Lisa M.
Yelp
I have gone to Harper salon three times. Each time I have left, while my hair looked okay, it was not what I had asked to have done.
The first time, I booked a full set of foil highlights and a root touch up. I have some white hair. She described how she was going to highlight. She did not at any time say, I am not going to do a full set of highlights, nor did she say she was NOT going to a base. Gretchen did mention about blending it so when my hair grew out it wouldn't be noticeable. Honestly, I had not clue what she was talking about. But I did keep saying I wanted it blonde, and I wanted the greys covered, not blended, covered.
At the end, she was taking of the cape I said, aren't you going to do my base? She said, "Oh, I thought we were on the same page when I explained what I was going to do..." I said, "no, I want the greys covered." She said we'd get it done next time. Clearly, we were not on the same page, because she did freehand "hair painting," instead of traditional highlights, which is what I booked and what I expected. I will also say that it's clear to me now that Gretched does your hair THE WAY SHE THINKS is best and not actually what you're asking for. I said it looked fine, but I was not happy, and honestly didn't want to say so, hoping next time it would be better.
The next time I booked an appointment, I again, booked a full highlight and base. When I showed up they informed that Gretchen did not have enough time for a full highlight. But she promised me she would make the blonde highlights all the way around my face and the back, because I wear my hair up a lot. Again, I brought another picture showing how I wanted the highlights. I mentioned I wanted the highlights to my scalp. I said it looked fine, it was pretty, but, again, it was not what I had booked or expected.
The next time I booked, again, a full set of highlights and root base touch up. I showed Gretchen another picture of what I wanted. I asked her to level up the base. I reiterated that I expected to have a full set of highlights as the last two times I had booked and not received. She did the base first. Then, she said okay we'll let that set. I was confused, as I have been having highlights for 20 years and they always applied the base and then did the highlights right on top while the base was setting.
I asked her to do the highlights on the top over the top instead of down the sides. She said okay. I mentioned again that I wanted the highlights to go to the scalp. I mentioned that I do not want to have it look like "I'm growing it out naturally, and that I wanted the full set of highlights. After the base was done, she did the highlights in sections. Each of the times she also did something that I had not ever experienced before, and that was that she removed some the foils and rinsed the hair out. She did it in three sections. That was unexpected and I thought maybe that's why the highlights weren't as bright as I wanted.
She blow dried my hair and styled it a bit. When my hair was down it looked good from the front. I didn't pull my hair back to check the hairline and I didn't check the back of my head. I said it looked fine. She said next time we won't have to do a full set of highlights. It wasn't until I got home that I noticed that the back of my head still had rather dark roots, the highlights did not go to the scalp, and the highlights didn't actually have much penetration into the darker roots. Each of the three times I showed pictures of what I wanted, and it was not received. I was trying to get used to the idea of the darker root base and it's not that it wasn't pretty, it's that it wasn't WHAT I ASKED FOR.
part 2 to follow