Aveda Institute St. Petersburg

The salon I went to was called Aveda Masters Studio Salon. My rating is based on my overall salon experience and not on the individual stylists I saw.
My first trip to the salon was on Halloween. I had cut, color and brow wax. The stylist was fantastic. I had been looking for a new stylist and since I only use Aveda products and this salon was close to my new home, I thought I had found someone I could go to regularly. I was very pleased when I left.
My second trip to the salon was not as successful. I went to the same stylist and explained that while I loved the color she did on my hair, it was a little on the vibrant side and I thought we should tone it down a bit for my job. I immediately noticed a change in her. I know she loved doing the wild color the first time, but I told her then that it was very possible with me starting a new position that I would need to change it in the future. We came up with a new shade of red. I felt she was rushing the entire time. I tried to express my concerns about the color not being red enough when it was over, however she was not listening to me. When we went to do my eyebrow wax, the wax would not come off of my skin. She ended up having to tweez my eyebrows and the wax off. It was extremely painful. My skin was very red. I wanted to run out of the salon and get as far away from there as soon as I could. The next day, I had welts and redness under my eyebrow. It was painful even without being touched. I’d never experience that problem previously. My eyebrows were uneven, and my hairline in the back was uneven.
At this point, if I had rated the salon — I would have given it one star. However, I called the salon and spoke with the manager. She apologized to me and offered to have someone look at my eyebrows and see if there was away to fix them. She also offered me a refund. (Which shocked me because I couldn’t believe the stylist charged me when she admitted to torturing me in the first place — I should have realized it when I payed). I came in the next afternoon. Needless to say I was nervous. But, the stylist I saw (named Jen) immediately put me at ease. She looked at my eyebrows and explained what she was comfortable doing and what she would not do. She explained what I could do temporarily to help my eyebrows until the skin healed and I was able to have them waxed again. She worked her magic and fixed my eyebrows the best she could, and she fixed my hairline. She was pleasant and very reassuring. I felt that the salon manager and Jen really stepped up and did what they were supposed to do. The service recovery and customer service is why I gave them three stars. I will not go back to the original stylist. But, I haven’t ruled out going back to that the salon in the future. Customer service goes along way!

Update 2!
My cut and highlights with Taylor was wonderful. I appreciate the efforts of Aveda to make my experience right. I will return again. Taylor took the time to get everything just right. And she has an infectious laugh!
Update!
And I will be reviewing again after my appointment Monday. I did leave a message for the reservations manager and she did call me back SAME DAY on a Saturday no less. They will honor the coupon and rescheduled my appointment. I am happy that they want to make things right. I am going to let the star rating stand for this experience, but only because I plan to review again with what I am hoping will be 5 stars and a new haircut.
I really hate to write a bad review, especially when I did not even get to the service portion of my visit. However, the ineptness of the person who scheduled my appointment makes this necessary. Especially since I am sure by the reaction of the receptionist that this is something that occured before.
To preface this, I should let you know I am generally a fine print reader. When something is a good deal, I tend to make sure there are no catches. I read and then I ask questions. Did I do this? Yes I did.
There is a Facebook promotion for $ 25 off a cut and color. When you click on it, a list of participating salons pops up. It says to mention the promotion when booking. Did I do this? Yes I did. However, the catch here is that the person who took my appointment was not familiar with the promotion. When I explained it to her, she said OK. I asked if I should make a copy and bring it with me. She said, yes that would be great. Here is the customer service break. She did not know about the promotion. At this point, she should have asked to call me back after she found out about the promotion.
I show up for my appointment this morning only to be told by the receptionist that the call center has not gotten up to speed with this promotion. So, rather than be a victim of the old bait and switch, I told her I would reschedule via Facebook. No need for me to lose $ 25 for your lack of communication. Basically, they should have just given me the money off and I would not be sitting here unhappy and writing this review.
By the way, thanks for the card asking me to refer my friends to you. Guess where it is?

My daughter decided on a Sat morning that she wanted her chopped off and styled, um ok. .. called around and could not find a lot of availability. We had been to Aveda before, but not for a long time. .. they were able to get her in and we took the appt. Jake is great and really listened to what she wanted. He was personable and took time to understand and then continued to check in and make sure everything was «on track.» Thanks Jake! We will be back.

This salon has the Master level Aveda stylists. It’s very modern and sleekly designed in the interior. The staff is very friendly. I’ve been going to my stylist Nadia since she was a student, over 2 years ago. The service is wonderful and you feel welcomed from the time you walk in to the time you walk out. When you walk in to either check in for your appointment or make an appointment you are offered a water or hot tea, which is a very nice touch. Go for the tea, it’s delicious! I’ve only had the standard cut and style, so I can’t speak to the other services. The haircut starts with a scalp massage, which is lovely and relaxing. Then comes the shampoo and conditioner in the line of your choice (damaged, smoothing, volumizing, curly, etc). Then it’s cut and styled in your preferred method (straight, curly, whatever else there is) and with products you want and/​or the stylist recommends. They have a large line of Aveda products for sale: hair care, cosmetics, aromatherapy, etc. They’re almost completely naturally derived (I believe all products are over 95%), and smell nice. The products are a little pricey, but there’s no harsh chemicals or dyes so that’s worth it to me.
The standard cut and style (that includes the scalp massage) is $ 27.