with your hair and willing to learn. I love this salon so much. Another thing is Ouidad does not use one size fits all products for curly, kinky, wave hair. They are true hair educators/artists and take the time to learn and make sure customers are satisfied. Their cuts always give my hair a good foundation to grow out and I only end up needing one or two cuts a year because the service is that good and maintains the health of your hair. I've never felt out of place or underserved like you some times can at curly hair salons with kinky or coarser hair. The variety of stylist I've used here over the years have always been super professional, respectful, and eager to learn, aim to please.

Sidenote: This salon has really good music and good vibes. They are also very respectful of clients time and never waste it.

It also lovely to walk into a salon that cater to multi-cultural curls, waves, kinks, coils everything under the sun and also see stylist who have healthy hair and are proud to rock their natural textures too. Curly hair care/Natural hair care is a lost art form and so is proper hair care education but this salon never misses a beat. I would 20/10 recommend and also naturalistas don't be fooled by looks non-black folks can slay our hair too and I was pleasantly surprised every time. I definitely look forward to going back when I'm in NYC. It's worth every dollar and the education is invaluable.

I totally miss this salon now that I moved to FL!! :( National Treasure :) Thank you...