There were several things I found disturbing about my time in Simin's chair. I'm not good at…read moreshowing my discomfort, especially when my hair is in someone else's hands, so Simin is probably unaware of how I felt during the appointment. As most of us do when we build rapport with a stylist, I shared some of my personal history with Simin. When she inquired about my love life and found out that I've dated Indian people and black people before, she made a racist remark that did not sit well with me, something along the lines of, "Why are you dating blacks? Indians?" As if the race of the people I dated had anything to do with why the relationships didn't work out.
When I asked if she knew any good places to get a massage in the area, she commented that she did not feel good about receiving massages from Asian people. She said, "I'm not racist, but I don't feel comfortable receiving massages from Asians. The places are dirty so I need to be careful." Uncalled for and again, racist.
Onto my hair, I showed Simi several pictures with beautifully blended blonde highlights, and haircuts with many layers. My highlights came out so striped and streaky looking that she could tell I was unhappy, but she tried to place the blame on me, saying I didn't know what I wanted. I knew what I wanted, but I guess I don't have the hair language to explain. I tried to let the pictures speak for me. The pictures I showed her had completely natural looking highlights, with the blonde diffused throughout dark hair. My hair is pretty dark with red undertones. I did not want stripes. I did not want unnatural. That is what I got. At the beginning of the appointment, Simi commented that my service would cost an additional $35-40 dollars on top of my Groupon based on the fact that I did not have any highlights before. Paying more than the Groupon specifies seems to be a common theme judging from the comments of other customers. When I said the Groupon I purchased was for "full highlights," she circled back to my hair being long. My hair was to my breast line, FYI. When it came time for the reveal and my disbelief at how unnaturally blonde it looked, she said if I wanted her to tone it in a week if I still didn't like it, she would. Then she recommended lowlights as she was noticing the back of my hair had a concentrated blonde patch. She had to undo her blow dry and style, rewash my hair, and then told me she didn't have time to blow dry and style again. I left with completely wet hair that wasn't styled. My Groupon was supposed to include full highlights, a cut, and style. The cut is not what I asked for in the slightest, it is probably the choppiest cut I've ever gotten. To add the lowlights was her correcting her own mistake, and I did not think I would be charged, but I was. She made several rude comments to her other customer who was having his hair done by her at the same time about me, saying "She was late, that's why I'm behind." I did hit traffic and I was 15 minutes late to our appointment, (which I apologized for well in advance) but I did not appreciate being repeatedly thrown under the bus for it. I also saw her use a pair of stained/used disposable gloves on her other customer, which makes me wonder whether she used clean gloves for my highlights. She said at the very end of our appointment that I could come back in a week to tone my hair if I would like to. I messaged her personally to request a refund and she said she wouldn't refund my money, but would fix my hair if I wanted. There's no way I'm letting her come anywhere near my head again. I will not be back in a week and I will likely need to spend another $250 at least fixing my hair elsewhere. We all experience one of those "hair disasters" at least once in our life and this was mine.
