Tonie’s Hair Salon

Tee is such an amazing hair stylist. I’m constantly in awe of her patience with me and my hair. I’ve been going to her for about 3 years now and I continue to do so because she’s attentive, listens to my requests and puts in suggestions when needed. Just this weekend, I received a compliment from a random hair colorist I met at a nail salon and I remembered, I have to write Tee the review she so deserves! When a hair stylist compliments your hair done by someone else, it’s probably a beautiful job, right?! lol… Prior to Tee, I’ve jumped from salon to salon for trial and error hoping to find one I like but never been completely satisfied. It could also be the fact that I have difficult Asian hair which make some colors harder to achieve but I’m glad I found Tee because this isn’t an issue for her =)

Thank you so much, Tee.
She did an amazing job with my hair. I think we were both surprised by how well it turned out. I usually go to My in Willow Glenn, but ever since I moved back home to SF, going to the south bay was a difficult trip for hair during the work week. She moved up my balayage/​ombré. She did an excellent job at keeping everything blended. I also really appreciate her for using Oplex, which she explained to me was a product that does less damage to processed hair. I like to know that she cared about my hair instead of trying to turn over customers. It came out wonderfully. I’ll be headed back for a hair cut soon.

I’ve been going to Tonies for years now, in fact shes the only person who has ever cut my hair professionally. i have wavy/​curly hair, and the first time she cut it she cut off SO much! But i ended up loving it! every time i go back i go shorter and shorter! i’ve been growing out my hair now and its super long and thick. i cant wait to go back and cut it all off in the summer! i also love the way she thins my thick hair with the blade. Besides Toni herself… i also like the environment. its very quiet and soothing. its usually just the pedi lady and Toni herself, so its nice to get attention and not just be another person with an appt at a busy salon. the parking sucks, but its worth it! don’t forget your quarters when you go!

Tee is AMAZING. I don’t even know if I can do her justice with this review. (I don’t see her mentioned on this page, I definitely got my hair done at this salon).
Soo.quick background. I have thick-​ass, frizzy-​ass, half-​heartedly wavy coarse hair that asian salons go like … As a result, every hair cut I’ve had has been a disaster, because they all straighten my hair several times before they cut it (realized this was not the norm recently), and despite my pleas of «for the love of all that is holy… please do NOT give me layers, it doesn’t work with my hair, especially at this length» they always try to talk me into layers. The ending result is always a cut that looks okay (since it’s been flat-​ironed 39 058 3098x + drowned in serums), that results in a weird asian puff ball situation after a shower.
I booked an appointment with my friend and we went in on a weekend (I think she only works weekends here). Tee was incredibly nice + spent a LOT of time on each of us (she worked on us alternately, in intervals), and was very detail-​oriented and professional. She was super patient and we never felt rushed at all, and actually listens to whatever input you have instead of putting you through a cookie cutter process. I also liked that she was honest let me know that my hair would not be the exact color that I wanted it to be because of box dye, instead of passing it off like «oh, of course I can do that».
It was dark when we left the salon, but our hair looked booooomb. My hair cost a little more than my friend (we got the same thing), but it definitely was well-​warranted considering she basically had to mix twice as much bleach and toner for me (Man, it took about an hour to curl my mane alone! Sorry Tee!!) than she did for my friend.
Definitely the best salon experience I’ve had, and definitely will be coming back.

I will be forever loyal to Tonie as long as she is still in business. A year and a half ago, I had a Japanese Thermal Recondtioning that went AWFULLY wrong at a salon at Irving St. that left my hair fried and frizzy instead of straight and smooth!
Fast forward to today, I decided that my hair has grown out a bit and perhaps is strong/​healthy enough to endure some form of salon chemicals again. So I looked on Unilocal and found Tonie’s Hair Salon and what people are saying absolutely true! Tonie IS AMAZING! I had her perform a Japanese thermal reconditioning on me while praying that it won’t turn out like last time– and it didn’t! My hair is smooth and straight just like a successful thermal reconditioning is suppose to do for you!
Bonus points for her GREAT company while I was sitting there for 5 hours! She was so friendly, funny, and easy to talk to! Not to mention, she was educating me about my hair and what best to do for it to maintain it’s healthier glow while the (still) fried ends from 1 and ½ year ago grow out.
Tonie, thank you so much for restoring my faith in thermal reconditioning and making me a very happy customer! Money well spent!!!

I go to see Lyn for a monthly pedi and she’s great! I started going to see Lyn b/​c the last pedi place I went to, I got a BAD infection on my toe. Lyn’s methods are very hygenic and her price is $ 5 cheaper than what I had been paying. She’s also very gentle. My pedicures are always pain free! The only criticism is that Lyn’s nail polish selection is small, but other than that, I’m VERY happy with Lyn!

I came in to get my hair thermally straightened (Japanese hair straightening) after reading everyone’s reviews, and most of them are true– Tonie is amazing! Unfortunately I did not inherit the supposedly universal Asian trait of «perfect hair», so the natural condition of my hair is slightly wavy, dull, and prone to frizz. I get my hair reconditioned once a year, so I’ve had a wide range of experience at different salons. I would say that her price range for hair straightening is typical; with my long, thick, mid-​back length hair, she charged me $ 290. But the end result by far was one of the best I have ever seen.
Tonie is a really sweet lady. She accommodated me well and was such nice company during the five-​hour process. She’s lighthearted, friendly, and a delight to talk to. More importantly, it was clear to me that she knew what she was doing. Before she began, she examined my hair to ensure that it could withstand the chemicals and heat used in the process. She found that the ends were dry and splitting and also sectioned off the part of my hair that that was already straight (remnants of previous treatments). She trimmed off the dry tips and made sure to straighten only the parts that needed it. After the final rinse and blow dry, my hair was left silky-​smooth, luminous, and frizz-​free.
The only part that I would warn you about is the pungent smell of chemicals left in your hair immediately after the treatment. The smell gradually diminished throughout the three days I left my hair unwashed, so it wasn’t too bad. She did leave some conditioning product in my hair at the end, which left my scalp feeling greasy and the roots of my hair oily, but my hair looked nice regardless.

Came here for a mani pedi, but ended up only having time to do a pedi. The Vietnamese lady was extremely nice, her spa soak was hygienic with the plastic wrap around it. She was gentle, efficient and on point. Her polish selection is up to date with Essie, Opi, etc but they look like they’ve been on the shelf for awhile. Will pay her a visit again.

Tonie is a great hairdresser. I come here to get my bangs trimmed and the price can’t be beat!

Thanks everyone for the great reviews and turning me to Tonie’s salon! In the past I’ve spent anywhere from $ 550 — $ 700 on the straightening process and doing this twice a year just seemed ridiculous! I finally found a place that is affordable (plan on spending 200 less than my lower quoted price above!) and done with high quality. It is clear Tonie has a lot of experience with thermal reconditioning and did a great job on my hair! I have extremely thick hair and the entire process took about 6 hours, and she stayed late on a Saturday night to make it perfect! AND, still charged me a very reasonable price! I will definitely be back for my every 6 month touch ups!

I’ve been going to Tonie for over 10 years, since she used to work in San Bruno. Unfortunately, I had a terrible outcome with my highlights the last time I went, so I have decided to start going elsewhere.
Tonie is friendly, personable and has very reasonable prices. Most of the haircuts and highlights she’s given me have been good. But over the past few years, I seem to have been squeezed in between other appointments and walk ins. Because of this, I either had to wait longer with whatever it is she is doing with me and other customers, or her assistant had to take over. Sometimes I leave after people who have come in after me and/​or had to run out to feed the meter again because it took longer than the 2 hours you get for parking.
I think this is what led up to some really awful highlights I had the last time I went. I have dark brown hair that she highlighted previously and she was going to touch them up. After she applied the cream, I just sat and waited for the color to develop. By that time, she had moved on to another customer and her assistant had to do the rest.
It ended up way too light — pretty much blonde — and she only applied the highlights from my roots down halfway of my hair’s length. Didn’t look good at all. Plus, her assistant was terrible at blow drying. I didn’t realize how bad it all looked until I got home. I was almost ready to dye my hair back to dark brown.
Overall, this place is OK but after my last experience, I am ready to find a new salon. Plus, it’s hard to find parking on Clement on the weekends and you have to be sure to feed the meter.

I realize this is a hair salon, but they pose as a nail salon as well.
I decided to cheat on my favorite Salon Belle Linda on 6^th and California and go here. As you can probably imagine from my star rating, it wasn’t a pleasant experience.
First off, the place seems very dirty. A lot of their tools have dust on them and their nail polish looks old and cracked.
The lady doing my nails seemed very out of it and she didn’t even use the right tools for things. I get acrylic nails, so I expect them to stay on for two weeks without breaking off or cracking, but by the looks of my nails I think I’ll be going in sooner than that.
This place should stop trying to be a nail salon and just stick to doing hair because they seem to be getting better reviews in that area.
On that note, I’m going back to Linda where I’ll pay $ 25 for a fill and be completely satisfied instead of $ 18 and leave disappointed.

This is an update to my previous review about the permanent hair straightening I had done by Tonie. I feel like I need to be more honest about the negative things I experienced after my straightening procedure because my last review focused too much on the positive.
After the treatment, a lot of my hair was damaged and broke off, either part-​way through the strand or straight at the root. When I went in to my consult with Tonie she said the straightening chemicals would be applied at least a ½ inch away from the scalp/​roots. But when I actually had it done, I remember they MASSAGED the straightening chemical cream into my scalp. At the time I remember hoping that they were just doing a deep conditioning treatment, but no, it was the chemical straightener. As a result, probably ¹⁄₅ of my hair broke off directly at the root. When I ran my fingers through my scalp a few days after the treatment, it felt like someone had just shaved parts of my scalp and the «stubble» was growing back. Note that this wasn’t in chunks or anything that left holes in my head, rather it was evenly dispersed throughout my head and just made it look like i had zero volume to my hair. Even though I loved that I had straight hair, it made me sad that so much of it had broken off, leaving me with less hair and zero volume for about three months until the roots grew in enough to give me some volume back. It is probably for this reason that I will not go back to Tonie again: I just don’t know if I am willing to lose so much of my hair just to have a straight look again.
I should mention that I had virgin (never dyed or chemically treated) hair before Tonie did the treatment, so the breakage wasn’t because of any previous work on my hair.
Since having my hair straightened in June of 07, I let the waves grow out to just past shoulder length and cut off the straightened, dead portion (in Jan 09), and it looks better just being wavy or straightened with a ceramic iron that stick-​straight and with no volume. I haven’t had another straightening treatment since then. Even though I loved being able to get out of the shower and just go, I’d rather have volume to my hair.
I also did more research and discovered that the procedure was not done properly on me, and that the chemical should have never been applied to my scalp. Also, there are alternatives to permanent straightening like «Keratin Therapy by Coppola» which I just had done at a different place and I’ll post the review for that in a month after I see how it looks.
All in all, I just wanted to let everyone know that this procedure is not a five-​stars kinda thing. It does have its Pros (easier to manage hair, softness, shine, stays straight until it grows out) but its Cons (lots of breakage, split-​ends part way through your hair and at the roots & no volume) should be considered.
Also, if you decide to get the straightening done, make sure that during your consult the stylist does a «strand test» where they take teensy samples of hair from all over your scalp and do the straightening treatment to the sample to see how your hair looks after treatment. If they are not willing to do that, you probably shouldn’t trust them with your hair.
My most recent stylists (for the Keratin Therapy Treatment) did a strand test for my hair before agreeing to treat it, and that made me feel like they took it seriously. Also, they said they have seen people from Tonie’s and other straightening salons in SF who had terrible outcomes after their straightening treatments, with lots of breakage.
So please, be careful and do your research! Remember that it you get permanent straightening you have to wait a couple years for the hair to grow out again if you don’t like the bone-​straight with no volume look. Also beware – check the profiles of people who write reviews because some stylists write their own Unilocal reviews under fake names (can you imagine?)! So before you trust somebody’s opinion, check to make sure that they are a real person and know how to write a critical review.
That is just my two cents! This straightening stuff is expensive, so make sure you spend the money at a place that deserves it. I hope this helps you!

I ended up going back to Tonie and was very specific about how much I wanted to get trimmed. She did a great job, so I’m giving her more stars.
It’s a great price for wash, cut, blow dry and style for $ 35.00.
Tonie is very nice.

I had a thermal reconditioning process (also called Magic Straight or Japanese Straightening) with Tonie last June. The process took about 5 hours, and cost $ 320, which, if I had a perfect process, would have been a very bargain price, however, this was just unfortunately not the case.
Tonie is a very sweet, pretty lady, the salon is just adorable, and yes, the price tag is very affordable, but unfortunately, this kind of straightening really is a science, and it just isn’t her (or her assistant’s) expertise.
Although my hair was decently straight for 8 months, it was very damaged: Some areas were overprocessed (resulting in little fried areas), some areas were underprocessed (leaving some random parts wavy while everything else was straight), and they also broke a lot of my hair on top (either caused by chemicals getting on my scalp or a terrible flat-​ironing job, which I think in my case was a combination of both). I had the exact same experience as Sammi C. with a very unpleasant and painful flat-​ironing, and 10 months later, I’m still waiting for a lot of hair that was lost and broken and fried in the process to recover. (and just in case you’re wondering, I followed each and every one of Tonie’s recommendations on how to care for my hair in the days following the process, and this still happened).
I’m sure Tonie is a wonderful person to go to for haircuts and coloring, but for this particular straightening process, not so much.
I recently had my hair re-​processed with the Thermal Reconditioning Specialists at 210 Post Street in SF, and although they have a higher price tag than Tonie, it comes with a much higher level of expertise, experience, care, and absolute love and perfectionism of helping people achieve perfect, healthy, undamaged, straight hair. If you’re considering this straightening process, check them out. The price is definitely worth it to avoid the kind of hair damage that I’m still dealing with.

Tonie is great when it comes to coloring/​highlighting your hair. I’ve colored my hair multiple times and it always came out perfecto!
One thing i’ve learned in the past is not to cut my hair at Tonie’s. Somehow it’s always way shorter than I want so i’ve definitely learned my lesson to go elsewhere for that, BUT I will always come here if I want any kind of treatment for my hair.
Not only is she great to talk to, she’s also really friendly and puts in a lot of effort into what she’s doing. She’s often stayed late to work on my hair many times– thats dedication!

I have asian hair (seeing as I’m Asian…) so the straightening results aren’t going to be as awe-​inspiring as the other posts here. I’ll still give you my two cents.
Pros: Tonie was very sweet. The salon is cute and comfortable. My whole straightening session only took 3 hours (I know… «ONLY» right???) due to the help of Tonie’s assistant. It’s been two days and I’ve had my first wash (I kinda jumped the gun on the whole don’t wash for the first two days. I’m sure you should follow Tonie’s directions, but my hair was greasy, sorry). My hair is soft, silky, and straight as hell. Possibly too straight… hope that it loosens up a bit.
Cons: Tonie’s assistant super sucked at flatironing. Every move she made hurt my head and I have a sneaky suspicion that she broke quite a few strands of hair because she was so aggressive with the damn iron! Lastly, I was quoted $ 310 for straigtening and a trim. Upon arrival, Tonie did not want to trim my hair at all, stating that the hair needs a week or two to ‘settle’ before making any cuts. But, I reminded her that I needed a trim and she quoted a trim. So, I received the worst trim of my life. Straight across (the bottom layer only).
So it is what it is. Good price for straightening, try to avoid her assistant at all cost, don’t bother getting a trim/​cut.

I must say, I was very skeptical about getting my hair chemically straightened. My hair is naturally very poofy, and thick, with loose curls and frizz to the moon, it is also very long making my head look like a big triangle. I went to Tonie for a estimate after reading reviews on Unilocal and since my hair was about mid-​back length she said 400 $, I told her I wasn’t looking to spend that much and she looked at my hair more, told me most of it was dead, and said she would cut it to my shoulders and give me the treatment for 300 $. Thats the best price Ive heard for my type of hair so I said yes!
I called the next day to make my appointment and she had me in 2 days later. The process was very long, and parking around her salon is 2 hours so she reminded me and let me move it about 3 times during the process. The process went long into the day and offered to buy me lunch. During the whole 7 hours we talked non-​stop, she is very down to earth and just wants to make sure you are comfortable.
Since then my hair has been perfect. It dries straight, never frizzy, still holds a curl if i want to use a curler, not limp or damaged at all. Its perfect.
I definitely recommend Tonie!

Just got the hair straightening done yesterday. She was very thorough, the whole process took almost 5 hours. I have long, wavy, and very thick hair (making it worth my while to do this). The pricing was good, but when reading the reviews I thought it might be a bit less — hence the 4 stars for now. It ended up at $ 380, she helped me feed the meter twice (she’s very sweet) and I asked her to put 76 for the tip (20%) but she only put an extra 70, not sure what that means, but she seems modest and down to earth in general.
She was incredibly easy to talk to and get along with (5 hours worth of being with me). She was very comfortable with what she was doing and knowledgeable about how to care for the aftermath. (The usual no washing for 2 days, don’t tuck behind the ears, don’t put sunglasses on your head for the next 2 days thing, good shampoo and conditioner). She also asked me where my hair was waviest to best distribute it all.
The experience was great, and if the hair comes out great after the 2 day transition, I’m going to try and remember to give her the full 5 stars.
Edit — hair looks great, dries way quicker (air and blown out), love it!

Like previous Unilocalers, I’d been looking to get TR/​Magic Straight done within my budget. I am so glad I found Tonie.
I kid you not, she saved me $ 500 bucks! Another «High End» Salon wanted $ 800! Oh hell no.
She was very patient answering all my questions and super sweet.
This is definitely THE place to go to get Thermal Reconditioning.
The whole process took about 4.5 hours.
Im so happy with my new shiny, straight hair! I should also mention that she gave me a great cut!
My search for a great Hair Salon is finally over. Whew!