Volume Hair Studio — Local services in Philadelphia

I can’t believe it took me years to write this review. I’m glad that so many others have had great experiences here and I wish the best for this business, but I have many regrets coming here to get double process services.

I have Asian black hair, which is very difficult to achieve to platinum blonde, let alone silver-gray, which is the color I was going for. I was very realistic about the expectations, and knew it would most likely take more than 2 sessions.

Before coming to Volume, I had my hair dyed previously at a professional salon. Turquoise green highlights near the tips, not starting at the roots. I was told this would be no problem, so we started the process.

As I was sitting and waiting for my hair to lift, I began to smell something burning and I felt like my neck was on FIRE. I immediately notified someone and they removed the foil. When they removed the foil, I could see smoke coming out into the air. They apologized profusely and washed the lifting product out right away. I said, alright, one hiccup, let’s move on..

End of the first session, I was relatively pleased with the results. I ended up with a light purple-gray, and I knew I had to come back to a second session. Fast forward to after the second session, I ended up with a bright blue, (think Crayola blue) which I was told would fade out to a nice silvery blue. They sold me on a bunch of Olaplex and aftercare products, and I think in total for the two sessions, tip, plus the products I may have spent upwards of $700.00.

With a question mark about the blue, but having faith in the salon professionals, I went home pretty happy. I did the at-home Olaplex treatment a few days later, (first time washing hair since after the salon) and asked my fiancé to help me reach the back of my hair, since I couldn’t reach it myself. He remarked how short my hair was in the back compared to the rest of my hair in the front. To which I replied, I never cut my hair.

Then it clicked. After the burning and smokey mishap during my first session, my stylist had burned my hair off and decided not to tell me. WOW. And they call themselves professionals here. If a business makes a mistake, they should own up to it and deal with the consequences. Sad to see this is how business is run in a “high-end” salon. I can’t believe they brushed this under the rug - burning off a client’s hair - and sold me on products on top of that. Disappointment is simply an understatement.

TL; DR - stylist burned my hair off. Didn’t tell me. Charged me full price for two double-process sessions, tip, plus products. Highly NOT...

Brides beware — I would not recommend for wedding services. Not only did the salon not remember what was my wedding day vs. a bridal trial, they called the day of my wedding to move my appointment around to a time that wouldn’t work with the schedule I had set for the day. As anyone planning a wedding knows, the day is usually tightly scheduled, and asking to move my appointment up for makeup is just not acceptable, no matter the reason. I also didn’t understand because they said the makeup artist had an emergency health situation and could come in beforehand, but not during the scheduled time because she had to get a shot at the drs office. When I reminded them I already paid money for trials for this day, they told me “well, she’s losing money too. And she has weddings this weekend.” So, that’s more important than honoring the appointment I made, for my wedding day? They told me “it’s your choice” what I wanted to do and that they understand weddings are stressful about a million times. As if that’s acceptable to move my appointment around on such an important day and tell me it’s because she needs to do other jobs over the weekend. No refund. No credit for services. No I’m sorry.

Having someone essentially cancel on you the day of your wedding, a few hours before they’re supposed to do your makeup, is a nightmare for most brides. To be fair, she does makeup great, but the salon and she were incredibly unprofessional. The salon especially was very disappointing to see how they handled this matter. Not reliable. Not...

So I called the salon and after speaking with them they said I will have the bridal contract in my email within a few days, when I received it I came to realize that they won't do the on site service unless you have a min of 5 guests using their service. since I'm having a small wedding I have just one person who wants to do hair and makeup I called and asked if I can just cover the min 5 guest fee by just paying for it (I am willing to pay extra to cover the cost without getting any extra service, seems fair to me), they said the person in charge will call me back which she never did so I called back the next day and finally got a call back from a girl name Devon. Devon didn't really know what she was talking about, she said a different girl is responsible for the weddings but felt like she has to repeat 5 times that the minimum is 5 girls even after I explained I would pay for it, when I finally said "yeah I get it, but I'll pay for it" Devon said she doesn't know why I'm being the way I'm being... ?! when I asked how am I being, she said I'm being aggressive! I was talking in the most calm matter and didn't really understand what she was talking about but I apologized and said that I am not trying to be aggressive, I am just trying to understand - which followed by Devon telling me they might be the wrong salon for me (!!!) I mean seriously? yes, with this attitude they are defiantly wrong, for me or for any bride really.

thanks Volume hair studio, thanks...