Aspen Beauty Academy of Laurel

Today I decided to visit this beauty academy after researching the reviews. When I arrived I was greeted by the receptionist who was very pleasant. After a short wait Aisha my nail tech came out and greeted me and took me in the back to be serviced. She was very pleasant and took her time with my nails! We talked and we laughed. She was very pleasant and once she finished I was very impressed with my mani! Aisha you’ll do very well once you graduate! And best wishes to you! The whole experience at this beauty school was absolutely wonderful! And they also play some of the best music while you’re being serviced! I look forward to returning! I just wish they also offered pedi’s as well! Thanks Ladies…

Extremely unprofessional!
The owner was very rude.
It is pre-​pay. So you pay for your service prior to services being rendered.
I paid for a flatiron and a hair cut.
After seeing one of the students slaughter a customer’s hair I was very worried.
The person doing my hair began to cut my hair BEFORE it was flat ironed.
Maybe this is ok. But it is not the best way esp with black hair. So I asked her to stop.
The owner didn’t want to give me my $ 10 back. They made me fill out a form and then argued with me… the stylist took 2 snips and said «she already started the hair cut»
The owner then said «well, looks like I don’t have to give you your money back»
I informed the owner that I would not argue over $ 10 but would def not be coming back and would Unilocal the heck out of this place LMFAOOOOO (and I held to my statement).
She informed me that she does not pay any attention to Unilocal reviews because «ONLY the dissatisfied customers rate»
Interesting enough, a new positive review pops up… this person has no friends and only one review… Hmmmm… INTERESTING!
But I will say that the flat iron was good… no issues there.
The stylist that I had was not super friendly, actually she was not friendly at all.
I will NOT be back!!!

Think before you go to this place with expectation.
VERY VERY important note is this place is okay for American African folks with hair-​type breading style but not for other folks cause the products they use is all for the hard and rough hair. Okay so I bought this Amazon Local deal for a package called «Spa and Hair Package» which included lot of items per the deal.
They assigned you with students which are fine but students had to know what is expected as a service when we pay there. I was supposed to be getting manicure with gel nail polish… the girl who did my package she did not know how to cut and file nail I mean C’mon its simple basics to be in Beauty school. School did not even provide enough supply at once so she is going back and forth for supplies and guess what .they did not even cut grown cuticles and dry skin. when I asked…“because it’s a school and not a full spa”…can u not specify in ur deal when you sale products? This took forever to just get simple nail cut, and a polish with basic quick cleaning.
Second thing was a 30minutes facial… they did not have massage cream. I got facial with a regular cream just because they did not have massage cream… seriously, why sale a facial package is you don’t even have massage cream to offer.
For the Sebastian hair treatment I felt like they use material with tight hands and they have me pay $ 10.00 just because I have longer hair than standard lenght. When I came home I realized that all the treatment color is still on my scalp which was supposed to be washed and cleaned at the time of shampoo. The student who was cutting my hair made me very uncomfortable the way she was handling my hair and I thought she don’t even know how to handle hair and scissors. The main person showed her multiple times how to cut and what to do but gosh I was just praying inside that nothing goes bad and I get really upset. She blow dried for long time and my hair was still wavy and dry looking… when you blow dry it should be straight as expected. She put some olive oil in my hair when I said it looks really dry and not straight. Who puts oil in freshly cut and blow dried hair? ??
Over all staff was decent enough but the place smelled like something is burning/​on fire due to ongoing hard hair straitening. They can use some air fresher to make it smell better. Floors were with har all over the place. They seems to be not keeping up with ongoing haircutting & cleaning.
I wanted to give it a shot to see how this school service works compare to going to proper salon. I am not going back to this place.

After my last review, the salon reached out and apologized to me. I appreciated their effort. I’ve also been told they’re ordering new towels — hair free, just for manicures.

I recently moved to Laurel from NJ, and after a very long relationship with my hairdresser, and not wanting to drive 4 hours every other weekend, I decided it was time to cut the umbilical cord an stop looking like a wild banshee and trust someone else to do the HOT (and I do mean hot in 100 degree temps) mess atop my head. So I went to Aspen Beauty School. I’ve never been to a beauty school before to take advantage of the students learning their craft, for fear that I’d be a guinea pig so to speak in the worst way. However at Aspen I was pleasantly surprised. I guess due to the students honing their new craft, there is a level of professionalism that is no longer present in established salons. I waited no more than 30 minutes w/​o an appointment to begin my service. When I was assigned my hairdresser I must admit I was taken aback, WAY aback. He was a young (?) white guy name Joe, and I immediately decided to ask for someone else, but I felt like hey, everyone deserves a chance so why not? Besides it’s only hair. I was getting the works after not having seen my hairdresser since before 4^th of July holiday. And to add to my reasons for staying, once I got there and checked in on Unilocal,I was able to redeem an offer for a free haircut with the purchase of a color service which I desperately needed. So I let Joe handle his business and handle he did. I got a touch up relaxer (which came out wonderfully) and color service (no more grays) a trim, wrap and curl. Joe was a little awkwad with the wrapping and curling but everything else he was right on point. I did not leave in tears, only with with desire to go home and restyle my curls, which is pretty much normal for me with a first time hairdresser. Joe was very personable, professional and pretty funny too. Who would have ever thought that I’d get my short hair coifed by a young white dude and be happy about it. GO JOE, congrats and good luck! BTW, the school was a professional place over all, I thought the prices were a bit high but overall I was satisfied. My only regret, that I didn’t leave Joe a bigger tip, based on the time he spent on my services. I was just really tapped out due to celebrating my birthday for the weekend. Next time…