Complaint Review: Dramatics NYC stylist Blanco - New York New York

The WORST experience I ever had in a beauty salon. I have NEVER written bad reviews about anyone, but I am so angry, I want everyone to be warned and not go through the same experience!

I've been going to TJC in Brooklyn for years and felt that its a myth that stylists ruin hair. I was getting ready for my wedding, no less, so I wanted my hair to look picture perfect. It is a given, I shouldn't have gone to a salon I've never been to, but before the wedding I had too many things to do and went to a salon in the area, on the Upper West Side. The interior looked clean and professional, so I figured they'd do a good job. I wish I read the reviews, because my experience was anything, but good! I needed a wedding day up-do and ended up a victim of Blanco. He said it is $350 for him to do an up-do at the apartment because the salon didn't open until 11am, but since it was 4 blocks from me, he would only charge $150, a standard at-home price in the industry! But I agreed. Next, but major mistake, I asked him to update my highlights around the face.

Naturally I have light skin and espresso hair color with neutral blonde highlights, at the time. I asked the stylist-wanna-be, Blanco, to do highlights around face. My hair was done and rinsed off very quickly. He then waved the hair dryer over it (as if it is a magic wand and would somehow make the mistakes go away), but I have long thick hair and no self respecting stylist would let me go out of the salon with soaking wet, obviously unfinished, hair.  So at this time, I am pulling my hair back in the mirror in attempt to see the color and have tears in my eyes, but Blanco is nowhere to be found. I request the girl, who is sweeping hair, to call him. I keep looking in the mirror and at him in dismay.  My hair . . . it is like the old Indian men that remember having black hair, but are now going gray, so they color it themselves and it looks brassy-copper.  To my horror, now I saw this same color in the mirror, on my hair, all over with some lighter shade pieces of the same color (= highlights). I said, "doesn't it look too red to you?..", to which he replies, "It is not red, it's GOLDEN!"  I said, "you have to do something about it!"  Forget about the wedding, I couldn't go to work, or just out to the street looking like that!! But he said, "I can't do anything right now, we are closing". He quickly makes a lets-try-to-fix-this-mess appointment for few days later when he is available, which is also then 2 days before the wedding. He then has the audacity to charge me $130, but I am in such a state of shock that I just pay it and go home, tearful, with water dripping from my hair down my back as I walk.

The next morning I ran to my old salon in Brooklyn. The stylist there kindly pointed out that "someone" did a "horrible job" and it will be very difficult to fix. All of my hair now had to be recolored to cover the aweful color it had and highlights were redone.

I call Dramatics the next day to cancel my upcoming appointment, but guess what, they do not open until NOON and you cannot leave a message. I still found the time to call back later to cancel it, as I would be triply stupid to go back there. 

I wanted to still give Blanco a chance and still do the up-do, expecially since this is also the day before the wedding.  I told him that I had to pay to have my color redone and asked if he would consider giving me a discount on the up-do. To this he said, "you cancel the appointment and now I find out you went somewhere else...and I am already giving you a discount."

As you may imagine, we decided not to work with each other for the hair up-do, which was a blessing. Someone recommended Anne-Marie from LuxeDen in midtown, who graciously came to the apartment before her full schedule and did my hair just perfectly, although, the red undertones still showed in my wedding pictures, forever reminding me of my Dramatics experience!

I may not have had any experience with the other stylists at Dramatics NYC. Unfortunately for them, I believe, each stylist individually is the face of the salon and a direct reflection onto everyone else at the company.  If you ever liked your salon experience, you will go back, but I was in the two left hands of and a victim of an incompitent, unprofessional imposter, who taught me a lesson of a lifetime. If you like your hair to not be ruined, it is my recommendation to not use Blanco at the Dramatics NYC on 57th Street.