Susan’s Salon & Spa

I have been going to Susan for at least 6 years. She is THE SINGLE only person I trust to wax my eyebrows. This salon is a great central location, right next to Talbots Toy land. Street Parking is usually easy, and the lot in the back always has spaces when I’m there.
Susan is hard working and does a great job! This salon is does more hair than nails and waxing from what I can see. However, Susan herself does most of the nails and waxing. She’s detailed oriented and always keeps a clean environment. She is friendly and enjoys chatting but will also totally let you zone out if you wish.
I don’t trust anyone else with my eyebrows and whenever she did my nails I always loved it. Susan will not disappoint!

Happened upon this place by chance. I came in looking to make drastic change from my super sad long hair to a sassy short cut.
Miguel was super friendly and professional, asked all the right questions, and I walked out with a new ‘do that I absolutely love. I’ll definitely be back :)
Thanks Miguel!

After reading some of the negative and unjustified reviews, I thought I would post my review. I’ve been going to Susan’s for over 15 years, closer to 20 years. Even though Susan’s is a full-​service salon, I have only had manicures and pedicures there, and Susan is the only one who has done my nails, so I can’t comment on the other services or other staff. I have never had any issues with any of the manicures or pedicures I have received at Susan’s. I find Susan’s to be clean and professional; believe me, if it wasn’t clean, I certainly would not continue to go and would not recommend them to others when asked. I always make appointments, but Susan does accept walk-​ins, and may not always have staff available to take a walk-​in at that time, but she does tell them when her next available opening is for that day. If you haven’t given her a try, please do, and I’m sure you will have the same experience I do.

I have been a customer of Susan’s for 5 yrs. One of the things that has kept me coming back is the cleanleness of the equipment. I am a nurse & would never go to an establishment that was dirty. The massage chairs are great & I always feel pampered.

STAY AWAY! If I could rate this DUMP a ZERO I WOULD! I was in this place getting my hair cut when another person working there, Paola, came over and accused my stylist of stealing her hair product. She was yelling at first then began to scream at her and threaten to steal her belongings. The crazy was just starting as she began to throw punches at my stylist. I got out of the salon without having my stylist finish because I DIDN’T FEEL SAFE!!! The owner Susan screaming in her Thai language and encouraged the whole thing. They are LOW CLASS TRASH! I have NEVER seen such DISGUSTING behavior. I suggested that the police be called but out of fear of further retaliation my stylist left this dump!
The salon is disgusting and has a FOUL ODOR! The bathrooms look, feel and smell like they have never been cleaned. You need a tetanus shot before and after you leave this disgusting place!

I walked in and got a haircut from Susan. I have a pretty standard haircut and I know how I like it to look. Susan was very careful about cutting my hair how I wanted, but explained that she would stop short of exactly what I was saying so that my hair would look better. The result was excellent, although a little shorter than I expected, but I could probably have spoken up earlier to prevent that. The salon seemed pretty clean. Having read some of the earlier reviews, I should note that Susan only used scissors on my hair and told me that if I go somewhere else, I should make sure they only use scissors.

Susan gives a great pedicure and manicure… I do the Gel and it lasts for
3 weeks.

Finally someone can do Asian hair and facial!
By far I had the best shampoo and head massage experience from Susan. It’s addictive.
I am so happy I found this salon that I can pretty much get everything I need! Now I go to Susan regularly to do my hair, facial, and massage. Her price is reasonable, her hands are magic, and she is so accommodating with my schedule. The facial room is clean, quiet, private, and comfortable. Susan doesn’t just press hard as much she can when I get an upper back massage and that’s exactly the way I wanted.
I haven’t got my nails done here so can’t really comment on that.
A big plus is she never tries to sell me stuff so I can fully relax and enjoy myself.
Glad I don’t have the bad experience as some other posted here, otherwise I might have avoided coming.

Got a cut and color by Amy! She is the best. She has a very outgoing personality and she keeps you entertained throughout your stay. Her intentions on getting to know her clients well is a plus. She is very versatile in her skills and I’m definitely coming back to her for an Ombré :)

This is the best! I go here all the time! They take perfect care of my nails! I love the nail polish selection, and the people there are so nice! You have to go to this place!

My second attempt at loving a nail salon in SM. LOVE Susan and her staff, what sweet, personable, honest people. Unfortunately both visits were confused and delayed although I’d made an appointment at least a week in advance. Also seems like a generally unclean environment, which is alarming and a no-​no for a nail place. Hate to give a bad review, but that’s a deal breaker for me…

Paula is great with my son who has delays. She is so patient with him and tries to make the hair cut at his pace and not scary. She also cuts my and my husbands hair. Her price for cuts and color is great. If I am ever unsure of something, she will spend extra time or redo. Susan is great for nails.

Im so mad that I couldn’t see the reviews on this place before I went ( Unilocal was down for maintenance). I needed somewhere to go that was open on a monday, not too expensive and close to my gym so that I could get my underarms waxed. Susan helped me right away and took me upstairs to where they do their waxing. Im used to the pain that comes with waxing but this time I think the pain was a warning. Both of my underarms were bleeding in a spot, I thought it might be normal (even though Ive never bled under my arms before when getting a wax), Susan was surprised and assured me that all her products were good and that she didn’t understand why I was bleeding, neither did I! She put on some kind of blue/​green liquid that stung like hell. She proceeded to tweeze the small hairs not removed when waxed. She had a magnifying glass with a bright light to help her see all of the little hairs, which I thought was genius! But then I guess that magnifying glass wasn’t to helpful being that she was tweezing my skin every time she tried to get a hair, owww! I let it go because I was like whatever, at least she’s getting all the hairs. Meanwhile my underarm was still bleeding, she put a few more dabs of the blue/​green liquid, stung again. She put her stuff away, put some oil, then lotion, and boom I was off to pay. Everything went fairly well despite the discomfort and she was a very nice lady too. IT WASNT UNTIL I GOT OUTSIDE THAT I REALIZED MY UNDERARM WAS RED HOT AND SWOLLEN! THE LOTION WAS BURNING MY UNDERARMS AND I HAD TO SIT DOWN, GET A NAPKIN AND DAB THE LOTION AWAY BECAUSE I COULDN’T WIPE, IT WAS TOO PAINFUL. I TRIED TO PUT SOME DEODORANT TO COOL IT DOWN, NOTHING, BURNED MORE. I LEFT TO MY GYM IN PAIN AND A LITTLE ANGRY. I TOLD MY SELF, THATS WHAT I GET FOR GOING TO A RANDOM PLACE WITHOUT CHECKING Unilocal REVIEWS. TODAY (THE NEXT DAY) MY UNDERARMS ARE STILL SORE, HAVE PATCHES OF RED AND PURPLISH/​BROWN, I REALIZE NOW THAT I WAS BURNED. MAYBE IT WAS HER TECHNIQUE OR WHATEVER BUT I KNOW I WONT BE GOING AGAIN. THIS MAY HAVE ONLY HAPPENED TO ME, BUT IF YOU DO DECIDE TO GO, BE CAUTIOUS. IF THE OWNERS READ THIS, PLEASE TAKE INTO CONSIDERATION MY REVIEW.

I definitely will not be returning to this salon for a hair cut.
Paola is very inconsistent with her cutting technique and this last time around, my hair was noticeably uneven. Any stylist that
uses thinning sissors or a razor is lazy and doesn’t have
sissor skills, and that is the primary method of her hair cuts.
As a result, it begins to grow out horribly and out of shape.
And to camaflauge her mistakes, she uses a flat iron to smooth over the rough edges. Also, the few times I went, she was always late.
In the economy we live in now, I don’t know how anyone can get away with shoddy work. Save your money!

This is the second salon I’ve tried in San Mateo and I think I’ll stick with the other one I went to.
To be clear — nothing was wrong with the services. In fact, everything was great. Great hot stone treatment, massage, scrub, everything. But they do seem understaffed and/​or unable to keep a schedule because as I was getting my mani/​pedi, another woman came in wanting a pedicure and they didn’t have anyone on hand to do it so she had to wait. Maybe that’s normal, but it made me feel kind of awkward — taking up the only person in the salon who was expected to accommodate everyone.
But what really soured my experience was the fact that they had the radio playing throughout the salon, set to some soft/​classic rock station. I was really put off by the fact that I was paying for a relaxing experience but was subjected to radio ads at the same time. It kind of ruined the experience for me.
Can’t say I’m rushing to go back.

I’ve only been living in San Mateo for a little over a year now, and since i had never been fully satisfied with any of the nail salon’s in Redwood City, I had decided to try a new place in San Mateo.
Last June I was 8 months pregnant when I walking into Susan’s looking for a decent pedicure. What I got was way much more than I had expected. I got an over the top, completely satisfying and worth while pedicure. I WAS IN HEAVEN!!! It was a pregant woman’s dream come true (since i was still working and on my feet all day long).
The girl were super sweet, took they’re time and were very curious about my pregnancy ;) Susan (the owner) was very kind too.
I have only been there a few times since I began to go there, just because I have a new born and it’s hard to get out of the house on my own and especially to spend time on myself, and Susan has remembered me everytime.
They offer pedicures, manicure, massages, waxing, and of course another lady does hair dressing.

I went here today w/​a couple of friends from work during our lunch hour. I’m always apprehensive about trying new nail places but was happy that I decided to join my buddies today! :)
The lady that did my pedi was really nice and super gentle. As I mentioned in my past review of Glamour Nail Spa in Dublin, the cuticle maintenance always makes me nervous — especially at new places! I explained my concern to Paula who was very understanding of my apprehensions and took extra care to help me relax and enjoy my pedi!
Paid $ 25 for the pedi — not too bad since it came with a citrus-​rub and a hot stone massage. It was sooooo relaxing! Just what I needed since shizz has been crazy! If I don’t make my usual appointment with the folks in Dublin, I’ll be more than happy to do the mid-​day pedi again at this place!