I followed my stylist, Lai, here from Colour Bar. The location is cute and friendly and they still have the same products I like before. Erica, the owner, was nice to me and everyone I've talked to on the phone with there was super friendly, even when I was a little stressed :) I have a pretty hard to work with schedule since I'm only off work Sundays and Mondays, the two days most all salons are closed, including this one. They still found a way to get me in with my specific stylist pretty quickly considering I was coming in to have a LOT done. This is why I trust Lai. She will not book your appointment too short. She always sets really expectations about how long things will take and what the results might be. She will never ever promise you anything that she can't do and she will not process your hair to the point of frying it for a desired result. In under 6 hours she was able to cut, bleach, tone, style, and olaplex my hair. I have long, extremely fine hair but I have a TONS of it. I actually shave part of it and then part my hair in the opposite direction to covered the saved part because there is so much hair and it is so hard to manage and maintain, but I'm growing that part out for my wedding and it's about 4 inches long, so she also had to get all of that fine hair. Someone less skilled would literally need all day to do my hair.
That brings me to another point. I just like talking to Lai. There is no way I could sit around for 6 hours with someone I was not comfortable with. It would just make me anxious. She is easy to talk to and also kept checking to make sure I was okay, asking if I needed more water, et cetera. She recommends products based on what you need, versus a lot of salons that will just try to upsell you. If she recommends a product or a treatment, get it.
My hair was dyed red for all but the first 4 inches. She somehow managed to lift it to a very light blonde and then tone it to a mix of of super light platinum and grey blonde, which is what I wanted. We didn't know if we could get it that light because of the red but it lifted really well. My scalp is a little sensitive so we did the roots in two short sessions to make sure they were light enough and she rec'd a shampoo that will keep it toned for me. She styled it super cute and really fast as well and the cut is perfect. We did not have to sacrifice much length at all to get the look. I have long hair and I'm not a fan of "scissor happy" stylists that cut lots off. She cut off what was dry and needed to be cut, but honestly all that hair needed to be cut before I even bleached it.
The atmosphere here vs her old salon is more relaxed, which works for me. I saw a lot of people come in and out and get their hair done in the 5 1/2 hours I was there and everyone looked great. A lot of bleaching was done that day by chance and I think I saw three different stylists bleach people and everyone's hair looked great. I never saw anyone waiting longer than a minute or two but there is a lot of comfortable seating just in case. It also wasn't freezing in there despite it being super cold in there and the store front being made out of panes of glass.
Oh and then my bank declined my card for fraud protection since I hadn't been to the salon before or usually come to that part of town and Lai and the woman who I believe owns the salon apologized to ME about it. I'm sure in another salon that would have been super embarrassing, having to call the bank and all that to get it cleared up so I could pay, but they were nothing but sweet and apologetic and then just took care of rescheduling me while I waited on hold with the bank.
I'm going to include some pictures from my current style/color as well as some work that she did at the colour bar because I'm noticing that photo is still getting likes and saves on yelp but she no longer works there :)
