The Bird House Salon - Gowanus — Local services in New York

Pros: Very talented junior stylists for haircut and color Airy, light filled space Friendly staff

Cons: The chairs are fairly hard and incredibly uncomfortable The stylists (I've gone there 5 times total) have varying levels of blowout skills. Three times I've had to ask (one time pressingly, thanking the stylist profusely for sticking around to completely dry my hair) for them to finish! They dry the outer ends fine, but I have a lot of hair and my scalp has been left damp which, with my frizzy hair, is a disaster. You may as well not bother with a blowout if you don't completely dry it After arriving 13 minutes past my appointment time today (I got a text from the front desk telling me they may not be able to do a blowout if I arrive 15 minutes past the time) I sat down with my junior stylist and we discussed my color at length, which was probably necessary as I was getting a color fix and we wanted to be on the same page. They told me because it was a junior stylist the appointment would take 4 hours. She went over by 45 minutes which about the last 20-30 minutes she spent blow drying. She told me before she started blowing out that she may not be able to finish because she was way past the end of my appointment time, or she would do a rough dry. She also told me I needed to pay for the extra time. I've paid for extra time before -- in the previous appointment the stylist worked on my hair past official closing time so I was fine to pay for the extra time. This time I just told her I'm fine to pay for the extra time (which is $25) as long as I leave with my hair completely dry. I asked if her next client was already there, she said they'd been waiting a while, so I asked if there was an in-training stylist that could help finish out my blowout. Initially she told me that the stylist was busy with other people but eventually brought that person over and I was grateful. It was pretty shocking to me though that a salon that charges $300+ for balayage would let a client leave the salon with wet or damp hair. To me, that's a massive failure. As I said I arrived 13 minutes after my scheduled time, but the stylist went over 45 minutes over time before she handed me off to the in-training stylist to finish my blowout. So-- I don't know how it's my fault that she wasn't able to finish my blowout properly, when she had gone 30 minutes overtime anyhow (taking into account the 13 minutes I was late). I've never had a salon charge me for "extra time" -- I find it strange that the customer is made to pay more when the stylist is unable to complete the job in the allotted amount of time, especially when there were no surprises about what I was getting done. Birdhouse really needs to reevaluate charging "overtime" fees. At any other high end salon that would be so tacky, but they don't seem to have a...

Ugh. I'm almost too embarrassed to post the pictures but I saw a few others here who had the same experience with "root touch up".

I emailed birdhouse with pictures of my hair (picture attached here) asking for a root touchup.

I've never really had to explain in great detail before that I just don't want a harsh line of my natural hair and roots....but I did in this situation.

If I was unclear at first, I at least had a conversation with the stylist when I got there and explained that I would like a root touch up. She was great and listened....and I thought we were kind of on the same page. I mean...there was a HARSH hard line and we talked for about 5 minutes. (See pic).

Anyway, after a recommended balayage and $300 later, the harsh line was showing almost worse than when I went in??? I left satisfied because my hair was blown out and it was freshly done...but less than a week later, its as if I had never been to the salon.

I gave it about a month before I complained to birdhouse... just in case I had to let it heal or maybe I was just over reacting and didn't know what I was talking about....

However...the thing that really woke me up to these results were OTHER peoples reactions to my hair. I got an audible gasp from my usual stylist and a few others as well. "I thought you got your hair done" was said to me twice.

When I reached out to birdhouse, the stylists/managers were very accommodating in trying to get to the bottom of it. They offered for me to come back in, free of charge. They're VERY professional and very sweet. I also loved my stylist, I thought she was great.

The only thing stopping me from doing that is I do NOT trust their judgement and they don't really seem to think theres anything wrong with these results???

A "miscommunication" and "disconnect" has been mentioned a few times, which...it happens....but its still BAFFLING to me since it literally looks like NOTHING has been done $300 later. Thats a LOT of money. How would ANYONE want to pay that amount for these results????

A "huge contrast in color" was mentioned as an explanation as to why my roots are still showing...but I have been BLONDE before for almost two years, and whenever I went into a salon and asked for the roots to be touched up or "fixed", a whole discussion and explanation was NEVER needed and I've ALWAYS left with results that were at least DIFFERENT for that price.

Anyway, it's been over a month. The owner and manager have both contacted me which I really appreciate, but I don't think a refund is coming. I looked awful in the pictures at the event I went to, and can't even hide it with my hair up. I wanted it fixed for my new job, and now I look awful in my I.D. pictures.

I say again, even if there was a misunderstanding as to what I wanted...who would want to leave with...

I was very disappointed with my experience at The Bird House, specifically with the stylist Frankie.

First off, I booked my appointment for a cut with Katie but they switched it to Frankie without telling me.

The color process went was fine, but the cut was terrible and obviously rushed. Strangely, Frankie began curling one side of my hair before cutting the other side telling me not to worry. I asked if I could see my haircut with my hair straight, she kind of laughed it off and said now I can see both straight and wavy hair at the same time.  She didn't seem to be taking this cut very seriously.  At no time did she check to see if my hair was the same length on both sides, and hurried through whatever process she was using in 20 minutes flat, keep in mind this was almost $400 w/tip appointment, I was ushered out the door about an hour ahead of schedule.

When I got home, within a day the curls had fallen out and my hair was super uneven, like a full inch longer on one side.  It would be kind of funny if I hadn't spent so money on it and my concerns weren't so summarily dismissed by Frankie, who is supposed to be a 'Senior Stylist'?

Now here's where the wheels at The Bird House completely fell off.  When I called to have it corrected I expected some level of service to kick in to make it right. After the terrible cut and apathy from Frankie, I just wanted someone else to correct this.  Instead they said something about all the managers being away for a week due to the holidays and insisted I had to confront Frankie directly about it.  A salon at this level should never put a customer in this situation.  I sheepishly had to go back to Frankie and she evened it out with her uncomfortable speed and indifference, I think it clocked in under three minutes.

I had been here in the past and had a good experience with Gina but this was such an epic fail on the stylist and complete breakdown at the management level I would not recommend this...