When my daughter asked if she could color her hair for the first time for her 16th birthday, I knew…read morethere was only one salon I trusted, Fox & Belle. Before we booked, I reached out to Judy, and she explained all the different color options. Since my daughter had never colored her hair before, it was really helpful to understand the cost, timing, and upkeep. I wanted this to be something she wanted and chose for herself. Having Judy and Cristi incorporate her preferences and keeping her informed by sharing their expertise ensured she would get the full experience and make her feel included. She originally wanted a green ombre, but after learning it would require bleach and a lot of maintenance, she quickly changed her mind. They recommended a lower-maintenance color, but my daughter really wanted it to be a big change so we all agreed that a honey dark blonde would fulfill that and be a great introduction into the responsibility of colored hair. I had to go back home and work and left her in their care but trusted fully and from past experiences, I knew she would be taken care of. My daughter ended up seeing Cristi, and she had such a great experience. She was at the salon for about six hours, and I was worried it was going to be too long, but she had a blast. She watched shows and played games on her iPad, she was offered snacks, and even took a nap as she got her hair washed. Before she knew it, we had returned to pick her up and it was time for the big reveal. They hadn't let her see it until we arrived and she is in love with it. It turned out beautiful, and seeing how happy she was meant everything to me. When I was 16, I used box dye from the store or "Sun in" so being able to give her this experience was really special for me. It also gave me peace of mind knowing she was in such good hands and that her hair was being cared for properly, esp without me being there. Of course, Fox & Belle did an amazing job! Now my 11 year old is already asking when it's her turn. Not anytime soon but when she's ready, I know where exactly where we will be going.

I've been going to Fox and Belle for about 5 years now and Vichida does a beautiful job on my…read morebalayage. Fox and Belle is so welcoming and friendly, I just love it there. Vichida is the best; she's so sweet and always knows exactly what I'm asking for.

Irina is such a perfectionist and really takes her time with every section, but somehow the whole…read moreappointment is so calming that I feel like I'm mediating. She understands thick and fine Asian hair incredibly well and knows how to shape mine so it goes from ratty and generally unkempt to polished (and so much lighter). It can be surprisingly hard to find someone to do this kind of haircut (long fine hair) in the East Bay, but Irina really listens to the look you're going for. Her recommendations are always specific to your hair type, and I leave feeling less like I always have bedhead and more like I could be an art gallery girl in west village (iykyk).

TL;DR: This place is great! Book with Mark--he's an *artist*!…read more Longer version: My hair stylist quit the biz a few years ago to pursue a career as a therapist (so fitting, right?!) I was stoked for her! But since then, I've been adrift and searching for my hair match, trying out a new stylist for each cut. (My hair is fine but wavy with a weird cowlick, so it needs just the right layers. I had some great cuts and some so-so cuts, but never the right combo of close enough, a decent amount of availability that I'm not waiting months or driving across the bay, AND a great cut.) I tried Mark at Maru on a random rec from a friend whose daughter works at the salon--and after one cut, I feel like my search is over! The salon is very well-run and had an opening within a couple weeks. I arrived on time, was offered herbal tea, and waited under five minutes. It's in a nice spot in Berkeley with plenty of street parking with pretty cheap meters--$4. Mark asked me what I was looking for, got it right away, and was of course fun to chat with. I walked out with a cut I love for a reasonable price. I will definitely be back!

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

This is the BEST salon I've ever been to. Nick is a miracle worker. I've never had better haircuts…read morein my entire life than the six months I lived in Berkeley. I've also never been a regular hair-cut getter, but Nick changed all of that. I got three haircuts in six months and every time it got better. He would cut my hair in such a way that it dried with perfect texture and layering, without any additional heat tools. I brought several friends to see Nick as well, and he did a fantastic job with each of their hair types and textures as well. Cannot recommend him enough!!!

Itzel, in bullet points:…read more * Dedicated, hardworking and incredibly detailed-oriented * Takes pride in the sophisticated hair-coloring craft and never rushed the process * Asked me to send photos of the ash blonde highlights I had in the past that I liked to make sure the color formulation is done right. Ended up creating a slightly cooler tone that works even better for me personally * Spent HOURS on my hair waiting for the highlights to come out properly * Recommended salon toner treatment and silver shampoo to maintain the ash tones I like * Warm, friendly and easy to talk to but also extremely competent and informative. I learned a lot from her during the appointment * Focused on long-term hair health and maintenance not just the service that day. Also knowledgeable about curly hair which for me personally can be a real struggle * Made what could have been a routine salon maintenance appointment into a genuinely enjoyable experience. And if anyone from the salon is reading this: Promote her, give her a raise or clone her! I've been frequenting dozens of high end hair salons in the Bay Area (primarily San Francisco) and I can say with certainty - stylists like her are hard to find.

This was one of the worst haircuts of my life! I got the opposite of what I wanted and my hair…read moresurprisingly became 6 inches shorter than what was agreed to. Prior to coming here, I had my hair cut in Paris. This was the best haircut of my life. Long layers that eventually grew down to waist length. I described what I wanted (my hairstyle for years): cut to mid-boob length, with long layers starting from just above my chin (using my hands to gesture at height), plus thinning throughout because most hairdressers have described my hair as one of the thickest they've ever seen. What I got was a sideway somewhat uneven lob with no layers that ended at the bottom of my neck. This looks especially bad with my thick hair and on days when my hair is particularly voluminous and poofy I feel like a yeti. It will probably take another 6 months for my hair to grow back! I deserve to have my $160 compensated back to me for harm done. I'm so traumatized from this experience that I might go back to cutting my own hair as I did during COVID. When I asked why the length was so short, the hairstylist said this was better than what I wanted. Having already sat through a 1.5h haircut and knowing that long layers were not possible anymore, I didn't complain any further and just wanted to get out of there. I'll add to this that my hairstylist had some unsavory political opinions that should probably be kept private, in Berkeley of all places. I'm not coming back here.

I went to three other barbers before I discovered Annika, each of whom had had decades of…read moreexperience. None of them could fix what I called "the Bozo the clown effect". My hair would flare out to the sides regularly and had to be brushed down several times a day. I told Annika about this problem and she layered the hair on the sides in such a way that it now stays down perfectly essentially all the time. I can even wake up in the morning after a full night's sleep and discover that it still looks almost as good as if I had just brushed it. Annika is amazing. I would never go to anyone else now.

Had an amazing experience with Annika! I wanted my highlights refreshed and my ends trimmed. Annika…read moreabsolutely crushed it and was a pleasure to chat with. Can't wait to come back!

I have always been sketchy about my haircuts and I don't like people touching my hair I'm very…read moresocial in regards of it. But when I met Kokis oh my She is AMAZING and she gets you like she helps out with any recommendations and what best suits your hair and frame . 10/10 will come and trust me when I say I don't have any other hairstylist she is my Only One great service and customer service will recommend to friends and family !!!

The salon itself is very nice, and everyone is so kind! My stylist Brittany (@beautifullyslayedbyb…read moreon instagram) is not only a gem, but an extremely talented vivid color artist. She was wonderfully communicative. She talked me through the whole process, answered all my questions, and helped me decide what I wanted based on what we could achieve with my hair texture and length. I am obsessed with the results and I can't wait to go back!

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.

Karen cut my 13 year old son's hair in Albany at Grove Salon on Solano Ave. She listened intently…read moreand compassionately to what my son wanted even though he didn't know exactly what that was. She gave him a great and stylish haircut that he is thrilled with. Five stars!

Walked into this salon last minute and was looking for a refresh. The front desk staff were very…read moreaccommodating and were able to get me an appointment for this afternoon. Bethany was my stylist and she did such a great job of understanding what I wanted and helped me visualize what could work for me. I was looking for a refresh and she delivered! Would recommend working with her. All the staff were super friendly and this salon was a breath of fresh air - great ambience and a very calming atmosphere. Parking is on the street and typically available.

Simone has done my hair several times and each time I walk away looking fabulous! From short curly…read morecuts, dye jobs, to silk presses...she can literally do it all. She gets even more cool points for being a fellow Leo ;)

Simone was amazing! I wanted a brand new look and she listened. I absolutely love it and I have…read morereceived so many compliments on my hair

Heather is great! She takes time to listen to what you want and to ask questions to assess if the…read morehairstyle upkeep is actually feasible for your lifestyle. At first, I wasn't feeling the cut, not her fault, she gave me what I wanted. BANGS! enough said. But now two weeks into it, the grow out/settle of the cut is really nice. I like it more and more each day. I have been in search for a stylist I can keep going back to for a long time. I found her

Needed a change and did a big chop. So happy I did the extra research to track Heather down at this…read morenew location. She listened to all my concerns and gave me the perfect cut to suit my needs. I'm a once a year haircut kind of gal and lower than low maintenance so Heather worked some serious magic and poured much needed tlc into me.