Womack Salon Academy

good place to get a great service and students
love this place

Ms. Womack is a charming, experienced lady who runs a good beauty school off the beaten path around San Bruno. Free haircuts on Tuesdays. Casual fun atmosphere. It’s a school so some stylists are better than others, but worth checking out.

Bipolar experience. The first time I went for the free haircuts, I got a great one by a guy named Yasmani. He had the skills, he was no joke.
The second time, this fool named Scott gave me the hands down absolute worst haircut of a lifetime.

So yesterday I went to Womack Salon Academy after reading on craigslist the ad for «Free haircut, everything you want, you name it we do it»…
First I called because I wanted to get my hair straight, I have really curly hair, so the lady was nice on the phone, told me to come not wash my hair, I mentionned the free haircut, she confirm me that it woulb be free, told me that they were professional…
So I arrived at that creepy place with no light inside, only guys who were having their heads shaved. A old man came to me and told me to wait on a chair for the boss to come.
THE BOSS… A woman with a wig not even put correctly on her head, her make up was kind of scary… I asked her what products and what brand they were using, she avoid my question and star to touch my hair and concluded by «It would be $ 90»…
WTF are you serious??? I called you to be sure that will be free and now it’s $ 90…
Really bad experience, do NOT waist your time to go there, honestly even free I’m not sure I would have let her touch my hair because I still don’t know what kind of products they’re using…

Every Tuesday, they offer free haircuts to the general public from 11AM-​3PM (based on first-​come, first-​serve). The same service is offered on Wednesdays, by appointment only. They are an apprenticeship program for aspiring barbers, and most of the staff are multicultural and speak different languages. This is a great place in the Excelsior to get your hair cut and support cosmetology students!

Unilocal will not allow me to post ZERO stars – that is the rating I give this academy. I went in with luscious hair down to my a** and came out with horrific hair!!! The top layer was cut just past my shoulders!!! And then the bottom layer was down to my waist. I had just dyed the hair on the back/​bottom-​half of my head blonde and the girl (some white chick) AND Ms. Womack (the teacher) chopped my hair into two layers to make the blonde the «focal point», as Ms. Womack called it. Oh, it became a focal point all right. The top layer looked like this thick u-​shaped wig sitting 4″ high on top of what now looked like a thick tail of blonde extensions running down my back. Before I had left the salon, they combed my hair out and showed me the cut thru a small mirror… it looked a little off, but I figured maybe it was because of the small mirror I was trying to look thru. But when I got home, I realized it was a REALLY BAD CUT. The way that my hair naturally falls down my back is completely different from the way it falls when it’s combed out and they really shoul’ve known that. The two layers had no uniformity whatsoever. It was COMPLETELY EMBARRASSING! I kept my hair wrapped up in a bun the whole week. I cried myself to sleep 3nites in a row before finally mustering up the spirits to drag myself into a professional salon to get my hair cut again. And let me tell you, Cindy at MIA BELLA on El Camino Real in San Bruno is GREAT. I’m happy to finally find a stylist I can trust with my long hair! She salvaged my ‘do completely and gave me a real funky cut that, literally, has made heads turn! I would not recommend Womack Salon to anyone even if the service is free! I cannot believe the teacher of the Academy let me walk out the salon looking as terrible as I did and obviously saw nothing wrong. That’s gotta tell ya something.

I got a great haircut. The instructors were very attentive to the students and engaged me in friendly conversation.