Salon R & Spa

Full disclosure: I went here only because my friend, Gigi, started working here.
Gigi has been doing my hair for about a year now and so when she moved to this salon I of course followed her. It’s a little far from my neighborhood (it’s in Kalihi), but Gigi is worth the trip.
The haircut is fantastic and I’ve paid far more for haircuts not nearly as good or fast. Gigi’s the best and I always get complimented after I go to her. For me though it’s all about the shampoo, chills down my spine and relaxation of my mind! All thanks to G’s scalp massage magic :).
G was also able to wax my eyebrows in the salon’s waxing room.
I was sad to see that this place had so many bad reviews, but I guess the person that it was about is no longer there… I’m pretty sure you can still get your nails done.
Anyway. Don’t let the bad reviews scare you off! I’m glad I went and I will definitely be going back.

My experience here was not a good one, but I hope that it is a better one for you. Personally, I would not want to go back.

I bought a Groupon voucher for me and friend. Making appointment is kinda tricky… the number on the voucher listed is for the salon, but you need to call another number and make an appointment with the Nail Technician. The place is rather difficult to find and parking is a PAIN. If at all possible, schedule yourself early in the morning. When we got there, there was only one technician… so we waited for each other (which were told before hand). No problem. At least we were forewarned. As she was doing our pedicures, the nail technician had her friend take her phone calls. When the customer on the other end of the phone conversation wanted a certain day or time, the nail technician told her friend to say that she wasn’t available and that she was only taking appointment on certain days. Mind you, on Groupon more than 900+ vouchers were sold. We were fortunate that we went earlier in the day because she ended up cancelling the rest of her appointments for the day. Even though I had better pedicure, I am one NOT to complain. I felt for the nail technician she was telling us the story about how people don’t tip well or not at all. Yeah, I understand why… but because I’m a big softie, we tipped her well. She seems like a nice girl. She did recommend the Liquid Sand Nail Polish by O.P.I. Loved it!:-) I wish her the best!

This place is a waste. I bought a groupon for manicures for friends. Called for appointments and they only are available 11 – 4, Tuesday through Saturday. It was a waste of buying a groupon as don’t seem to be much interested in building a client base. Most people work daytime hours. Too bad their times weren’t disclosed before I bought the groupon. Hard to get them on the phone also. Doesn’t even deserve a single star!!!

This place deserves NO stars! How can you even call this place a business??? They don’t know the answers to any questions and then they start changing their answers when they finally come up with something to say. The girl on the phone who «onlyyy does what’s on the groupon» (why are you even working at a nail salon??) talks to you with A LOT of attitude! She laughed when I said the appointment time available didn’t work for me and continued to talk back when I questioned her about the way she was talking to me. There’s no way i’m letting them touch my nails! Especially after also now seeing the pictures already posted on here. WHAT A WASTE OF MONEY!

well, I was not going to review but… YOU MUST BE WARNED… Writing a review may be the only way for me to feel better. I went with a friend we were told we could do together but I dont know why they told us that because they only have one chair. When we got there ON TIME they were doing someone else because they had the wrong time written down… long story short we were there for over two hours and peoples appointments after ours were also jacked. one lady came, left, came back, and then left again upset. The color selection was minimal at best and the mani/​pedi seemed fine enough but not the best Ive had. My feet and hands didnt feel pampered but they looked alright. The girls working there were nice to us unlike some of the other reviews. But they were young and it didnt feel very professional. All of that said, it was fine but I wouldnt go back. BUT HERES THE WARNING… I have blisters on my index finger from the gel manicure, im guessing from the UV light. Did they turn it up to high, did they keep it on too long? I dont know because I have never had a gel mani before. The blisters hurt and they are hideous, and I’m very angry about this. I have called and left messages to talk to them and no one answers or replies. Booooooo!!!
~update~ my finger has still not totally healed. Three circular scars. So lame. In talking with many friends and folk who frequent gel manicures I have been given the impression that it can’t be due to the UV lite. I’m guessing then it was a chemical burn. I truly dont know what’s worse.

A few tips for the nail tech’s lack of business etiquette and pedi experience:
— Either answer your phone or return your messages same day or within 24 hours
— Know your schedule, block out dates that you plan to close like Mother’s Day
— Call your clients as soon as you know you’re running behind schedule
— Don’t let your clients wait more than 15 minutes of their appointment time
— Do give your clients the full service they paid for especially when it’s your fault you were running behind.
— Thank your clients and ask them to return if they enjoyed your services
— Learn to paint the entire toe and cut cuticles and cut toe nails
— Invest in a drying machine and toe separators

Must schedule with the nail technician, not the actual salon. Hard to find as it is second floor and limited parking. Nail tech was very nice, lenient when we ran into traffic and ended up 15min late for the appointment. Bought the groupon for the mani-​pedi. She did well on the pedicure, but did not trim cuticles as stated in other reviews. For the manicure she used the gel polish. Love the idea of quick dry long lasting polish but she needs more neutral colors. Also did not trim cuticles and left nails rough at edges and quite a bit of polish on skin. I am very finicky with my nails so trying not to be too harsh. Also you pay tax on the groupon and they don’t take cards for the tax!

Went with the sister and redeemed our Groupon for our pedicure treatment. Let’s start by first saying that this place is hard to find. Parking is very limited. I would suggest book first thing when they open. Our appointment was at 11 am. When making the appointment, the number that is listed on the voucher is for the salon and not the actual nail technician. The male who normally answers the calls will give you her direct number and when you call you get her voicemail where she then returns your call for an appointment.
Trust me, the earlier the appointment the better. When we both went, it was only one tech. So we waited for each other which we were both prepared before hand when booking. We even learned that day that the tech wasn’t going to do any more appointments that day because she was having some sort of foot or leg pain and was going to the doctor. Both of us knew that there were 800+ vouchers that was bought which also expires soon in June I believe so that’s why we jumped in early when I read on Unilocal that there was only one tech! I heard there are two of them, but there was only one when we went, So peeps with the vouchers, redeem now or ASAP!
Also, the reason why I rated it two stars is because she don’t trim cuticles! Who doesn’t trim cuticles! I think this is the only place who doesn’t! I’ve been to so many, and I was being nice by not saying anything. So people don’t be shocked. If you request, you might be cut! Who knows! Maybe she didn’t because she didn’t know how.
Also another disappointment for me was that while I was finished with my pedicure, the sister was getting hers done, I went snooping around the salon and what did I see? I saw the price for a pedicure for $ 25! Didn’t the voucher say it was 50%off reg price which came out to $ 17. So that means the pedicure was supposed to be $ 34 reg. price? I don’t like went businesses lie! anyways… whatevers!
Next disappointment, I also noticed, which I attached a photo, she missed a strip of nail. No paint! Oh my! I kept my mouth shut. I was only being nice because she seemed like a nice young girl trying to make it through life. She did suggest try the new liquid sand polish which I did by the way.
Both my sis and I have big hearts I must admit. After hearing her share with us that people don’t tip her well, we felt sorry and tipped her with great heart and, I am sure people tipped her based on the service rendered by her. But in all honesty, we will not be returning here.
To sum it all up, service is ok, parking and location bad, appointments… good luck, end result… no comment.

I bought a Groupon for pedicures for my friend and myself and then she in turn did the same. These were bought back at the end of Feb. beginning of March. A week later I started calling the number from the Groupon ad. No body answered the phone and I got a recording that said if I was a Groupon customer to leave my name and number and the day that I would like to make an appt. (no same day). I called 3 days in a row with no return phone call to this day (over a month now). My friend has tried calling them as well with the same result. She finally called Groupon last week. They called the salon and called my friend back saying to give them 3 more days to respond because no one else has complained about them. They now have another Groupon posted for pedicures and manicures.
Please complain to Groupon so they quit offering Groupons for this place if they’re so bad!

This place is a nightmare!!!
I bought a Groupon for a cut and color here a few months back. I was unsure about getting it because the reviews were so bad, but it was so cheap and since most of the bad reviews for nails, i went ahead and bought it. Well that was a BIG mistake.
First of all, there was only one guy working when i went in for my appointment but there were FIVE women in there getting their hair done. He would work on one while the others just sat and stared under the dryers or while their hair was being dyed. Now i don’t see any problem with a stylist doing two… maybe three clients at a time if it’s timed out right, but five is just way too many. i found myself sitting there waiting for way longer than i should have.
The worst part though was the haircut. I still can not understand how anyone can mess up trimming split ends. I specifically told him I only wanted my hair trimmed an inch or less. No layers, nothing fancy, just a trim. (Note:I have long hair that goes down to the middle of my back and WAS all one length.) Well when he was finished he didn’t give me a mirror to look at the back of my hair like every stylist usually does. I didn’t think anything of it though because i wasn’t getting anything different than I had. Just a trim. Or so i thought anyways.
When I woke up the next morning my hair looked really weird in the front. Some pieces were just laying really weird and i didn’t know why. I picked up my hand held mirror and looked at the back of my hair in my bathroom mirror. Come to find out he had cut a huge layer like four inches shorter than the rest of my hair! This wasn’t a normal looking layer though, it was cut straight across and not blended in at all. It seriously looked like my hair got caught in a lawn mower. I wanted to cry! I had to go get my hair fixed that day someplace else and when I got there the girl said «Wow, who effed up your hair?!» So it was obviously not just me overreacting. Even though i got it fixed i STILL can see the choppiness from how he cut it. =(I will never EVER be going back to that awful place again and judging by the other reviews they should just close down.

The worse manicure I ever got! There were barely any colors to choose from, and she seemed unorganized. The lighting was terrible so I believe that was the reason why she did not see all on flaw on my nails. Do not go there, u less your getting a haircut.

This is my first review ever. The woman who have me the pedicure was very sweet, but she is definitely not a pro. She didn’t even remove the clear nail polish before she started working on my toes. Hours after leaving this place the polish got all bubbly! Don’t go here! It’s not worth it.

Worst pedicure yet in Honolulu. Wasn’t worth the Groupon cost. The only employee (and person, period) in the place when I arrived spent as little time performing my service as she could. Seemed like a true untrained novice. She didn’t trim my cuticles and spent about one minute per foot using a callous file. Needless to say, she wasn’t effective at anything. Then, there’s the sophomoric job she did at painting my nails. The nails were not fully covered and the polish started coming off after three days. I guess they just don’t care about customer service, gaining repeat business or making profit. Waste of time.

I can’t even give this place any stars. I purchased a groupon for gel nail manicure and pedicure. When I called to make an appointment the owner gave me the personal phone number of the nail tech. I called and left messages and I received a callback a few days later. I tried to do my research and on the website and I noticed that nail services were not in the menu. I felt that this was kinda shady but I wanted to give this place a try.
I arrived to this salon and it was upstairs of a store front. Very difficult to find. Parking was horrible, still I wanted to give this place a try. The nail tech greeted me and i was immediately seated in the pedicure chair. She didn’t talk much but that was OK. She answered her cell phone while polishing my nails. Her personality wasn’t the most pleasant when I asked questions. During the polish application, she did not use a toe separator so my fresh toe polish would accidentally touch my other toes. When i asked her to touch it up she seemed to give attitude. On to the nails. When I asked to see the colors for the gel polish, she stated that I can use any color I wanted. She didn’t use the gel polish that I had previously used. She reassured me that they will last for 2 weeks. When I questioned her about it, her response was «the owner didn’t want to invest in something expensive since they were just starting nail service, but I will use the gel top coat and its the same thing.» I commented that my groupon was for a gel manicure and if it was only a gel top coat, I asked was that considered false advertisement? She refused a response or pretended not to hear me. I inspected my polish color and it was not smooth. She continued to apply layer after layer to get it right without giving some time to dry in between. She put the final gel coat on and placed me under the UV light. When I had my nails done at other places, my nails were completely dry prior to leaving the store, here I felt rushed. She informed me that I had to pay tax on the services. I proceeded to go into my purse and pay for it. Needless to say my nails were ruined. When I showed her my nails, she totally ignored me. She gave me my change back and I did not leave a tip. I was very disappointed in the service. I told her if she wanted customers to return to let the owner know to invest into the «real» gel nail polish. FYI, the remaining nail polish did not last for 2 weeks as she stated. It lasted a mere 2 days. A total waste of my time and not to mention money!!! I would not recommend this place! It makes me second guess the credibility of groupon screening their potential business associates.

WORST pedicure ever. I seriously wish I had read the reviews before I purchased the Groupon! I do not believe the technician actually had any training in pedicures, as my 14 year old daughter has done a better job. It was unprofessional, and my nail polish came off 3 toes in the shower! Even the station isn’t set up properly. Seriously… it seemed like the owner said, «go to target and get stuff to do pedicures with»…I would like to get my money back and hope no one else has the same experience.

I have to agree with all of the previous posts. I had the most awful experience and am writing this review to hopefully save others their time and money. I purchased the Groupon for a gel mani and spa pedi. I immediately called and made an appointment. The following week I called to change my appointment to an earlier time and they had no record of my appointment anywhere! They managed to «fit me in.» On the day of my appointment, I got a call from the technician asking if I could change my appointment to an earlier time because she had to leave earlier. I obliged even though I would be rushing from another appointment. When I arrived there was only one technician who had just started on another person. I sat and waited for an hour to get to me. When she finally started on my pedicure, she kept mentioning how this was going to be the fastest pedicure I’ve ever had b/​c she was in a hurry to get out there. She didn’t clip my nails, and spent about 5 seconds getting rid of callouses. It’s a day later and my toenail polish is already chipped. The gel manicure was even worse. Worst manicure I’ve ever had!!! The so called «gel» she put on my hands had bubbles and got on my skin. After leaving I was trying to clean up the excess and I was able to pull the gel off of my fingernail! I’ve had gel manicures before and you definitely shouldn’t be able to peel it off. Not to mention, there was nail polish on my skin that she would have just left there had I not asked her if she could get it off. The entire experience was a waste of my time, and I urge you to skip your appointment and get your money back.

I too have to admit — I bought the Groupon and was far from pleased. I should first and foremost agree and ‘ditto’ the other 1-​star reviews as they were spot-​on with my experience as well.
Instead of writing a novel of all that fell short of my expectations, I will include brief points that will hopefully help others.
–I made an appointment in advance since my mom was coming to town and I wanted to treat her to a girls day out. I asked a few times to confirm that my mom and I would be serviced at the same time — being told numerous times ‘yes’ that our appointment would be at the same time… only to get there and have to have back-​to-​back appointments since the esthetician was the only one (and not just that day — but always)
–Our appointment was at 11:30-we waited until 12 bc her previous appointment ran over… she never apologized for the wait
–To make a long and painful recount short: she took over and hour and a half with just my mom (a mani and pedi), she had me ‘soak’ or more like shrivel in the pedi tub for over an hour!
–She had another group of 3 woman come in for their appointment at 1… which she claims she ‘didn’t realize where the time had gone’ –she didn’t tell them upfront how behind she was (as she wasn’t done with my moms mani at this point and hadn’t started on me)
–luckily the woman went to get lunch and came back an hour later… but still to have to wait 45 mins for her to rush my pedi/mani…she didn’t even do any of the mani other than take my old polish off and swipe new paint on messily
–She answered her cell phone, checked the computer, time and again and would take breaks that didn’t seem warranted-​especially bc she was so far behind! She kept chatting and taking her sweet time
–the group of 3 women seemed to be under the impression that they were all going to get to go at the same time! Oye! I felt so bad for them…
–In total: my mom and I were there for a painful 3 hours! And were extremely unimpressed
–She used a ‘gel’ on our nails that didn’t dry and led to our nail polish coming off that night and the next day-​looking horrible and negating the time (and money!) we spent the day before
This was a terrible service and it doesn’t seem like it was an ‘off day’ according to the other reviews.
If you have nothing better to do — take a chance, but good riddins. I will never go back and would not recommend you do either.
I’d recommend not redeeming your deals and if so, to book the first appointment of the day and plan nothing for a few hours afterwards. Be prepare to have limited selection of nail colors and not-​so-​professional service.
The one thing I’m most upset about is not the time and unprofessionalism, but the fact that I spent a good amount of money (deal or no deal) on 2 manis and pedis. The price is too high as a special for the quality, let alone the normal value ($ 50).

I usually don’t write reviews unless I feel really strongly about a place, and unfortunately Salon R and Spa was nowhere near up to par.
I came here to redeem my Groupon for a spa pedicure. There was only one chair in circulation and the massage function didn’t even work; the only other one had piles of bags and pillows on it. The associate told me to pick out a color from their minimal selection as she logged out of her Facebook account on the computer and turned the water on at my chair. As she proceeded with my pedicure, she seemed very new at this; her filing and painting just seemed very novice. She also took a call on her cell phone and had conversations with multiple people who walked in and out of the salon, although she seemed to know who they were. The entire appointment took over an hour — and not in a good way.
I definitely would not come back again, nor would I ever recommend anyone else come here. Sorry to be such a downer, but I would not sacrifice service just to save a few bucks.

Ok, that’s going to be a bit of a story here, but can’t avoid to justify 1 star rating. I got a Groupon/​Living Social, whichever one of these it was for an hour massage at this place as a present for my B-​day from my man. I tried to call and get the appointment since mid-​July, but it wasn’t until early September when I finally got the massage. No, my schedule wasn’t very limited, I was available all weekends. No, they weren’t all booked up either. It’s just that the lady masseuse (spel?) didn’t bother returning my several voicemails for a month. How fun is that? Anyway, she finally did and i finally (frustrated, but wanting to use up my promo offer) set up an appointment. When I got there a). there was no parking, b). there was no masseuse. Waited for an hour before they let me know she’s gone and there’s no way to get a hold of her. Ridiculous! So that’s why 1 star and never coming back. But what made it a bit better was: the manager guys was very apologetic and nice (which didn’t help the case much, but is still nice); the replacement masseuse that called me and did my massage was very good at what she was doing and got my stress & overtired muscles nicely worked of and warmed up. So that was good. Even though I didn’t like the oil she used, made me all sticky and blocked my pores, but that aside.
Was it an overall worth it, relaxing, pampering experience? No by long way!
Will I ever return? No.
Will I recommend the place? You must be joking!
Sorry Salon R&Spa, it might be just this 1 time, but you just didn’t gain a client.