Salon Ara

Hanah did a great job! She speaks both Korean and English fluently so was easy to communicate.

I went to this salon twice. The first time was just for a haircut and styling, and it turned out nice. Then the stylist suggested I try the Japanese straightening (Magi) and said, “Try it on your bangs first, and if you like it, we can do your whole hair.” I tried it and liked the result. Later, I went back and told her I wanted to do my whole hair because I had a very important occasion (my wedding). She said it would cost $400, and I agreed. While working, she said my hair was damaged and if she used the product alone, it might burn, so she needed to add some keratin—and that would make the price $500. I didn’t really have a choice since she was already halfway through my hair, so I agreed. But when she finished, I was shocked! My hair was burnt, dull, hard to comb, and looked lifeless. She tried to say it was because of hair dye, but my hair had never been this damaged before. I expected results like she promised—smooth, shiny hair like Korean hair—but it was the opposite. I went home, followed all her instructions, and even used good products that she recommended , but nothing helped. My hair stayed burnt, dry, and kept falling out badly. After two months, the “permanent” keratin effect was completely gone! Honestly, it was a terrible experience. I don’t recommend anyone go to this salon for this kind of treatment. I lost my time, my money, and my hair 😢

I went for haircuts and they were amazing. Reasonable prices as well.

Having recently moved to the SoCal area, I had high hopes for Salon Ara due to the reviews I saw on Google. It's unfortunate that my visit did not reflect the reviews that I had read up on. I'm normally not the type to leave negative reviews as I enjoy only leaving positive ones. However, the end result of my men's haircut was extremely unsatisfactory, especially given the $40 charge. Before beginning, I showed a picture of what I wanted to the stylist. The length of my hair was way too short to resemble the picture that I had shown in the picture and the stylist was styling my hair as best she could with the very short front hair that remained, albeit she was styling it in quite some peculiar manners which I think may be in part because the end result just turned out bad. However, the fact that the style of my hair was not what I had asked for was not my biggest gripe. I've had haircuts before where it turns out differently than what I had asked for and usually I will just suck it up and try to style it as best I can when I get home. What truly prompted me to write this review was the lack of quality in my cut that I am noticing as I take a closer look at my hair. The fade on the sides are not uniform and look a bit patchy and even the edges of the fade on my sideburns are not clean but instead have an area of very light amount of hair - I am unsure why this was left as it's pretty standard to clean up the sideburns and to give it a clear edge. And as I have put my hair down as close as I could to the style I had asked for originally, I am finding long strands of hair that are significantly longer than the hair in that same area, so much so that I have had to take scissors at home and cut it myself. I understand that though frustrating for the customer, sometimes the style of the haircut does not come out as they had asked for (although in this case, the stylist went so short I'm not sure what they were trying to do). But again, for a $40 cut with tip, the fact that the stylist could not execute things that are quite standard has led me to leave this review of my very subpar experience at Salon Ara. Because there were multiple hair stylists at the salon, I can not speak for the salon as a whole. However, I hope that the stylist that worked on my hair will take this feedback to improve on their skills and to be mindful of some basic things in a haircut. I will not be returning back to Salon Ara as I do believe that the hired stylists should reflect the salon's standard of excellence in their work.

Finally, a haircut that passed the test! My picky son is obsessed with his new look. :)