The Curl Suite — Local services in New York

tl;dr: Go somewhere else!

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Came in asking for something cool, got middle-aged suburban mom instead. People usually think I’m five years younger than I actually am, and now I look ten years older than my actual age.

Belinda said my inspo pics are too short for how often I want to upkeep, which is fine. They all show a pretty significant length difference between front and back, and there’s nothing suburban about any of them. She said she’d give me a short inverted bob instead, which is my usual. She immediately and before I could object, in one swoop, cut too much off the front to get any sort of decent inversion.

She cut the rest, and then while it was still soaking wet asked what I thought, as if she were done. I told her I had no way of knowing until it was dry, and she said, “oh, you want me to style it?” as if that were weird or extra. I’ve never walked out of a curly cut with wet hair. And there’s no indication on the website that that’s the plan when you book.

I was so grateful to have some sense of what it looked like that I said it was fine once it was dry—since the next person was already there and crowding the space, I didn’t feel like I had a choice. As soon as I was out in the hall and looking in a full mirror I realized it was even worse than I’d thought.

I’m an actor. I can’t afford to look dumpy or older than I am. I’m now in a position where I have to go significantly shorter than I intended to try to fix this, in addition to paying someone else to do it, or I wait six months for it to grow out and forgo work in the meantime.

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I sent the above feedback to The Curl Suite via their Square feedback option. It’s been two weeks and I haven’t heard back, which is why I’m now posting it publicly. In the meantime, I’ve discovered just how sloppy the cut was—there are several places where the curls are different lengths, and places where there’s just sort of holes in the layers. I've also got Krusty the Clown points on either side. I’d attribute that to Belinda not bothering to reshape it once the curls were dry—and not having time to, because 30 mins is not a long enough time slot to do a decent job.

Learn from my mistake: just because a salon is good at Instagram content, doesn’t mean they can actually do...

Owner Alex rescheduled with less then 24 hours notice. Then texted me less then 2 hours before my appointment and canceled. My sitter was already on the way. She offered me a Saturday appointment however, I could only get a sitter for Tuesday or Wednesday. She offered me an appointment in Long Island(more inconveniences) and I refused since the appointment with her was in Manhattan and I live a 15 min train ride from the salon. No compensation was offered, so I asked and was offered two travel size products that I politely turned down(I use specific products that work for me and I use refillable travel bottles when needed).Since I had a Groupon, she said she could offer no refund. I asked if she could add a service since an appointment with her was an additional $51 more (then a regular stylist which is what she suggest I do) and she said she could not. Alex also said she was inconvenienced by the cancelation(AGAIN, SHE CANCELED ON ME). How Unprofessional can a business women be to tell a client that she was inconvenienced by her own cancelation. She first rescheduled because of a baby sitting issue and the last min cancelation was because her child was not accepted into daycare due to slight fever. Had to contact Groupon customer service and could get no refund, had to settle for GrouponBucks.

UPDATE: A FEW MINS AGO OWNER ALEX HAD THE NERVE TO TEXT ME COMPLAINING ABOUT MY HONEST AND FAIR REVIEW. THIS IS MY ACTUAL EXPERIENCE WITH THE BUSINESS OWNER, I AM APPALLED.

UPDATE: SHE IS HARASSING ME IN TEXT, I JUST TOLD HER TO STOP OR I WOULD HAVE TO...

My experience was ok. It was my first time. The suite is very very small, so they really try to stick to your appointment time. Unfortunately, I don’t think I’ll be going back because of how rushed I felt. I appreciate Belinda suggesting a different service based on my needs, but I don’t appreciate how rushed I felt and how little attention she paid when I was talking to her. My hair is struggling right now and I just needed some clarification about the way it came out (which was ok. Better than how it was), and about the products I was about to purchase, but Belinda was already with another client, in a different suite. The assistant went to get her so she could answer my questions and in that exchange, I felt so rushed. She even said “I need to get back to my client,” and she seemed annoyed with me. Am I not a client too? I’d also like to mention that during the service, I was trying to talk to her about my hair + some small talk, but she was not paying an ounce of attention to me. She would start a conversation and leave me hanging, turning away to do something, talk to someone, or fix her hair (it was wet). Overall, ok service. Super in personal, super rushed, and not such positive vibes from the stylist, Belinda. A little...