Conditioners are a no-go (Regis)

Member Name: bettyboopy

Product:	Regis
Date:	22/05/07 (695 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: great hair!

Disadvantages: No website, finding a salon, prices of shop within salon

<< Who Are They? >>

Regis Salons are now all over the country and are very established in the USA too. Some salons offer beauty treatments on top of their usual buisness of hairdressing.

<< What They Do >>

I go to my local Regis salon, (which has no beauty treatments just hairdressing), every 8 weeks or so, and the staff are very friendly and nothing is ever too much trouble. If you are going to be there for a while they make sure you have a supply of magazines and endless cups of tea/coffee to keep you amused while you wait under a dryer, or waiting for a colour to set. They make you feel very pampered and it is very easy to chill out and relax in these salons which are decorated to a very modern standard. The one that I go to is very contemporary black and white styled everything! From the towels, combs, floor, walls, sinks, sofas, pictures, everything is in black and white. They are perfectly clean too, and cut hair is never left on the floor for more than about 3 minutes before it is swept away. The towels and gowns you wear while having your hair done are always very clean and smell nice and fresh.
They offer most types of styling, including, cuts, colourings, styles, wedding hair, extentions, perming, for both men and women. I always go for a "cut and colour" which usually takes around 2 hours.

<< Watch Out For >>

When you have any form of hair styling at Regis you are offered a treatment on your hair too for the extra cost of £5.00. It involves a deep conditioning treatment that is placed on wet hair, and a warm towel draped over your head to seal in the moisture. This is left on for around 10 minutes and then rinsed out, and your styling continues as normal. I never bother with this treatment as it is £5.00 a time, and you can buy a bottle of this treatment to use at home in all regis salons for around £11 that will last for around 15 applications. So £5.00 for one application is somewhat steep.

<< Bad Service >>

I have only ever had one disaster when at Regis and this happened around 4 years ago. I had decided on this particular day to have this conditioning treatment I have just mentioned above. ( This is before I knew I could actually buy it and use it at home). The stylist put the treatment on, then the towel, and considering you are only meant to have it on for 10 minutes, she left it on for 2 hours. I was sat there and sat there and sat there. I got up around 5 times and asked for someone to come and take the treatment off, and rinse my hair so i could just leave. At that point I didnt want my cut and colour, which was what I was booked in for, I just wanted to get my hair rinsed and go. The girl who was doing my hair had treble booked herself ( the staff get paid commision), and had gone off to do other 2 other customers' hair. I was fuming. She clearly had no respect or loyalty to her customers, and yes we all get a little short of money sometimes but she was only bothered about her commission. I walked up to the stylist for the final time, while she was doing someone elses hair, (by this point I had been in the salon for around 3 hours and had only had my hair washed and a conditioner on), and demanded that she sort it out. She went in the back, and another girl came out who rinsed my hair, and then cut it. The colour had to be cancelled as that would take around an hour and a half, and the salon was closing within the hour. The second girl was very apologetic for the first girl, and did cut my hair well, and didnt charge me for the cut, but she did charge me £5.00 for the treatment. I went away and vowed never to go back and didnt for around a year. For around 6 weeks afterwards my hair went very brittle and weak, another hairdresser told me this was the result of the treatment being left on so long, and it had stripped my hair of any health it had.

<< Good Service >>

In the following 12 months I didnt go back to Regis at all, and tried numerous different hairdressers, but none of them cut my hair straight, or coloured it right. I found myself back at Regis exactly 12 months later, standing in reception talking to the manager. I explained what had happened to me the year before, and she was horrified. She was a new manager and when she started the job, the original stylist that gave me such terrible service had walked out. That salon had recieved numerous complaints about this particular stylist and when she was challenged about it, she quit, so all in all I think this was a one off and a bad egg out of a bunch of great hairdressers. The manager gave me some money off vouchers, and I have been back to Regis ever since.
I have not had any problems at all since and alot of my friends now go to this salon too, on my recommendation, and love it. At Christmas last year, I had a Christmas card and a book of money off vouchers from Regis, they did this for all their customers on the data base for this salon, which I thought was a really nice thing to do.
The staff, as I said at the top always try and make your visit a pleasant one, and make sure you have tea/coffee/magazines. The staff are always friendly and chatty whilst doing your hair and you never get the same boring "are you going on holiday this year" drool that you get in some salons. They treat you as their friends, last time I went there was around 7 of us discussing George Clooney's bum - now thats girly talk! Its nice to be treated as a person and not just a number coming through the door as you get in many places.

<< Finding A Salon >>

This can be difficult as the only website for them that I know of is the American one and the store locator on here only has American salons in their database. There is a website called ukhairdressers.com and they have a store locator on there for Regis but not a great deal of information about pricing and styles. Maybe it is just me that cant find their website, but if you type "Regis" into Google, it comes up with the American site only. If you type "Regis" into the UK Google, then it comes up with nothing to do with hair at all. If they do have a website they could do with making it easier to find.

<< Pricing >>

I dont have a price card with their salon prices on but I pay around £60 for a colour and cut. This isnt too bad as I had the same done in Tony&Guy during my year out from Regis and the same thing cost me £90. They do vary on prices for colouring your hair though, and do a consultation first, and price depends on hair thickness and length. The staff however do advise you very well on styles and tell you all about the pricing before hand so you arent shocked at the end with a hefty bill. They also dont try and sell you anything that you dont want, and never push sales onto you. They make it clear what is available to chose from, then let you decide.

<< Extra Info >>

Most Regis salons have events where you can have your hair done for free by student hairdressers. I have never been to one of these nights, but from what I understand the students are supervised the whole time by a senior qualified stylist. These are great for colours, but not for cuts. The supervisor can put a mistake with colour right again, but cant stick hair back on after it has been cut off so be careful!

Again, most Regis salons have a shop within the salon, selling their own brand of shampoos, conditioners and treatments, along with other brands such as Bedhead and Tigi. I find their own brand are very good quality, but quite pricy. The do have regular offers on these though such as a 3 for 2, and they have January and Summer sales like most stores on the high street.

Sometimes it can be difficult to get an appointment and you sometimes have to book around 2 weeks in advance, however if you request they will call you if they have any cancelations. Christmas times are very busy for them, so you struggle at this time especially to get an appointment. They do open late nights in the run up to Christmas though.

<< The Verdict >>

Apart from one VERY bad experience in a Regis salon, I can't fault them otherwise and this is why I went back to them I havent had one problem since and none of my friends have either. I have used 3 different Regis salons, and all have been at the same standard.
I say if you haven't tried Regis before, give them a try but make sure you dont have the conditioning treatment!

Summary: Great hair, one bad experience