John Casablancas Institute

Attending school here was probably the worst decision I made. I now owe $ 15,000 on my student loan & it didn’t even get me a good job in esthetics. I still get minimum wage and decided to not even use my diploma. The teachers could care less if you were doing good, teachers wouldn’t even pay attention during practical exams, they were on their phones the whole time… I’d like to add the fact that they watched me be harassed by a 26 year old woman and used the woman’s dyslexia as her excuse so they didn’t have to deal with it. I wouldn’t recommend this school to anyone… You have to be really passionate about the career rather than earning the money. I honestly could’ve learned if not everything, at least a lot of the practical stuff myself. Not worth any money to me.

I just wanted to say thank you to hair salon student Kaitlin and instructor Dawn for the great experience i had at your salon school.
It is by far the best haircut i have had and that includes some expensive salon cuts.
They both took the time to ask me what i was looking for as well as suggesting what would work best for my hair.
It is now so easy to style. Thank you both so much. Kaitlin, you’ll make a great stylist.

This is a great option for a hair cut or style $ 10. They do a consult, the instructor reviews the game plan with the student and they get to work. The student washes, gives a short massage, gives a cut and blow out. You don’t leave until the instructor reviews their work.
I think this is mostly great for long hair trims and fringe cuts. I would also gamble with a hair colour their too.
I have been 2 times and have been happy with both trims.

Worst hair experience I have ever had! I signed up for a Unilocal account just so I can make this review. You can tell how bad it is… First, the colour was NOTHING like what I asked for. In fact, it was exactly what I specifically told them I did NOT want. It was brassy, warm and golden when I asked for an ash tone. Second, they actually let me leave the salon with wet hair because they couldn’t finish in time before the school closed. Third, I was told I had the advance class to do my hair but my hairdresser didn’t even wrap a towel around my neck when bleaching my hair. All I had was one of their jackets and when she was washing my hair, water dripped down my neck onto my shirt and bleached it. I didn’t realize it at the time and only saw my shirt after I got home :’(My hair didn’t even feel clean either… I am extremely upset with this school and it’s incompetence. WORST school I have ever been and I went to many. I will not be going back for sure!!! :(

I came in here for a haircut not too long ago, and let me first say, yes, I do realize this is a school and these are students performing these services, but I had the WORST haircut AND experience of my life here. I’ve come here and to Blanche Mcdonald plenty of times, and always ask for something very simple like a trim with no problems. I feel as if this aweful experience I had could have been prevented if the teacher maybe paid a bit more attention to the students with clients instead of giving all of her attention to other students who were using mannequins. This is a buisness as well as a school that is being run, and paying customers still should have the respect to have their services monitered instead of the student having to stand there for 5 – 10 minutes to get a teachers attention. The student doing my hair seemed a bit lost. She had to go ask the teacher for help several times, which I don’t mind. It was a bit annoying having such a full class and only one teacher. The teacher seemed a bit young and she was very dismissive. When the student asked her at first for some help she gave her a half ass answer and told her to only approach her if she really needed to, otherwise, to basically figure it out on her own. Um, that’s horrible teaching in my opinion. And because of this, this student seemed a bit turned off by the teacher and didn’t want to approach her or ‘bug’ her again. So she seemed very unsure of what she was doing and snip, snip, snip… I was left with no hair. Not to mention one side probably being about 4 inches shorter than the other. I honestly can’t even explain how bad it was. There was really nothing that could be done to fix it. The student finally realized how badly she messed up and then went to the teaher who came up to me, looked at my hair and told the student, «OH…you should have come and got me if you didn’t understand» I was speachless at this point. I asked her if there was anything that could be done and she said NO. There was really no fixing it unless I wanted an extremley short haircut, which I didn’t. In my opinion this school is horribly run. The students don’t even enjoy being there or performing services. I talked to the girls in the hair class and most of them agreed that they did not like giving haircuts and would try to dump their clients on to other students. Do you really want your hair cut by someone who is dreading to do it? Not to mention one of my gf’s was in the Body Spa class where they do esthetics and it was the same case there. Every girl would complain whenever they got booked a service and try to get another student to take it for them. They woudn’t properly clean their mani and pedi tools (if they even bothered to clean them) and the foot baths were often just rinsed with water. Teachers really need to be more attentive to this! I would not trust going here with my health, it’s not worth getting HIV or hepatitis. If you don’t want to be there then don’t. This school should really consider who they are taking in, but then again, it is a private school and all they care about is if you have the money to pay them, if so, then you’re in! My advice, stay away from this place. You’re only being a pain in the ass to these girls who are miserable there and don’t enjoy themselves and you’re also putting your health at risk!

Decent haircut but they might want to consider implementing a dress code.
One girl (Sam)‘s butt was literally hanging out of bottom of her VERY short shorts. I definitely would have refused service from her.

I was long overdue for a facial, but I needed to get a full facial without spending $ 80+. I looked at sites like Groupon, but that didn’t work out for a variety of reasons. So, I decided to try going to a beauty school. I went to Aveda Institute to get my hair done and that worked well, so I decided to get my facial done by a student at a school that offered to do facials (too bad Aveda only does hair!). I chose JCI because the location was very very convenient and it was only $ 30! I came on a Friday afternoon, a bit earlier than my scheduled appointment so I could fill out the forms about my health, allergies, etc. Then it was off to get my facial done!
The person who did my facial was very good for someone who’s a student. We went over about my face, talking about any concerns about my face, and what I’m hoping to get out of it. She did the cleansing, exfoliation, steaming, masque, toner, moisturizer, eye cream, and sun screen since it was sunny outside! She didn’t do the extractions on me because she said there wasn’t anything to extract and that I have very good skin (apparently I take care of my face very well!) The only complaint I have was that when she was cleaning the scrub from the exfoliation off of my face and shoulders/​neck, she didn’t clean the shoulder and neck properly. I didn’t realize till after I left that I felt bits of scrub leftover. However, overall I had a good experience and since this is a school, I have to give a lot of slack since these are students and are learning. I’m hoping to come back soon to get my nails done before I head off to vacation in September!

Since the quality of service changes from student to student, I’m going to try and be more general in my review.
Price: the best part, 10 dollars for a haircut and blowdry! (cash only)
Time: it took over two hours to get a trim for my shoulder length hair. Part of the problem? There was only one teacher on staff and it took at least 15 minutes for him to find the time to stop by my student’s chair to go over her «plan of action» for my trim. The salon was packed and I feel like it would have been better if there was a more balanced student/​teacher ratio.
Skill: My student was good, though definitely learning. I went in for a trim only, since I’m growing my hair out. The downside is she definitely cut off more than I wanted — about an inch and a half. The upside is that my hair does look a lot healthier and the cut itself was good. It was weird though, my student said she didn’t like blowdrying hair straight and preferred to blowdry messy and then flatiron (which is what I do), but you think for a learning environment the point is to improve the skills that we’re bad at…
Teacher: The teacher wasn’t very hands on, and I feel like he failed in the one area my student needed the most help with — I have layers in my hair that I’m growing out and he showed her quickly how to cut them so to remove dry pieces without losing a lot of length. But he was so rushed, he didn’t even wait to see her do the first cut — it was clear to me that it was her first time learning this skill and yet he didn’t take the time to even make sure she understood him. When she did it by herself, she didn’t do any damage but I also didn’t think she cleaned up the layers as much as she could have.
Overall, if you want to save money, and don’t have too complicated a hair request, I think this is a great option. I’ll probably go back to get my hair dyed, but again only because it’s fairly simple (going from brown to dark brown, solid color).

I was feeling stressed and achy from my new work out régime so a relaxing massage was defiantly in order! I recently moved to Gastown and I was looking for a spa that was close and reasonably priced. I found John Casablanca while searching the internet so I decided to give it a chance. The atmosphere is funky and lofty and staff was incredibly friendly. Usually when I have had massages in the past there are private rooms but at John Casablanca it is more communal style. A bit like a hospital with only curtains separating you! At first I thought this would be weird and make it hard to relax but after about 5 mins I was not complaining at all!
John Casablanca is a school so you have students performing the treatments. I think this makes them try really hard because they know if they suck it will be bad for business! The girl who kneaded me for an hour was really good and comparable to some of the expensive spas I have visited in the past.
It was only like $ 27 for the full hours! I think you can get a pedicure for $ 20 too! I will totally be back and maybe on a weekly basis because it is so cheap.