H2 Salon Brooklyn – An Honest Review

A good salon is really hard to find. Especially, if you have natural hair, which requires a lot more attention than straight, fine hair. When my previous salon flaked on me, and I heard about H2 salon, I was so excited! I thought “Great, now I have a back up just in case.” Sad to say, I was deeply disappointed.

I was able to make an appointment the day prior for my services, which was really convenient, considering I was in a pinch. The person on the phone was very nice (I believe her name was Myisha). She help me pick a time and pick my services and ask me which stylist I want to book with. Thankfully, I went on their Instagram prior to calling, so I knew I wanted to do my color. I booked a color with Cyndy and she booked me for a cut with Char, because I had no preference. My only comment on this process is that I was surprised that she didn’t ask me more about what I was going to get, before she let me book the appointment, quoted me a price, and sent me on my way.

She kindly informed me that their cancellation policy was 24 hours and their late policy was that if you showed up more than 20 minutes late, you would have to pay a $40 charge. This is pretty standard across salons I’ve been to, so I thought that was fine. I’d read all of the reviews on here about how prompt they are so I was excited, especially considering that my previous salon was the polar opposite of prompt.

On the day of my appointment, I woke up at 7 AM since I was traveling from New Jersey and made it to Brooklyn by 9:45 AM. When I arrived, I was surprised to see that the salon hadn’t opened yet, especially because if you have a client that starts at 10 AM, you would think that you would arrive early and prep for that client. Because it was my first time at the salon, I gave them the benefit of the doubt and happily waited. I should note that there were two stylists there who are also waiting for the salons open. One who not so quietly complained to the other how upset she was that this always happens since “everyone lives so close.” (I later noted her name was April)

The stylist with the key promptly arrived at 10 AM and opened the door. I should note, that she did not speak to anyone who was waiting. She seem to be having a rough morning and went right to her job. Marq, A stylist who was also waiting at 9:45, ushered us all in and asked me and one other client who was waiting to have a seat. I sat and waited for about 10 minutes before I was asked for my name and what stylist I was here to see.

It was clear to me that the stylist I had booked for my color was not there yet, as the other stylists we’re not so quietly whispering “where is she” and “what are we going to do”.

The owner, Dailey walked in at about 1030, happily greeted everyone and began to tend to some business. At about 1045, The other stylist I was there to see, Char, stepped away from the client that she was attending to and briefly checked in with me because she had seen that I was waiting for quite some time. She talk to me a little bit about what cut I was looking to get, the maintenance that it would take, and advised me to take a look at other cuts while I was waiting. I really liked her.

Shortly after, Dailey got wind that I had been waiting since 10 AM and asked me what I want to get and said that she would do my style. It was then even clearer to me that my stylist that I chose was not coming in. No one explained to me that she was not coming in or gave me the option to reschedule my appointment. Because of this, I trusted that Dailey felt confident enough in the style that I wanted to execute it expertly.

Now, a little bit more about the style that I wanted. I have really thick, coarse, 4c hair…and a lot of it. My curls are tight and very resilient. Because of this, I have been able to experiment a lot with color and about two years ago I’ve ventured into fashion colors and colored my hair various shades of blue, green, and dark purple. The color I was going in for that day, was on the pastel side. I was looking to go for a lilac color with dark purple shadow roots. When I sat in the chair, and explained to Dailey what it was that I wanted, she asked me if I knew how much that would cost. I gave her the price I was quoted on the phone which was $211 which she was quite surprised to hear considering that what I was getting was significantly more than that. This tells me that the receptionist who booked my appointment the day prior was not well trained.

She then asked me to walk with her receptionist to the front of the salon to go over prices. I thought this was quite tacky considering that it is now 2017 and they definitely should have been able to go over this with me digitally at the very least, or from memory since she was the owner of the salon. Nonetheless, I walk to the front of the salon went over prices and gave my approval for the $370 fee that my style would cost. I should note that this is a Standard cost for a master stylist to cut and color your hair, so my eyes didn’t completely roll out of my head, I was just slightly shocked because this was now $160 more than the price I was quoted.

I approved the price because I really wanted to get the style and happily sat in the chair for my hair to get done. My style began at 11:00 AM, A full hour after my scheduled appointment. When Dailey began the process, she asked me how I currently wear my hair to which I responded “curly of course”. To which she responded “not anymore” because my hair would look like a ramen noodle afterwards. I was surprised and confused, because I didn’t know what she was talking about.

I asked her to explain and she said that when you bleach curly hair it loosens the texture and can destroy the curl.  Which everyone knows, however in my experience with coloring my hair fashion colors, my previous stylist used Olaplex which is said to strengthen the bonds in your hair and maintain the integrity of curls during processing. I explained to her that I had to use this in the past and my curls were slightly loosened, but I was still able to wear my hair curly. She informed me that she could use the Brazilian bond builder which is similar and that could help protect the integrity of my curls, but wanted to give me a disclaimer because she could not guarantee it. I said “great then use that” and kept it moving. I was willing to accept a looser curl pattern for the beautiful pastel colors I wanted.

Flash forward to the bleaching process. She applied the bleached my hair starting at the root first. I have to admit that I was a little taken aback by that, because in all of my experiences with bleach, the stylist has started at the ends first because the roots process faster.  I assumed that she must’ve known something I didn’t and kept quiet. After applying the bleached my whole head, she put me under the dryer turned it on high and went off to her meeting. After about 15 minutes under the dryer, My scalp was burning. It felt like a relaxer was in my hair and I began to get worried. The other stylist Marq, who was so pleasant earlier in the morning, saw me uncomfortably shifting in my seat and came over to assist. He asked me how I was doing and I told him my scalp was burning and he looked at the dryer and said that it was far too high. He adjusted the dryer and went to find my stylist. Needless to say that I was even more worried now!

After about 10 more minutes, the bleach started dripping from my hair and burning my neck. I abruptly stood up which caught the attention of Char and told her that it was burning me and she ran to get my stylist. Dailey came in profusely apologizing and immediately took me to the sink to wash out my hair. That’s when she noticed a band of color that had not budged from my hair. She explained that this was probably due to a wrinse that my previous stylist had used on my hair and that she would have to apply more bleach to it to try to get it out. She applied more bleach on just that part, let me know she had me on a timer this time and disappeared. After about 30 to 45 minutes of her coming back every 10 to 15 minutes to check in she took me to the sink to wash me out and informed another stylist that she could no longer keep bleaching it because it would not budge. At no point did she explain to me what the consequences of this was.

Once it was time to apply the color, she mixed 4 colors and began to apply. In previous salons, I learned that you can’t really guess the color of the outcome by the color mixed. So even though the colors mixed did not look like what I wanted, I didn’t say anything. Let’s remind you that I requested DARK roots and pastel lilac hair. She began applying the color to half my hair and took me to the sink to wash it out. She must have realized at some point that my color was wrong, because she sent her assistant to get some bleach to correct it at the sink. Again, no explanation was made to me at all.

When she sent me to the mirror to check the outcome, I told her that the roots were a lot more purple than I had wanted and she offered to darken them. When she darkened them, they were a little bit darker, but still not what I wanted. At this point, it was 4:30 PM and I was over it. She washed out the color and took me to the chair to style my hair. The outcome was vibrant purple hair with lavender tips. To clarify, it was not what I had ordered.

While in the chair, I looked at my hair and realized just how much damage she had done to my hair. My hair had gone from coarse 4c hair to fine 2b/3c hair if that. Some of my hair was basically straight. I was devastated.

She then styled my hair in 2 strand flat twists with more than a generous amount of mousse and set me under the dryer. By the time I was done about 45 mins later, it felt like I was wearing a helmet. My hair still wasn’t dry but i had been there so long that she was starting to feel bad for me. By the time she was done with my hair, not only was it not the color I wanted but it was also incredibly damaged. I realized I had spend $370 plus tips, so $420 just to spend 7 hours in a salon to get my hair damaged and I didn’t even get the color I wanted.

When I came home, I was so weak. I had spent the entire day in the salon and had only eaten one granola bar. Not only that, but I have destroyed my beautiful curls in the process. When I got home, I immediately hopped in the shower washed my hair and applied a protein treatment hoping to resuscitate my curls. There was no way I could sleep with that mousse helmet on my head. In the shower, my hair felt relaxed there was no curl at all. I could easily feel my scalp by just placing my hands on my head, which is never the case with how thick my hair was. It felt worse than it ever had in the last 8 years. I had never felt my hair feel so thin and weak and flat since being natural. I bursted into tears and resisted the urge to take scissors to it.

The next day, I applied another protein treatment and covered over the neon purple clown mess that was on my hair with a dark blue I happen to have left over, and made it a beautiful dark indigo. My curls slowly started to return with the exception of a random straight patch near the crown of my head. I resolved to putting my hair away in yarn locs for the summer and accepting the fact that I will have start my transition process all over again to get my hair back.

In summation, I spent eight hours and $420 to destroy my curls and hate my hair. Needless to say I will not be returning to H2 Salon. Which is a big bummer because I really liked the cut that Char did, but there is no way I am putting my hair in the hands of the rest of the staff at that salon ever again.

I think the thing that bothers me the most is that I feel that Dailey knew she had messed up my hair and said nothing! The back of my hair is completely straight and probably won’t curl back again. Back to protective styles for me! Now I know why most of these reviews say that this salon damages hair. Hopefully this prevents others from having to learn the hard way.