Paul Mitchell The School Michigan — Local services in Sterling Heights

Beware of Waxing Services at Paul Mitchell Beauty School – My Painful Experience

I recently scheduled an appointment at Paul Mitchell Beauty School to get my upper lip and eyebrows waxed, fully aware that the work would be done by a student in training. I specifically requested a student from the Phase II group, believing their closer proximity to graduation would mean more experience and skill.

I was paired with a student named Amy. During the waxing, I noticed that she was going over the same area on my upper lip repeatedly, which is something that’s not supposed to happen during a waxing procedure. At first, I didn’t feel much, but after she finished, I experienced a burning sensation. Within 10 minutes, the skin on my upper lip started to turn red, and I saw that parts of my skin had been ripped off. It got worse with time—by 20 minutes, I had a large, raw patch of skin where my upper lip used to be, and both sides looked like I had a “mustache” made of damaged skin.

I immediately approached her instructor, explaining the situation. Unfortunately, the instructor showed no sympathy and responded by saying, “She’s just a student,” and suggested that I should have told Amy not to wax the same area more than once. This response was unacceptable—I’m not the trained professional, and I shouldn’t have to coach a student on proper waxing technique.

As the damage worsened, I sought out a second instructor, who was far more empathetic. She offered an apology after seeing the severity of the damage. She also acknowledged that Amy had torn skin from my eyebrows. I ended up having to go to a clinic, where I was prescribed steroid cream, antibiotic cream, and vitamin E pills to treat the affected areas. I was also asked to fill out an incident form by the second instructor.

I want to emphasize that this experience was not only painful but also completely avoidable with better training and oversight from the instructors. If you’re considering waxing services at this school, please be cautious. Make sure to clearly communicate that the technician should not go over the same area multiple times to avoid skin damage.

I’m attaching photos of my injuries to show how severe the damage was, and I hope this review serves as a cautionary tale for anyone considering waxing services at...

If you value your hair at all please listen to me...

DO NOT GO HERE!!!!!

Just cash out the extra $15 for an actual salon visit!!!!

Let me start off by saying that I am not at all picky with my haircuts. Although I have rather thick/wavy hair, I have never really gotten a haircut that I did not love. That being said, after being recommended to go here by a friend who had a good experience, I thought why not? $15 for a haircut while I'm a broke college student sounds great to me.

When I got to my appointment and was introduced with my stylist, Vicki (phase 2), I felt pretty good about how the haircut was going to end up. I showed a picture and then showed it to a supervisor so that they could see what I was going for. Before getting my haircut, I had pretty long hair going several inches past my armpit. I wanted to have medium length, longer than shoulders but not too long. During the entire hair cutting process, Vicki barely spoke to me. I found it very uncomfortable. I thought maybe she was concentrating on cutting the hair but even when blowdrying not another word was said. Well she cut my INCHES shorter than I asked for, with it barely reaching my shoulders, but all blown out I loved the way it looked!! (Please not that an instructor never even checked on the student doing my hair, not even at the end to make sure it was all good.) Then when I got home I decided to straighten my hair just to see how long it was. After straightening I as ABSOLUTELY HORRIFIED!! My hair looked like a toddler got a hold of a pair of scissors close to my head. My hair was CHOPPY and about 100 different lengths, NOTHING BLENDED IN TOGETHER!! There was even one piece inches longer than the other. I could barely look at it in the mirror it was so upsetting. I was forced to book another hair appt at a real salon so they could fix this mess!! And I was forced to have another inch cut off just to fix their mistakes!! All the girls at the hair salon could not believe Paul Mitchell let me walk out looking like this!

I did not expect to have some great $100 haircut but I thought that my hair would at least be blended in with layers that make sense rather than chunks cut here and there!! Never going here again and warning...

Been to Paul Mitchell school multiple times. Always had a positive experience. That all changed May 27, 2016. Went for highlights and base coloring. It seemed that notes of what I had previously received were poorly documented. Student asked me questions and got some some instructor input, but basically seemed to be on her own. I did not complain because of past experiences. Pictures of my desired color and highlights were reviewed. The main concern that I relayed was that I did not want to blond highlights. Since I have a lot of hair, student should have checked the progress of the highlights which she did not do until she realized my hair was blond. Furthermore, the instructor was too hands off for this student. I had to ask the instructor to get the student help. Nevertheless, after it was clear that I needed toner for my blond highlights, neither the student nor the instructor seemed to know how to tone the bleached hair to the color I wanted. Thus, I referred the instructor to my sister who had just finished getting perfectly colored honey carmel highlights with another student. In other words, I provided her with a real life visual. Instructor in turn asked me what color I saw when I looked at my sister's highlights. I thought this was a strange question. As instructor whose supposed to be the professional, it should not have mattered what color I saw when she had the visual in front of her. Needless to say, I have variations of blond to pale yellow highlights in the back with most of highlight in front toned out. Although, my sister's student shared her toner selection instructor told my colorist to use something different. Excessive amount of color was used only to receive poor results. Very disappointing. While I understand these are students and they are earning, it is my observation that the instructor makes all the difference if your student is substandard. This instructor did not appear experienced with color (had pink hair) and was too hands off for this student( not sure it would have helped though). My advice to anyone going to Paul Mitchell School for service is to first, make sure you are comfortable with the experience of the instructor. If not, do not get...