east vanity parlor

I wanted to look for a new place to get my hair done and so I searched up on Yelp to find quite high ratings for East Vanity Parlor. I finally decided to try it out for myself especially reading that they were good and affordable.

It wasn’t difficult to get an appointment and I ended up having Heather as my hair dresser. She was initially very friendly and asked me what I was looking to do with my hair. I wanted to a new hair style and color, specifically cute bangs and a nice light brown color. I had showed her the color I wanted from a magazine she provided and thoroughly explained what kind of hair style I wanted to have done. I also asked if she could color my hair “ombre” such that the bottom ends of my hair would be lighter than the top part of my head.

She examined my current hair style and color and provided an estimate of $200. That seemed reasonable and so we went forward with it.

Everything went well until the end results were complete opposite from my request. I ended up with darker ends and almost blonde streaks on the top of my head. Overall, my hair color looked uneven and the color was brighter than the color I showed her in the magazine. The haircut was good, I’ll give her that.
I was even more shocked when she gave me the final cost of service totaling to $270 (with tax) where she charged me additional money for the “extra time” required to do my hair. Apparently, my hair was long and it required her to charge extra for more time (which she should have been able to gauge at the initial estimation).

I was in so much disbelief that I had just decided to pay my bill and leave. Once I was outside and saw the true color of my hair (which is MUCH brighter than what you see inside the parlor), I immediately decided to voice my concerns the next day. To add, I had to put my newly done hair in a bun the next day, as it was way too brightly colored to be acceptable for work.
When I called, I managed to speak to Heather and explained my dissatisfaction with my hair color. I told her that it was actually too bright and I need it to be corrected as soon as possible. She was not able to schedule me for an appointment until the next day.

On my second visit, the experience was completely different as I sensed much indifference and bitterness from Heather. She even went as far as to “advise” me not to consider such bright colors and suggested me to download an app that assists with color choice.

After a 1.5 hour service, we finally were done with a hair color I could actually live with; it still was not the color I initially wanted but it was definitely better than what I had from my last visit.

Finally, the kicker: she actually charged me $92 (without tax) to fix my hair color. Apparently, I still have a lot of hair which costs $52 to color and another $40 for her service.

In all, my entire experience totaled $385 (taxes and tips included) and this is what I got: unacceptable service, poor hair color (done twice), and a decent hair cut.

My experience was very different than what I had to expect of this highly rated salon on Yelp –

Never again.