Serenity Couture Salon & Spa — Local services in Rochester

I scheduled a "Pamper me" day for my mother-in-law and I with facials, nails and hair. I booked them together on the same booking so that it was known we were together. Knowing we would be indifferent rooms for the facials I had hoped that we would be close to each other for the nails and hair. When we arrived we were whisked away for our facials which were amazing. After coming out of the facial, I had hoped to see mom and get to chat with her while we were getting our other services completed. No such luck, we never saw each other until we were completely done. Mom had a great experience with all her services, me - not so much. My facial was great but then we went in to do my nails and hair, I had booked a gel manicure (scheduled at 1:15 - 2:15)) and a conditioning blowout(2:15 - 3:00). I came in with Gel polish on my nails so that had to be removed first. It took her over an hour to get off my polish with the empty bottles of gel remover that she was trying to use. she had to so aggressively dip the brush in the bottle that the gel remover splattered all over the place and when it inevitably got on my skin, it burnt so bad. Multiple times I had to ask her to wipe different parts of my hands where the gel remover had splattered. Additionally, since she was being cautious to not get the remover on the skin around my nails (which I appreciated since it burns if it touches the skin) she didn't apply the remover to the edges of my nails therefore a lot of my old color remained on my nails. I have always removed my gel polish with an acetone soak, and I understand the worry about it drying out the skin around the nails, but that is why you moisturize after, at least it doesn't burn the skin and actually removes the polish). This process should have been a 15 minute process that took more than an hour. Because we were now almost at the time where we were supposed to be finished with both nail and hair, we were super rushed to finish both services. No time was spent shaping, cleaning or prepping my nails for polish, a quick layer of base, a single coat of color and a quick top coat was put on my nail. On most of the nails the top coat does not completely cover the nail color (the point of top coat is to seal in the color so it will not bubble or come off) therefore, now 3 days later the color is already starting to bubble and peal off. I have had one nail crack at the edge of the nail bed where she scrapped the nail so much trying to get the old color off even though it wasn't lifted by the remover. She finally finished applying my color at 2:50 (was supposed to be done by 2:15) leaving 10 minutes to when she was supposed to be finished with my hair and move on to another client. I was quickly rushed from the nail room to the hair room (note I still haven't seen my mom-in-law). I felt that my last service, which I was greatly looking forward to a relaxing wash, conditioning treatment and blow out, were GREATLY rush and not at all relaxing. What was supposed to be a 45 minute service was completed in under 15 minutes. I wanted to have a great experience at the Spa but I would not recommend it if you are looking to do it with someone else and you actually wanted to spend time with them. My experience did not allow for any quality time together. Additionally, the quality of both my manicure and hair service were GREATLY lacking. For the money I spent, I should have saved it and just gone somewhere else, as now I have to pay someone else to try to bridge the crack and re-do my manicure as this one does not meet normal standards. I specifically do gel manicure to help protect my nails from my job which is hard on hands and nails, this one did not help, it hurt them. I will not be returning and now I have to book a manicure with my normal place to fix the color and see if the crack can...

HORRIBLE HAIRCUT & NO RESOLUTION OFFERED

Everything I asked my hair stylist not to do, he did, and everything I asked for, I didn't get. My hair had not been cut in 3 years because I don't really like spending money on my hair & keep it very healthy, but it was getting too long (middle of my butt) so it needed to be trimmed & wanted to add some layers. I found out he had only been cutting hair for 1 month prior & told him multiple times (more than 5) what my fears were and how important it was to me that my hair was not cut any shorter than my elbows when dry. I said that because when my hair gets cut wet, it always seems to be way shorter than what I wanted so I made sure to tell him the length I wanted it to be when it was dried. He assured me that he understood & decided to cut my hair dry instead of wet, so there were no issues.

He took my hair behind my head and made the first cut and my heart sank. He cut it to my shoulders. I was stunned and didn't understand what/why/how that just happened. Once I had time to process it, after he washed my hair I asked him how that happened and what I did wrong where he didn't understand that I wanted it no shorter than my elbow. All he could say he was sorry and asked me if I was okay. He continued the haircut, knowing that I was really upset because at this point I had shut down completely & quite honestly was trying not to cry. I am known for my long hair, but more importantly wearing my hair up in a bun. The cutting didn't stop even after he knew I was upset, he proceeded to cut at least 2 more inches off of the length because I don't think the lengths were matching up so he had toe even things out. When I went to pay I expressed my frustration and how upset I was. I was offered 1/2 off the haircut and billed $19. I asked for a manager to follow up with me & asked if they would be able to do anything to help fix this like hair extensions. The lady at the front told me that they do offer hair extensions, but didn't think there was anyway the owners would aagree to pay for it because it was so expensive, but they would have them call me.

I never got a call, so I called a few days later. I was told that one of the owners was on vac and the other one was sick & promised I would get a call back. Again, four days went by and I didn't get a call back. I was struggling so much with my hair because I HATED IT! I couldn't even get it in a ponytail, and I hated the way it looked down. By the time I received a call back (not from one of the owners as promised, but manager on duty) I was told that the only thing they could offer me was to refund me the $19 I paid, and offer me a consult to try to teach me how to love my hair the way it was now. I was honestly insulted! I brought up hair extensions & this woman tried to tell me that I wouldn't qualify for extensions because I have thick hair & it has a natural wave to it, so told me they would never agree to put extensions in my hair because it would look like a mullet. When I told her I had never heard of such a thing, and then told her that her staff told me that I could get them, but that they would not eat the cost I already knew that they were not going to try to make it right with me. She again, offered me to come in and sit down with the guy that cut my hair & a manager and try to teach me different ways to love my look the way it is now.

I realized that I was not going to get anything I wanted, and this situation was not important to them. I asked if she would be willing to let me come in grab a pair of scissors and cut 15 inches off of her hair that she didn't want cut off and then offer a class with me to tell her how to love her new look. She didn't say anything. I qualify for extensions everywhere else...

TLDR: do not go if you are a curly girl! I went to Serenity being new in town, I have curly 3b/3c hair, and I called in advance asking for them to make an appointment with someone who could cut curly hair. I also stated I was ok with a blow-out and trim if that wasn't the case. They assured me they had many experienced stylists and would set me up with the right person. While the stylist was a very nice young lady, she told me a long story about how they did NOT learn to cut curly hair in school. Why then would they pair me with her? Anyway we blew it out and she got started. She 'pointed in' while cutting layers, after I mentioned multiple times I'd never had someone cut my hair that way she stated 'everyone cuts hair differently.' I really regret letting it go. When it was straight it looked great! The second I washed it I knew I made a mistake. The curls are frayed looking at the ends because of her technique and her inability to be flexible and listen to the client. It's been about four months now - my hair never settled into the cut (I DID give it time) and has grown out unevenly. I'm only writing this review to tell curly girls to be very careful and stand up to yourself at any of these salons. I don't have any idea now where to get a trim and I wonder if people like me just don't write these reviews in an attempt to stay Minnesota nice - leaving us with nowhere to get our hair cut. I won't be going back to try another stylist, not because this particular stylist was BAD but because the establishment is untrustworthy. They paired me with someone who was very open about her lack of experience and knowledge with cutting curly hair despite my efforts to call and...