MAGDolls

nice people

I got my hair done by Sara! We went from very dark brown to a multitude of blondes/​caramels! She was so sweet and I definitely recommend her! Love my hair!

I originally went to Magdolls in the spring to do a big chop from halfway down my back to my chin. It was jr stylist Ivy’s first day and she did an amazing job! She talked me through the anxiety of a drastic change and she really made sure she followed the curl of my hair. I got one more amazing cut from Ivy before she moved this fall, but I recently returned to salvage a TERRIBLE bowl cut by an amateur stylist at a beauty school (I know, lesson learned). Michelle cut my hair this time and she was equally amazing! She fixed my bad cut into an adorable sassy bob. She told me to call if my curls weren’t sitting right, but no need, they’re perfect. My experience with two of their stylists, plus the discount punch card they offer, have made me a loyal customer! Love Magdolls, love Michelle, missing Ivy!

I went in this week to see Sara for a consultation for cut and color. I needed a change and she had great ideas! She did an asymmetrical bob with «peek-​a-​boo» colors. The colors are beautifully blended, the cut is adorable, the service was great, and the prices were incredibly affordable! Thank you!

After having great experiences here before, I walked away disappointed with my last cut. I should have spoken up sooner because it ended up being choppy, too short, and completely off from the style I thought I had communicated.
Everyone here is still friendly, and I still think it’s one of the best deals in Portland, but I probably won’t be coming in again for a while. Based on previous cuts, I’d just recommend that anyone coming in brings photos & an assertiveness that I might have lacked.

I’ve come to MAGDolls three times in the past few years and have tried a couple other hair places in/​around town. MAGDolls is by far my favorite. I’m very lazy with my hair, yet I enjoy having long hair, so I usually come in with split ends and layers that have gone kind of flat. «Save my hair!» I plea to them with puppy dog eyes.
And boy, do they!
I first had Terra Commander, who sadly, has moved on from MAGDolls. She gave me a lovely hair wash, which I had never had done before. And she gave me my first «stylish» cut — so I was nervous, as I had never had more than just a simple, straightforward cut or trim of my hair before. The result was great. It made me feel so much more confident and helped me view myself in a better light.
The second and third times I went in, I had Sara Thompson. She’s very nice to talk to (- we commiserated about PSU). She cut off about 4 inches, eradicated my split ends, and layered my hair into a light, feathery cut. It felt so nice to get that weight off my head. And most recently, I went in for a maintenance trim and an update on my layers. I tend to be stingy, but the $ 30 to get my hair (and myself) feeling great 2 – 3 times a year is worth the price for me. MAGDolls will likely be my go-​to salon for the forseeable future.

I’m going to take partial responsibility for my poor review, because I should probably have done a preview for my makeup, but didn’t have any time.
I’d give this one star, but two of my bridesmaids got their makeup done the day before, and were very happy with it/​looked great. I wish I could say the same for me. I showed up on my wedding day for my makeup. Everyone knew it was my wedding day. I’d stated it when making the appointment (everyone was very, very pleasant and helpful with that) and we repeated it – along with my timeframe – when we checked in. This information was received by a very unfriendly gentleman working behind the counter who then introduced himself as my makeup artist.
I don’t need to be best friends with people so I wasn’t too bothered. But after very minimal communication (I showed him a picture, which he barely seemed to glance at, and mentioned that I wanted false eyelashes, which he either didn’t hear or just ignored) he turned me towards the mirror and I won’t hold back here, it was a catastrophe. Granted, the entire time he was applying blacks and grays to my face, I was slightly dubious, but as a non-​makeup person, I trusted he knew what was up.
Well, what was up was that I looked like a corpse. A corpse with enormous black circles around my eyes. I kind of didn’t know what to say – we were getting close to the time that I was supposed to be at the venue – and I assumed he wasn’t quite done yet, so I said, «Hey, can we get some, uh, color into my cheeks? I look a little dead.» and asked him to please get rid of the darkness under my eyes.
Without a word, he strode into the back and returned with another woman. He didn’t say a single thing to me the rest of the day. The woman he brought was very helpful – I can’t recall her name but it seemed that she was just in the shop by chance, as we concluded by the other hairdresser at the salon commenting ‘she’s not supposed to be here today’ when the woman walked in. Well, thankfully she was. She immediately said, «Don’t worry, we will fix this,» and went to work. The end results, although we were now running a little late, were significantly better. She was also much, much nicer and friendlier.
The original makeup person rang up my order and barely uttered the words ‘goodbye’ as I left. No ‘congrats!’ no ‘have a great wedding!’ or whatever. Maybe he was embarrassed that I was unhappy with his makeup, seeing as his coworker came over and gave him a ‘you’re okay, buddy!’ back rub. I don’t actually care, because it was my wedding day, and he wasn’t even polite, and then he didn’t do a good job and got obviously mad and butthurt when it was pointed out to him. I suspect he’s still in training, which REALLY makes me wonder why someone would do that to a client on their wedding day, but whatever. I still expect to be treated somewhat decently, and even if I wasn’t getting married, the attitude from the start was that doing my makeup was a burden, even before I was displeased with it.

Got a cut and trim from Ivy and I can’t say enough good things about it. Every time I look in the mirror I’m stunned by how freaking cute it is. She did a bang up job and was super fun to talk to the whole time. I am and forever will be a repeat customer. My hair gets better and better with each visit. Thanks magdolls for hiring such a talented hair stylist!

Sara is absolutely fantastic! I had a great time chatting with her before, during, and after my color service. She is incredibly charming and a true color genius! Sara did a great job of explaining the service and giving me options of what would look best. Together we came up with a plan and I am so pleased with the results. The salon experience was great and I found the shop to be very welcoming and clean.

This is bonkers. The stylist who cut my hair has now posted a 5 star review (?) about herself to clear the air about this situation.
As I stated in my original Unilocal review — I contacted MAGDolls privately the day after my haircut but never received a response. I was wondering if they hadn’t received it so that’s why I decided to leave a public Unilocal review. Now Ivy, the stylist, is trying to make me out a crazy villain who wrote «a snowball of emails to [her] employers and a terrible review.»
The SINGLE message I sent to them PRIVATELY was a heart-​felt response about my experience in which I explained my thought process while leaving the salon and my decision to not say anything in person.
I was giving the salon the benefit of the doubt with my first message but now I know they just purposely ignored my private message and only scrambled to respond and save face once I posted to a public forum.
Go to MAGDolls, maybe even go see Ivy. I really liked her as a person when we first met — she had a friendly personality and seemed like someone I could relate to. Perhaps my poorly executed haircut was an outlier experience. Who knows?
What I see now is shady customer service and an effort to turn this around and blame the victim.
Please give me my money back, I just want to be done.

Went in with very damaged, bleached hair that I had dyed pink, with about an inch of dark root growth. Sat with Ivy for about 2 hours and she made my hair look absolutely amazing– pulled some root color through in a reverse-​balayage technique, blended my roots to my bleach blonde/​pink hair, and did an olaplex treatment, making it so much healthier feeling. I have literally never been more excited about the results of a hair appt in my life. Thank you Ivy!

This place is fabulous! I called. Got right in. Brows waxed by Heidi. She is awesome! Great attention to detail! Super affordable. This is my new go-​to wax spot!

I moved back to Portland a few years ago and had been seeing one stylist after another until I found Sara. I have curly but fine hair, and am oh so particular about what I want in my cuts, even if they seem fairly straightforward. Sara was so personable and she listened to all of my requests. My haircut was exactly what I wanted.
After such a great experience, I asked her to do my wedding hair. We went with a loose updo and worked with my curls. It was beautiful and elegant and everything I wanted. She went out of her way to make the morning special for my bridesmaids and I. It was a truly memorable experience.
To make things even better, the prices here are just phenomenal. Even for my wedding hair, I was shocked at how reasonable and inexpensive it was! This is where I will be going from now on.

Junior stylist Ivy is great! I definitely trust her to listen to my needs. Adorable salon with amazing prices.

My first time going to Sara at Magdolls was this past weekend. The salon is super fun! Lots of fun artwork and a selfie room! Sara took my existing color (faded and funky) and transformed me into a minty mermaid. LOVE. Great service, awesome hair.

So excited to find this place! I was in desperate need – like almost had the scissors to my hair – of a haircut. I didn’t want to spend a lot and usually go to one of the hair schools downtown but with parking/​driving, didn’t want to deal with the hassel. And now, I may just keep going here!
The space is really small but they have four chairs and a little seating area where you can enjoy water, a hot beverage, or a beer. The stylist that I had (oh no, I forgot her name!) was really great, listened to all the complaints about my hair, and did a perfect cut. Their happy hour specials are also great!

Please see below for a much longer profession of my love for Beth.
I had to update my glowing review below to sing more of Beths praises. I recently went in to re-​do my long overdue ombré. I was scared, because lets face it you see a lot of ombré FAILS out there and I’ve worked to damn long growing this hair out to get it all messed up. I let Beth know I wanted something natural to brighten things up a bit and that’s exactly what I got. It turned out beautifully, I couldn’t be more pleased with the results. I have extremely think coarse hair and Beth handles it like the pro that she is. The whole cut/​color didn’t break the bank either which was an added bonus.
I can now emphatically say that for all your cut and color needs, my gal Beth has got you.

You know those days when you get an amazing haircut and you just want to go everywhere after that so that everyone can see your hair? Yeah, that was my day today.
But first, let’s back up. .. .I originally grew out my hair with visions of beachy waves, messy buns, and long, Pocahontas hair. After almost three years, what ended up happening is that I was just bored and would pull up my hair almost everyday. Also, no raccoons wanted to be my friends and I never heard Colors of the Wind as I walked by trees. I started noticing cute hairstyles everywhere and even took pictures of Mary at the cupping event. I knew it was time for a change.
Now, looking for a new stylist requires about as much research as purchasing a house or car. This is serious business. After I’d chosen a style I wanted, I read about 75 billion salon reviews and decided to try MAGDolls.
I walked in and immediately loved the vibe. Who wouldn’t like a place where the super nice stylists are wearing Dia De Los Muertos and witch make-​up? I was offered coffee, water, or beer while I waited. This place is adorable, vintage-​y, quirky, and edgy. Beth was amazingly nice and listened to exactly what I wanted! Chatting with her as she cut my hair made the time just breeze by. I appreciated that she kept explaining what she was doing as she went along. I walked in here with boring hair halfway down my back and left with a stacked bob cut that I love, love, love!!!
They have a punch card where you get 10% on your first visit, 20% off on your second, and so on (up to 50%). My cut ended up being less than $ 40. Clutch your pearls, wipe your eyes are read that again. Seriously! I am sooooo happy that I found my Portland stylist and just as happy with my new cut!

Okay, the photos you see coming from here are beautiful, and maybe my experience was a rarity, but I wish I gotten what these girls recieved. I came here because of the great reviews and the photos. But that is not what ended up happening…
This place did not do a great job on my hair. They allot themselves ½ hour for a hair cut. I was in the chair for 56 minutes before I absolutely had to leave– and she wasn’t even done!
I told her what I wanted and even showed her the style I wanted. Its nothing new or interesting. I see girls with it all of the time. She said that she knew exactly how to do it. I trusted that. I watched her as she cut and noticed that she was going at it differently than what I’ve seen other do. I’ve had this hair cut several times over several years, so I am familiar with how they do it and with what tools. But I didn’t stop her, because I thought «To each her own». After about 20 minutes of watching her not getting anywhere near close to what I had asked, I had suggested that she use the shears with the teeth on them, as I know that is what others have used to give me several choppy uneven type layers I was wanting. She used them, but just to feather out the last inch of all of my ends. She gave me no layers at all!
I’ve had this done several times done right and wrong. And this lady didn’t seem to know what it was that she was doing.
She told me she was ‘finished’ like 5 times, and each time I asked her if she could take my hair ‘in’ more (not up). Each time I asked her, she trimmed my ends and was cutting my hair ‘up’ and was making it shorter, not thinner. Finally, after looking at the clock, I told her that I absolutely had to go because I had no more time left to do this. When it came time to paying, I was honest with her and told her that I did not feel comfortable paying the price tag because she was not finished with my hair (as far as I was concerned) and that she wasn’t listening to me as to what I was wanting her to do. I also showed her the pictures again and told her that my hair looked NOTHING like the photos, and that she had been cutting my hair shorter and shorter. Any longer in the chair and I would of had a bob up to my ears.
She tried dickering with me on the price, and I told her that I understood that she did in fact worked the whole time, but because she wasn’t listening and was not coming close to what I asked her, that she was NOT done, I told her that I might come back in later and have her finish it if I had the time. She told me that she had someone else that did that to her and they never came back in. Which is a red flag to me.
I left feeling bad, and uglier than when I went in thanks to her. I had even told her before sitting down that I had a high school reunion coming up and that I was going to be in a friends wedding that was also coming up soon, and that I was wanting to look good for these big events.
By the way, her name was Tiffany. I know she got a lot of good reviews on here for being excellent, and that is why when I made the appointment, I asked for her specifically, but I really wish I didn’t.

Friendly service and one of the best deals on a haircut I’ve seen. I brought my daughter in for their $ 20 dry cut «do whatever the f*@& you want» special — in which the stylist has free rein over your hair.
From the description, my daughter had hoped for something OUTRAGEOUS. But as promised, they do what they want, and what she got was a very cute, well-​executed version of the exact haircut she’s received for nearly twice the price elsewhere. She was heartbroken that it wasn’t wilder, but I think that after a week in Portland, she may be under the impression that a PDX haircut includes a septum pierce and sleeve tattoos.
As the mother of a 10-​year-​old, I was relieved to see her leave with her septum intact, and very impressed that Beth did such a terrific job.