Academy Of Excellence Hair Design & Aesthetics Ltd

Awful, Awful, Awful.
I cannot stress that enough. I had been going here every once and a while for esthetics services. It always took 2x the time and was way more painful than it should have been. As a girl who’s been waxing for years now, trust me, it’s worth the extra $ 10.00 to get waxed by someone who knows what they’re doing. Now, I have dark brown hair. I had been wanting to go blonde for a while and when I finally found the courage to do it, I decided on this place. Why? Cost does have a lot to do with it. Going to get it done at a salon was going to be anywhere from $ 200 – 300. Biggest mistake i’ve ever made. The young girl doing my hair was extremely nice and the instructors seemed well educated. We decided on blonde highlights and I think there must’ve been some miscommunication. She had added some VERY subtle ashy colored streaks in my hair. You almost couldn’t tell they were there and they looked awful. After consulting with the instructor, they offered to re-​do them. Now at this point I had been sitting in a chair for 3 hours and I wasn’t impressed. Another instructor had taken over and after I had given her more photo examples on what I was looking for, she proceeded to bleach my hair. By the end I had a gross yellow/​orange color, not even close to what I had been looking for. Actually the results were pretty similar to doing it at home, and pouring a bottle of hydrogen peroxide on your hair. Now it was nearing 6 hours that I’d been there and I’d had about enough. They had completely ruined my hair and I knew i was going to have to spend a ton of money getting it fixed. And even worse, the customer service sucks. They refused to admit that they had made a mistake, insisting that It looked good and pointing out that I had signed a waiver. Now, I am completely aware that the students there are not qualified professionals and in truth I don’t blame them at all. Heck, its not their fault that the «instructors» teaching them have NO idea what they’re talking about. Even on their website it states «All services provided by students are Instructor supervised and of the highest quality.» ha ha. When I rightly asked for a refund, they flat out rejected it. Not only did they rejected it, but I have never experienced such rude behavior at at «professional» salon. Needless to say I walked straight out of there, and in tears. Later, when I talked to my regular hairdresser, I was informed that going from brown to blonde is a huge process. It usually takes 3 or more visits to the salon to have it done properly. She said they should have flat out said no when I asked them to dye my hair in one visit. Months later, I am still dealing with the lasting damage they caused. I would never recommend this place to anyone, and I have successfully talked many people out of coming here.

Good hair services if you have the time to spend. 2X the time = ½ the price. Good esthetics services too. I had a long history here until a terrible customer service incident. The receptionist refused service (colour, cut and highlights) and volunteered herself to call CRD bylaw services when I mentioned I had a friend’s dog in my car. The dog was not welcome inside the premises, outside the premises, or in my car on their property, although there are no signs saying that anywhere. The receptionist left her station to follow me out to the car. She kept insisting that dogs and children are the same and was aware that I often brought my children to this school. The hair instructors, students, their clients, and other receptionist never said a word. No manager followed up on this September 2012 incident, so I have stopped going here and wouldn’t recommended this place unless you are seeking public humiliation and poor customer service.