Kay and Kompany

I went in for a hair extension consultation with Stacey who said she was trained in nano beads. She put one in for me and told me about the process. The tester strand she put in for me happened to match my hair and after looking at the colour swatches we agreed to go with that colour plus a few lighter ones to add some depth. I went back to have them fitted. My hair was washed and then rough dried. I wondered why my hair wasn’t blow dried properly to match the smoothness of the extensions but as this was my first time and she was trained, I thought she knew what she was doing. As she put in the extensions I noticed they were much darker than the ones we ordered. Stacey claimed that that was the colour we chose and I pointed out the tester strand that was still in my hair and said it should have been that colour. She then said ‘oh don’t worry there will only be about 25 dark ones, and the rest are lighter’. It was the total opposite so I do not know why she lied about it, as when she was finished, my hair was a totally different colour to the extensions. Because I was leaving the next morning I really had no time to order more hair and get it re-​done. She said that the hair can be coloured and then it would match my hair better so i decided I had no choice but to sort it out once I was abroad. Because my hair was rough dried, there was absolutely no blending and the colour difference was even more obvious. A manager advised her to colour the ends of my hair to match the colour of the extensions, so we did that. Then the manager cut bits of my own hair to try to make it blend better. I also heard her say to Stacey that she had not placed them in in straight rows and that they went too far up to my parting but because of the bad blending Stacey claimed it had to be that high.
As soon as I got abroad I went to my regular hairdresser that I use there and she put some low lights in. Once washed out the hairdresser was in shock because my hair has taken the dye perfectly but the extensions did not and she immediately said they couldn’t be real hair because they did not colour properly.
In the first three weeks 20 of the strands fell out… I am very weary of my hair and I was as gentle as ever when washing, styling and brushing it with tangle teaser. So for 20 to fall out just shows how poorly placed they were. A week later I start to notice that where the beads are, a lot of my natural hair had come away from the root. I knew that we lose 50 – 100 hairs a day so thought it must be that. After more fell out I went to another hairdresser to get them removed immediately. She actually gasped and kept telling me that the extensions were not straight, there were random patches where no extensions were applied, they were not on ‘rotation’ where a row is placed in and then a row of hair is left free which will then be rotated during maintenance. She also said that the single hairs the nano rings were clipped to were pulled from different directions so the weight caused the outer ones to break first and then the rest of my hair that it was attached to also ripped out. I have lost 70% of my own hair and my hair right now is horrifically thin and non existant after only 5 weeks! Even though the extensions were badly fitted, I am more upset about the bad treatment and mistakes Kay&Kompany’s employee made. Even down to when I asked what shampoo to use, she said ‘any! Just use your regular stuff’. Every trained professional knows that shampoos need to contain NO sulphates and NO silicone, yet she was just telling me to use exactly that. Luckily I had already purchased the correct ones. After complaining, she once again lied and said she advised me properly. This did not happen and I have no idea how one can lie so much.
In short: wrong colour match, being lied to about colour, poor blending, extensions put in wonky, cutting and dying natural hair to cover up the mess, wrong advice, having to pay another hair dresser to colour correct it, hair doesn’t actually dye anyway, 20+ strands falling out and finally hair loss.
After asking for a refund they refused and then TRIED TO BLAME ME! They kept saying I should have gone back to them even though they do not understand the concept of being abroad actually prevents that. They took no responsibility and even put my photos on their facebook page trying to sell their services (which i did not consent to). They will most certainly reply to this review with more polite excuses and trying to blame everyone but themselves, they even refuse to admit that they ordered the wrong colour even though I had the original swatch with me! Do not be fooled by the lies that they will respond with and never use them if you value your hair.

I’ve been waiting to review Kay & Kompany for a while now and I really have had a difficult time putting my disgruntledness into words. This might be a long review, but it’s a bit of a story.
I wanted to add a bit of fashion colour into my hair (aka: non-​natural). Through friends, I had great reviews of the Elumen line of colouring. Not a lot of salons offer it — notably, not my usual salon. So I looked around, read reviews, and decided that I’d try Kay & Kompany. They’re nowhere near where I live, but they had real photos of customers on their site (as opposed to just stock images from Redken, Goldwell, etc.) and seemed to be not horribly priced. I did notice that there were lots of typos and misspellings on their site and that did worry me a bit as to the professionalism of the place, but thought I’d give it a go.
I went in for a consultation and allergy test and the stylist, Lauren, decided that my plan of balayage-​style painted ends with a few full-​length highlights throughout my natural brown (with a bit of grey) would be do-​able. A few days later, I returned for the colour appointment. This is where things first got weird. Lauren did the needed lightening and then left me to work on other customers. 2 assistants/​juniors were left to add the actual tint to my hair. I noticed that they had added a bit more than just highlights, but what can you do once the paint is on, right? At the end of that day, 5 different people had been a part of the dyeing process — the least of which was the main stylist. While there was a looooot more dye on the top front of my hair than I had requested, it looked nice and I wasn’t terribly displeased as the shade was really lovely and bright and I still liked the look. Then I got the bill. My own fault for not reading the small print is that this place CHARGES for a blow dry with a cut or a colour. WHAT? I’ve never heard of that. Blowouts on their own — of course. But if you’ve just wet my hair, why on earth are you charging £30 to dry it? But add to that the service was charged as 2 parts, when I’d been under the impression (through what they called in on the confirmed booking) that it was 1 thing, and I was quite shocked. So I ended up paying about double what I thought — and that was even with a Unilocal check-​in offer. The cost of services here ended up rivaling much fancier West End salons for a far inferior experience.
Elumen requires a sealing process, and this, it turns out, was not properly done. For a product that claims to last 4 – 6 months (and which I’ve seen do just that on friends), it was nearly gone in some areas after 4 washes. I contacted Ellie (the manager) and she agreed to schedule me in for a complimentary re-​dye. This was really good customer service and it the ONLY thing that boosts this review to 2 stars. I returned with high hopes.
The re-​dyeing appointment was AWKWARD. It was very clear that Lauren was not happy that this had to be done. She looked over my hair and said «we’ll have to re-​do it all over» by which I presumed she meant all of the dyed areas (as about ¹⁄₃ still did look ok). So I smiled and said «have at it!». The first stroke of the dye brush was the entire length right down the back of my head. Think reverse unicorn horn placement. At that point inside my head I was screaming, but outside I just went with it. Because there is no style in which that would look ok with the rest just tinted at the bottom. I probably should’ve said *something* but really there wasn’t anything that could be done to save it, so I went along with it and walked out with a whole head dyed (although not fully to the roots — which was really weird) and thinking my whole plan to have fun end that wouldn’t need maintenance had turned into a style that would be really awkward to grow out. The kicker on the day was that they did a rough blow dry — just such that I wouldn’t have a wet shirt — and sent me on my way under the guise of «busy-​ness» when I was the only person in the salon. So off I went home with wet hair. So strange. It was very clear that this whole process of redoing a mistake was one no one was content to deal with and I felt very much unwelcome the whole time I was there with the exception of the really kind and sweet shampoo girl/​general assistant, who seemed to put up with being shouted at and pulled in all directions both times I was there with aplomb. She was a gem (and I wish I could recall her name to fully compliment her professionalism).
So. Nearly 4 months on now. The dye was still not sealed fully the second time, but far better than the first. I need a touch up and am currently looking for a better option than Kay & Kompany as I will not be returning. The first instance of not-​quite-​listening led me to have one chunk of hair overdyed and I could live with that, but to end up with such a different result and to be treated less-​than-​warmly is just not something that will turn me into a repeat customer.

When I said I wanted to look like Blake Lively I ACTUALLY meant I wanted to look like her in the face and body, not just the hair, but nevermind.
AJ lightly curled and tousled my hair to pretty much exactly match the photo I’d brought him of the hairstyle I wanted for a wedding. I know this seems like a very simple thing to do for a professional but you would not believe the amount of times I’ve explained what I’ve wanted to a hairdresser and they’ve made all the right agreeing noises and then completely failed. I’m always too polite to say anything so pay and leave then go home and sob and try and re-​do it… and usually make it worse.
I don’t like too much curl in my hair as I have such a round face. Seriously. My sister nicknamed me Moonface and it caught on pretty quickly!
AJ tousled it just right and I skipped away a happy bunny. Had many-​a-​compliment that day on my hair. Thanks AJ, you are a true star and I look forward to many a happy appointment in the future with Kay and Kompany. A dazzling 5 stars to you!