Paul Brown Institute at Remington College

Awesome deals here! Raycee was fabulous!

I have always supported student services; Paul Brown Remington always has more than met my expectations for the past 7 years! Thank you Staff, Ms. Chas and the wonderful student, Markashia. You did a great job on my highlights and hair color and style. I love the staff, Barbara, Peter, whom I have known for the past few years and look forward to participating in more services in the future! This month is half-​off of the already low prices!

Mr. Rob and Dustin decided on a fabulous coppery blonde hair color for me, Dustin executed the plan with perfection, and then BONUS! Dustin did incredible corn row braids! The sad news: Mr. Rob is leaving, and Dustin is graduating, but can be found at the W salon at Ala Moana when pau with school.

I would never come back here to do my hair! What a waste! I was a fellow Remington college student and the student rate is $ 5! I got charged $ 15 dollars more! The girls there are snobby, think they know it all! And the instructors are very rude and not professional! Especially that white lady! Have some class! It took over a hour and a half just to V cut my hair?!? And it wasn’t even that good! Not how I wanted the V to be! Just because you don’t know how to do it, learn! That’s why your in school! But I’m glad later on down the line, I went to the Hawaii hair institute, at least there they know what their doing. And has better happier people there.

I went to Paul Brown Institute last year and really enjoyed my cheap facial $ 20, they were running a special last December, very disappointed this year when I went to schedule the same service and the staff told me they were closed on Saturdays, I’m pretty sure the students can use more practice on a easy day, no traffic in downtown and not too much commotion on that particular day. The pedicure services are hard to get since they’re always booked, the institute can use more friendly management staff, other than that, I will go back again. It will be nice if I can catch another great discount in any of their services every month, wishful thinking!

Great place for quality results on a budget!
The students are very sweet and thorough on the wax/​cuts/​styling. I’ve done everything from the bi-​weekly brow wax to getting my hair ombré’d here and they never disappoint!
Yes, it may take longer than your average salon; however you will be paying (for example) $ 20 vs. $ 200 – think about it. And you will be helping a blossoming stylist strengthen their skills and portfolio. Its a win win situation and my go-​to salon. :)

Remington Reality not Paul Brown Institute School for Beauty
Waited six weeks for my appointment, really looking forward to a day of me.
I went to have a haircut, pedicure and manicure on Wednesday. Drove downtown, parked at Alii Place and walked the walk. I’ve done this a dozen times.
Inside the school, the receptionist Tim was in back, stood for a while at the counter and the young girl from the school decided to help me. Looked at the list of names to do my hair and nails; didn’t recognize the name. James was there and I have had a cut with him twice and a facial. A student took me to a young girl who then washed my hair in cold water and very hot water. I told her she could add pressure to her wash and she didn’t nor did she wash the back of my head. Okay, it’s over.
Went to have my hair cut in a bob, she then pinned my hair in two clips so I looked like my pigtails had just flown away. Next, she changed her approach to cutting an inch off my hair in the back by reconfiguring the clips. After thirty minutes and her teacher Maria swooping over for the third time talking in zeros I was loosing confidence in this whole ordeal. Maria (the teacher) asked her, «are these your best scissors?» I never heard the cut of scissors from the student. Maria did take two cuts.
Trying to figure out how to escape this girl with my hair intack, forty minutes later I said I needed to go to the ladies room. I went to Tim at the desk and confided in a low voice «I have no confidence in the girl cutting my hair,» I don’t know what to do. Tim said he would get a supervisor.
I saw him talking at length to a man in a bright blue shirt and short white hair whose name is Kevin. It looked like they were having an argument. It took a long time and I lost more confidence. I went up to the desk and asked what is going on, is he helping me I asked the young man sitting there, he said he didn’t know?
My hair was dripping wet and the two clips stuck in my hair made me look like a cartoon character. Finally, the blue shirted man came over to me and sat down. He started talking to me very patronizing. Repeading over and over again, that I needed to understand this was a school. I felt he thought I was either deaf or dumb. He tried to get me to know him on a personal level but, I was so upset by this awkward situation I did not want to chat about his realtor experience on the mainland.
Things got worse after I put the problem in the schools hands, my haircut was finished by Tanya to perfection. She led me to my next manicure appointment where the manager of the salon Maria stopped me.
She told me I was not welcome to come back and that she had cancelled my manicure and pedicure because I had upset a student. Maria refused to hear my side of the story, told me if I wanted to talk to her, I would have to follow her around the office as I spoke. I said I would like to tell my side of the story, she refused.
I asked to speak to her superior and she said she had none. I said okay let me talk to Paul Brown, she said he had nothing to do with the school. I asked again who her supervisor was, she said well, I suppose you could talk to the President of Remington College. She didn’t give me his name or phone number. Everyone had disappeared from the front desk.
Maria told me I had no right to get out of the first student’s chair and it was wrong of me to not let her finish the cut. I really could not sit there longer. It was a train wreck.
I left after Tim and everyone abandoned their normal stations for «The Maria.» Went to get my car and stopped to speak with the President of Remington College. He said his name was Ken, no last name given on the second request. Did not follow my story and gave me the fraternity handshake upon leaving; something like this isn’t goodbye it is adiós. Weird.
Ken said he would get back to me, I have waited two weeks for him to call me or write. He has not contacted me with a followup.
So now I wonder if Paul Brown whose name drew me there in the first place, and whose school I have bragged about to my friends for years has nothing to do with it as Maria said.
What happened to the instruction of this school? Is it now about learning abuse. Maria was abusive to me, and as an educator most destructive. She is teaching the student, a client is always wrong and if a difficult situation arises, kick the client out. As an instructor Maria is not instilling the confidence to her students required to do such a job. The first student was not ready for what Maria said anyone in the school could do. It was the faculty who put the student in that awkward position not me.
I learned from Maria that I should have said I was sick, left the salon and called later for an appointment with James. A request I did not know I could make but, learned from Maria, who also said I had made special requests before. Not true.
I will never go back to Remington, and I will try to tell everyone I know how horribly I was treated by Maria.

Again, hate to give 2 stars to working students but the instructors are the ones deserving the 2 stars. So far the ones I’ve encountered were pompous and thought they were the bees knees of hair. The guy who runs the reception desk is super nice though, quick, attentive, very friendly.
Wanted to get highlights, after years of just touching up my roots with black to cover grays. The student asked the «professor» and she quickly looked at my head with a bit of disdain and claimed that these are only students and I wasn’t «being realistic, it’s not this simple to just color and give highlights.» She then said I would need to STRIP ALL THE OLD COLOR from my entire head, then to recolor it back to the color I had now. And then I could do the highlights. I couldn’t just color over it.” WTF??? This was sooo not true! Years of going to mainland salons (Frederick Fekkai in LA, Yosh’s in SF, amongst others) I knew she was just throwing rank and wanted to seem important.
So long story short, she refers me to a «color specialist» at the regularly priced PB salon at Ward and what does this lady do??? EXACTLY what I was asking the student to do. She did exactly what I knew was possible. She didn’t strip all my hair color, she colored and highlighted right on top it! And this colorist was a veteran of the salon, she was one of the first to open the salon with Paul Brown!
So BOOOO professors. Okay, to be fair I’ll give 4 stars to the couples massage my husband I got. Quiet room, private and nice technicians.
My recap:
Pros:
–Clean atmosphere
–Private rooms for massages
–Nice students
–Decent pricing
Cons:
–Not very knowledgable staff/​professors
–Not very friendly professors, even my tech seemed to be intimidated by her teacher whenever he came by.
–Mediocre hair cuts

i went to Paul Brown Institute because they were the only salon that cut my hair to be donated to the Locks Of Love charity. The plus: they paid for the postage of the hair to be sent to the charity. The con: they finished cutting my hair but it was uneven at the end, even with an instructor there watching and helping out, and it wasn’t entirely free. They charged me $ 12 for the uneven bad haircut. I paid it anyways for their time, which took about 2 hours.

i’ve gone to the paul brown institute twice and fortunately the gals that i’ve had were nearing graduation. they did superb jobs in getting the haircuts i wanted (brought a picture as a template for them). yes, they do take quite a while to cut, say 1−½ — 2 hours. if you’re in a time crunch, then paul brown institute is not the place for you. of course i go because the haircuts are cheap, but i like to think that i’m giving these students another opportunity to further enhance their skills. i would definitely go back for a haircut!

I’ve been here twice for a hair straightening.
The first time was awesome– result was perfect and although it took forever (something like 6 – 8 hrs), I loved the finished product (tee hee, my hair!) and talking with the really sweet lady.
About a year and a half later, the frizz had significantly re-​emerged and become a nightmare to deal with. Since I’d had an amazing experience the first time, I figured the second time would be equally good. The service was fab (again, a very cool student) but alas … the final product was disappointing. I first suspected something was amiss when she allowed the chemical solution to touch my scalp. I asked her about that because I was pretty sure that the previous student as well as my other hairdresser at Ala Moana, had been insistent about NOT letting the chemicals touch my scalp. The student insisted that it was fine.
…lemme tell you, when my scalp began to peel off in big sheets for the rest of the week, I was appalled because it was obvious that she had been wrong and had BURNED my scalp. I literally cried because I had bits of scalp skin all over my hair and even when I took the pieces out, there were always more. It looked like I had massive dandruff … and not flakes mind you, but SHEETS, huge sections coming off.
It’s been 8 months since that straightening and my scalp is still messed up. I never used to have dandruff but now if I take a comb to fix my part, my scalp starts to flake. =(SO GROSS. It’s also itchy a lot.
I had a haircut either the next day or two days later (before the flaking) here. It was ok.
During the time that I had a straightening and haircut, I thought I’d lucked out because they had a 20% off special. No. My hair ended up «straight» but my scalp has been permanently damaged. I’d rather shell out the extra money to go to J Salon. I asked one of the stylists about letting the straightener chemical touch the scalp and she re-​affirmed my opinion … that letting it touch the scalp is a major no-​no.
If I just came here for a haircut or even a manicure, I’d be getting a deal. According to the price list, at regular price, the manicure specialty is $ 17 and with paraffin, an extra $ 16. You can’t beat this price especially because a manicure is pretty hard to mess up. A massage is $ 40. Facials run from $ 30 – 40.
The service is awesome– the receptionist is a really, really nice guy, always smiling and positive.

so i had a gift certificate for ‘paul brown.’ at first glance it seemed i could have services done at the paul brown salon at ward or waikele, but no, this gift certificate was only for services at the paul brown institute in downtown. yes, you heard me right… they have an actual paul brown school where the students are actually working on you. hence a bit scary, but i didn’t want to waste the gift certificate!
i called and scheduled an appointment for one saturday morning, at 9:30am. i even received a call reminding me of the appointment. awesome.
because i desperately needed a haircut (still do today!) i decided to go with a hair cut by one of their ‘stylists.’ upon check in i waited a few mintues before the girl acknolwedged me, how rude! oh well, she told me to have a seat and ‘alyssa’ would be with me. so i grabbed a chair, and noticed they also offer waxing and massages (if you ever need one). approximately on-​time, a girl who looks intimidating introduces herself and she is ‘alyssa.’ uh-​oh, she looks a bit scary, dare i say even a bit ‘bitchy.’ however, she was really nice and friendly. yay!
okay so here it is:
my haircut wasn’t «impressive» she’s a student in training! i didn’t want to get all particular about what i wanted with her! HOWEVER she managed to get my «bu-​rin-​ki» hair smooth by just BLOW DRYING! omg, amazing! by the way, they also shampoo/​condition before cutting.
the downside of this place is that b/​c they are learning, they must wait for their instructor’s approval before cutting! so that day they were quite busy, but if you’ve got lots of time to kill, i’d totally recommend it here. it’s pretty cheap, $ 10 for flat ironing, they even do color, perms, manicures, pedicures, massage, waxing, etc. needless to say, my total?! only $ 15! yes you read me right, $ 15 for shampoo/​condition/​cut/​blow dry! pretty nifty huh?
one last note-​parking is in the garage of that building, but i’m not sure if they validate, i parked at macys…