Review: Haircuts

First I want to start by saying that all the best haircuts I've gotten since eighth grade have been from Thomas at Alfred Hair Design in Harvard Square.  Every time I go home, I try to fit in a trim.

Now that I live in the Northwest, though, I finally decided that instead of growing my hair out between infrequent visits, I need to find a hair salon here that I can count on.  Well, it took a long time and some actual tears, but I think I finally did!

I kept trying the salons on Main Street here in Vancouver, because I wanted to stay local and convenient.  After several failures (more on this below), I was looking for the phone number of the salon that did the most positive shade of mediocre of the rest . . . and instead, I found Vata Salon!  It's out in the mall, was rated "Best of Clark County" for a couple years, and is "an Aveda salon", whatever that meant.  I know Aveda to be pricey, yet nice-smelling, and, you know, an actual product and not some knockoff brand.

Note: NOT that I have any problem with knockoff brands; to this day I use SUAVE shampoo/conditioner after many crappy results with other cheapy-cheap stuff (avoid White Rain at all costs!!) . . . it's just that, for a hair salon, I want some degree of . . . professionalism is the word I'm looking for.  I guess I'm hypocritical; I love Suave but if you are a hair salon bragging about your Suave products, I'm not going to trust you.  Anyway.

So I decided to give Vata Salon a try!  My mom was here, so Eleanor care was not an issue.  We three went out to the mall, Mom shopping while I went to the salon.  They were very nice, gave me a goodie bag of freebies since I was a new customer, and had me fill out a little survey form thing.  I thought this was a bit much -- sort of smoothly demanding my contact info and everything right away, but I rolled with it.  They also offered me water or tea, and I took them up on water (though I should have tried their tea to see what they had).

Hannah was friendly, listened to my sad sad tales of bad haircuts and living away from my "real" hairdresser, and definitely got clear with me what I wanted.  Before the haircut, she gave me a scalp massage with essential oil!  Nice!  The haircut went well and she was friendly and talkative (unlike some stylists I've tried; honestly do I want to sit in your chair for 45 minutes in SILENCE?  weird!).  She stopped along the way, checking with me to make sure things were headed the way I wanted.  It was great.  She asked if she could put some products in and diffuse my hair and I said yes, since products are fun for a day before I go back to my zero-effort hair maintenance.  I must say it was the weirdest diffusing ever -- holding the diffuser in one spot as it got uncomfortably hot -- but whatever.

Then at the end, she asked, "is there anything else I can do for you?" which was weird because I only wanted a haircut.  So I said no, but then she asked, "Would you like a hand massage?"  So I took her up on that!  Great stuff.  I've since gotten a few marketing emails from them, but nothing too invasive.

Now I would just like to mention the salons to AVOID!  I won't even do them the honor of linking to them.

Rinnovo Spa Salon -- recommended by a neighbor, total disaster cut that made me cry and hate myself for WEEKS afterward.  Seriously, I hadn't had that much trouble looking in a mirror since the high school era.  I'd also like to point out that the lady there said my hair looked super healthy, and asked what shampoo I used.  When I told her Suave, she was incredulous.  I then said that another stylist (random haircut from long ago) had told me that Suave works just as well or better than any other expensive product, to which this lady laughed nervously and said, "Shhh!  You're not supposed to say that!" because another few customers had heard me.  Weird.  Anyway, worst cut ever, avoid avoid avoid!  Also, looking at their website, I have to say that they never gave ME a scalp massage!

D Side Salon -- A Main Street place.  Just a crappy cut.  I don't even remember much about it except thinking that I wouldn't go back.

C. Roberts Salon -- this is the infamous salon of the Scarecut!  The lady was weeeeeeird.  Main Street FAIL.

Hilights Hair Salon -- I admit it, this cut wasn't that bad, and this was the phone number I was looking for when I found Vata.  Another Main Street place.

So, in conclusion, at least I found a place I can trust for hair care between Thomas visits!

Oh, and the Suave I currently use is their "professional" humectant moisturizing stuff -- really good for my hair, and I've even gotten used to the coconutty aroma.