Gary Manuel Salon — Local services in Seattle

I have been a Gary Manuel customer for over 4 years and have been seeing Pax all this time. She is great and provides an amazing pixie cut. I have recommended this salon to quite a few of new-to-seattle friends. However, I am really bummed by my most recent experience w/ a front desk rep (Adrian?) who called last minute to cancel a hair appointment. While I completely understand the cancellation and had no problems with it, she was downright derogatory as I was trying to reschedule the next available appointment. When we finally confirmed an appointment time, her response was: "We will call you the day of, if this appointment needs to be changed again". I responded with: "Wait a minute, if its not confirmed, let's find another time when we are more certain that we don't have to cancel again". I didn't want to be cancelled on twice and be left with a mullet! She was derogatory again that she cannot predict the future and ofcourse doesn't know now if it will need to be cancelled in the future. BTW - this new appointment was for the next day so she isn't really instilling any confidence in how well run this salon is! This is terrible customer service on so many angles: 1. she didn't apologize for the inconvenience of cancelling on me last minute, 2. she was derogatory while I was trying to reschedule, and 3. she was derogatory again while confirming the appointment. This is not how you treat any customer; certainly not the one who visits you 7 times a year over the past 4 years. Though I love Pax, I am left really bitter with...

This place has really gone downhill. I went to the westlake location for years and had great experiences. Since Covid, I’ve had several unsatisfactory experiences and it’s time to say something.

I went in for a foil to be lighter and brighter. The person who did my hair made it darker than my natural color and greener, but tried to tell me my hair was lighter and brighter. When I explained to her that the hair wasn’t at all what I wanted, she gave me the silent treatment and redid the foil. My hair was a little better after that, but still not what I wanted or had asked for. To its credit, Gary Manuel brought me in for a foil with a different person. I have very fine hair, and this person made my hair so light that it’s still breaking off almost a year later. I expressed concern about how so many foils would damage my hair, but they assured me it would be fine. Clearly they were wrong.

I decided to try again with a haircut. The women cut much more off my hair than I asked her to, and it has taken months to grow out to be a halfway decent length she blamed some thing about “the perimeter“ of my hair that made her mess up the length. I’m not so sure considering that I don’t generally have this problem. She was also incredibly rough with the hairbrush. Like she didn’t know a human being and not a mannequin head was attached. After this haircut, I contacted Gary Manuel and they just didn’t care. I got no response. The salon is not the quality place that used to be. And it’s too expensive to...

I’ve been going to Gary Manuel for over six years now and working with Dez, and I can’t say enough good things about Dez! She’s absolutely amazing—creative, skilled, and a joy to talk to. Over the years, we’ve tried all kinds of hairstyle experiments, and every single one has turned out fabulous. Dez is truly a gem.

The only downside? She’s so good that her schedule fills up fast. You can book appointments in advance, but I usually like to wait until my hair hits a length I’m no longer comfortable with before scheduling a cut. That often means I’m stuck scrambling for a last-minute spot—which, unfortunately, isn’t always available.

Because of that and an upcoming event, I recently had to try a different stylist at the salon and booked with Dan. I’m sure Dan is a talented professional overall, but unfortunately, my experience didn’t go well. He accidentally trimmed a noticeably shorter section in the center of my head, creating a visible dip that’s still growing out. I believe it was just an honest mistake, and I’m not holding a grudge—but I also wouldn’t feel comfortable going back to him again. I’m sharing this here not to bash, but in case others have had similar experiences and it becomes something worth noting.

Despite this, I still highly recommend Gary Manuel—especially if you can snag a spot with Dez. She’s a total pro and a wonderful person to boot. Just plan ahead if you...