Ocean Blo Salon

Kristen did a Brazilian Blowout for me, which turned out to be a 2-​visit process because my hair had a stubborn, wicked curl! The standard treatment no longer has formaldehyde so it doesn’t work anywhere near as good as it did back in the day, but Kristen did the re-​do at no charge and went out of her way to make sure that I was happy. Yay, smooth hair once again! Mama happy :-)

I went to Kristen today for a brazilan blowout, cut and color. I can honestly tell you that I had found her extremely thorough and very personable. I appreciated her professionalism and her caring personality. I am very pleased with the results and will definitely recommend her to all of my friends!

So this review is from a few years ago (before I Unilocal-​ed) and I sure hope they have changed since then– which I refuse to find out. It was a horrible, horrible experience. My friend and I had gotten deals through a military discount site (similar to Living Social) for hair, make up and lashes which we planned on using for the Marine Corps Ball in November 2011. We had 3 hours set aside for both of us to get done I believe. We got there and knew it was going to be bad when a girl was already sitting there and said she had been waiting for 30 minutes already. The owner and another stylist was there and the owner just sat on the phone complaining about her wifi/​internet. She had apparently just gotten a new service and it wasn’t working properly– which she continued to complain about and call back randomly during our services. The girl that sat there finally just walked out. She started with my friends hair and took an hour and half! The hair didn’t look like it was supposed to per the picture she brought in and complained to my friend how bad her hair was. Mind you, my friend has incredible hair– never dyed, layered, etc– so much so that Lock for Love loves getting her hair donations which she has done several times. The owner then moved on to my hair and I will say, did an okay job. Most of looked like the picture I brought in except she did style one spot wrong so instead of fixing it, she had a faux flower that she just placed in my hair to hide that spot. At this point, we were at 2.5 of our 3 hours with make up to go– obviously running behind.
As for the makeup, the owner did that too. The owner did tell us that she forgot to restock her lashes and didn’t have much (even though we specified in our appointments we wanted them). She did my friend’s first and LITERALLY made her look like a CLOWN! My friend asked for a smokey eye and nothing really on her lips. Instead she got thick eyeliner, bright red lips, partial lashes– which some on one side of her eyes that were an inch to 1.5 inches long that she forgot to trim. Then she moved on to mine– I didn’t even get lashes. I told her my dress was blue so maybe something that would help enhance the color– her solution? BRIGHT blue eyeshadow all over my lid and partially up the brow bone. I also looked like a clown– but not as bad as my friend. This took another 1.5 hours. We were an hour late already, and really needed to get to the ball and changed. So on the way down to San Diego, we were in the back of the car taking off and fixing our make up so we didn’t look like clowns at the ball.
What took so long you ask? The owner– complaining about everything– hair, wifi, even the girl that walked out. She would randomly stop in the middle of our services to see if something changed with her wifi and attempt to call the company again about it.
It was SO BAD that we sent pictures of ourselves (I’ve uploaded my friends so you can see how bad it was) to the military discount site and they felt so bad and agreed that we looked terrible that they refunded our money. I have since recommended to everyone I know never to go there despite any discount you can find!

I’ve been coming to Kristen now for about 2 years since I’ve lived down here and it’s always worth the money. Like most women I’m extremely pick with my hair and she always goes above and beyond my expectations. She does amazing coloring and styling with my hair. My now fiancé paid for me to get my hair done a couple months ago and his eyes about bugged out of his head when I said it was $ 95 for cut, color and style. Once he saw my hair and the color he said money well spent. I’ll be making an appointment here soon to get my hair redone.

While visiting a friend in Carlsbad I discovered this ultra friendly salon. They accepted me as a walk in and Kristin did a great job on a color touch up and a cut. I am very particular on my color as I want it to look as natural as possible and Kristin was a master on matching my existing color. The cut she gave me was exactly what I wanted and all I can say is, «I will be back.» Thanks Kristin for such great service, it was a pleasure to meet you. I can honestly say that I would highly recommend Ocean Blo Salon to all my friends and family.

I love this little salon! Ginger Kearns has been cutting my hair for several years now. This is my favorite salon that she has worked at. It is sooo convenient, not even 20 secs off I-​5 and practically in the heart of Carlsbad Village. It is very clean and stylish but not too overdone. Everyone I have ever met in their employee and/​or customer has always been so easy to talk to and laugh with.
Go see Ginger is is awesome. As man it seems as our cuts should be 100 times easier than a females, but in truth I have had some bad ones before. Not from Ginger she is very consistent and very good; more importantly, she gets me in and out pretty quickly. As a side benefit she is a total sports nut so as a guy she is fun to talk too while she works on your hair.
For the ladies, my wife and daughters gets their hair done by Ginger as well. I will leave it for them to give you their detailed thoughts but in short I think they look AWESOME! And they must like the results too because they keep going back.
Ocean Blo Salon and Ginger Snips rocks!

I’m a hairstylist myself, but I don’t prefer to do the brazil blowouts/​keratin treatments anymore. But I wanted to be able to send my clients, who wanted this specific service, to someone I could trust. The best way for me to find out was to try out someone on myself. I went to see Betheny at Ocean Blo and let her do the Brazilian Blowout on me. She was outstanding all around. She was friendly and personable and very talented. Needless to say, I was extremely satisfied and will be working with her to send my lovely clients to when they want a great BB. Thank you, Bethany. The hardest client is another hairdresser and you were lovely.

I got my hair «fixed» by the owner. I have my license and I needed her help since I cant do things myself. She is highly knowledgable in all services, is very kind and friendly and gave me individualized attention. Excellent experience. GO!

I went here a year ago and got a great hair cut so I decided to go back again but the girl who originally cut my hair was gone so I made an appointment with the owner. What a mistake that turned out to be.
First off, my appointment was at 5 and i was running a few minutes late so I CALLED AHEAD to let them know. She told me that was fine. I show up and wait for almost an hour. Couldn’t you have told me that you were working with someone still and to push back my appointment? I would have rather had her cancel it. This could have saved me from what happened next.
Im finally called back and she sits me down and asks what I want. They have this deal for $ 65 you get a color, cut and style. I showed her a picture of the highlight I wanted. Ive never highlighted my hair so I wanted a very subtle one. I SHOWED HER A PICTURE of what I wanted thinking that would make it easier. She then proceeds to cut my hair dry before she colors it which made sense. Why color the hair that im going to cut off?
Now we start the hair cut. Just to let you know, I loved my long hair. It was halfway down my back and the natural color and Ive never dyed/​highlighted. I told her 3 – 4 inches max and that I wear my hair up a lot and I want to be able to put it in a ponytail/​bun etc.. She cut those 3 – 4 inches off dry. She then proceeds to color my hair. In the beginning she accidentally cut my forehead with her nail and got dye in it. My forehead was on fire! When she finally went to rinse my hair out and wash it (which is usually one of my favorite parts because I usually get a short scalp massage) she was so rough. Every time she was touching my hair while washing it I would wince.
Finally Im almost done, She sits me down and starts cutting more which I figured she would but she just kept cutting. I made comments about her cutting too much but she just kept doing stuff to «take away the fluff» or «fix the layers». After the cut she blow-​dries and straightens my hair which she did a TERRIBLE job on. When I was sitting in the chair, we discussed how I’ve been to a cheap salon before and she commented on how the style is the best part. I can do my hair better than she did and this is her job. I wanted to get out of there so bad so I didn’t even say anything because the damage was already done and I just wanted to go home and see what I could do with it.
I now have hair up to my shoulders and I cant even put all of it up. The high lights are DEFINITELY NOT what I asked for or showed her. Sorry for the rant but I am still so upset. I cant believe I even paid for this. It took everything in me not to say anything at the time. Save yourself the trouble and do not go to Kristen. If you want someone to actually listen to what you want and not just do whatever she thinks you want, make an appointment with someone else or go to a different salon.

I went to this Salon for a trial make up and hair do for a wedding ($ 90). I had an appointment for 1 pm and Kristen called to tell me she was running late and I should come at 2 pm. I killed time for an hour and walked in at 1:45 pm. I then waited for 55 minutes and she was still not done and even with my two reminders that I had been waiting for nearly an hour. She then told me that she is fast and can do it in no time.
She was unprofessional esp. since she is the owner and cannot manage her time. Makes me wonder what would happen on the wedding day. Would you get the same unprofessinal mismanagment of time and constant excuses??? Not worth the time and money. There are too many salons to choose from, go somewhere else.

I went into Ocean Blo today for the first time to get a brazilian blowout from Kristin, the owner. Not only is the salon absolutely adorable, clean and more than welcoming. It’s quality. Kristin did a good job on my hair and also fixed a previous haircut that was just god awful for me. I definitely will be coming back for her greatly priced brazilian blowouts and anything else having to do with my hair. Thanks Kristin, you will be seeing much more of me! :)

Kristin — trust me – I was in your salon. You ruined my hair. I remember your love of reality TV and all about your Hollywood party days. You told me stories that I could reiterate right here.

3.5…
I came in for a much needed trim and blowout.
This small salon is located east of the 5 off Carlsbad Village Drive. There was only 1 employee when I arrived in the late evening.
I indicated that I wanted a ½ inch trim, layers and bangs. My hair was shampooed and conditioned and my trim began.
We made interesting conversation while my hair was being trimmed. She made sure the length of my hair, layers and bangs were to my liking.
The blowout was ok, although I wish I had more volume. I’m glad she didn’t put too much product in my hair before the blowout as I was going out for the evening and didn’t want my hair to feel heavy and oily.
Left with my hair smelling realllly good :)

So if you were following my previous review you would of seen my mixed stars stirring around now I am set on 4 stars! I am a fan and the owner Kristen totally made my second experience a better one. She did my make up for a Navy Christmas party and was again super sweet, funny, and had great customer experience. Did I mention I love the décor in this place! Zebra print with turqouise ad sparkle! Super Cute! Also, the woman who booked my appointment was just as nice as the stylist/​, ake-​up artist.

I love this salon!!! I got my hair and make up done here for the Marine Corps Birthday ball. I used a living social deal for the make up but was not able to make a hair appointment. Once there, I got my make up done and Eileen was able to squeeze me in for an updo.
I looked amazing and they did everything to make sure I was comfortable for the entire experience. I love this place and I absolutely recommend them for any number of services. A woman next to me was getting extensions and she looked absolutely stunning when they were done. If I could give this place more than five stars, I absolutely would.

Well, right now as I sit here twenty minutes after my appointment was supposed to start, I’m a little bit leery. I found out about the place through Unilocal and was terribly excited when I found the LivingSocial deal. A cut and blowout for 19 bucks? I’m sold! So I invested in a bunch. Exciting, right?
A coworker and I ventured up to Carlsbad after a delicious breakfast and thankfully we drove around for a bit so we didn’t come in so early and find out that our stylist wasn’t here. I’m not one to hold any sort of grudge, everyone else in the salon was terribly nice and apologetic for the lateness. But I am relieved I didn’t have any other plans for the day than just bumming around with my friend.
So we waited. And we waited. I work in retail and I know that punctuality and professionalism go hand in hand and while we waited for over 40 minutes for our stylist to arrive, I’ll admit I started to get a little sad. But, truth be told, I never thought it would turn out to be a great experience.
Okay. So I just got home from quite possibly one of the best experiences I’ve had at a salon. The owner, Kristen, and the receptionist, Laurie, were both so fantastic and took great care of us. Kristen was kind and kept asking if we were okay, apologising and making us feel as if we were just as important as anyone else in the salon.
I can’t even begin to tell you how good of a job Laurie did on our hair. I just. I haven’t felt so beautiful in so long and I truly only have her to thank. I feel I can take on the world, I’m on cloud nine. Life is great, you know? How she was able to take what was meant to be just one cut and blo and another color to two colors and trims… I just. She was great. Words can’t express how wonderful I felt when I put on my glasses and saw how awesome it turned out.
Carlsbad is about a 25 – 45 minute drive from where I live and you can rest assured that I’ll be back as long as Kristen is running the place and I can have Laurie touch my head.
Thank you to all the ladies at Ocean Blo. You really made me feel like I was welcome and appreciated. Great job.

I am appalled by the comment below (Vanessa B.) in reference to Kristen’s Brazilian blowout. As a customer and a fellow vendor in the wedding industry I have nothing but positive points to say about my experience. In fact our company has even mentioned Ocean Blo in our personal blog.
First, let me start off by saying Kristin is personable, genuine and understanding. I had previously went to another salon and the Brazillian did not stay in nearly as long as with Kristen’s technique. She offers a great deal with 110% effort and dedication. My hair is extremely curly, however Kristen spent 4 ½ hours making it into «Cher» hair as I like to call it, I love the slick sleek straight look. In fact I am going in for a color hopefully this week! To top it off, I personally put some «non-​sulfate free» product in my hair a week later, and Kristen RE-​did the pieces I tampered with without a complaint and without an extra cost. Need I say more? Kristen’s attention to detail, involvement and over all great attitude is reason more to keep coming back! The décor, environment and trendy boutique vibe is the cherry added to keep my coming back. I think OceanBlo is remarkable! Check out my blog post:
Thank you again OceanBlo!

I had a great experience, to read my full review and see photos go here:

I was referred to Ocean Blo by a friend and thank you friend (Charlotte). Kristen did my 4 and 5 year old girls hair for an event and photo shoot. Not only was Kristen great with my girls but their hair was a bunch of beautiful curly locks. The girls looked and felt amazing. Thanks Kristen and we will be seeing you again ;)! Oh and by the way… love love love the décor!

The owner of this salon and her stylists are hair magicians. They are so talented at what they do. Beautiful and trendy shop, nice people, and I leave very happy every time. This salon is a jewel, stop by and you will see for yourself.