Salon Red & Spa

Overpriced for below average braiding techniques. Was told it would cost $ 250 and ended up being charged significantly more when I was done. Braids were not sealed correctly at the ends and my appointment started over an hour late. (You’d think that’d make me eligible for a discount but no, not here). Stylist did not know how to taper off the braids at the end so that they could end more gradually. Definitely would never come back. Do not recommend.

Dear Arthur,
The way you treated me today was unacceptable and uncalled for. It was unacceptable that you raised your voice at me. It is unacceptable that you blame me for your assistant giving me the incorrect appointment time, and then tell me that I should not trust your assistant, that it is solely my responsibility to know the time of my appointment. It’s unacceptable that you cancelled my appointment, on a stormy day like this, once I have arrived at your doorstep without an iota of remorse. It is unacceptable that after all of this you hung up on me. Finally, it is unacceptable that your reason for canceling was an apparent doctor’s appointment, and then had the audacity to post on Facebook that you were having lunch with a friend at Joe’s!
I have never been late, never canceled without due notice, and have always behaved in a respectful and respectable manner.
Your behavior today is not how one should treat their customers. In fact, it is not how one should treat ANY human being. For the reasons stated above, I am posting this on Unilocal and other review websites until you take the appropriate action to remedy the situation.
Thanks,
Alicia
Here is how Arthur handles client feedback:
I’d like to say thanks for your words … And wish you well as you move on to a new stylist and salon home. I’m sure there is a salon that would be happy to have you as a client. Best wishes.
Arthur Harris.

Arthur did a beautiful job on my mid-​back length texturized hair. He spent over an hour evaluating my hair and listening to what I was trying to achieve. He corrected all the areas of my head that were under processed, gave me hair care advice. James gave me an amazing roller set. I have been told in the past that my hair is so thick, it would take too long to dry it, but now I know those other stylist just didn’t want to take the time to detangle and set my hair. James had be looking incredibly «polished» like he said. I noticed quite a few stares walking back to the T and on the way home on the rail. I am definitely going back to Arthur and James at Arthur Harris salon.

I’m sad to write this review but after being a customer for over a year, I have seen the decline in customer service and escalation of prices. Although there are talented stylist in the salon, the attitude is more of a «you should be happy I am doing your hair» instead of that I am grateful you are a client in my salon. Sadly this salon needs an «attitude» makeover.

I had a hair emergency with my short/​texturized hair. The receptionist who took my call was extremely helpful and went out of his way to squeeze me in an hour before closing, and James hooked my hair up! I left feeling sassy and beautiful. I just moved here from the south, and now I know I have a hair salon and a stylist. Thanks Salon Red & Spa!

If you want to be treated really poorly by the owner who wont stand behind his teams service this is your place. You will pay ALOT of money for mediocre work and get a take it or leave it attitude from Dan. My niece brought a picture of the haircut she wanted in and didnt get ANYTHING close to the picture. She left in tears with the promise of a refund. When the owner got involved he agreed she was offered a refund, but said the manager wasn’t authorized to give it. He was obnoxious and demeaning. I wouldnt take a free haircut from this jerk!

I had a Keratin treatment this morning by Rose who did an amazing job. I got a Groupon for keratin and was really happy with my experience. She was professional, took her time and explained all about the products. I just feel terrible I couldn’t tip Rose as well as I should have as I didn’t have much cash on me and couldn’t find an ATM on the way. But I will be back to see Rose and I will definitely tip her double.

I was highly recommended to go see this Salon, I was told to see Pedro by a former co-​worker of his. This is not your typical Newbury Street experience, it’s outdated, disorganized and dirty. The people on the other hand, very friendly and cordial.
The consultation was made, I showed a recent photo of Mila Kuni’s hair, a medium brown with lots of shine, what I walked out with was a jet black hair that looked like it was done with color bought from a pharmacy and that made me look 10 years older. I was given a permanent color which I was not told until it was on my hair… I will never go back and I recommend you never do either… what a waste of my money and now I have permanent color on my hair that will cost me 4 times more to fix it in a good salon.
There are better places than this! Almost 100 other choices on the same street. so take my advice, Avoid It At All Cost!

I was somewhat disappointed with my experience here, I had bought a deal online for a shellac manicure. When I arrived, I realized they really didn’t have a good selection of colors and didn’t have the necessary colors to do a french manicure in shellac. I settled for another color, and when she got around to the color, we realized it was all dried out and I had to pick yet another color. My manicure lasted only a little over a week.
The girl was really nice, but the salon was a little disorganized from what I’m used to on Newbury St. There were boxes of hair products lying around and things were knocked off tables here and there. Not what I would expect from a Newbury salon.

I’ve been to this salon too many times to get my hair flat ironed. I never loved the salon but there are very few stylists in Boston who know how to work on natural AA hair so I’ve tolerated Salon Red. Needless to say, I will no longer waste my time or money going there. The owners of this salon are extremely rude and they don’t know the first thing about customer service.
Here’s what you can expect from Salon Red, so consider yourself warned: (1) at least a 2 hour wait to be seen even when you have an appointment and don’t expect any apologies for the delay (2) you’re expected to give them your credit card number so they can charge you if you’re late for an appointment despite their chronic lateness issues (in other words, their time is more important than yours.) (3) miserable owners who speak to you rudely and hang up the phone on you when they don’t want to hear anything sensible you have to say even of it’s constructive feedback to help THEM and not you (4) stylists who sing music throughout your service, trash talk the Berkley student performers on Newbury St. and don’t even try to have a conversation with you and (5) stylists who try to push their salon labeled products that dry out your hair.
I simply have had enough with this place and would never recommend it to anyone else. It’s simply not worth the headache or the disrespect of the staff.

Please natural hair women stay away! They claim to be one of the only quality black salons in the area. They are only partially right; the location is great but the service is awful. Simply because they boast an ethnically diverse staff doesn’t mean they know how to work with all hair types. I’ve had my hair yanked, snatched, over heated and flat ironed to death only to walk outside and have it all undone. The methods and products they use do more harm than good. They promote relaxers (creamy crack) as a solution to any problem you may have with your kinky curly do and the owner only recommends his own line of products (which I bought and they are also useless). The owner and staff have no idea about natural hair care AT ALL. I’d rather stand on the corner of mass ave and solicit advice from strangers than to go here again.
Any suggestions?

Salon Red was extremely disappointing. I asked for my hair to be relayered and trimmed. During my initial visit, Sandra, the hair stylist, forgot to cut half of my hair. I called the manager to ask about coming in, and she obliged although she was extremely rude and hesitant. I came back a few days later and was assigned to Sandra, who originally cut my hair. This time she had a terrible attitude and her performance was disgraceful. She neglected to wash my hair before cutting it. Instead, she cut my hair dry and combed through all of my hair with a styling razor. This is not the way hair should be layered. My hair came out very thin on the bottom and very voluminous at the top. It was a total catastrophe.
Do not go to this salon.

Ask for Pedro!
Experience:
I don’t believe in spending more than $ 15 on a haircut, but this is one of the few places in Boston who take hair donations for Locks of Love. I was lucky to get Pedro and loved him! He was super friendly and clearly knew what he was doing. I even felt comfortable enough to let him cut my bangs.
I highly recommend this place, but mostly Pedro.

I’ve been here twice and had vastly different experiences each time, so consider my 3-​star rating somewhat of an average.
I was referred to Pedro by a friend with fabulous hair and a fabulous cut, so I booked an appointment despite having very different hair than my friend (hers is short and straight, mine is long and curly). Despite my initial concerns, Pedro did a great job — he did exactly what I asked for, offered his very helpful professional opinion and was super-​friendly to boot.
Sadly, when I tried to book another appointment a couple of months later, I was told that Pedro no longer works on weekends (this may or may not still be true). Since I live in New York, and can only visit Boston on weekends, I can effectively never see Pedro again. If your schedule is more flexible, however, I’d recommend trying him out.
Since Pedro was not available on the date I requested, the salon offered me an appointment with Yoshie. While Yoshie was very sweet, my haircut was average at best. The entire appointment went downhill after I kindly let her know that I had a date later that afternoon and wanted to style my hair myself. She simply wouldn’t leave me alone and kept trying to «help» me even after I thanked her and asked again for some time by myself. I’m sure she felt she was doing her job, but her insistence was very frustrating. I ended up leaving the salon and finishing my hairstyle in the bathroom of the Starbucks next door.
Let’s just say that I was less than impressed — and Red certainly isn’t worth the trip back to Boston.

This salon solicits positive Unilocal reviews on their website. Under the «Promotions» tab, they ask that you write a positive review, print it out and bring it in for 20% off your next service.
Violates Unilocal TOS.
Take the ‘questionable’ reviews with a grain of salt! TROLLS!

I have no idea how this place has 4 stars. I was here for the Groupon and it was an awful experience. I was bounced between two people (one did the manicure then the second the pedicure), it seemed dirty and the girls weren’t very good. I wasn’t impressed when I left and most of the staff seemed really snooty (the nail girls were nice).
The make-​shift pedicure tub is awful… how am I supposed to relax with that?
Also, I have always had good, strong nails. People always comment about how they’re hard as nails and in great shape. For 4 MONTHS after getting a manicure here my nails kept breaking and peeling. I have never had this happen before and it started right after going there.
This place is awful for nails, AVOID!

What would have been a 4 star rating after using their services the first time has dropped down to a 2 star, due to the terrible/​offensive customer service I received while trying to book a second visit.
In summary, at the end of my first visit (where I got the student price), I was given 2 recommendation cards, and told if I recommended them to a friend and that friend went, we would both get 20% off our services. Well, I did, and my friend go 20% off her student haircut.
Excited to go again, I made an appointment for after class one day. The morning of the appointment I received a voicemail, asking me to move up my appointment time, and that I could not use the 20%. I called back to let them know I could not come earlier and ask about why I could not use the 20% off. The receptionist Sarah, told me that I couldn’t use the 20% because the haircut was already discounted. When I told her my friend had been able to she told me «that’s impossible, it would have been like a $ 2 haircut», yes I told her it was $ 22. She asked (in a nasty voice) if I knew my friend’s name (assuming she could look it up). Of course I knew my friends name, and she saw my friend did indeed get the a $ 22 haircut.
This is when a place of business with customer service would say, oh I see, well we can give you 20% off this time, but please be advice from now on we cannot if you refer some else. This is NOT what they told me. Sarah basically said, the person had made a mistake giving that to my friend, and too bad for me.
So I will no longer make recommendations for people to go. I WILL recommend not going however, save your time for somewhere that can be polite to customers.

A for EFFORT… D for RESULTS.
My Junior Stylist did not appear to have experience doing highlights, as he kept asking another stylist how to apply them and when to take them out. He also needed help cutting my hair to frame my face as well. I requested simple, reddish brown highlights for my black hair. I ended up copper orange chunks AND damaged, dried-​out hair that will takes YEARS TO GROW OUT!
I purchased a $ 165 Gift Certificate for a COLOR & CUT at a charity auction. When it arrived, it was ONLY for a «Junior Stylist.» The prices on their website claim a COLOR & CUT with a Jr Stylist costs only $ 100? SO… I asked them for foil highlights for my LONG, BLACK HAIR instead, which cost the same as my gift certificate. They agreed to do them…1 Star for RED…*smile*.
The Jr Stylist was pleasant, quiet and seemed very nervous, which made me very nervous. I tried to engage him constantly in conversation, over my almost 4 HOUR VISIT (4 hours?), to calm my nerves, but he didn’t want to or wasn’t able to talk work at the same time. He asked me if AUBURN HIGHLIGHTS were ok? I agreed, but kept insisting we needed to be thinking of the same color «auburn.» Eventually, he gave up and went to get their hair color swatches. (He should’ve showed me those to begin with!) I chose a reddish, CHERRY AUBURN BROWN, and he started doing my «full foil highlights.»
I’m pretty laid back about my hair, which is DARK BLACK, and told the Jr. Stylist I’d be happy with almost any color EXCEPT THAT COPPER ORANGE bleaching does to black hair. No problem… he assured me. You won’t have anything close to that. Do you want «chunky highlights?» he asked. NO! I insisted… Do NOT give me «Kelly Clarkson stripes.» He laughed and assured me my «cherry auburn» highlights would blend naturally with my hair.
He proceeded to cut my hair, but only ½″ here and an 1″ there… very gingerly hunting and pecking, seeming too timid to dig in and re-​shape it, as I’d requested. Finally, what I presume was a Senior Stylist came over and showed him how to cut the hair around my face so that it frames my face. (He’d been working there a YEAR, and didn’t know how to do that himself yet?) The Sr. Stylist had been VERY HELPFUL to him throughout my entire Cut & Color, and I give Salon Red 1 MORE STAR… For Her…*smile*
Almost 4 HOURS later, my once beautifu, black hair is, indeed, full of UGLY, CHUNKY, COPPER POT ORANGE STRIPES!!! I was in shock, and didn’t feel comfortable saying anything to him, as he’d worked so hard. Due to the poor lighting, I don’t think the stylist could fully tell how light he’d bleached my hair. The «mood lighting» is SO DIM that I really could not see just how BRASSY ORANGE my BLEACH JOB w/​TONER AKA «HIGHLIGHTS» really were until I got home. The fact that I looked on the verge of tears said it all. I’m proud I didn’t cry over something as silly as my hair though… It will grow…*smile*. The salon only had a few customers all Saturday afternoon, and the owner kept my friend company. Kudos to the owner for asking how I liked my «NEW HAIR» on the way out. I told it was «DRASTIC» and I’d have to get used to it. I came in with black hair, asked for highlights, and left with RED HAIR. He smiled politely and said nothing… what could he say?
Salon Red 350 gave me a 25% OFF CARD for my next visit, so they are trying to earn new customers. Upon reading Unilocal reviews today, I see they offer Monday-​Thursday student cuts for only $ 30. That definately felt like the cut I received for my $ 165 gift certificate.

I finally redeemed my groupon for their classic mani/​pedi.
I got Christina whom I have seen before for waxes. At first, she didn’t recognize me but I hadn’t been in there for a few months and it wasn’t until we sat down at her station and she saw my name that she knew me. then she sort of made a reference of something along the lines that sounded like all Asians look the same. Hmmm…
Anyway, there wasn’t many colors to choose from and they had multiples ones of the same color. I picked the first one that I was drawn to, carousel coral from Essie. While she was prepping one hand, I kept looking at the other colors but to no avail. They need to get more of a color selection!
My mani was great, she did a really good job.
The pedi station. Its very odd and its basically a huge tub where you sink your feet in. The water was warm but cools down quick. She did a great job trying to scrub the dead skin off my feet since my feet were in pretty rough shape.
Overall, I thought Christina did an excellent job. I am not sure it is worth the regular price of $ 55 since you can pop your hands and feet in any other nail salon on Newbury St. and get the same results for only $ 35. if they did something else to make it worth $ 55 then maybe I would go there more often.
On a side note, while Christina was painting my nails, one of the stylists came over and left her card for me if I needed any hair services which I thought was a bit weird since my nails were wet and it wasn’t like I could take her card and put it in my pocket. But when I left, I totally forgot to take it, ooops!
Also, I had to wait 15 past my appointment time. ugh! i hate when my appointments are not on time and no one says a word!

Salon Red gets 3 stars for effort but 2 stars for execution. I’m rounding down to 2 stars because it’s only been three days after my mani/​pedi and my fingernails are already badly chipped and peeling. I find this to be unacceptable because manicures should hold up for a minimum of five days – if not a week. My toenails appear to be fine, however.
But lets start from the beginning… The salon is in a good location and it was bustling on a Saturday with many clients getting their hair done. I arrived early and was offered water while I perused a nice selection of magazines in the reception area. When my manicurist was ready, I was asked to pick out my polish and she gave me some good color suggestions. However, like other reviewers have mentioned, they don’t have the greatest selection of polish.
There were also just two nail stations for manicures and one for pedicures. This became a problem later because shortly after I sat down for my manicure, another client came in for a pedicure and monopolized that station for quite some time. She was also chatting on the phone pretty much the entire time, which I think is rude… Anyway, I had to wait at least 15 minutes after my nails were done so that they could move me to the pedicure station.
Because I had a long-​ish wait for my pedicure though, I found myself scrutinizing my fingernail polish and realized that small bubbles had developed and there was a bit of «coloring outside the lines.» Not wanting to be super picky and delay my service even longer, I opted to not speak up to the manicurist. In hindsight, this was a mistake on my part, but I wish she had been a little neater in the application of polish. My manicurist did apologize for the wait and offered to get me magazines and another beverage, so I know she was making the effort to be nice. Thus, I did not want to complain.
The pedicure itself was not super relaxing as the footbath is portable and the seat is kind of like a regular adjustable chair – not the usual armchair-​style seating with massage that most nail salons use. Halfway through the service, I was wondering when it would be over because I was so uncomfortable.
Like others, I purchased the discounted mani/​pedi Groupon so I didn’t pay full price for the service. However, I think Salon Red needs to step it up if they intend to offer the full nail service and charge $ 60 for the mani/​pedi combo. Given my lackluster experience, they would not replace my cheaper neighborhood nail salon which does a more reliable mani/​pedi with less hassle.