Scott J. Aveda Salon Upper West Side - NYC Hair Experts — Local services in New York

This was my first dealing with this place. I called and spoke to Antoine. I asked him if they had anyone there that could work on black peoples hair/ethnic hair and he said yes he named a few people and I decided to go with Courtney. Antoine was very nice. He was very personable. I asked him I said “would you like for me to send a picture of myself my hair?”. He said that would be nice. I know Antoine got my picture because I called the salon back and I asked him he said yes, he got it. He asked me what kind of service I wanted to get. I said well I probably just get maybe a “wash and go let me see how that goes” he said OK he said he was gonna show my picture to the stylist and I asked him how much it would be. He told me $65.00. I said OK that’s great. When I got to the salon, I made my appointment for April 22, 2025. When I got to the salon and I met with Courtney she told me that it would NOT be $65 for textured hair it would be more it would be $135.00 which is a big difference from $65.00! I was like “oh my goodness” imagine my shock at the price. I was very hesitant because I was told $65. I was like oh my goodness. I went ahead and let her do my hair because I had already planned to have my hair done and had scheduled this time into my day and I wanted to get my hair washed by someone else. Sometimes you want someone else besides yourself to wash your hair. Courtney also told me that she didn’t even know I made an appointment because she said she didn’t look at her book but I was saying to myself like that’s not my fault, that’s not my problem if she didn’t look at her appointment book to see her appointments. I couldn’t understand her saying that also I asked Anton if he wanted me to send a picture of my hair which I did he said yes he seemed very grateful for that that I asked him if he wanted me to send a picture of my hair so that was another flub because Courtney said she never saw my picture but again my hair is not hard to do I just wanted to give the hairstylist a heads up on how my hair looked so they could see my hair before I walked into the salon. I didn’t know if Courtney was black or white or whatever so I thought it would be best if I sent a picture of myself. Again I made an appointment with the salon so I went ahead and had her do my hair but that was a big price difference. I don’t know why it cost so much money to do a wash and go on a black person’s hair which my hair is not hard to do. Courtney washed my hair. I wished she had washed my hair a little bit more harder and more vigorously. Before I sat down at the shampoo sink I did say to her can you wash my hair like vigorously. Courtney is black herself she knows black people don’t wash their hair every day. I asked her if my hair was tangled or anything she said no. She used Nutri Plenish Gel which I feel like it made my hair kind of crunchy. I did like I don’t know if it was the product or what but the color of my hair is black and I feel like my hair had a nice like the blackness in my hair was very nice and shiny, very pronounced. My black colored hair was very vibrant and I definitely didn’t get any color at the salon nor did I have color in my hair prior to going to the salon so I don’t know if it enhanced my black color or what. The salon did take off some money because it was my first time going there. It came up to $109.00 plus I gave her a tip. But if I come back it’s gonna be the regular price of $135 and I didn’t even sit under the hairdryer. After Courtney finished putting the product on my hair, I left so it didn’t take any time for her to do my hair. I don’t really blame Antoine because he saw my hair he had the picture and so he quoted me a price, but Courtney decided to raise the price significantly for a Wash N’ Go. Wash and Go is just what it is, a wash and go not a whole...

Awful haircut and Bad experience resolved by an understanding manager who refunded 83 out of 99 charged for the ruining of my hair.

I booked hoping to get a similar quality service as Aveda hair salon Institute in London, UK; unfortunately I have had a bad experience with the hairdresser, no need to mention New Yorkers cold personalities... I showed my own haircut from a few months ago and asked for a similar trim (see pics), my bangs got ruined awfully cut and shortened to the point I can't style them it looks like a child cut bangs unevenly with random strand lengths (see pictures). The trim for the layering also random and ended up with just few holes and big patch of the same outgrown length I came in (see picture). I have wavy b curly thin hair, it's easy to get my hair to be voluminous, well I walked out with flat hair and barely style, overdried and a ridiculous frizzy bangs (see pictures).

For the unplesant part, the shampoo was expeditive with splashing water in my face and eyes, shampoo left in my ears. I had my forehead strongly brushed with hot ceramic and a burning hair iron held 5seconds on my scalp until I shouted Ouch! Ouch! Ouch! The drying was also inappropriate for my thin hair. The attitude also when I kindly asked if it was possible to cut my bangs less on my eyes because the cut hair kept sticking on my contacts (afraid of getting my eyelashes ruined too), the answer was "I need to cut them on your face so I can see it looks good" which I then responded "oh ok I'll close my eyes then" which was responded by a mumbled "If you leave your phone a minute", phone on which I was desperately hanging on telling my friend to join me to the hairdresser knowing I would leave in tears.

Perhaps it's not customary in NY to ask clients how they prefer their water a/drying temperature and to make sure the styling reasonably fits the initial wish ?

I'm not even a capricious client I am very quiet and not demanding, I pretty much let hairdressers do their magic as I am a former model, well this time it was clearly black magic. It wasn't enjoyable not even for a second unfortunately walking out with wet hair with shampoo in it was not option for my schedule that day. I don't wish to name the hairdresser although I think it's important to raise this issue and hopefully no one else will have...

Michael will make you cry if you go back for a haircut readjustment, which is included in the service.

He has been cutting my hair for 2 years, which I would think implicitly means i like his work when it’s also reflected in the tips with every service. Over the years I have gone back for a readjustment when i felt it was required. I was told by the salon i can do so but it has to be within 2 weeks of haircut which is standard.

Today Michael got mad at me and basically started asking me to discuss options to get my hair cut by other stylists if i have to come back for readjustments (again, i am entitled to this along with my purchase, it doesn’t include a wash or blowdry or anything. It was just gonna take 5 mins in n out). He also started an argument with me about how he is right and I am not even though its MY hair and i have to live with the cut.

I had got a layered cut and needed the final layer to be closer to the last but 1 layer as it looked completely disconnected from the rest of the hair and even from the last but 1 layer.

I asked 1 inch to be cut off from the last layer so it looked more homogeneous with the rest of the layers. but apparently what i think does not matter as he was happy with the haircut and did not feel the need to change anything. he cut barely anything just to show he did cut it. I saw the hair that was cut off, fallen on the floor, it was just fluff and def not an inch like i had asked.

I am still trying to process the unnecessary arrogance, immaturity and lack of care/concern about if his customers like their own hair after he has cut them. And ultimately I left without the adjustment and almost in tears because of this unbelievably crazy interaction and because he wasn’t ready to cut it anyway, he seemed to pretend but no hair was cut. Realized it after i saw there was barely any hair on the floor. This has been a...