Andrea Neal-Thiesen Hairstylist

Andrea has an exceptional eye for detail! I’ve come to her with hair problems and she’s always kind and patient, offering me solutions that turn out fantastic. Thanks Andrea!

Andrea is amazing! If you have curly hair… look no further. Her cuts make my hair look fantastic. Thanks to her amazing skills, I can run out the door with my hair wet and a little product and have great hair everyday. When I get compliments on my hair, which I do on a regular basis– I always pass her info along and tell people it’s the cut, not the hair. I have had bad haircuts in my life (every curly girl has at least one sob story) and during those times I didn’t have great hair. I have come to realize when you have curly hair — your hair can be your best or your worst accessory. Andrea will help you live to your curly hair potential! She’s the best!

In the fewest possible words: Andrea changed my life.
By working with my hair instead of trying to make it something it isn’t, she unleashed the natural charm of my curly-​wavy hair, and I finally feel like myself again sporting my do.
I spent my first 13 years in Oregon going from one ‘curly hair specialist’ to another, only to be blown-​out straight or crisp-​dried into a fuzzy mess.
Andrea takes the time to cut my hair carefully and to teach me how to work with my hair and the Deva products [which are very reasonably priced … and Andrea is a minimalist with products, too].
She has been very respectful of my wishes regarding length and other considerations [being able to pull it back easily, etc.] … it was a really awful slaughtering by another local hairdresser that resulted in my finding Andrea, so her incredible respect for my wishes has been of the utmost importance to me.
It takes longer — about 1.5 hours for my long [mid-​back] hair, — but she does such a precise job that I only need a haircut every 4 months.
Cost is no more than I was paying before to have my hair wretchedly chopped and pulled straight, either.
She’s absolutely brilliant, truly gifted at what she does.

Andrea is fantastic! I’ve been getting my hair cut with her for almost two years now, and she’s done a great job with my wavy hair keeping the cut fresh and modern. Once I had to bring along my preschooler and she was more than flexible to allow for a squirming kid hanging out on my lap and nearby. She’s also just wonderful to talk with. I highly recommend!

Andrea is a life saver! I have curly, frizzy hair that is hard to style, well for me to style. Most stylists just do not understand that the normal cut… shampoo, comb, then cut… does not work on curly hair… period! I had read a lot from the curly girl forum, got some tips and decided to search for a stylist in the Portland area when I moved here 3 years ago… after trying two other stylists I found Andrea… thank God! She knows what she is doing and is also willing to listen if you want to add something different to the mix. She is great on color as well and what I love is that she does not make you feel rushed, she makes you feel like you are special. She is a gem!

Andrea is so nice. She and I had a great conversation, and I really enjoyed sitting in her chair. However, I didn’t exactly get a Deva Cut, which is what I’d hoped for when I visited a few months ago.
I have wavy (type 2b) hair several inches past my shoulders, and I’ve had years worth of successful Deva Cuts (in SF) that never left me with «mushroom» hair (fluffy then a dramatic flat ledge underneath), which was the standard result for my hair with a regular cut. I addressed this concern at the start of my visit with Andrea, and she totally understood.
Although she did cut my hair dry, she didn’t free each curl/​wave. My hair looked great when I walked out, but shortly after washing the mushroom shape appeared. I do know she understood what I’d hoped to avoid, but without freeing each curl, I don’t see how this is different from any regular «curly» style hair cut. I managed to fix the most offensive sections myself (life too chaotic to call and go back in), but I had to cut the length by two inches to get it right. boohoo.

This review was for a trim she gave me last year while working at Platform Artistic Salon.
One curious thing that has been consistent my entire life with hair stylists, is that the more money they charge, the more unhappy I seem to be with the results. Sadly, my experience with her was no exception.
I had read all the great reviews and saw that Andrea was a «Deva Curl» hair specialist too so I thought I’d give her and this method a try when I was in town. I was hoping that she’d know how to give my long, wavy hair the elusive «v» cut that I was after.
Well, she was pleasant enough but I was left with more of a straight across cut. It grew out strange too, which was especially apparent when I straightened it.
It had lots of different length ends but after almost a year of letting it grow out, I had a stylist in Amsterdam reshape it.
I wonder if Andrea is more used to working with curly hair. Mine is just wavy. And ever since my main Eugene hairdresser and I moved away from one another, no stylist has been able to get it right. I keep hearing that the «v» shape is very basic, but I think it’s more of a challenge on wavy hair like mine.

I feared leaving my prior Deva hair stylist moving to Oregon, but Portland is so lucky to have Andrea! I drive 1.5 hours from rural Oregon to get to Andrea!
She is highly skilled with the Deva curly hairstylist technique. One of the true tests of curly haircuts is how long it lasts — that’s when a standard cut turns ugly. But Andrea’s cuts keep my hair in great shape for many months because it grows in a flattering way. She does a great job shaping the actual curls on your head, which are highly varied and don’t always behave.

When I moved to Portland I didn’t look for doctor first, you can always find a good one of those. Nope, my first mission was to find a good hair artist. And boy did I get lucky. Saying Andrea is the best is an understatement. If she moves I move. She is the standard all others are compared. Andrea is not just a hair stylist, she a color artist and amazing. She listens, she knows her stuff and you can expect the best.
With Andrea, I know I’m going to get the best possible service, style and color. If you need the best, get on the calendar and you’ll thank me. You know she is good when the first thing you do after stepping out of her chair is make the next appointment with her in advance. Yeah, she is that good. There is a reason celebrities had her come to their home to have her work her magic.
I’m actually upset writing this because I know it’ll just be harder to get in and see her. Doesn’t matter, I can’t say enough about Andrea, if she was cutting and coloring in a parking lot I would already be on the calendar. Love me some Andrea. She jumps I follow.

My wife (Janet B.) and I recently moved to the Portland area and needed to find a hair stylist. Our old stylist was a hard act to follow. I’d been introduced to him by a corporate image designer to clean up my act. I was in sales then and my haircut would quickly lose shape unless it was skillfully cut. The stylist recommended by my aesthetically attuned employer specialized in curly hair. That was in 1982 and I’d gone to him ever since then and was always happy with his work. Soon after we met my wife started seeing him for hair styling and coloring. He had become a dear friend and we left the San Francisco area just months before he was set to retire. We knew we would miss him and felt the loss.
Unlike the clothes you change every day, you carry your hairstyle with you for weeks after your appointment. It’s important that you trust your stylist and worth paying someone what it takes to do it well.
So … we were strolling through the Pearl District one evening, saw Andrea’s former salon, looked it up on Unilocal and found she was highly rated. We had just finished the roughest part of our move and we looked it. We were eight weeks past our prior styling appointment, and I had developed that wild caveman look.
Andrea told us she’d been trained in L.A. to specialize in cutting curls. So instead of showing the photos and instructions from my former stylist I told her I wanted a softer look and asked her to do what she would normally do. She gave me a better haircut than my former stylist — or at least what he would have done had I asked him to update me. Seriously. She took her time and cut the curls (the ones that are left) with care. And she’s very nice too. You can’t do better than that.
Five stars, Andrea. You’ve more than earned them and our loyalty too!

My husband and I recently moved to the Portland area from the San Francisco Bay Area. We had been going to a hair stylist in San Francisco for more than 20 years, and we truly loved him. He was great with our challenging curly hair. He was one of the people we sorely missed after leaving the Bay Area. But, we had to find a new hair stylist, so we stumbled upon a salon in the Pearl District (which has since closed). They recommended Andrea because she specializes in curly hair. WOW! To our absolute delight, she has exceeded our expectations. We walked in with a very high bar to meet from our previous experience. And, Andrea has more than met our needs. She is extremely talented with cutting curly hair. She also colors my hair and has done a superb job matching my previous color with a different product because the former brand is no longer available. We walked out the first time after seeing Andrea extremely pleased and are now loyal customers. We went back two more times before she had her baby, and we’re so looking forward to continuing our relationship with her when she returns to work later this month at the Ivan Dollar Salon. Not only is she highly skilled, but she’s also a great communicator, service oriented, and a fun conversationalist as we compare notes on settling into the Portland area. (She has also moved here from California.) We’re thrilled to have found Andrea!

I’m the kind of curly head that goes to a different stylist everytime because I’m never satisfied with their attention to my requests. My hair is long and indecisive — super curly here, semi curly there. So a cookie cutter haircut does not do. Andrea literally frees every curl and cuts them one by one. I’ve been to her TWICE, which is a record for me in Portland (I’ve probably tried every salon with good curl reviews on Unilocal). Andrea also has an easygoing personality, and the time flies in her thrown.
Oh, and I also referred a best friend and her very picky 5-​year-​old with Shirley Temple hair. They both love Andrea too :)

Andrea is amazing with curly hair! Its been a struggle my entire life to find the right person to cut my hair and after moving to Portland from the east coast I spent over a year going to various salons to try and find the right person. I finally found Andrea and my curls are so happy! She does a dry cut and really knows how to add the right layers for my type of hair so that it always looks great. If you have curly hair I can’t recommend Andrea enough!

Andrea is an artist with hair!.My hair is fine, with a little wave
I have read the reviews about Andrea and made an appointment.
I am so happy with my hair now.
Andrea seemed very intuitive as to the style I wanted.
And dedicated undivided attention to every detail and showed
me how to care and keep the beautiful style she created.
Andrea will now be my go to Gal when it comes to my hair.

YAY for Andrea and her amazing expertise with cutting curly hair. I can actually wear my hair down now. Her knowledge of curly hair and hair products was a breath of fresh air. I also had my hair colored and it looks great! Not to mention she is a super fun person to spend two hours with. Thank you Andrea for giving me a style I can recreate.

Here I am, a woman in my early 30s, and I had never been to stylist more than once until Andrea. You read correctly – she is the only person that I’ve ever returned to! I have a mishmash curly head (tight in the front, wavy in the back) and I wasn’t really able to keep it under control until I found Andrea. She practices the Deva method of dry cutting. If you’re a curly girl, this is the way to go! Love her chair presence too – very sweet :) I’m a client in LA, so I’m very jealous of all you Portland kids who can see her whenever you want to kick those curls into shape! Worth every dollar.

Andrea is great! I! I have straight blonde hair and like to have light and dark streaks in my hair. With my previous hairdresser, the dark streaks kept turning orange! I went to Andrea because I had heard such GREAT things about her and they were right. My color is now perfect and her cut is fantastic. She’s a perfectionist which I love.
I know I’m going to have to wait longer now for my appointments because the word is getting out, but Andrea is too good not to share!!!

Andrea is awesome! I found her by chance when I first moved to Los Angeles and lived in the Valley. Over 3 years later, I now live on the west side, and I still make the drive to Capella Salon for Andrea!
I have had her try everything with my hair; cuts, color, and even a perm, and she made it all look great. The people I have referred to her love her as well!
I’m extremely picky, so it is hard for me to find someone I trust enough to cut my hair. Andrea is the best! I’d reccomend her to anyone.

I’ve been going to Andrea for more than four years and she’s simply wonderful! I’ve had her do everything from dying to cutting to highlights to «surprise me» to deep conditioning treatments and up-​does. She’s great at everything and I enjoy going and getting my hair done and hanging out with her!
My husband also goes to Andrea and she does his hair to perfection. My mother-​in-​law now goes to her and loves her and my two year old daughter is Andrea’s littlest stylish client, layers and all :-)
I definitely recommend Andrea — she’ll make you look great and feel comfortable!

I have curly hair and have been searching in Los Angeles for a curly hair specialist who also dyes hair. One of my girlfriends told me about Drea and three and a half years later I wont see anyone else! She is an amazing hair dresser who fully understands women with curly hair and not judging when those women want to wear it straight! I tend to see Drea more than most, about once a month, and I look forward to every visit, catching up and leaving with my hair looking fabulous! The Deva Curl products are worth every penny as well! They last forever and my curls have never looked better! Thank you Drea, I look forward to many more years of monthly appointments!