Bought a groupon for balayage for 130 - had to pay extra 45 for toner. Arrived at salon to friendly staff, offered refreshments immediately, which was nice. I was told that I was "extremely lucky" because my hairdresser was sick and he would be cutting my hair today. I told him I was happy with my hair cut (having just had a dramatic cut four weeks ago, which I loved), but he said my hair was terrible and that he would improve it. He quicky blow dried my non heat protected hair from my GHD curls to some sort of almost straight frizz... Was not happy with that. I went along with it, because I'm non-confrontational, and he layered my hair a lot while keeping the length. I wasn't too pleased but it wasn't terrible, so that's not the big deal. After the rough haircut (took approximately 5 minutes), I was shown to my colorist, who I gave a bunch of photos to. The goal was to get a warm chocolatey brown colour which was subtle and gradual. The colourist left bleach in my hair for 20 minutes, then checked, and decided it wasn't enough, and left it for a further 20. By then, my hair was pretty damaged (even though I started with pretty healthy hair). She proceeded to put toner in. After a rough dry, my hair was thoroughly orange. I hated it. It wasn't what I wanted, not at all like the pictures I showed her. Then I was handed over to a girl (who I assumed was an intern or something). I asked her for natural waves, polished but touchable. She told me she wasn't sure how to do waves on hair. So she dried it straight. [name removed] came along again and decided I was super lucky because he was going to style my hair. Without any regard to my preference, he gave me a GHD frizz curl which started at the base of my hair and sort of just fluffed outward. I have normal, straight asian hair. So you can imagine just how pleased I was to look like a lion. He asked me what I thought, and politely, stupidly, I said: it's fine. He huffed, and said: only fine? Before leaving my chair. I asked for polished and soft, and he gave me a heat damaged frizzy mess. I understand that fashion is sometimes confrontational, but I just wanted my hair to look nice. It didn't look nice. At all. When I left, I quickly put it up in a bun on top of my head and avoided eye contact with everyone. Not really a result you'd pay 185 for... and if I hadn't bought the groupon, that would have been a 300+ salon experience. Overall, though the staff was attentive, and, I suppose, nice enough, I didn't get what I asked for. My hair is now damaged (btw, no heat protection throughout the whole experience) and I walked out embarrassed about the state of my hair. Was it the worst experience? Some people have probably had worse, but in my books, I've never been unhappier walking out of a salon... And on occasion, I've paid only $30 for a chain store hair cut. So... book at your own risk.

Approximate cost: $200