Miriam has been cutting my son's hair since he was a toddler and does an amazing job!read more

Miriam always gets my little dudes hair right and in a very short time, which is great for a…read moretoddler.

Li does excellent haircuts following the natural curls. She works beautifully with my silver hair…read more I am an 80 year old woman and have gone to Lin for over twenty five years.

Curly haired folks, pay attention. :-)…read more Ly does wonders with cutting curly hair. I'm a red-headed curly guy who wears his hair relatively long and appreciates how hard it is to find someone who can work with curly hair. Typically, these people have been very good, but very expensive. Ly can work with curls, and she does is for a very reasonable price. Great location on Solano where you'll have no problem finding parking. And yes, it's a 'family' place where I know friends and family in the area young and old that all get their haircut by Ly. Please remember to bring cash, it's a cash only business.

I'd been in Berkeley for three weeks straight, about two weeks past my last haircut, and the…read moresituation was becoming untenable. I was not scheduled to return to LA for several more weeks. We were having an 87-degree day in West Berkeley, which -- for those unfamiliar -- is hot for West Berkeley, a neighborhood where the default setting is breezy and cloudy and lovely and sixty-three degrees, the kind of microclimate that lets you own one jacket and never think about it. Eighty-seven degrees in West Berkeley is an event. Eighty-seven degrees with hair that's two weeks past due is a crisis. I have Asian hair. I've written about this before. It is coarse and thick and grows outward like a porcupine asserting its personal space, and my coping mechanism in Los Angeles was to throw $85 at a hipster barbershop every three weeks to make it stop. This worked in the way that all expensive coping mechanisms work -- reliably, but at a cost that quietly compounds until one day you do the annual math and feel ill. 2026 being what it is, and a dollar these days being asked to do about a dollar forty's worth of work, I needed a new tack. I asked an AI assistant for a good cheap haircut in Berkeley and got several suggestions, which I then searched on Yelp -- yes, the very Yelp you are looking at, imagine that -- for reviews. One thing I noticed about La Petite was that people mentioned Asian women cutting hair there, and the photos confirmed it. I had a thought, the kind of thought that sounds reductive when you say it out loud but is grounded in lived experience: Asian women probably know how to deal with hair like mine. This is not a stereotype. This is pattern recognition developed over decades of watching non-Asian barbers stare at my head with the quiet bewilderment of someone asked to solve a math problem in a language they don't speak. No shade intended, just facts. So I gave La Petite a go. You watch closely when someone new is cutting your hair. You can't help it. You're tracking every snip in the mirror, reading their hands the way you'd read a stranger's driving in the first five minutes of a road trip -- are we safe here, does this person know what they're doing, should I have said something three turns ago. About halfway through, I watched her take volume out of my hair in a way that hadn't been done in years -- not just trimming the length but actually understanding the architecture of thick Asian hair, where the bulk lives, how it falls, how it will eventually grow out, where it needs to be thinned so it lies flat instead of projecting horizontally from your skull like it's staging a protest. She knew. I knew she knew. I had my new stylist. Twenty-eight dollars. Twenty-eight dollars, and I walked out with the best haircut I've had in longer than I'd like to admit. That's $57 left over from what I was paying in LA -- enough to buy groceries, or three martinis at happy hour, or a pizza at June's, or whatever you buy when you realize you've been dramatically overpaying for a basic human service because you confused a cool neighborhood and exposed brick with competence. La Petite has neither exposed brick nor a cocktail menu. What it has is someone who looked at my difficult hair and knew exactly what to do with it, which is the only thing that has ever mattered and the only thing I'm paying for from now on.

I went to get a haircut Friday afternoon for a special occasion and showed them exactly what I…read morewanted: a classic Ben Affleck Bruce Wayne-style haircut with regular-sized sideburns, just like the character. They asked me if I was graduating, and I said no, I was meeting my fiancée's mom the next day. Five minutes before the haircut was finished, the stylist took a big chunk off my right sideburn. She cut it too high, which ruined the whole haircut, especially since my face shape doesn't suit short sideburns. I told her I didn't like it. I didn't overreact or yell, I was just uncomfortable. The hairdresser said, "Too bad!" and tried to dismiss the issue. I told her again that she should have asked me about the length. She then took it personally and told her boss that I was making things up so I wouldn't pay, saying, "They do this so they don't pay." What do you mean by "they"? Not only did I feel dismissed and treated unprofessionally, but also disrespected. I was upset after the whole situation, but even then I was willing to pay and didn't want to leave without paying because I didn't want to prove her point. Plus, it's not that expensive. At the end, the stylist said she had 40 years of experience. Well, after this, it feels like you wasted 40 years and somehow skipped the basics of customer service. Not coming back, even after being offered a free haircut. I would rather pay three times what I paid today for a standard service where you're treated with basic courtesy.

i hate haircuts! i always leave feeling sad and in existential dread (who needs to stare at…read morethemselves for that long anyway?) Nick made my experience awesome, he listened to me and gave ma cut i loved! The shampoo was so tender and i feel like my foxiest self. conversation was easeful and light. So appreciate! Will be back in 6-8 months lol

I cannot say enough about this salon and all of their staff. Everyone is truly wonderful. And, ACE…read morewas AMAZING. We had such a great time and the end result was "CHIC-ILICIOUS"! Purple, Teal, Fuschia, Oh MY! Thank you!

Eric is the best at cut and color. Have been going to his salon for several years!…read more Chandra

Eric gave me the best haircut I've ever had. I'm not exaggerating. He's a master of his craft. The…read morecut framed my face so nicely and even made me look younger. Thank you, Eric!

This was my first big chop ever and when I tell you Glynis made me feel absolutely comfortable is…read morean understatement. She listened to what I wanted and went through each process step by step explaining everything. The vibe is amazing, very calm, welcoming and safe. Will definitely be back and highly recommend!!!!

Glynis offers nothing but First Class Service to all her clients. The socialization in her salon…read moreis amazing. Her clients are able to partner with clients to help their needs. I am amazed at the relationship that are cultivated in her salon. Let me not leave out that all her clients know she loves her bubbles and brings a bottle to share. Cheers to a fantastic stylist and now a good friend.

They messed up my hair, and by they, I mean there was literally two people cutting my hair at the…read moresame time. I asked for a trim. One person (Jackie) cutting the right side told me she didn't have her cosmology degree. The left side was cut by (Maryanne) who apparently was trying to teach Jackie how to cut hair. This was not anything I had agreed to. They just sat me down in the chair and started in. They also were pretty boisterous and oddly insulting about my hair. I asked Jackie to stop cutting because I could see how horrid she was at cutting hair, but she wouldn't stop. But once you sit down and people have started cutting, it's not easy to stop them. The left side by Maryanne is okay. Although she cut more off than I asked, and she didn't stick just with a trim because she tried to do damage control for Jackie's mistakes. The right side by Jackie is hideous, with huge chunky layers cut into it. Maryanne, (the experienced hairdresser) admonished Jackie, (the one without a degree), saying to her "remember how good my side looked before I tried to fix your side". I knew some damage had been done but wasn't sure how much, because they styled my hair in a way that covered up the mistake. I was charged 75 dollars and had to tip two separate people on top of that. As I left I was told they could fix any problem, to just to come back. But when I came back the next day and tried to talk with them. Jackie was hostile and said I asked her to cut the right side that way, while Maryanne accused me of making a scene although I didn't even raise my voice. I then was bullied out of the door by a burly mean acting guy. Later that day I received a phone call from Maryanne (the experienced hairdresser who had done the left side). She appeared drunk or to be dealing with mental health issues. I tired to discuss my concerns with her, and she said something like "I'd rather talk about anything else than your hair, can we talk about the war in Syria?" Like seriously? No. Maryanne refused to see the problem with what had happened (they basically used my hair to teach somebody without a degree). To this Maryanne said "But I Love Jackie". And "you don't need a license to cut hair". She refused a refund, even partially. Kept saying she "had to go" but then kept talking. Just to get her off the phone I told her I'd consider having her cut it again in some random point in time, after the much-too- short pieces from Jackie's chop-job grow out. But honestly I am not planning on ever going back there, I don't see how I'd ever trust anybody from that shop near my hair in the future.

I cannot possibly express just how happy I am with my experience on Cuttin' Up on College. I made a…read morelast minute appointment for a haircut and perm and Maryanne got me in no problem. I had super long, straight, fine hair but wanted a bouncy 1980s perm. Maryanne spent all evening working my hair and making it perfect. I never dreamed I could have hair with such volume. I'm super picky about who I can trust with my hair and I can definitely say that I will be back to Cuttin up on College. Maryanne is amazing! I couldn't be happier.

Long over-due recommendation for Tito @Moonshadow. I see Tito several times a year for my Cezanne…read more(Formaldehyde-free) keratin smoothing treatment. He does a fantastic job that keeps me coming back (it's about 3 hrs for my long-ish, unruly frizzy hair) I also get a haircut (cool razor chop). The salon is clean and relaxing and Tito lets me zone out with a podcast, checking in when needed which I appreciate. I have recommended Tito to friends and family who all love the service.

Abousolutley HORRIBLE. I gave an inspiration picture that includes flowy layers and a wispy look…read moreall over. When my hair stylist was doing my hair she had not even showed me the progress, I had nice wavy hair when I came in for my appointment and now the hair stylist I had gave me PIN STRAIGHT HAIR. It was soooooo botched and it was un-even. But the layers weren't even layers there was one chunk in the middle of my hair. I did NOT like the out-come product of my hair and it was NOTHING like I had asked.