Zennkai Salon – West 4th

So glad I found this store. Lot of great brands. Love that they explained what it’s better to my hair type. The staff was great and helpful.

I went in for a cut and a colour, with the goal of going form dark brown virgin hair to an ash blonde last weekend. I showed the stylist, Parke, pictures as examples — and he said that he would be able to achieve the blonde I wanted, but start me off as a darker blonde and eventually reach the lighter blonde at a later time. To my understanding I would walk out of the salon that day with hair that was all roughly the same dark, ash blonde colour. Instead I walked out with streaks of various colours of blonde and silver alongside my natural hair colour. He first added highlights but then asked me to come back so he could fix his mistakes — by adding lowlights over my already coloured hair. I walked out of there looking like a skunk. It was a horrible experience, I can’t believe that a salon would let someone leave with hair looking like that, on top having to pay the full cost.
The next day I received a message from another employee at the salon offering to «hold an appointment» for me 2 weeks later for Parke to add «a lot more blonde like I had wanted». Needless to say, I did not return the call.
The salon I went to 2 days later was incredulous at the state of my hair when I went to get it fixed. They were more curious as to the methods Parke had used on my hair above anything else, and said that if I had gone to them in the first place it would have been no trouble to do what I had asked for.

Parke, the stylist, is a fantastic listener and he worked hard getting me the colour I wanted. I am going quite gray but had it colored a red/​brown. I want to transition onto natural with gray highlights. He totally understands what I want and why. I will return.