Went in to get my blonde redone, and I requested a white/silver/ash toner because I am pale and very pink in my skin tone, so yellow makes me look ruddy and flushed, basically embarrassed all the time. I requested the ash blonde, and was very clear. I asked for Khaleesi white blonde. I showed her pictures. I said, out loud, "white toner".
She made it BUTTER yellow. Like, no toner used at all, only bleach on yo head, yellow. I wouldn't have minded some light honey highlights in the ends but this was full-color yellow.
She explained that she "couldn't take it that far" (my hair was already a very medium blonde when I came in, and she couldn't take it to a light shade? I've seen people walk into a salon with brown hair and walk out with white, it's about the TONER), and she didn't leave any room at my roots for them to process later than the rest of my hair, so naturally while the rest of my hair was yellow, my roots were nearly clear. Amazing. It was very difficult to see this in the salon due to her lighting, but in natural light and every other mirror, it was obvious.
She also had someone cut my hair who didn't even WORK at her salon full-time and was just in town, travelling. I had nice, blunt tips that work well with my curly/wavy texture, and she straight up butchered them and made it look like my hair had grown out and needed a cut from breakage! Now that is talent, to make freshly-cut hair appear as if it were uncut for months. And this was when I requested that my ends remain blunt-cut, mind you. Not listening. Not caring. They know what's best. "She's gonna take care of you". Please don't, next time.
I waited it out, but I called Carole and expressed my concern, and she said she could put a toner in it for the yellow. I was like, yes, please. So I came in and they put a toner in the next day.
OH. MY. GOD.
I asked for an ash or white toner, describing it as "turning the hair silvery, not buttery or yellow", and she dyed MY LOWER ENDS GRAY (because they were porous, and she used a COLORED GRAY TONER INSTEAD OF ASH OR WHITE, my god, and left it on very long because the shaft was quite dark). I was like, okay, well, jeez, so I tried to rock it, but it looked insane. Yellow, still, but now we have gray and green too! See photos. For real.
I had to go to work like this.
People noticed. It was not attractive, or professional looking.
I called and requested a refund, and she was nice at first, but then angry when I said I wanted most if not all of my money back, for ignoring my requests, and straight up not listening to me, and I would need to have my hair color-corrected and then bleached AGAIN so I needed my funds back. She basically said, "This is what you asked for", and I'm beside myself, cycling between trying not to laugh hysterically that she thinks I would want this, and trying not to cry because I'm out $200 for nothing and that was about to be doubled, somewhere else.
I got back about $100 of it, and that was only after several phone calls and arguments. And at the end of it all, she asked me, "So are you going to come back to us when you decide to go red?"
Oh, honey. No.
The only upside: they plied me with wine, probably to lure the customer into a false sense of security. And it was a short distance from my house. But believe me, I WOULD WALK FIVE HUNDRED MILES AND I WOULD WALK FIVE HUNDRED MORE, TO BE THE GAL WHO HAS BLONDE HAIR THAT NO ONE SPENT FIVE HUNDRED FOR, DA DA DA DA DA! DA DA DA DA DA!
Beware! If you do bite the bullet and go, make sure they are CLEAR and LISTEN TO YOU on what YOU WANT.