Sweet & Sassy - Ridgewood — Local services in Ridgewood

My daughter had her 6th birthday party yesterday at Sweet n Sassy in Ridgefield, NJ. I'd like to first begin by saying that despite the observations that were made, my daughter and her friends enjoyed their time because the had fun with one another.

So let's get into it. The accommodation for children of color to be seen in an environment such as this is not available. My daughter is Afrolatina, the images of the braided hair-do she had to choose from was only images of women/girls with hair that doesn't look like hers, she watched as her friends with straighter hair got their hair braided with ease, and I watched as two of the hostesses struggled to braid my baby's hair, and essentially hurt her because they didn't know what to do with black hair. It is clear that the sensitivity aspect pertaining to a more diverse clientele isn't really there. I know that most of the clients that come must be white considering the area, but in order to accommodate the aesthetic beauty of all clients I think it is important to have staff members be knowledgeable of all hair types, and the diversity of this generation.

The hostesses were friendly and accommodating, however, we could tell that a few didn't want to be there. She wasn't smiling, she wasn't really as enthusiastic she was just going through the motions. It is important that if you are working with children, especially little girls that are following your lead, to keep the energy up.

Instead of parading the girls around on stage a many times over, why aren't there more activities and games that they can play, I literally counted how many times they marched 5 girls in a circle simply to kill time. For the amount of money I spent I could have invested in having a stage built in my backyard, and having the girls play dress up and have my eldest daughter and her friends braid their hair in styles that were messy. Also for the amount of money I spent, no one offered the parents of the children water or a light snack, we were then shuffled into a party room that had not been fully organized from the last party, there were still balloons, and the room was just very disorganized.

The staff was very nice. But I am so very disappointed at how very Euro-centric the beauty aspect of a child's party is at Sweet n Sassy, especially in 2019, when most children is of mixed race and ethnicity. Time to update...

I brought my daughter here for her first haircut when she turned one, and we had a good experience. However, we came back a year later for her second haircut, and I am so incredibly disappointed. First, they took someone else before us because we were 5 minutes late, which meant that we had to wait 30 minutes. When we finally got to sit our daughter down, the first comment the hairdresser made was “it seems everyone’s late today”, smelling like cigarettes, with some underlying attitude. She asked what we wanted to do, and we told her that we wanted bangs but before I could even finish, she cut me off and said that bangs wouldn’t shape her face correctly (which I’m sure was an excuse for not wanting to spend more time on the haircut). So, she convinced us to just do a simple trim with layered bangs in the front, to which we agreed. However, with the first cut of the scissors, she cut off SIX INCHES OF HAIR. She then proceeded to give my daughter a bob cut, with her back hair down to an inch long. My daughter went from having beautiful long hair, to a tragic bob cut that we can’t style at all. We can no longer put her hair in a ponytail or bun, which she looks so cute in and has become her “iconic” look. Not to mention, the haircut is very poor and super choppy. It’s uneven and shorter on one side. Now we will have to wait months until it can grow to a length where we can style it once again.

Seriously, stay away if you’re looking for a haircut for your child. I can’t say anything about their other services, but I know haircuts...

My daughter had a party at Sweet and Sassy 9/2012, the first issue I noticed, was that when they were giving the girls a pedicure, the workers failed to change the water, so all the girls used the same water. After my girls were done, they made another little girl (who was not in my party) put her feet in the same water. They did not clean the old nail polish off completely, but put new nail polish over the old. Also, when it was time to have food, the workers did not use gloves when handling pizza and cake. They did a rush job and the end results were not satisfying. Toward the end of the party, they took a group photo, I told the young lady that there was a girl in my party missing, she took the photo anyway. The picture came out with one girl missing. When it was time for me to pay my balance it was a whole different price from what was expected. I was told by the manager that I was entitled to 12 girls for $496, and anyone additional would be $25, so i had 13 girls, i was only expected to pay $25 plus my balance. They told me the spa party only held 8 girls, so i had 5 extra. Nothing is written on a contract and they have no proof of what is suppose to be expected, only word of mouth. They are very misleading and bad for business. The girls had a blast, but it...