Vidogi Salon — Local services in Scottsdale

I have encountered many exceptional people and businesses and therefore enjoy writing positive reviews for those who deserve recognition. Sadly, this is not one of those times.

After relocating to AZ I was hoping to find a new hair salon for highlights to call home. I was surprised I was able to get an appt for my husband and I at VIdogi so quickly. I was booked without requesting it with the owner Denise.

I came prepared with photos and the formula used by my stylist who’s been doing my highlights in Chicago for over 15 years. Also, as always, I did my roots to save time.

From the start, the energy was surprisingly off. Denise did not agree with the colors I brought her. She warned she’d do what my colorist suggested but sighed and said it will be too dark. Although I alway had great success with partial highlights, Denise said full highlights are necessary. Not very reassuring for a first appointment so far: you’re being told what you’d been happy doing for the last 15 years was wrong. Denise knew better…

Then she hit me with the cost of approximately $300, while her website states highlights start at $145+. I have absolutely no problem paying for services but as the rate kept increasing, on top of not feeling Denise would honor my original style requests and would go with her own opinion, the stress level between us was palatal. She offered six foils for a lower cost. I can’t imagine how SIX foils would accomplish the effect I showed her. Typically there were at least fifteen back in Chicago.

The thought of spending hours with her negative energy was not something I wanted to experience. We both decided not to go forward to spare each of us further unnecessary aggravation.

That’s when Denise told me she’d only charge me a $75 cancellation fee (get this) instead of the total cost of approximately $300 she could have charged! She was doing me a favor! In an empty salon! In addition she charged an additional $20 for the dye she started to slop on my roots even though I told her at the beginning I had already done my roots and didn’t need her to do that even if I missed a spot. Total cost $95

As she was going on and on and on about the others she could have booked instead of me, I remembered how easy it was to get an appointment and looked around at the empty salon (3 chairs filled that included me and my husband). I thought of my salon, Maxine’s in downtown Chicago (Tracey Major is excellent). It would take weeks to get in.

Needless to say, one of Denise’s website commitments was unmet. It says on her website, “our commitment is to provide our customers with the most relaxing enjoyable, salon experience.’

Um, don’t think so.

Although I have never had an experience as distasteful as this one with Denise at Vidogi I will mention my husband had his hair cut at the same time with AJ. His cut was exactly what he requested and AJ was an absolute delight. And the price was as stated in the website.

As a prologue, if you look through the negative reviews, in one from just a month ago you’ll notice a rebuttal from the “owner”, explaining why service for a particular customer was so bad. Among other explanations she includes, ‘two staff walked out on us.” I wonder why. PS-OWNER NEVER REACHED...

WHAT can I say about this place - I love it. I've been coming to Denise for a little over a year now I think (wow time flies) and she never misses with the cut. Like most people, I don't know anything about hair - and so typically when stylists ask me what I want then I just defer to their expertise because I truly don't know how to describe what I want other than in general terms. And inevitably something always goes wrong. Not that those stylists don't know how to cut hair, but I just have an absolute mop of a head of hair and it throws em for a whirl - and so onwards I would move looking for another stylist.

And then when I started coming to Denise, from the very first hair cut, it was perfect. We've been through a few different styles now and every time I know I can trust her completely to do whatever because she truly is a master of her craft! She never lets me leave looking off the mark, and she's also just the most fun person. I often times end up just chatting with her for an hour or more each time I go. I think everyone should have this great a relationship with their salon person, and truly Denise is unmatched in that regard. She is super busy, which is understandable with the service given, so I always try to reach out to her to book at least a week or so in advance - and this is where she truly sets herself apart, because no matter how late she might have to stay she always does so to help me out. I've literally been in the salon as late as like 8 pm before, and she's the only person left because she's A) that dedicated to her clients and B) takes that level of pride in her commitments and her work. The service is unmatched (as they always go with the full treatment), and payment is flexible between digital commerce apps or card, etc! So modern and super chic - all...

Overall, it was a very weird experience. I walked in and all the employees were having a meeting right in the front space. They told me Hailey would be with me in a few. I sat down and waited just the few minutes, which was fine. Hailey came over, and they continued their meeting.

I do have to start this by saying that Hailey was very sweet, she got me in very quickly to accommodate my schedule and did a good job overall. Before I went in, I was quoted $250 to get my hair highlighted. Because she could get me in quickly, I did it. This price isn't unreasonable for a master stylist, but I realized quickly that wasn't the case. As sweet as Hailey was, she was only 20, just graduating months prior. I let her know I wanted to go very light, bright blonde highlights. She did get advice from other stylists about toner colors and processing, which I could appreciate. My hair does look good, but not at all what I was hoping. You can see some very subtle highlights, that are much more golden, very discretely there. It does look better than it did. It looks nice, but not was I was hoping for.

On top of that, the drama was just way too much for this Mom. It was a bit stressful with Hailey being upset people were talking about her in the meeting that was happening still, without her being there. Her attention was there, instead of focusing on my hair she was working on. A girl, or girls in the meeting were also upset and cursing in this strange employee meeting during work hours. Hailey is very sweet but still too immature. Numerous times and continuously talking about all of drama happening. Either way, the hair cut was basic but fine, color was okay for what it was, but not what I wanted. Sadly for the price, and other unnecessary drama, I...