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Alfangi Salon II
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42nd St-5th Ave-6th Ave (7, B, D, F, V)
Grand Central (4, 5, 6, 7, S)
34th St-6th Ave (B, D, F, V, N, Q, R, W)
14 reviews for Alfangi Salon II
Just like everyone else... I came here after buying the $30 promotion in Union Square. I needed a haircut and an eyebrow wax, which right there is well over $30, so I figured, why not? My first day in was the haircut, which was actually pretty great. My stylist knew what would look good and went on with cutting away. But then, she saw that my highlights were fading and suggested I get more. I said I wanted to grow them out, since I really only highlight my hair once or twice a year (right before summer). She really insisted that I would get a great deal on them, and that the chemicals were organic and that it'd be good for my hair. Not one to say no very easily, I found myself soon after getting highlights.
My hair came out fine, but a few weeks later, I noticed that the highlights damaged my hair, and I was pretty unsatisfied. My second trip to Alfangi included a facial, which caused me to break out, and a pretty good wax job. I didn't stick around for the neck massage or whatever it was, but I'm okay with that... chances are I won't be back.
Sucks. Really, really, aggressive sales. Basically called a girl ugly for not dying her hair... her hair that looked fine to me.
It feels like the kinda place where they pretend to be fancy, but as Carol S. says, they are really ghetto underneath.
That said, as a 20's year old guy... I got no aggressive sales tactics.
So, you've been suckered in to buying a deal at Union Square (in my case $20 for the package), and you check on yelp and are shocked that the place is a little bit of a scam. Here's what you can do to not loose your investment in the coupon you already bought:
* Consider that you either lose what you already spent, or that you have to get the most out of it, that is what you spent + $15 registration fee
* Be upfront with them. They know about the comments on yelp. Tell them you don't want them to sell to you, and that you don't want to talk about it
* To get your value out of the deal, ask for the wine early. You can ask for a second glass
* Be friendly to the person cutting your hair, they're actually good at it. I looked around carefully, and most haircuts looked really good. One girl across from me had the most amazing hairstyle ever, I was very impressed, and she was very happy.
* Also, my hairstylist (Rafael) gave me a fantastic head massage - he used to be in massage and I mentioned that I had a headache. It was gone after. The haircut was very fast but I liked that, I didn't want to spend too much time there
* I also noticed that all the women who were customers there were above average attractive. So if nothing else, take it as a compliment :)
* I didn't feel the need to go the second time, because I don't want most of the stuff and alone the tip is not worth it for me.
* The atmosphere in salon isn't extremely stylish, but they definitely try, and it has an air of an old room in a french castle because of all the gold, chandeliers and wallpaper. I kinda liked it.
I didn't actually make it to this place, mainly because I was turned off by this sketchy sales guy's aggressive tactics. Give you my credit card number in the middle of the street, on a piece of paper? Umm.. do I look like an idiot?! Plus, paying $75 for a haircut? Pfft I can get a better one for $25 in Chinatown.
Not as horrible as people make it seem.
I also got suckered into buying the promotion from this dude at Union Square. He seemed really nice and said the place was great, so I thought why the hell not? He gave me 2 for $60, and for all that the brochure says you get, I though it would be a steal!
...Except not. I went in for day one and all I got was a hair cut and blow dry, and also suckered into getting a $60 glaze that did nothing for me. I really did not want to get the glaze, but the stylist, Celia, kept saying how much ~better it'd be for my hair after I declined her suggestion of highlights. She also tussled my hair around while running the blow dryer over it which made me go "WTF?" because my hair is curly and frizzy. You just DO NOT do that to curly, frizzy hair, it just makes it worse.
I basically paid over 120 dollars for a haircut and style for 2 people, which I can easily get for 60 bucks elsewhere. Needless to say, I am extremely upset and will not go back for day 2.
The brochure stated a head massage and deep conditioning, and I got neither, and I'm pretty sure based on this experience that the spa session will probably not be any better. How rude.
The pros: Not much. It was an alright cut, and I was offered drinks, which was nice. Hairstylist was nice, kept a conversation going without being too annoying.
Would I recommend this place? Hell no. I bet you can get much better elsewhere. Go if you bought the promotion, but that's it.
Eeek... I guess I should've read these reviews before I went! I was also snagged by a street guy and he sold me TWO packages for $60 so I figured $30 wasn't going to be too bad.
ONE THING that is ghetto is that when you come in to pay your "$15 first visit fee," they charge you tax! That is soo weird.. so you end up paying $16.31 and not a flat $15. I thought that was kind of ghetto.
I agree with what everyone said... the ladies were all talking in Spanish so it was kind of rude. They're not too polite and they claim to be upscale and even though the place looks really nice--- it's ghetto. Only a couple people there are nice. My friend had a really nice girl, although she convinced her to get $120 hi-lites! I was able to talk myself out of the pressure of getting color done because I said I was going to get a perm this weekend.
She cut my hair and seemed extremely confident, but she did everything SUPER FAST. Usually shampooing is the best part and I can fall asleep through it, but when I was getting my hair shampooed it was really rough and water was running all over my face & back!! Then the cut was done super fast. I think in total it took 1 hour for waiting, wash, cut, dry and style. It seemed like they wanted me outta there ASAP. Also I was offered a drink once, but then I guess they forgot about it. Since I was waiting for my friend, I just got up and got my own drink.
My hair was trimmed a lot shorter than i would have liked and I was very nervous when she was using the curling iron on me---it touched my face & scalp several times (that's how close it was!) but it wasn't touching long enough to really burn me. Also I noticed on my friend and for myself that when they're drying your hair, tons of smoke is coming out of the blow dryers. They use the hottest heat for hair drying so your scalp burns just a little. When the girl teased my hair, I didn't realize at the time but I guess she did it really hard because the top of my hair ITCHED like crazy afterwards and I was wondering why. My friend told me later that it seemed like a really rough teasing job!
Pretty interesting experience, esp the fact that the girl knew she was being reviewed.
Overall...... the salon is overly-confident/not humble, too pricey, shady at heart. It's basically a bunch of pretty pictures all over a ghetto experience. Don't judge a salon by its cover!
So me and my sister bought the promo package since a $30 haircut really is a steal. After reading alot of the reviews i was prepared for the worst and what we got was pretty bad. I called and made a hair cut and pedi appt for both of us. Check in took about 5-10mins which is to be expected. We both got our hair cut 1st which my sisters came out really good and mine was ok. My girl was nice and kept trying to get a convo going. My sisters stylist ignored her and spoke to the stylist next to her in Spanish the whole time.
After our cuts were done we waited 15-20mins to start out pedis (i honestly think they didnt have it marked down) They pulled my sister back to start hers and i then realized they had only one pedicure chair! Why in the world wouldnt they have had 1 of us get a cut while the other got a pedi?!? I waited for my sister to get done and then got mine.
The colors to choose from were horrible. Just different variations of an ugly pink. The pedicure itself was poor. Not much of a massage(which was the purpose of it all) and some of my nails aren't even completely covered in polish. To top it off her cell kept ringing and she answered it not only once but twice! she said she was sorry and i wouldn't have minded if the pedicure was actually good.
Our total time there was close to 4hrs which was mostly waiting. I wont be going back.
So my friend got the promotional package 2 for $60 in Union Sq. and she just gave me the second one as a gift. I haven't had a haircut since I moved to the city almost a year ago so I was desperate. I was excited about finally getting pampered until I checked out handy-dandy yelp about an hour before my appointment and saw some pretty awful reviews.
I mentally prepared myself for aggressive sales and what not. I was aware of the $15 reg fee because it says right there on the package (read, people!) and I was prepared to tip.
I understand that it only looks like its trying to be fancy, it mainly just looked tacky with chandeliers and low lighting etc. but once I started my consultation/hair-cut everything went great. The girl I had was not too pushy at all. She offered me that hair glaze and coloring both of which I declined a couple of times, but it wasn't overly pushy. I just expected the sales pitch because they aren't making much money off the promo package, but my girl just told me to think about it for next time instead of going on and on.
The haircut she gave me looks great and she kept good conversation without it being awkward or too much/too personal, whatever. She did style my hair in the end in a way that I would never do myself but it looked fancy and god. I just need to keep telling myself that it will never ever look that way again cause I have no idea how she did it.
I may go back, but maybe not. I wasn't in love but for me, it wasn't god awful like everyone else said.
This place is a piece of crap. I was harassed by a guy on the street, refused to buy it, he bitched me out and called me a "retard." I called the salon immediately, turns out the guys on the street are indeed a scam as I presumed, and they keep the money for themselves. Go figure.
This is all I would like to share:
Stylist: So, what brings you here?
Me: Well, my boyfriend bought me the promotional package... I guess he thought I needed a bit of work.
Stylist: Yeah, you sure do. Thank God he did that.
Ugh.
Oh, so this is what I get for trying to be frugal?
I had bought yet another street package. For me, this was my second one. The first I had purchased and utilized well over a year ago. The hair cut was Ok- enough to make the pakcage worth giving another shot. (But not worth rushing back to pay full price for on a return trip.) Ali, the guy on the street, assured me that this would still be ok and the salon would honor the deal.
Boy howdy. How wrong he was.
I get there. The receptionist asks me if I've ever been there before. Being an honest type, I answer I have, but it's been quite awhile, and - anyway- they guy who sold it to me said it was ok. She's a bit standoffish, but agrees to let the appointment continue. Alexa, who was recommended, starts to assess my hair. I tell her what I want. She starts to take me to wash my hair while promoting putting unwanted chemicals on my hair. I refuse, despite her offer to give me "all natural highlights".
She asks me again if I'd been there before and I say (again) I had. At this point, after I've made it very clear I will not be up-sold, she decides that she actually cannot do my hair after all.
I declare I want my money back. The salon manager/owner comes over and is incredibly rude. She as much calls me cheap for buying a second package. I tell her what I had been told. She tells me that it's not her fault since the packages are sold by people who are not employees but who work for a promotional firm. She is not responsible for anything they tell me, it seems. She doesn't care that I will share my unsatisfied story because, yelpers, apparently, she has returning customers.
She offers me "40%" off a haircut which i refuse. Because, really? I bought a package and I want what i paid for. I already have 40% coupons I could use if that's what I was going for.
She calls the guy who sold me the package on the phone and screams at him loudly enough from the back of the salon for me to hear her while I remained up front. So much for professionalism. She comes back and tells me to work it out with the guy who sold it to me. She's not interested in helping me because the salon loses money on the package since they spend money on product and the stylist ends up not getting paid. That the surcharge covers the cost of product and that I tip very well seems to matter not. (At this point, I wouldn't trust a haircut there, anyway. But, you know, it's the principle of the matter.)
I end up doing so & going to Nardi's with a package a few days later. I enjoyed a rocking hair cut & overall satisifying experience.
TheEnd
Okay, this place is expensive and always packed because they pull in tons of people that were suckered into buying the promotion (me included).
They offer a bunch of services with the promotion, and divide it up into three sessions, a hair session, a skin session and manicure/massage. I came for the hair. I'd read the horror stories on Yelp, so I was prepared for the worst.
The person I spoke to when I made my appointment was fine; she was polite and took down all my info with no hassle for a Saturday appt.
When I arrived for my appointment, it was a mob scene. It only took like 5 minutes to check in, and get matched with a stylist. Alexa recommended I get a color or highlights, and after a ten minute sales pitch, I gave in and got a head full of honey highlights and a cut and style. It cost me $120 for the highlights, and I think they look really great. My cut also looks nice; long layers and no surprises. She did the cut it exactly how I asked.
This salon has a cattle round-up atmosphere because of the amount of people who book the package promotion. Don't come here planning to relax. However, t was no where near as bad as others described.
The stylist gave me 2-40% off coupons, one for my next cut, and one for a friend. I only get my hair cut like 3 times a year, so for me, this is not a bad deal, and I'll probably go back for another hair cut here.
I bought the "special promotion" - which apparently everyone else did too. I felt like a sucker when I bought it and even more so when I read all the reviews from the people that had bad experiences with this "deal". But I had already paid, so I decided to try it anyway. So, my experience:
Very nice place - have some kind of dance/trance music quietly playing, fashion videos on the various flat screens. The people there were very nice. My assigned stylist - Yolie I think - did a fabulous job. She touched up my roots and gave me a great cut. Very very happy with it and will definitely be back.
So, if you bought a promotion and are terrified of you going - don't be. If you don't want any additional services, don't get them. If you want wine - ask for it.
I went here for a special package deal that I got. Basically DO NOT go here. Unless you want to spend a whole lot of money for no reason. They were all rude, didnt do everything the package had offered and basically a "65+" dollar hair cut took less than 15 minutes and was nothing special if not actually made me look worse.
