Release Mobile Blowdry

i was thrilled this place was local & seemed to accommodate my hair type. I went once & had a pleasant experience with a stylist named Mia, went back for an appt with mia, she was gone never to be seen again. i was told that Devon the owner would take care of me. When i arrived 10mins before my appt time, she was just starting on a client with long, thick, curly hair (read: would be done no time soon) when i arrived Devon did not even acknowledge me.
Twenty mins after sitting there another lady came in, mustve been a regular, she got warm greeting & Devon told her she’d be right with her. Excuse me?! BTW, still no acknowledgement of me or the now 30mins ive bern waiting. So i spoke up, Devon seemed irritated that i did, told me she’d get to me soon, said she was going to start on the (new) lady’s perm & then wash me. I was livid!
45mins later i was in wash chair, she barely scraped my skull, didnt feel like any conditioner was added. Waiting on my blowout, i asked for blow straight with some curl. She raked a comb-​brush thru my hair a few times with the blow dryer then proceeded to shut it off. Excuse me?! not only was my hair not straight with no curl, it was barely dry. I asked her what she was doing (bc surely she COULD NOT be done) & she said that was it. Oh hell no, it wasnt! Mind you, I called ahead to ask if it was extra for curls, Devon told me only for flat-​iron, but that they could get the curls done with just the round brush & blowdryer at no extra charge. So i remind her what she told me when i called, she then began to attack me & my hair, she said it wasn’t natural (it is) or that it must have heat damage (really doesnt, i pride myself on maintaining a healthy mane) she said her only option was to flat-​iron which was extra! And that since i only allotted time for a blow in my appt, i would have to WAIT for her to finish perm lady before she could curl my hair. I have now been there over 2 hours & my hair looked like i did it myself or tried to. So at that point i got up & left, did not pay, wish i would. I felt offended, disrespected, disregarded & used. only left one star bc i couldn’t leave 0. Never again, DO NOT GO HERE!!!

I found Devon and Release The Blowdry Bar through Living Social. I called and booked an appointment which I had to reschedule within a couple of hours of my original appointment. I did not know of the 3 hour cancellation policy. However, I re-​booked one week later and was supposed to receive a call from «management» confirming whether they would honor my voucher.
The follow-​up call never came. I showed up on time for my appointment to find the shop was shuttered for business. I called the number and it was disconnected. I looked online and the website is down. I called Living Social to find out that they had other complaints and Release had moved!
When I showed up at the new location which is an established downtown salon where Devon is renting a chair, she was working on a client. Needless to say, I was upset that there was no communication between this business and a client of location changes and appointment confirmation or cancellations. I called Living Social and received a full credit. What I will not get back are the two hours and gas driving around the city plus the parking garage fee trying to track Devon down.
I can’t speak for Devon’s talent. However, this business can’t seem to get its operational act together, beginning with basic communication. I would never give Devon and/​or Release The Blowdry Bar a penny of my money and caution others to stay far away. There’s too much competition in this city with stylists who are talented AND run a tight ship.

Devon is an extremely talented hairstylist and a very nice person, but she is terribly unorganized and flaky.
My experiences with Release have been varied and unreliable. The hair always looks amazing, but I’ve waited up to 2 hours past my appt time to just get seated in the chair. I’ve also scheduled «house call» appts which Devon has not shown up to and never called to apologize or help you make other arrangements. In these particular situations Salon Revive was able to accommodate me.
I genuinely believe Devon is a good person, very talented, and I want her to succeed, so I decided to give her another chance. I bought a livingsocial deal for two blowouts for $ 35. I called Devon to schedule an appt and we settled on a Thursday at 1:45 pm. She said the livingsocial was only valid for new customers, but she would honor it this time which I appreciated. The day before my appt I get a call saying there was a glitch with their booking system and was asked if I could come in at 3 pm instead, I said I might be late but would try to make it work. En route to the salon I was running late due to traffic and rain. I called Devon to see if she could still accommodate me. She said no, but had a slot that opened up on Friday and she would call me right back to schedule the appt. I was happy because that was my preferred day, but she NEVER called me back. I called a few times, no one picked up so left a message stating I would have to make other arrangements if she couldn’t accommodate me as it was my birthday weekend. Still NO CALL BACK. Ended up calling Salon Revive and they were able to accommodate me on Fri afternoon. They saved the day again!!! No drama, just professional service, and my cut and blowout looked amazing. I have long, thick, kinky-​curly hair and was in there for only an hour and some change! It was worth the $ 70 to get reliable and professional service. I’ve learned my lesson and this is the now the only salon I will go to. Once people show you who they are, you better believe them!
Devon and Release need a new booking system, salon manager, and staff retention measures and overall systems to keep the salon running smoothly and organized. They need to focus on retaining regular customers by providing organized and professional service.

Made a reservation through their online system on 23 April for 23 May. When I showed up for my reservation, the door was locked and no one was there. I called their phone number, at which time I was told they had no record of my reservation (even though I had received an email confirmation) and that everyone was offsite for a wedding and they could not help me. Gee, thanks a lot for your help. As a result of their technical mix-​up, I was unable to get my hair done for the wedding I was attending, something I was really looking forward to.

just had a blow out Renee AWESOME. I write this rave review on day three! Because I looked in the mirror and loved what she did. my son had compliments indicating I loved like a movie star in the day only with brown hair. Hey he’s eight. hair is silky role poly bounced curls.

Super disappointed with this establishment.
I was trying to find a nice blowdry bar for my friends and I who were all meeting in DC for a friends weekend. I live in LA and have no idea where anything is in DC, so I was trying to do this all based on Unilocal reviews and google maps.
I spoke with Devon on the phone for a while and she was super sweet giving me restaurant recommendations, etc. I thought this place has to be good with such a nice person working there! I was WRONG.
We showed up, and the neighborhood was a little sketch. I was told on the phone there’d be champagne for us to drink and have a good time while getting our hair done. There was an empty pitcher with leftover grime from mimosas from earlier in the day, and stale looking cookies. The receptionist said they were all out of champagne. She eventually goes to the back and finds a bottle of wine, that she poured into the gross pitcher… At least try to rinse it out first!!!
There were only 2 people doing hair, and 3 of us. One girl (sweet woman with little girls that were hanging out in the top of the salon), led 2 of us upstairs for a wash. My friend stepped in gum as we were walking up. Disgusting. She took turns washing our hair while our other friend was still downstairs. We were led to the salon to start the blow dry.
My friend was getting her head yanked as they were pulling the brush through. I was still waiting with my wet hair wrapped. I forgot to mention the salon was in a shambles. Hair all over the floor, chairs, clumped in brushes, Big Gulp cup from 7Eleven on the counter, just trashed.
Another customer (who seemed like a regular) came in, went up and got her hair washed, and sat next to me. Mind you, our 3^rd friend was STILL waiting for her hair to be washed. The second woman who did not do our wash, was about to start working on the other girls hair! The sweet lady with the girls asked the second girl to come outside with her to talk. I’m assuming she told her that we were first, and I needed to have my hair dried, and my other friend still needed a wash. The regular said it was okay and went back to the lobby.
WELL… the woman was NOT happy that she had to dry my hair. First, she had an off putting smell to her, maybe a mix of stale cigarettes? Then she was not talking to me at all, just started brushing my hair (WITH a brush that had at least 10 girls worth of hair clumped in the brush!!! UGH!!!). The tension in the salon was so thick you could slice it with a knife. To break the silence I asked, «so were you guys double booked?» She snarled and said nothing but kept brushing through my hair.
During the process, she made a point to say to me 3 TIMES that I need a hair cut. UM, Hello! I know I need a cut! I’m sorry I didn’t have a chance to make it to my beloved Beverly Hills salon that is clean and knows my hair, in longer than I had hoped! I KNOW I need a cut, but please stop telling me! Rude. Then, I saw how she did my hair… Awful. Typically you’re supposed to roll away from your face to get the swept blow out look. Tell me why she did one side of my head away from my face, and the other side was rolled into my face. Unreal. I had to fix it when I got home.
This place was awful. More expensive than DryBar, and horrible customer service. I was extremely disappointed. To make matters worse, I just saw that they DOUBLE CHARGED my credit card! Honestly, I would never recommend them. Worst experience. BEWARE.

Devon is a legend when it comes to hair, I have been traveling all winter and am finally back in town but I have refused to let anyone else touch my hair. That should explain how wonderful she is!

Great hair care for an affordable price. Devon has been my stylist for a couple of years now and she is an amazing stylist. Blowouts are affordable so I’m able to come weekly. I’m usually in and out. Only a few times Devon ran behind and it’s usually because a client arrived late or asked for additional services once in her chair. She takes her time styling my hair which I love. Devon is a true stylist and encourages styles that promote healthy hair growth. I’d highly recommend Devon to anyone trying to grow out their relaxer as she can help keep your hair healthy, manageable and stylish.

By way of background, I have super long, thick, and frizzy hair. I also come from a family of hair stylists, so get very nervous about going to new people for my hair.
I booked a blowout at Release after a living social deal. Everyone was very friendly, and made me feel very comfortable. And to top it off, my hair looked fantastic! (And the style lasted for days!) My grandmother, a hairstylist herself, told me I need to always get my hair done like that. If only I could!
While Devon was washing my hair, we started chit chatting about color. I expressed reservations about finding a colorist (I’m used to my cousin doing it, but she lives too far away — i just moved to DC). Devon said she did color, which shocked me since it was a blow dry hair. Also, the price she quoted me was lower than I was used to, which is amazing!
I booked my appointment for next week, and had another great experience. I can’t say enough good things about the friendliness of the environment, Devon and her staff make you feel welcome and like you’re just getting your hair done with old friends.
Best of all, my hair (color and blowout) look fantastic. Even my very picky hairstylist of a grandmother thinks so! My hair is VERY long, VERY thick, and i had requested an ombré — which is not easy. Those unfamiliar with an ombré, it can easily look trashy and streaky. Not the way Devon does it!

Took the afternoon off of work to get my hair done for an event using the living social deal. Arrived to my 3:30 appointment at 3:20 only to be told that I would need to wait until 4 because the stylist was running late. The stylist did not even enter the shop until 5 pm and then proceeded to take care of a regular customer rather than see me who had an earlier appointment. At 5:20 I decided to leave to actually be able to make my 6 pm event and do not have my hair done! Very poor customer service and time management. Would not recommend this shop!

I love Devon and the Release Staff! They are amazing. First and foremost last year I was moved from Washington DC to San Francisco, so before my move Devon came to my place and gave a great blow out and trim! It was what I needed before the move. I came back for a few days in Decemeber for touch up in my color and a blow out and trim again! It was amazing. I love the new area, and ambiance of the entire business. Devon is doing amazing things! The staff are nice and amazing. My hair lasted for a few days…(My hair has a mind of its own)
If you are looking for a salon that is affordable and a staff that will look out for the best interest of your hair, while trying their best to please the customer and hitting the bullseye! Go to Release! I miss this place so much now that I am out the Bay Area.

Had a great experience at Release last week! The staff is very friendly and fun and the salon is very cute. Their services are reasonably priced and they have a ton of specials to make it even more affordable. The blowout was great — lasted two days which is a feat with my hair and I received tons of compliments on it. Definitely going back soon!

I went to Release today for the first time after buying an deal on Living Social (2 blowouts for $ 35! It’s honestly a steal considering $ 35 for a blowout is already very reasonable).
I called to make the appointment, and was able to quickly set an appointment for the next day with Renee. I told them I had natural (4c) hair which they said wouldn’t be a problem.
When I arrived (10 minutes late :() there was no wait. Renee sat me down and took out my twists I had in my hair while asking questions about what type of style I was looking for. She showed me a picture I liked, and I asked if we could add loose curls to the style, and she said no problem.
We went upstairs for the shampoo, they did 3 washes and a condition (To make sure all the product was out of my hair) which I really enjoyed, and the massagers on the chair are a nice perk also.
I was surprised how quickly (and painlessly!) she blow dried my hair. At this point, my hair was straight and bouncy, but I opted to have her use the flat iron cause I wanted a sleeker look (There’s a $ 10 add on for this). She used a flat iron to create a curl pattern, but didn’t comb it out all the way and showed me how to pin curl it once I got home so that it would hold for when I plan to go out tomorrow. I was so happy with the way it came out. I’m in Montgomery County, but I would say traveling to NE was definitely worth it for the experience. I don’t blowout my hair too often because I don’t like putting too much heat on my hair, but I think this just might be my new place for whenever I do.
Also, the salon has really cute décor, great music that’s not blaring in your ears, and everyone working there was really polite and seemed fun.
No complaints at all, they get 5 stars from me.