Aveda Institute Denver

Reviews 3

EL

Elizabeth Wooton

I went here for a cut and color the other day. Ill start by saying that I have really fine strait hair and you can see any and all imperfections in any cut that I get, so maybe I should have known better than to go to a school, but I was drawn in by the opportunity to save a few bucks. I requested a master student and I asked for a short bob style and auburn brown hair color, and I brought a picture in too. Unfortunately what I got was an edgy, uneven cut and dark red with a purply cast hair color that made me look extremely washed out. I tried really hard to like it and thought maybe the color would look better after it faded a bit. I am getting married in 2 weeks though and dont have time to wait for it to fade to a more acceptable color. I didnt realize how much I hated it until the next day. I actually cried about my hair!!! (silly I know, but it was really really awful looking and didnt suit me at all. Also the stylist was really sloppy in the application and I had this thick ring around my scalp of dye that I had to scrub off. Ive done better coloring my hair at home with a box kit. I called my usual salon and went in for a fix. She said if she re-dyed it it to cover the funky purply red it would make my hair go even darker so she had to do all over highlights to blend the strange color to a more natural color, and she said that my hair was really uneven in the back (which would explain why one side looked really angled and the other not as much. She softened up the cut and made it look more feminine, using some techniques she said you dont learn in beauty school. She said she learned how to layer and texturize hair when she had an apprenticeship and that in beauty school they only basically teach you to pass state boards. Anyway, it cost about $75 at Aveda Institue, and another $160 to fix the terribble cut and color, so the money saving plan definitely backfired. I should have listened to the negative reviews. Another thing she said is that with Aveda color its harder to get consistent results. I have been to aveda salons and gotten good color results, but it sounds like that particular color line increases the likelihood that something could go wrong. So if you want Aveda color, go to an experienced pro, not a student. I gave it 2 stars because the stylist was so nice and I know she did her best. Im sure she will be great once she does an apprenticeship and gets some experience under her belt. Also I like the way their products smell and I have a gift certificate that I will use toward a mani/pedi before my wedding. Just wont ever go there again for hair.

AN

Anne Cochran

Tell you what, Im white-hot angry. Regarding my visit to the Aveda Institute Denver yesterday -- I concluded that the poor little girl who was assigned to wash and blow dry my hair hadnt received one morsel of training prior to being turned loose on my head. I have shoulder-length straight-ish hair with few tricks, a pretty straightforward proposition. Heres how things went. She started by telling me that I would receive a scalp massage as part of the session, ran off to retrieve three different oil scents, had me choose one, and then she proceeded to dab it on my part and sort of push it around just a teeny bit, as though she was applying a little iodine to a little head wound. (Great, thanks so much for giving me a greasy hair part right off the bat!) My thought was, well, shes just getting things ready and is obviously going to administer the scalp massage over at the sink before the wash, but nope, didnt happen...then she sort of dampened my hair, half-heartedly rubbed a little shampoo around in it, sort of rinsed it out with much conversation about peoples water temperature preferences, dumped some conditioner on it while making sure she showed me the bottle so I could marvel at Avedas product line, then sort of rinsed it out but not really. By now I began to know I was in trouble. The blow-drying portion of the visit was unreal. She handled my hair as though shed never touched a human head in her life -- was utterly flummoxed. She had to keep running off to some other part of the salon to ask questions. Im a horrible handler of my own hair, yet I can do it with far more skill and confidence than she could. I felt sorry for her, because Im sure she paid many thousands of dollars to this place for training, and shes received none. The only lesson she seems to have been taught is to say "Heres a paper with a list of all the Aveda products I used on you" and then to ask "Do you need any new products today?" at the end of the session. My answer, as you can well imagine, was "Oh honey....REALLY?" I walked out looking like a frizzy drowned rat after they tried to get me to sit still for some flat ironing that shouldnt have been required, for which they wanted me to pay an extra $10. The answer was no. I walked a couple of blocks down to another salon near the Curtis Hotel where they started all over, and in 20 minutes, I walked out with decent-looking hair, all for $25. Yikes -- a whole hour plus $12 at Aveda was totally wasted. Just pay the money and go to a real hair salon. Youll save yourself so much aggravation.

VI

Victoria Watson

I went in for an all-over color & haircut. I wanted a simple brown and even showed the "premier talent" I was working with pictures to make sure we were on the same page. After 3 consultations, I felt OK about it. AFTER 4 HOURS Instead of the brown I wanted I ended up with jet black hair with green ashy undertones. To make matters worse, I got HALF a haircut which she only realized until AFTER she was done drying my hair. When working with students I expect the worst sometimes but INSTEAD OF apologizing and owning the mistake, they blamed me! The lead on the floor said I told her something completely different. WHAT??? The nerve to try to blame the customer who had example pictures and a 30 minute consult which is longer than most consults. Management actually wanted me to pay full price for this. They told me to pay for it and they would fix it. So I paid. When I tried to schedule the redo they told me it was considered a "new service" and I would have to pay for that too. SERIOUSLY? I wont even go into detail about how they treated my sister who was with me. They went off on her bc she used the other side of a sponge to see a powder color in the makeup area. My sister is a high end makeup artist!! The person at the desk made a scene accusing her of contaminating a tester; it was so loud I heard it from 4 stations away! The last disgusting event I can report is that Everyone In the lobby was offered a free service or product tester EXCEPT my Mexican mom and sister. Absolutely despicable. Needless to say, The service I received here was a joke and I will never return. You can keep my $ and please save the fake response that denotes any type of real compassion for my situation. There were 3 educators that made me explain the situation and all of you were completely unempathetic at the time so save it.

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