The Head Shoppe

Searched for years for someone to cut my hair the way I love and finally found her at Mic Mac Head Shoppe. Melanie is THE BEST. Also, I have curly hair and she knows what to do! She is professional, courteous and personable!

I called on a Tuesday and was able to make an appointment the next night with a girl named Caileen Canning.
I want to say that when working with a hair dresser — communication is KEY. I went in there with a plan (I’m usually passive, but this time I decided to try being more vocal about what I was looking for). I spoke to Caileen and told her I had the following idea: ombré, natural looking (no blunt lines), and a price point of 150 $. I also provided her with picture of likes/​dislikes. She did exactly what I wanted, and came under my price point .
She was wonderful and I was very impressed with her work. Whenever I have had my hair done, I generally do not like it when I leave. I take awhile to adjust to the change, and then after a few days I’m okay with it. Not with what Caileen. I loved it the moment I put my glasses back on. Not only was Caileen a great artist, but she was friendly (but not in a feeling forced way), calm, and focused. Just great. I HIGHLY recommend.

I’ll start out by saying before this haircut it had been three years since I had last had my haircut. Before then my best friend who is a stylist always did my hair, but she moved to Calgary. Before Karen did my hair I attempted to style my own after a horrific experience at a First Choice. So my trust for non-​Karen hair stylists was non-​existent.
After a long period of building up my confidence, and growing out my hair I finally went to get my hair done.
I don’t have a lot of extra money, so I knew I was limited in where I could go. $ 60 was the maximum I could do (and came at the price of my weekly coffee budget + what I’d normally put into savings.)
Head Shoppe was approved by Karen (her words) «They’re good I would put them in the middle, not the cheapest, but not like did i just buy a car» I made an appointment.
I chose the Mic Mac location because my fiancé was driving me and I wanted him to have something to do while I had my hair done.
My stylist’s name was Colleen, and in the little bit it took her to be ready for me I was pretty much ignored by the girls at the desk (who offered coffee to the other three people waiting but not me).
Colleen was excellent. She was very patient with me and was sympathetic after I told her about my past experiences with non-​Karen stylists. Along with my haircut I got a deep conditioning treatment — I highly recommend — heavenly. She was also the perfect amount of talkative. I didn’t feel as though I needed to talk, but when I did she didn’t make me feel like I was being burdensome.
My hair is fine and thin, and very curly. I asked to keep as much length as possible (As I did grow it out for three years) while giving me some soft layers to give my hair some life again. I am beyond pleased with the end result. I finally don’t feel the urge to just toss my hair into a bun every day. I made another appointment for April. I’m very relieved to have found her.

Here’s the thing, while they do accept walk-​ins, you should know that they are pretty ill-​equipped to do anything other than a basic cut/​cut and colour for it. I didn’t make an appointment because I wasn’t sure if I was going to be able to actually go on the day I wanted to, and I figured that a mall location would be quite open and willing to take walk-​ins with ease. I wanted to take my (little bit past) waist length curly boring hair to just under the shoulder, layered and ombré coloured with a bit of a bang to hide my giant forehead, but this is a time-​consuming process and the stylist was double booked to do another cut during my processing time (re: wait for things to get magical). She ended up having to give that other cut to another stylist because she didn’t have time (which made me feel bad), nor did she have time to cover up my grey shoots of wisdom. This place was BUSY! The stylist I had (I’m not sure if I’m correct on her name so I won’t name her in case I’m wrong :-/​) was chatty, helpful (especially since I wasn’t totally set on what I wanted to do) and patient, but I wasn’t fond of her cutting style; she cut over my head and so little bits of cut hair floated down on my face — not cool! The colour is beautiful, although it is NOT real ombré but rather like ombré highlights. I originally gave the cut the benefit of the doubt (or however that saying works) and assumed my cut was off because of excessive humidity we had during the period immediately after I had my appointment. I was VERY wrong! It’s plain awful, and now I’m left tying my hair up almost all the time because of a too short chunk on one side that is about 5 – 6 inches wet and springs up to about 2 – 3 (3 on a good day) inches after drying. It’s hideous and looks like crap.
Some drawbacks:
Things go really fast and so I kind of felt like I didn’t get an accurate portrayal of my ultimate hairstyle on a normal day because there simply wasn’t enough time. If I had, I would have noticed the wonky too short layer and could have had her fix the way it fell so that it would sit more naturally. Rushing is not good.
They are busy, so a walk in could take you a long time to get seen or you miss out on the additional time it may need to do what you want — make an appointment and be specific with what you want so that there’s time.
When I stated that I was interested in ombré they considered placing me with someone not as familiar with the process and I was glad I was there when the front desk attendant asked someone else if they thought this stylist would be comfortable doing it, but I shot that down before she could even answer. If you have hair that has special needs then take advantage of the 15 minute free consult to ensure they know how to work with your hair type properly!
Some added bonuses:
They have a ipad station where you can sit an play while you wait for things to set OR for a friend who came with you to sit and wait for you to finish, that’s a pretty neat concept and I saw many a husband/​boyfriend/​parent hang out there while waiting for someone to finish.
You’re offered a beverage — coffee, tea, water type thing which I think is pretty darn neat in a salon that is a do & go type setting.
Things are clean, functional and easily available.
Everyone is friendly! Front desk, your stylist, other stylists…
If you want to buy extra product (which is pretty expensive in comparison to the reasonable prices of the actual styling, I think), they will explain it and what it does and whether you really need that.
I had a follow up appointment and I cancelled it because of how terrible my hair final product worked out. When I told the front counter person that I wanted to cancel she of course asked if I’d like to rebook for another time. I said no, I absolutely hate the hairstyle I got. Her response — a shocked look and «ok». I expected more customer service for some reason and my excitement at getting a new hairstyle has been soured by this whole experience. I will not go back and must now make a new search for a stylist again, sigh.

I went to the Head Shoppe at the Dartmouth Mic Mac Mall today to have a colour and cut. Normally, I have my roots touched up and the colour pulled through my hair.
Today was the worse service I have ever received from a salon. The technician who did my hair obviously was not very well trained. First, the hair salon could not locate my card (although I had been there twice before). Second, the technician applied colour to my roots but did not pull the colour through my hair as requested. She said that she did not want to ruin my highlights that I had received seven weeks earlier. I told her they were brassy and I wanted the colour pulled through; however, it did not happen. Instead she left the colour on my roots for 45 minutes and then told me it was too late to pull the colour through when I again asked for that. I ended up with a brown streak for a part in my highlighted brownish blond hair. It was worse than the grey roots had been.
To compensate, she said she would apply some free highlights in the main part area. These 6 highlights ended up covering up the mess in one small portion of my head but not all over. They were not on for very long and I expect they will not last before they fade as the toner was on for less than a minute.
Then the trim — which was pretty much non-​existent. She picked up a piece of hair here and there and touched the scissors to the ends. When I asked if she had done the layers, she said yes. Good grief. I had to specifically ask for her to trim my bangs and thin them.
The flat iron job was a disaster. I have thick hair which requires patience when flat ironing to make it look good and straight. She proceeded to flat iron huge bunches of my hair at one time instead of doing layers. I had to ask her to do it over. It was a haphazard job at best. I have done a better job with my eyes closed.
After this horrendous experience, she then had the audacity to stand by me at the till and watch me pay with my credit card — expecting a tip. This is the first time in my history of hair appointments that I have not tipped the technician. When I left the shop, I ran my hand through the hair at the back of my head and discovered that the conditioner had not been rinsed out so my hair was a total sticky mess.
Never again! The Head Shoppe was good to me for past visits but this one was horrendous and the manager did not have the grace to make an appearance and apologize although she was aware of my discontent. I may be nothing to an organization as large as the Head Shoppe but the least I can do is never darken their doors again.
Update: June 19 (10:30 a.m.). The manager from The Head Shoppe phoned me this morning to talk to me about my visit. I assume this is from the lengthily complaint I sent to them via e-​mail and from this posting. She apologized for the quality of the visit and offered me a visit at no charge to fix the damage. Although I really feel uneasy going back to the same salon, she assured me it would be with one of their top technicians so I am hopeful for the best. Well done on follow-​up to the manager of The Head Shoppe. Hopefully after that visit, I will be able to update the star rating of my review.
Update: July 10. Had an excellent follow-​up appointment with Robyn at The Head Shoppe today. Hair was coloured, cut, conditioned and straightened and I was completely satisfied. Kudos to the manager for setting this up for me. I would definitely recommend this hair technician to everyone. She was friendly, efficient, sure of herself and went above and beyond to make sure I was happy with the finished product. Needless to say, I tipped her well. Thanks Head Shoppe for making up for my previous bad experience.

The Head Shoppe has been in Mic Mac Mall for decades. I can remember back in the 70s when it was the Golden Clipper. In addition to hair styling, they also offer aesthetic services.
The whole front of the salon is open, revealing the reception desk, a sofa for waiting, and walls of product for sale. You go through a doorway to the stylists’ chairs, followed by the sinks, followed by the aesthetics room and washroom.
The staff at the front desk are cheerful and unassuming. I felt at ease, with none of that «we’re too cool/​upscale for you, but I guess we’ll take your money anyway» attitude. It’s in a mall, so it’s important to cater to a varied clientele.
I had my brows waxed by Leah. The first time I went in, she asked if I wanted something in particular or if I wanted her to use her own judgement. I like to trust the experts (at least once), and I’m glad I did.
I’ve always thought I had freak brows. Overgrown in some places, too sparse in others, etc, I’ll spare you the hideous details! Leah quickly and precisely shaped my brows, removing only what was necessary to clean-​up around the brow area and reveal my brows’ natural arch.
I never knew my brows could look so good! Going in, I was a little worried that they would end up too thin (I hate unnatural, over-​plucked brows!), but they are just right.
I had my hair cut & styled directly following my brow wax. I wanted to go from medium-​short hair to very short hair. I was a little nervous, hoping that my description of what I wanted didn’t sound too brush cut –ish.
I think Brandon understood what I wanted better than I did. He listened to what I wanted and also asked questions and made suggestions. Brandon let me know which products he was using in my hair and why without the awkward hard sell you get in some salons.
Long story short: I was only going to keep the short doo over the summer but I really like it, so I think I’ll keep it for awhile longer.
The salon has a rewards card system, and after your first visit you get 3 coupons towards future visits.
The salon has an appointment terminal set up separately from the reception desk, so that you can book your next appointment directly with your stylist or aesthetician.
Something I didn’t like was that the POS terminal didn’t have a tip option. So, if you want to add the tip to your Visa, you have to tell the cashier how much to add on.
A plus: since the salon is in a mall, lots of easy access, free parking.
A really positive experience, and I left feeling very good about my appearance.

The Headshoppe has all the earmarks of your standard chain salon: staff in black uniform, a rewards card, and an array of hair and makeup products.
They specialize in hair of all kinds, but also have a couple of aestheticians on staff for dermalogical or wax treatments. They’ll offer you coffee or water while you’re there and make you feel as comfy as possible.
I do have to give a shout-​out though to my stylist, Kayla. She’s always in a good mood, is great to talk to, and puts me at ease when I’m in her skilled hands with a scalp massage before the snippy-​snippy comes. It’s rare to find a good stylist, and Kayla is one of the best. She, as well as many of her other co-​workers, is professional and occasionally competes in competitions and shows. I trust her enough to go in and say «surprise me» and be confident that I’ll leave with a nice new ‘do. Honestly, the haircut is one of the few luxuries I truly look forward to each month. I stuck with her even after I moved away instead of gambling with a new stylist at a closer location.
It’s more expensive than what may be your First salon Choice, but the price tag is usually worth it if you’re looking for anything more than a standard buzz cut or trim. Plus, as it’s in the mall, you can shop for a new outfit to match your new look.