The Nirvana Salon and Spa holds the look of an upscale salon, and is also priced as such. But don't be deceived, as we all know looks are deceiving! Turns out this salon was bought by (father) Lien Thi Ly Huynh, for (daughter) the owner Gena Huynh. She is only 22 years old and does not have ANY prior experience in cosmetology, and in fact she is in the field of pharmaceuticals. What!? This salon is basically being operated by a pack of kids. The stylists are 25 and under in age, and are recruited fresh out of beauty school. Lacking the essential hands on experience, you become the guinea pig, so to speak; as they are still learning from their mistakes, you are suffering for them! Every morsel of what you have ever invested into your hair thus far, can and will be ripped away from you in a matter of hours if you go to this salon.
I was scheduled with Ki-Ki and was informed by the receptionist that she is the most experienced at this salon (also at 25 yrs. Old, the oldest). My appointment began at noon and she didn't finish my hair until 7:00 pm. SEVEN EXCRUSIATING HOURS! For the majority of that time she was coloring my hair. She left the hair dye on my head for over five hours! As a result my scalp was horribly burnt and is covered in blisters. It's so painful that I cannot even lay my head on a pillow to sleep at night. When I mentioned this to Ki-Ki and the owner Gena, they both lacked concern for what I was going through, and couldn't even tell me what I should do for it to assist the healing processThe chemicals dramatically transformed my long healthy hair into fried, broken, and lifeless hairThe hair dye stained the sides of my face all the way from my hairline to my cheeks.
In a typical situation, the dye comes off the skin fairly easily; however after over five hours it had absorbed so deep into my skin that nothing will remove it. Both Ki-Ki and Gena made multiple unsuccessful attempts to remove the dye, they rubbed so vigorously that the skin on my face was rubbed RAW, and now four days later the dye is still on my face! It's so embarrassing that until it fades off, I have avoided going out into public unless I absolutely have to; this is not so easy to do when you have two children to care for, and a household to manage. Things must get done! I get "the looks" from people, and I just want to wear a sign explaining that I did not do this to myself! All this pain and suffering from the dye process alone, and of course it wasn't even the color that we had discussed! Please, could we just get one thing right, and then maybe we could say all this was slightly worth it!? NO! The highlights Ki-Ki did only came through on the top, in the wrong blonde tone, and were striped and chunked rather then naturally and evenly distributed. This was not result of a failure to communicate, she just honestly is not equipped with the essential experience and knowledge to be doing hairKi-Ki had bleached the hair on my front hairline (where my hair meets my forehead) causing my hairline to become completely invisible! Giving me a very albino like appearance (for lack of better words to describe)
After over five hours of having the dye in my hair, she finally is finished and washes it out. She then does the haircut, blow dries, flat irons, then to no surprise WHOOOPS! She had not applied the toner which was supposed to be applied immediately after the color was rinsed out! Soooo, she had to back track, apply the toner, and then wash my hair AGAIN! (Are you still following this? Confusing I know.)
Moving on to the hair cut. I brought in several pictures of the same model with the same (simple and common) haircut to avoid any miscommunication. Of course she still failed to give the correct haircut, and even so, she performed the wrong haircut very poorly! Sheesh, can I get a break here!?
So, picture all of the above, and now SEVEN HOURS laterKi-Ki's next client has been waiting, my hair is soaking wet (not blow dried or styled), she is supposed to wax my eye brows next but has forgotten this! She has to hand me off to another staff member to do my brows; which I am now very grateful for, otherwise I may not have any eyebrows left today! Dodged that bullet!
I was now ugly, exhausted, stressed, hungry, and in pain. Very far from what a salon and spa experience is supposed to be! I just wanted to go home!
What this excruciating experience cost me? A whopping $231.80! The shock and utter disappointment in how it was handled by the owner Gena Huynh? Priceless!
Leading to
Once I got home, I called the salon and left a message that I needed to discuss these issues. This was on Saturday. Monday arrives, and I still had not received a call back from anyone. So I made a personal appearance and I very politely spoke to the owner Gena about all that had went horribly wrong. Gena became defensive, rude, and very confrontational! Even the other stylist present appeared to be in as much disbelief of her behavior as I was. I was offered to have Ki-Ki go back and fix my hair, but at this point I was so traumatized and afraid of any further harm she may cause to me. There was no way I could stand to let her touch another hair on my burning head!
Throughout all that I have endured as a direct result of the negligence and inexperienced stylist at Nirvana Salon and Spa; STILL the ONLY single thing I have requested of the owner Gena was to simply refund the $231.80 I had paid them. There is no dollar amount that could fix the damage this salon has done to me! However, a refund does reflect some sort of effort towards rectifying the situation. Simply put, it's just the right thing to do!
I went to another salon and so far have paid close to $300 for them to treat and correct the damage that Nirvana has done. I still have to go back for a series of further treatments and dish out more money.
Be warned at the expense of my horrible experience! I genuinely hope this review serves the purpose of sparing others from what Nirvana Salon and Spa has to offer. This situation has taken my money, my hair, my time, and yes even a slice of my sanity! Very stressful indeed!
In closing; my scalp is still burnt, blistered, and painful; my face is still stained and rubbed raw, and I look horrible to say the least. The owner Gena Huynh displays zero remorse, and to this moment has still failed to make matters right.
Thanks for reading!
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