Shoreline School of Cosmetology Salon

I loved this place so much that I convinced my husband that he needed to try it. I’m an easy cut but he’s more difficult because he has a weird balding spot in the back of his head. It’s all about hiding that spot and not looking like Donald Trump in the process. All I can say is «Wow!» I love my cut and he looks great! So impressed with this school. And I’m really impressed with J, the instructor. She’s helped the students with our cuts (and I even got a tint). J is so sweet and patient. Altogether, a great experience for me and my husband.

Wow! Alexa worked miracles! Had the BEST haircut/​style I’ve ever had. Who knew I could look this good! My hair is «particular»…she rocked the undercut… not an easy task and I felt incredible when it was all done! Love, love, love this place! Sad that due to the drought, pedicures are canceled indefinitely, but all else is wonderful!

I had no patience when they were closed on Monday (until 6 pm). But next time I need hair done, I will try this school!
I finally got organized to try out this school for hair color (touch up). Emily was assigned to me, and very nice! She consulted with the instructor on color choice, and did a great job on application. The place is hopping busy — I was the oldest person there at the time (50). It’s not the most comfortable place, but it is a school!
I am happy with my results and the price was a bit less than a salon. I will try it again, and recommend these students get real live people to practice on! My stylist will graduate in 3 months and I wish her a bright future (these skills can be taken anywhere! I admire these students). There were a few students checking THEMSELVES out a lot (not my stylist) but they are YOUNG. Lol

I gave these guys a whirl, sort of on a whim. I spoke to an instructor (Erin) on the phone and asked for a recommendation of someone who was good with highlights and color. She booked my consultation with Laura. Laura gave me a great consult, and seemed to clearly understood what I was looking to accomplish: blonde highlights and some fun color accents. I gave her the green light, and before she started, she called an instructor over to assess her plan. I like that!
The students are taught to CHECK if they are on the right track before proceeding, just as a safety net. The instructor confirmed Laura’s plan was right on track, and off we went. She did an excellent job putting in highlights and color with foils, just like a pro. (To be fair, next week she graduates, so she is a week away from being an ACTUAL pro!)
Laura’s demeanor was calm and confident. She knew what to do, and she did it very well, right on down to the correct shampoo — some purple stuff? — that keeps out brassy tones. It’s not easy to rinse out blond highlights, indigo and orchid accents and not get the blond all messed up but again, Laura had the sequence down correctly to make sure it all came out great. Two instructors stopped by at various stages to check in on her progress, which was really nice, too.
I forgot to mention that Laura was mentoring another student, Katie, throughout my salon visit. Katie was very good at listening to Laura’s pointers and then helping Laura with my hair. Thank goodness, because I have a ton of hair, so another pair of able hands was awesome! In fact, I plan to come back soon for a trim and deep condition with Katie, whom Laura says is excellent with cuts. I believe her! See you soon Katie, and Best of Luck to Laura!
PS Excellent prices — expect to pay half of what most stylists charge.

First of, let me say that I know this is a school. It is not a professional salon, and the students are learning as they go along. I’ve been here before and have loved the service. That being said, I was slightly unhappy, not about the color of my hair, but the treatment I received.
I came into the salon, and everything started off great. I am a brunette going redhead. I picked out my color, and got seated and was ready to go. My girl started, and i noticed she was coloring my hair. along with my scalp. The instructor came along and told her not to get the scalp, and to remember with the gloss not to rinse the hair until the water runs clear. So the girl is going, and soon my entire scalp is pink, and there is a half inch of pink around my forehead to my ears. We get to rinsing, and we’re rinsing and rinsing. and i ask if the color is coming out of my skin. She answers, «not really.» Then goes, «ha oh my gosh your scalp. people are going to look at you and thing something’s wrong» really. it was kind of irritating, not an exactly uplifting comment. Mind you, we are still rinsing and I mentioned «We almost done?» She answers that the color is still coming out, and I remind her that her instructor told her not to rinse until the water was clear. She got irritated and went to find the instructor. She came back and mumbled that I was right.
Cut to we are in the chair again, drying, and my scalp is pink. Like, BRIGHT pink. and so is part of my face. The color my hair is now is not the original color i picked out, but i seriously do love it anyway. I was just irritated by my stylist a little. especially since she’s apparently graduating in less than a month. i expected better, but maybe that’s too much to expect. Last thing, the other stylists kept making rude gestures and comments and faces about my hair. it was really hurtful because I kind of like bold hair, and they made it seem stupid. On the plus side, the instructor was AMAZING. Super duper nice and comforting, and had the best tips and got along with me well.
Again, I am not trying to bash the school or the students at all. I love shoreline and the staff, I just wish my stylist had spent a little more time paying attention to what she was doing and her instructors advice.

Had my hair highlighted and cut with layers here for the second time yesterday. Both times I have had great experiences and they did amazing jobs! I have pretty long hair so usually when I go to a Salon to get it done, they charge me upwards to $ 175+ to get highlights and a cut, but here it was less than $ 40 for both! Jasmine cut and highlighted by hair yesterday and she did such a great job, I left very happy! She was very sweet, attentive and very gentle on my hair. She also used a lot of great products before she blow dried my hair at the end that made my hair feel so soft and healthy.

After leaving other salons in the area, paying $ 175+ and feeling like I’d been raped I decided to give the school a try. I’m so happy I did. I’ve been there twice to have my hi lights touched up and a trim. Both times I’ve been extremely happy with the color, cut & the service I received AND you can’t beat the price.
Please remember to tip your student!

I went in for a haircut, plus some bleaching and color. Sabrina was my mistress of hair. She did everything i asked for, and suggested a deep conditioning which is to help colored hair. Not sure if i liked the conditioning, seemed to make my hair kinda… sticky? you know, like when you run your fingers through it, it sticks instead of slides through. But I don’t blame her for that, I’m just not used to treatments on my hair. I was retouching some blue, and some of the blue didn’t take so well. She suggested a different brand we could use next time. All in all, Sabrina was great. Very charming, attentive, knowledgeable. The only reason i gave them 4 instead of 5 stars is the color not taking, and the conditioning being different than i thought (which may be my fault). :)

LOVE THIS PLACE! My daughters always like the latest hair cut fashions that are out there but I don’t like the high price of most hair salons. Your student children can get a hair cut for $ 7 dollars each and that includes a shampoo. Sure they might take two hours to cut the hair, but a great haircut can be like fine art it takes time. The hair salon is nice and clean, and the artistic local Santa Cruz students will give you a quality high end hair cut.

I have been a long time customer/​fan of this place. First of all, before you read and judge any of these negative comments, you need to realize this is school, and the students are learning and you should know as you walk in or make an appointment, this is like no other salon. They are practicing their skills on each person who comes in. And this is coming from a long time fan and customer who has had both good and bad experiences here.
I would say the first 3 years i had been coming here i always got amazing work done. Always beautiful haircuts and highlights… and I mean come on, the prices…8 $ haircut and 35 $ highlight (partial). Who could pass those prices up??? I mean if I walked into Supercuts, i would have to pay $ 20 plus tip for layers… for layers or any kind of haircut at Shoreline, it is 8 $!
I would say every time except for one time I have always come out loving my hair and raving about what an amazing job i received! The only time i had a bad experience was when one of the students (a male student I had never been to before) had told me my hair was damaged and unhealthy and i should never put highlights (bleach) in my hair and it would ruin it. He suggested i color my roots with a light blonde to match my highlights. So i thought, well what the heck he is the professional, he knows best, and my hair turned out brassy and copper toned. I was not very happy. He then added more toner and blah blah, i stayed 2 extra hours… but hey they cut the price down from 40 to 16! not bad. And by the end, it didnt look half bad. At the time, i was mad and upset, but you know what, you get what you pay for and i realized this place is a school and they are all learning. And its only hair. Not the end of the world. it grew out and I got it fixed. And now my hair is back to normal. No use in huffing and puffing and getting mad and comparing it to a normal salon, because they are not, they are students and still all learning! Its not like they have years of professional experience and are being paid 50 $ an hour. (they get paid nothing except tips) They are going to school and as you walk in, you are helping them one person at a time to gain hours/​practice to graduate. :) Be kind to them :)

I’m writing this review because for the first time (after years of going to Shoreline School of Cosmetology for cut/​color) I received both a bad color job and rude employees. In a nutshell I went in last year to get my hair highlighted and once I left it looked much more orange than before leaving so I called in to tell them and they said I could come back in a few days when they had an opening. I came back in to show them my clearly orange tinted hair and unlike any other professional salon they charged me to re-​do my hair and were very short and unfriendly. I feel that if a salon were to make a mistake (even if the employees are students) you should be able to have your hair fixed at no additional cost, because it was not my fault! I do not do hair-​you guys do! I didn’t write this review for a long time because I was down right disappointed more than anything.

I went in with dirty blonde hair with highlights. I had waited 10 weeks for my hair hair to grow out so that they could accurately see my roots. What I wanted was to have my naturally dirty blonde hair back… instead I got Red– Auburn hair.
Because she (LISA) believed that the photo I brought in had a red tint (a strawberry as she put it).
Thus, 1 hour later my hair came out an orangy shade with a strawberry color on the lower half! IT LOOKED AWFUL!
Thus, Lisa (the instructor) decided to put a more dark blonde semi permanent on the orange stuff and leave the strawberry alone… What do I get? REALLY dark red/​auburn with absolutely NOOO dark blonde… WTF?
I kept telling Lisa that this was not my natural hair color and she said we cant ever get it perfect and it really compliments your skin tone…
BS I have super fair skin, prone to redness, and blue eyes.
The red in the hair and skin just looked disgusting.
All I could think is can’t you at least make it brown? WTF were they thinking?
NEEDLESS to say, I came back the next day after crying all night over my ruined hair. and the f-​ing lady said it was unfixable and that it matched the photo. And on top of that looked great!
BS I had a multitude of reds and auburns in my hair. How the HELL does that look like dirty (or even dark or strawberry) blonde?
SO I got on the 17 pissed off, went to a hair salon I knew I could trust and got intense highlights to hide the effing red, and attempt to make it look semi-​like my natural color.
DO NOT EVER GO HERE FOR COLOR!
Their haircuts might be alright…
There instructors are very very b*tchy. (And let me tell you I have a very sweet and even tempered demeanor)
The prices are cheap.
But in the end they made me pay 3x what I had originally planned for.
Service was not even great… Didnt ask if I wanted a magazine or water for the first 2 hours I was there.

I’ve been to Shoreline 3 times now for a variety of services:
1^st time: manicure
Rebecca had really cool colors including the Crackle top coat stuff that I had been wanting to try. One of my gf’s got a nice A-​line cut that attracted a lot of attention from instructors and students who were not working on clients at the time. Her hair turned out super cute and it was nice to witness a legitimate learning moment.
2^nd time: haircut and eyebrow wax
Katie rocked it on my haircut and she was super pleasant to talk with. It’s nice to meet students who really like what they do! She also waxed my eyebrows afterwards so it was nice to work with the same person. However I did have to wait for about 10 minutes after the cut to get the waxing done because another student was using the room. So I killed time by chatting with my guy friend who was getting a pedicure :)
3^rd time: pedicure
My first pedi in a while and Taylor did a pretty good job for just learning how to do it less than a month prior. He was super nervous and I gave him some pointers on how to make it look really good. Another of my guy friends got a super sharp haircut from a first timer so overall it was a positive experience!
Make an appointment! And allot yourself at least an hour for your services!

My husband and I went to Shoreline for the first time a few days ago. My husband got a hair cut and I got a manicure. They did a good job cutting my husbands hair. They lady who helped me with the manicure did a good job too, just that they are not allowed to cut the dry cuticle (I was not happy with that). But, I can understand why that is not allowed. We enjoyed talking to the young ladies who helped us. They are very friendly. I might not go for a manicure again, but I will give them a try for something else next time. There fee’s are great.
Don’t go if you are in a hurry or if you expect a perfect job.
I do recommend you give them a try.

Clean and reliable. I just went in for a quick trim, nothing special, and they got the job done without any complaints. The student was very positive and nice to talk to. She also filled me in on some of the Santa Cruz culture and did not have a hard time multi-​tasking.
For $ 8 a haircut, you can’t really go wrong.

I recommend Cindy Razo and Savannah Parks! Both did excellent jobs!
When I went in to have a deep conditioning treatment ($ 10) and a toner put onto my hair (It’s platinum blonde-​ish and I was trying to get it lighter, like white!!) I had Cindy! She was super sweet and did a superb job! She even put some of her own special conditioning treatment in my hair since she knew the condition of my over processed bleached follicles! The total came out to $ 18 dollars. (including my $ 6 tip!!)
Savannah did my root growth touch up the next month. Sure, it itched like CRAZY, but going from super black/​brown hair to lightest blonde in one sitting on top of bare scalp will sting a little. Savannah was really sweet and after they applied a toner to try to tone down the brass. I was also given a conditioning treatment. (it was in a little yellow round container that had Japanese writing on it!) The total for all this was $ 50 (I put a $ 5 tip since I’m a college student haha)
The instructor has helped the students through both of my hair experiences here, so it’s not like a complete free for all!

I’ve had Annangel cut my hair twice now, and she’s done an absolutely fantastic job each time (better the second – practice makes perfect!). She’s mellow and easy to talk to, and she’s got mad skills with the pixie cut-​making hands of hers! The new place over on 41^st ave is super nice and updated though parking is a little tight at the most busy hours of the day. I will absolutely be going back and I always tip $ 5 because for an $ 8 haircut, well, let’s just say I’ve never paid so little for such high quality. I lovelovelove it here and I won’t go anywhere else because they do a great job at a great price and are completely unpretentious.
1÷8÷12
Still loving this place years after I started going. Had Olivia color and cut my hair. She did an incredible job (surprise, surprise!). I’ve also had pedicures and manicures here now, and they do a good job. Yes they’re cosmetologists in training but they are well-​trained and the teachers are always there to help.

Go here if you want great prices, great quality styles & color, great people, and are patient. The new facility is GORGEOUS too! I especially recommend Irais. :)
I went to Shoreline on 11÷13÷10 to get a relatively advanced cut and color. The student doing my hair was named Irais — and she was fantastic! She was friendly, listened well to me, made sure to check often with her instructor to ensure that she was doing the best she could, and was EXTREMELY patient and positive! She also did an AMAZING job!!! This was the first time she did this cut — I went from shoulder-​length hair to a short bob that is slightly angled in the back, but not like an angle-​bob. Since it was a style that was kinda in-​between two well-​known styles, it wasn’t as easy thing to do, but Irais was very careful & precise — she made it look EXACTLY like how I wanted it!
She also gave GREAT advice on hair colors. She told me which colors would look best with my skin type and really helped me understand if I should do demi– or permanent color. The color ended up looking rich & beautiful!
Probably the best part was that I would be willing to pay $ 120 for the quality of cut, style, and color (including a shampoo), and it all cost me only $ 27.20 with the 20% discount for opening their new location in Capitola! The instructors were wonderful, the students were interested and great, and the work was top-​notch — better than any nice salon I’ve been to recently. The only draw-​back was that it took about 4 hours total — but my style was a drastic change from what I had and Irais is a student.

I really like this salon. I had never had my hair colored by someone else and the girl I had, Krista, was really nice. She explained everything she was going to do and my color and cut came out beautifully– very natural looking.
The salon is clean and the people there are super nice. I would highly recommend Shoreline.

I have been going to beauty schools for about 6 years now to get my hair cut (every six weeks or so) so I’ve got some experience. In that time I’ve only every had 2 bad haircuts. And they were HORRENDOUS. But the price you’re paying, I figure that’s the risk you’re taking.
Shoreline is your average beauty school. Clean, bright, nice students who are always sporting some crazy hair. I’ve gotten some of the best haircuts in my life, but also one time got a wretched bang trim. But 1 out of 75 isn’t bad for $ 7!
I wouldn’t recommend the facials though. You sit laying down facing florescent lights and the walls only go half way up so you hear all the gossip/​giggling/​chatter going on around you. I’ve been to another school where it’s in a quiet, dim lit room with soft music. I feel like that’s how a facial should be no matter where you are!