Leaf's Game, Review of Hair Salons: Deerhurst Salon & Red Lemon Salon

Sports are always 10x's more exciting in real life than on TV

Dale took me to a Leaf's game a couple of weeks back with the best seats I've ever had to a game - several rows up behind the Leaf's bench ;) Thank you very much Dale!

Mind you, I won the bet we made - the Leaf's beat the Calgary Flames :P

I asked if anyone noticed my hair colour in my last blog post....and thank you for noticing the difference but I bet you didn't know what colour it's suppose to be LOL 

Looks more reddish doesn't it? :( 

Two days after my hair was coloured at Deerhurst Resort Salon

***Review of Deerhurst Resort Hair Salon***

Dale treated to me whatever I wanted done at the Spa at Deerhurst Resort
I opted for a hot stone massage, hair cut and full colour

Regarding the full colour, I wanted to go purple - I wanted to do something adventurous, fun and I wanted this colour done professionally since it's not an easy colour to achieve at home

I was hesitating to write this review but I decided I should
It is not a positive review, but anyone who is contemplating going to the Deerhurst Spa and paying that kind of money (price list here) deserves professional treatment and to walk away happy about it
I did not feel that way

I was booked for cut and colour with Heidi

I'll start off with the positive:

• on time (I was the 1st appointment of the day after all)
• I'm happy with the style of cut  
• you and your hair stylist are in separate rooms from others so it's private, which was nice
• the dim lighting is relaxing
• she offered her professional opinion on my initial choice of colour. See, there were only two purple colours in the colour book I was given (why only two?!). Initially I chose the lighter, more plum version of the two purples but Heidi said it would look very fake as an all over colour and recommended I go for the darker shade of purple to avoid the dreaded "wig" look. I took her advice

Now the negative:

• although I am happy with the style of cut I requested, Heidi cut more than I asked and more than she had reassured me that she would (she even verified the amount of hair to be cut using distance between her fingers so it wasn't due to verbal discrepancy). This wasn't the make it or break it since this happens most of the time
• every time I have gotten my hair cut, the hair stylist will hold up a mirror behind me so that when I look forward into another mirror, I can see my haircut from behind when the job is done. Heidi failed to do this
• although the dim lighting is nice, it makes it difficult to see proper colour. While Heidi was blow drying my hair after the colour was washed out, I asked her if she noticed my hair looked reddish. She said yes, there is a bit of red undertone but for sure it's purple if I see it in the sunlight. She blamed the red tint from the dim lighting. My much friendlier massage therapist whom I saw right after my colour and cut also informed me that colour doesn't pick up well under the dim lighting in the spa. Well well....Dale even thought it looked reddish more than anything when we went out into the sunlight. Even I had a difficult time seeing that my hair is purple rather than red! Grrrr
• not only does the dim lighting make it difficult to see actual real colour, it makes it hard to see colour at all. When I went into the sunlight later, I saw how much dye was left all over my neck!! There was a lot of dye smeared on my neck and I was shocked that I didn't notice it in the salon (mind you, I was more shocked Heidi didn't do a good job at cleaning it up)
• her personality. This is very important for me and for this reason, not only will I hesitate going back to the Deerhurst Salon, but I will not recommend Heidi to any future client. She was very cold and rude. I've never had such a negative, judgemental person as a hair stylist. For example, when I told her I wanted to go purple for colour, she blurted out why. I told her I had gone blonde before, reddish before and now I just wanted either purple or navy blue to experiment ;) And since she is blonde, I asked if she ever went dark (like experimented with colour). Her response was that she thought it looks "disgusting" when blondes dye their hair darker. Yep, "disgusting". WTF?! I thought being a hair stylist she should be more open minded or at least use a different choice of adjective. It really offended me especially with her tone of voice and I had just told her I use to go blonde - so does that make me disgusting? At one point she referred to Dale as my husband and because at that point I didn't feel like explaining myself to someone like her, I just played along. Dale and I joked about it later and how he's my husband of two years LOL
• she got some soap suds on my face while she was washing my hair but I know it was an accident. It's just that this didn't help the situation regarding her personality
• when Heidi was brushing my hair after the colour, before the cut, I guess my hair or her brush caught onto one of my earrings and the back part of my earring fell off. We both noticed it right away and when I offered to help her look for it at that moment, she said "Oh no, I'll look for it later." I asked her again and she said she'd do it later when she swept the floor. The whole situation was not handled well. I was rushed off to my massage right after my hair appointment - mind you, without my earring and without seeing my hair cut (because she didn't hold up a mirror). It was only when I was done with my massage that I asked my massage therapist about my missing earring with Heidi. I never saw Heidi because she had stepped out of the salon and the massage therapist had to apologize on Heidi's behalf that the back part of my earring was not found. Seriously, what if that was white gold or something valuable to me as a gift? Sorry is not enough. In fact, Heidi never apologized to my face nor did she write a short note. Dale had already paid and tipped everyone on my behalf and I didn't want to make a fuss because I just didn't want to upset Dale. Luckily the earring was just sterling silver and not valuable to me

And as if Dale wasn't sweet enough to take care of everything and was there for me in the lobby of the Spa when I was finished, he surprised me a gift from the Spa as well 

Dale bought me Pevonia Botanica products from the Deerhurst Spa

That was very very sweet of Dale to surprise me with this
But really, all I wanted after that run-in with Heidi was a big hug from Dale and I got that too ;)


***Review of Red Lemon Hair Salon***

In light of such a negative hair salon review, I feel that I should finish off with a positive one

I'll start off by saying I really really miss my old hair stylist Julie (her nickname is "Gemma" because there was more than one Julie working at her old hair salon)
She has such a fun personality AND on top of that, she is awesomeeee with hair

Gemma can really colour hair well
Before I saw Gemma, I rarely ever got any compliments on my hair colour. Like, none. But as soon as I started getting highlights with Gemma, I even got compliments from people walking down the street! One person I know who actually has experience colouring hair had noticed my highlights one time and specifically asked me, "Who did your hair colour? It looks really good." And trust me, it's not the colour I chose - it was how well it was done.
Gemma is also really good with hair cuts - honestly I have no complaints about her whatsoever and would go back to her in a heartbeat

So, why have I not gone to see Gemma lately?
Because the hair salon she use to work at had closed down and it was close to my parents house. Plus at the time, I was still living at home with my parents.
The salon she moved to is called Red Lemon in Georgetown (link is here) and it is further from my parent's house. Plus, I live on my own now and it's about a good 45+ minute drive from my place to her salon now :(

I'm not sure why but I actually felt like I was cheating on her when I had to go visit other hair salons closer to me LOL

I really miss Gemma - you gotta get your hair done by her if you live in/around Georgetown!
If you cannot book with her, Charmain is also really good with cut and colour and the both of them work in the same salon. My younger sister Jennifer would always book with Charmain and I would book with Gemma at the same time ;)


Do you have your share of good and bad experiences with hair cut/colour? 


Do you think my hair looks more red or more purple?