Carolynn & Company A Full Service Salon & Day Spa

Both me and my wife go to Carolynn she is great, very pleasant and fast. Does a great job.
Nice place, and been at this location for a long time. Hard to do unless your doing something right.

I recieved a Spa Wish gift card from a family member and tried Carolynn and Company out because they’re one of the few places near where I live that takes these gift cards.
I booked my appointment for a spa pedicure over the phone and was scheduled with Ellen. FYI, the salon won’t give you the «special» price if you use a gift card (but this is clearly spelled out on the website).
When I arrived at the salon, I felt it was a little dated and shabby. No one was working the desk but a stylist stopped what she was doing to help me. She didn’t know who Ellen was but disappeared to find out who I was booked with. Not the best first impression but things did get better.
Ellen greeted me, offered me a drink, and led me to the back where the pedicure and massage rooms are located. Again, the facilities aren’t great. There aren’t many display shelves for polish which meant Ellen had to pull out various bins of polish for me. I’m tall but the chair was too close to the wall to be able to slide it far enough back for me to be really comfortable.
Ellen, on the other hand, was great. The service itself was excellent. She took the time to make sure all the rough spots on my feet were totally smooth without tickling or hurting. She also did a great job shaping my nails – straight across like they should be without cutting the corners off. The scrub and massagere nice too. Overall I was extemely happy with the pedicure.
The question, then, is it worth $ 35 for a good quality pedicure in less than posh setting. I really liked Ellen so I will probably go back but with most places in Tempe offering a similar service for about $ 10 less, it is a judgment call.

I am very surprised about the previous review of Carolynn and Company. Carolynn cut and styled my hair yesterday along with highlights and it turned out beautifully. She was extremely personable and very easy to talk to. My hair was a little past my collar bone and I wanted blunt bangs with a layered shoulder length cut and it turned out exactly how I wanted. I would definitely recommend Carolynn and Company to my friends.

I recently went in and saw Carolynn for a cut and highlight. I consider myself to be «up-​to-​date» on current styles as a 28 yr old woman, and while the salon is still in the process of getting updated I wasn’t worried about the quality I was going to be receiving. I’ve learned not to judge that way because I’ve spent $ 200 on a terrible cut and color at multiple trendy and modern salons and been dissatisfied. Carolynn was warm and friendly and I was completely satisfied with my cut and color. I previously had ombré colored hair and mid back length. Carolynn gave me highlights to blend in my ombré that i had grown out (the plus side of ombré!) I have no idea what the other person is talking about. I’m also a licensed esthetician however I haven’t worked for a few years now but I pity people who leave such hateful reviews for others. If someone is dissatisfied with a service most stylist (techs, or estheticians) want the client to be satisfied and continually ask for feedback throughout the service (which carolynn did while providing my service) it’s unfortunate this person chose to try and tarnish Carolynn’s reputation by posting that review. I will be headed back to Virginia with a cut and color I love and hope to use Carolynn in he future when I travel back to AZ!

Note: what I wrote below was a follow up to manager comments left by Carolynn which she has now deleted. I’ll leave it here for reference. Also, it should be noted that this review applies to Carolynn only and not the other stylists at the salon. They have nothing to do with it and I’m sure they are lovely people. I will also leave for you, Unilocalers, the PM Carolynn sent to me, so you know how you can expect to be treated by her if you ever have a complaint:
«Ashley, you are a very sad and pathetic soul. Now go write some more bs and make yourself happy. It’s what you do. I won’t even read what you just wrote because it isn’t worth my time.»
Judge for yourself if this is someone you want to do business with.
Carolynn has also come back to alter her comments about 6 times since saying she wasn’t going to revisit it anymore ( Unilocal emails me every time she revises), which I find really hilarious and a tad obsessive. And she says I’m nitpicking? Hysterical.
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By the way, I don’t work for Mood Swings or even have personal connections with the people who work there… I think it’s really sad that because I gave you a bad review and them a good one, you think I work for them and am trying to sabotage. Anyone can go compare your salon to theirs and see a difference. And you’re essentially saying Mood Swings wasted money at your salon sending a customer in just to leave you a bad review. Do you know how crazy that sounds? Mood Swings holds their own and I doubt they would even consider you competition. I don’t mind if people check my reviews, or the dates, either. I review when I’m online and have time.
In response to Carolynn, I’m not sure why you’re calling me a liar now, because I gave an extremely honest review. Obviously you’re not willing to own up to poor service. Also you make it sound like I refused to answer the phone… I didn’t have my phone on me and didn’t get your message until later. I think it’s cowardly that you just left a message like that on my machine instead of waiting to have an actual conversation, and frankly, a little weird to me that a business owner would do that in the first place. I’m sorry I touched a nerve with the appearance of the Salon. If you want to say it’s not dirty, go ahead, but I guess you weren’t the one who had to stare at that counter-​top for over an hour. That aside, though, the SERVICE was my main complaint, not the appearance.
You said you greeted me and brought me to the station when I arrived. Not true. I was sitting down for quite awhile before anyone spoke to me. And I never said it was a nice place, so I don’t know where you got that idea. If the «great conversation» you are referring to was the 30 second conversation about a designer line in the magazine I was looking at, then yes, it was riveting.
You never said, «come on back to the shampoo bowl with me.» You said it was time to shampoo and then walked away. Nor did you walk with me to follow you back to the hair station. I have no reason to make things like that up. I mentioned it in my review because it was surprising to me and I’ve never had that happen before. I used to work at a photography studio and I never would have dreamed of not walking my clients from place to place in the studio. We didn’t have a conversation as we walked back to the chair, because you weren’t there to converse with. AFTER I sat down, you asked «how much of a trim» I wanted. There was no talk of layers. The only talk we had about growing out my hair was when you got to my bangs (which you never asked about before you had already started trimming) and I said I was growing those out.
I do understand it’s a tough economy and that renovations are expensive, thank you. But as I said, if you read my review, you should see that the appearance was a very small part of it and the overall experience was my main issue. I have supported local businesses that were a total dive inside, but the service is great so I recommend them. If you can’t get professionalism and service down, it doesn’t matter how fancy your salon looks. You have shown a very poor response to a customer complaint and have proven yourself someone I don’t care to do business with again.
I guess I should have stayed and complained, but I wasn’t willing to sit through another color process. I was just ready to leave. I’m sorry that you don’t appreciate honest reviews – that’s the purpose of Unilocal,you know– to inform others of both good and bad experiences. My reviews contain both, as I’m sure you saw. I write about my experiences honestly and that might rub some the wrong way, but I’m not going to change that. I don’t care to read (or write) fake reviews. I’m not going to call you a liar, but I will say that your memory of the experience is VERY different from mine. Good luck to you.