Serviceless Quality (Regis)

Member Name: zoe_page_1

Product:	Regis
Date:	28/01/02 (1789 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: in op

Disadvantages: in op

Regis hairdressers always seemed a little to pricey and posh for my liking (yes, things can be too posh, even for me) but this Christmas I was given a bit of money, and with nothing much that I wanted to buy for once, I thought I’d spend some of it on a morning at the hairdressers. I went last Thursday because I had a job interview last Friday, and wanted to look respectable for it.

I booked 3 or 4 weeks before the appointment and was given a free range of times to suit me – being a Thursday it wouldn’t have been all that busy anyway, and fewer people have hair cuts in January too since they’re all still feeling the pinch from Christmas. My appointment was at 10 am, and I arrived at 9.50am since I was already in the building and had nothing better to do.

Regis is a nationwide chain of salons (to find your nearest one ring 02476 840 300). They have stand alone places and concessionary status within certain larger department stores too. My local branch is on the Mezzanine level of one such store, and offers interesting views of the tops of shopping customer’s heads. Climbing the spiral staircase I found myself in their tiny reception area. The stylist checked me off and since I was her first customer of the day, got started straight away. We had a very brief chat about what I wanted and then she started washing while I started enjoying the numbing pain you get from sitting with you head back over a porcelain basin for 10 minutes. Unlike the things you read in books, she never asked my what my lifestyle was like, or how long I spent styling my hair or if I ate healthily etc. I don’t always get this, but for the amount I (later) paid, I thought she could have done more than run her fingers through my hair and say, “Just a trim? Fine”. They also didn’t offer any drinks, either because they just don’t, or because I was too young for them to bother. Either way, I’m used to the te
a / coffee / orange juice / mineral water choice, and I didn’t get any.

While she was washing, I got the chance to glance around the salon. It had a very modern, or even futuristic, atmosphere; lots of sparkling white and gleaming crome, with squidgy leather chairs and perfectly polished mirrors. Even the ceiling was nice and minimalistic with white square tiles trekking from one side to the other, interrupted only by a rather hideous and overly large air conditioning vent, just like the ones we have upstairs in my 3rd floor office. As the conditioner was, erm, conditioning, she gave me a wonderfully relaxing head massage. Mmmmm. After rinsing off the treatment and folding my hair into a snazzy self-fastening towel, she led me over to her work area in one corner of the salon.

She had her work cut out for her in that my hair when she unwrapped the towel was all ringletty, and I wanted it dead straight, but she did a good job. My only gripes were that:

1. I said she could do what I wanted with my hair lengthwise as long as I could still tie it all back. That night I went trampolining, and just walking to the gym showed me that it was a bit too short. Once on the bed it was a nightmare, and I was stopping after every somersault or crashdive to re-do the ponytail.

2. She used a mixture of styling products on my hair without explaining what they were for or if they were even necessary. I don’t use anything normally, so it’s a bit alarming when you’re being bombarded with 70 different sprays and gels and creams.

3. She left twice to take phone calls from people who were obviously not customers (although to be fair I think one was her Dr, and she was 7 and a half months pregnant, so I could let her off). It was during one such absence that my ear itched, I scratched and realised that it was full of shampoo. Now I have tiny weenie ears, so getting the shampoo in in the first place takes some doing.
<
br>One of the phone calls mentioned a meeting being change from 12 noon to 11am, an though it may have been my imagination, she seemed to speed up a little after that as if she wanted to get rid of me asap. The overall result was good though, she says conceedingly

Prices depend on the level of expertise of the stylist. When I went in I was asked who normally did my hair. Since it was my first time, I was taken on my the girl at the desk who, incidentally, turned out to be the most expensive one in the place. They offer a student discount of 20% off, but only Monday to Wednesday. For a standard shampoo, cut and finish, you could pay £25 to £30 for women, or £21 to £26 for men. They offer highlights, lowlights, root touch ups, full colours, slices, infusions, perming, temporary colouring, conditioning treatments and undertones (and no, I don’t have the foggiest idea what half of these are), with prices between £2 and £51. The stylist assured me that the staff discount would come off on my statement, but 3 days later although the item was registering on my account, the discount wasn’t. I went back to get it sorted only to be told that I’d have to come back another day when the manager was in since she was the only one authorized to do refunds – something which is not true throughout the rest of the store.

It’s a full 5 stars for the cut alone, but the customer service (or lack thereof) drags it down to an average 3 out of 5 for the overall salon experience.

Summary: