Barbarella Hair Salon

A few days after my initial review, the stylist from the salon got in touch with me; she was gracious and friendly. It was great of her to reach out to rectify my experience — something that some other salons don’t do. She offered to fix my cut and also gave me a complimentary blowout/​style. I was happy with the adjustments she made and the blowout was great, too! I really appreciated that the stylist and salon reached out and took my experience seriously and wanted to make sure I was satisfied. Thanks, Barbarella!

Took me in right away without an appointment, which was great. Not worth $ 47 (without tip) for a men’s haircut.

Came in with a clear idea of what I wanted and around 6 photos. Joey kept saying he knew exactly what I was talking about, like he’d done it a million times but then pretty much dyed my hair the same colour it already was. It took me a long time to save up for the appointment so it was just a lot of money down the drain. Joey was a really cool guy and everyone was friendly, but definitely a let down.

Was visiting fam in Vancouver for the wknd and needed to get a haircut.
Woman on the phone recommended Jolianne.
Fantastic haircut, fast, and to the point. Made pleasant conversation and she cut my hair well. Recommend for men looking for the short on the side/​undercut style.
Would come back nxt time I’m here.

Nice! Riley is good! I like my new hair! Try her! She has ten years experience! I will come back:)

Amazing! Best haircut I’ve had in a while. Riley had great suggestions, and I left with the best post haircut style that I’ve ever had. Wouldn’t hesitate to recommend this place, and I have tried MANY places looking for a good one.

Never had a real haircut. Riley was excelent.

Very sad to say that I had high expectations and was super excited to get my hair done here and it ended up being the absolute worst experience I have ever had at a salon.
I work in the area and decided to try out Barbarella instead of my regular salon and booked an appointment with Vanessa. We had a good 10 – 15 minute consult where I brought in pictures of the hair colour I wanted as she had requested and I explained what I wanted done. I have very dark hair and colouring it is not easy, I was open to her suggestions but made it really clear that I just did not want to end up with coppery red hair, anything but that! She very confidently told me that the shade of medium-​dark brown that I wanted, basically a couple of shades lighter than my natural colour, was very doable. She had told me that a 3 hour appointment was all I needed.
She put the colour on and it ended up taking way longer than anticipated, which is fine, thankfully I was able to reschedule some of the things I had planned for the day as 3.5 hours later I was still sitting in the chair with colour in my hair. She said «10 more minutes» several times but would disappear for about 20 or 30. Finally we rinsed the colour out and to my horror my hair had turned an awful coppery orange. I am generally VERY easygoing about my hair but this was beyond anything I could deal with, it was ORANGE! I couldn’t believe that this was the result of nearly 4 hours at the salon. When I expressed concern that my hair had turned this awful colour, which CLEARLY a mistake, her response was «well that’s just what your hair does honey». I just sat there in silent horror wondering how I was going to fix this in the next couple of days as I had a wedding to attend. Instead of apologizing or expressing any concern Vanessa’s attitude immediately turned sour and after several minutes she said that she could put a chocolate brown colour on top to cover it up. I agreed immediately, anything but the orange!
The rest of the appointment was truly awful, she made me feel so uncomfortable, was suddenly dead silent, yanked my head around and had absolutely no patience to fix her mistake and acted as if I was inconveniencing her in some way. She didn’t shampoo the second colour out correctly, didn’t use conditioner on my hair, and I left with a ton of colour all over my neck and ears. My hair was not even half a shade lighter than when I came in but significantly more damaged. Not only that, but she charged me 300 dollars for this mess!!! I was quoted something around 100 dollars, 170 if bleach was used which it wasn’t! I was charged TWICE that amount! I spent 6 hours total in the salon and left so so upset.
I went home absolutely fuming and called the salon back the next day and was able to get in touch with the manager who was quite gracious and understanding. She chalked it up to «miscommunication» between Vanessa and I but that had absolutely nothing to do with the way I was treated there. Thankfully I was able to get my money back as absolutely nothing but damage was done to my hair.
This is the first bad review I have ever taken the time to write and despite the 6 hours I spent there and despite how messed up my hair was, I would not be writing this if Vanessa had treated me with more respect or cared at all about doing a good job. If she had been the least bit apologetic or had tried to remedy her mistake instead of charging me for it I would have just tried to brush it off but it really upsets me that I left my regular salon to spend my time and money at this neighbourhood spot and was treated so terribly. The two other stylists who were working that day seemed competent and pleasant, and the management seems nice so I hope the salon does not lose customers but I would absolutely dissuade anyone from ever booking with Vanessa, if nothing else she is rude and truly has no concern or regard for her customers.

Got a balayage done with Joey. He is a very talented and knowledgable colorist, who listens and makes sure your hair is perfection! He gives really good head massages when washing out the color (bonus) and even ran outside to put more coins in the parking meter for my car (double bonus, considering the fact that I parked kinda far) I walked out with exactly what I wanted! I highly reccomend Joey for whatever your hair needs!

I went to Eric for ages until he left, then tried out some other places in hopes that someone, anyone, would know how to not only cut but enhance my wavy hair. Not curly… not straight… Eric was magic. Irreplaceable! But THEN!
Hayley.
Thank you, Halyley.
(sorry Eric! turns out you CAN be replaced.)

My first impression of Barbarella was «oh my god, I’m not cool enough to be here and they’re going to know it.» But luckily, they accepted me as one of their own and I’ve never been happier with a first trip to a new salon. I went in hoping to get my red refreshed and Nessa matched the colour perfectly. As a creature of habit, my second trip was for the same thing and this time she coloured all the way to the ends and gave my a more purple tone which I was surprised by, but fell in love with immediately. Something I also appreciated as an owner of hair that’s not curly or straight but a weird mix of everything in between, Nessa is a wizard when it comes to a blowout. Usually my hair will frizz at the merest hint of moisture but with only a blow dryer, a round brush and what I have to assume is magic — my blowout lasts for days.

Haley is a hair god.
I went in with a super bad hair situation, my undercut was a hot mess and the rest of my hair wasn’t doing me any favours. After an hour Haley had given me the best hair cut I have ever had — I don’t think I’ve ever been happier. It looks great and feels amazing.
The best part is that she got so into cutting my hair that it was like watching an artist! Loved it.
Thanks Haley!

I booked my hair appointment here with Annelise last weekend, where I chopped off my long hair for a bob. Annelise is an easygoing girl and I found it easy to talk to her throughout my time in the chair.
She showed great attention to detail during the cut and was diligent in explaining what she was doing and the products she was using. At no point in time did she ever try to push a product too hard on me which I appreciated. I did end up getting this amazing smelling sea salt hair spray though!
I would return for future cuts, and am considering doing a balayage/​ombré session with her.

It’s not the worst thing that’s happened to my head…
I went in with a lot of hair, hoping to gain wisdom on how to make the most of my straggly ends– specifically I wanted something that would give the illusion of having the biggest hair possible… so while I needed a trim, I was looking more for a style that would help my hair fake fullness.
So I made an appointment and when I arrived, I got the impression that I was handed off to a different stylist because the salon was busy: I heard something to the effect of, «you can take her, she’s just here for a cut.» Well that might be true, but being new to the city and generally afraid of salons, I was hoping for more than just a hair chop.
I feel that the issue was that there was a huge language barrier with my stylist and complete lack of communication. The stylist gestured me to the chair and without any conversation pulled out the scissors… I dodged the first cut and quickly tried to explain how I wanted to keep as much length as possible but was aware that I need to clean it up since I haven’t had a trim in a long time. Don’t get me wrong, my stylist seemed super nice-​very sweet and soft spoken– but I could not understand her if my life depended on it. After a couple single words to which I don’t know if she was asking me or telling me something, I realized I wasn’t going to get what I wanted so I should try to avoid the scissors as much as possible and get out as quickly as I can. Never have I sat through so much fear that my hair would all be gone by the end of it.
At the end of that overpriced cut, and after spending years growing out my hair, I was relieved because it could have gone much worse than it did. The only thing that was clear throughout the whole experience was that she didn’t understand what I wanted and I didn’t have a clue of what she was doing that entire time.
If I had more courage I would have ran out of the salon after the 20 minute struggle of trying to describe what I wanted of a cut. But instead I’ll just write this passive aggressive Unilocal review and will wait maybe 9 months before I try another hair salon again.
I’m giving them one star because the hairspray smells like orange creamsicles, half a star because it only looks like I have a mullet when it rains, and another half a star because it might only take about 6 months to gain back what was chopped off.

This is my new go-​to spot. The space is small but warm and comfortable, as is everyone who works there. Everyone is incredibly nice and for once I actually found myself talking to people in the waiting area instead of staring at my phone.
Luckily the skills of the staff there are totally up to par with any of the snobbier places downtown. My stylist Joey was amazingly talented. Seeing his (admittedly very cool) wild multicolored hair I was a little hesitant at first as I work in a conservative office environment but he is very interested in giving the customer exactly what they want. End result: I walked out of there looking so classy it would make the cast of Mad Men appear sloppy in comparison.
I love my new cut, the service was impeccable and the product they used smelled so good I had to buy it (and I wasn’t even running low on my beloved Bumble & Bumble Sumo Wax).

I thought I would write a review here as I found Chris Weber at Barbarella on Unilocal as well.
For those of you scouring the internet after cycling through sub-​par hairdresser after hairdresser, LOOK NO FURTHER!!! I found his work on Unilocal and specifically noticed that he’s amazing at color fades. He gave me an absolutely beautiful color fade and wonderful cut. I can honestly say I haven’t come across a stylist of his ability for years. Not only is he a superior stylist, but he’s an equally lovely soul. Can’t wait to book my next appointment with him!

Barbarella wins my review because it’s the only salon on Vancouver that I’ve been to more than once. It’s not that there was anything wrong with those other salons… it’s that there’s something very RIGHT about Barbarella! I’ve been chopped by Rainbow and Hayley and both were just fantastic. I felt welcome and comfortable from the moment I walked in the door to the moment I left looking like a god-​damned bombshell.
A+ will visit again.

Best Hair Salon and Stylists in Vancouver!
I go to Barbarella for the fabulous Chris Weber, who is one of the most talented colourists I’ve ever come across. Just one look at his instagram will tell you that he is setting the bar for colour in Vancity — his Colour Fades specifically are the best I’ve seen. Chris himself is amazing, he’s welcoming, warm, with just the right amount of listening to a clients needs while giving his input. The best thing I can say about Chris is he has incredibly vision, if you give him an idea of where you want you hair to be after one visit or even long term, he’ll happily put in the work to get your hair there — he cares about what he’s producing and keeping his clients ecstatic is what he does. Chris has given me my favourite hair ever, from blue to blonde he is incredible at what he does!
The salon itself is a rad environment, have you walked into a salon just to be faced with attitude and bitchiness? I have and there is none of that at Barbarella, everyone is so incredibly nice and helpful, you can actually kick back and chill here while waiting for your appointment and have a good time while doing it. Best magazine selection, great products and the nicest staff around. Oh also they do loyalty cards, which is great because believe me after one visit you’ll be back regardless!

I arrived ten minutes early upon appointment and was told that I couldn’t get my hair done because my stylist was not available, instead of calling me before hand, they let me drive about half an hour to get there only to get nothing, however they were so extremely apologetic that they offered ten percent of my next hairdo.
So being generous I booked the second time, went there and got paired with Kimmy who is absolutely AMAZING. My hair was damaged to no return from a previous salon, she was very detailed and told me what she can and cannot do and what would happen to my hair on certain procedures, also when she was unsure of something she would speak to her coworkers to get second opinions. I wanted to get my hair white which is very difficult for my hair type (Asian) however she knew exactly how to handle it, which she is far more knowledgable than the other hairdressers from other salons that also went to school for hair.
My hair was so damaged that I couldn’t go pure white just yet however Kimmy came up with a great idea and introduced «hair eyeshadow» called COLOURBUG which tinted my hair and made it a BEAUTIFUL peach shade! I’ve gotten non stop compliments from strangers and from my beloved.
Not to mention that Kimmy was so diligent and worked over time to ensure I leave the salon looking great! And the pricing for me was so affordable considering my position!
In love and going again in a few days!~

I typically hate getting my haircut. I mean, the head massages are great, but I’m blind as a bat– so I sit there, not knowing how my cut will end up, for an unknown period of time, making awkward chit chat with a near stranger (sometimes I make up a false life to sound more interesting.) We’re supposed to get our hair cut every three months, but I somehow miss the schedule every time.
Admittedly, Barbarella isn’t much better for my nearsighted anxiety, but a cup of complimentary tea helped to quell it. More importantly, my stylist Annelise does a great job with my cut and colour every time, and somehow deciphers my cryptic requests and hand gestures. Vague sweeping and finger twirls translated into this awesome, sleek bob that I love. «Not like an asian red?» somehow became this cool burgundy (that gracefully fades into my roots, such that when I inevitably miss a hair appointment it won’t look awful.) Like most stylists, Annelise also gave me tips on styling, but also explained why she was recommending these particular products and habits and adjusted her tips for my ultra-​lazy haircare routine. I’ll look forward to haircuts with her, blind or not!
Everyone at Barbarella seemed pretty nice, and the atmosphere and was pretty standard «hip salon». They get bonus hip points for stocking Fantastic Man magazine– I read a sweet Raf Simons interview while I waited with my tea. My cut and colour was actually pretty inexpensive, but that’s because Annelise’s a junior stylist. YMMV. They have stamp cards (to the great detriment of my tiny wallet) and offer referral discounts too, so tell them the internet sent you! We’re from the future!