I made an appointment at Shine Salon after reading the rave reviews on Yelp. After speaking with the receptionist about the texture of my hair and what I wanted done, she recommended a stylist for me and I made an appointment.
The salon is very clean. Everyone there was very nice and I was helped immediately after I walked in the door. They offered me a drink and I did not have to wait long.
I came to my appointment wanting to get a cut and highlights. The stylist and I spoke in depth about the color I wanted, we looked at hair swatches and I even brought a picture. My hair is very dark brown and I wanted brown highlights just a few shades lighter than my natural color. I also wanted my highlights to look very natural and stressed that I wanted them blended. I felt like I could not have made it any more clear how I wanted my hair colored.
After my hair was finished and styled, I saw that the color of my highlights did not turn out how we had discussed. They ended up having a reddish tone to them and were almost a copper color. I told the stylist that this was not the color we had discussed and that I did not think I liked it. She explained to me that she was trying to avoid using bleach on my hair and lightened it with hair color instead, which pulls a reddish tint on dark brown hair. She never discussed any of this with me during our consultation and if she had, I would have either decided not to get them or asked her to go ahead and use the bleach. My highlights also looked very streaky- they definitely were not natural-looking or blended.
I expressed to the stylist that I was not happy with my hair. She told me to go home and look at my hair in natural light and sleep on it. She said she would call me the next morning and if I was still unhappy that I could come back and she would fix them. That was over a month ago and she never called me. I thought about calling her myself but she made me feel guilty about not liking my hair, even though it did NOT turn out the color of the picture or hair swatch, because she said it still looked good.
As a side note, during my appointment the stylist had to leave me sitting in her chair with wet hair after my hair was washed. She had another appointment for an eyebrow wax while my color was setting, but no one had turned on the waxing pot so she was waiting for it to warm up. I had to wait about 10 minutes. This is normally something I would not have thought twice about but I guess it bothered me more than normal give my negative experience.
I have been getting my hair highlighted for over 10 years and I have never left the salon feeling unhappy with how my hair turned out. This was a first. My hair not turning out the color I wanted is one thing. The stylist telling me she would call me and then never following up is what really made me feel like she could not have cared less whether I was happy with my hair.