Studio Z Salon

My massage with Jill was the tops! I have had massages in the past. Sometimes I didn’t feel as comfortable and relaxed as I did when Jill explained the process & treatments available. I immediately felt comfortable with her. After my first massage I knew she was the real deal, a pro. Both with her massage therapy and how she listened to me. Trust me, you will feel like a new person after your massage. I even signed up for the monthly massage program after being treated by Jill.

I’ve been coming to Studio Z every time I visit Wisconsin and this was my worst experience to date. I went in for a simple color and although I do really enjoy my color, I was extremely unimpressed with the quality of service I received. In the dead of winter my stylist did not blow dry my hair completely. She also did not give me a «blow out». She simply brushed my hair while holding the blow dryer next to it. I will definitely reconsider before coming in again.

Studio Z provides an outstanding experience from the moment you walk in the door. I love the friendly and professional staff. It has that spa feel and the place is clean, clean, clean. There is a small boutique with fun and unique clothes and jewelry. I get compliments on the things I get there and never see them on someone else. The owners are present and they have created an atmosphere of excellence. Their leadership shows. The staff works as a team and maintains high quality standards. Nikki is an amazing nail technician… the best I have ever had! She does a wonderful job every single time. I highly recommend Studio Z!

This salon is amazing, the best I have been to in Madison. From the outside it’s unassuming, I live in the area and never went in until a neighbor recommended it. Sure glad I did! It’s very professional, clean and nice. It looks very fresh and you can tell the owners maintain the salon well. Karen does my hair and she is awesome, she is the owner and you can tell she has a great relationship with her staff. The front desk staff and everyone there is polite and friendly! Plus they have a little clothing and jewelry boutique inside with GREAT stuff! I also have had a pedicure here and that was wonderful too. Love this place!

I cannot stop looking at my nails! THIS is what I want when I visit a nail tech. I would hate going to get my nails done because I felt like I was apart of an assembly line. Finally, I’ve found a place that treats you with some courtesy.
My co-​worker recommended Studio Z Salon to which I gave them a buzz immediately and was pleased to hear one of their Master Nail Techs, Becky, had an opening the next day that fit my schedule. The salon definitely had that «Hollywood» feel to it when you walked up. A beautiful, clean reception area, products stocked on the shelves, attentive receptionist and so forth. What I was most blown away by the service. The staff was extremely friendly and smiled whenever they passed. Becky did a fantastic job with my acrylic full set. She would tell you exactly what she was doing during the entire process. I found out later that she has her instructor license which speaks to why talks you through what she is doing as she does your nails. I cannot state enough how appreciative I was to her for this. This was my first time experienced being told what was the next step in completing the nails. Very educational. I walked out with more than just gorgeous nails. I walked out with knowledge! Kudos, Becky!
Studio Z Salon has won me over (at least with my nails)

I am new to the Madison area and heard great things about Studio Z, specifically Casey. He came highly recommended to me by my co-​workers. In fact, I think I had about 5 people tell me I should definitely check it out. So, I did! AND… I am happy to report that I was blown away by my cut and color! I had gone to the same stylist in Louisville for years and it was hard to imagine loving another stylist more, but I think I have found my Madison match! Thank you Casey and Studio Z for rockin’ out hair!
–Rebecca

I highly recommend this salon! My stylist is Travis and he is incredible at what he does. I have fine long hair and the first time I called studio z to book and appointment I requested they pair me with someone who’s master at long-​fine hair.
When I arrived I was welcomed by really sweet staff and a cute little boutique! They had my name along with others on a cute little «appointments today» list. It felt very glamorous and I felt important. I felt that they truly cared about my feelings as a customer.
The stylist they paired me with was not available at the time of my appointment due to an emergency and they were so apologetic and reassuring that I would be paired with someone that would take good care of me.
I’ve been back since my first appointment and plan to keep going back. I would highly recommend Travis as a stylist too

My all-​time favorite salon in Madison. Wow. The staff was very welcoming and very professional. The interior of the salon is not only clean, it’s gorgeous!
Todd was amazing. I was changing my hair color from red with lighter highlights to deep red. He really listened to me and took the time to understand my non-​salon speak! I felt totally comfortable in his hands. My hair ended up looking SO rich, brilliant, and still had a variation of color. I had been nervous, because I get wary making changes, but doing something different was absolutely the right choice.
This was seriously the best hair color I’ve ever gotten. Studio Z uses high quality color, and Todd explained everything he was doing (from mixing, to the conditioning treatment, etc.). The color also lasted a very long time — at other places I’ve tried, the red gets tired and faded, but this red really stuck.
Karen, the owner, came over the check in and consulted briefly about the color. She is very professional and knowledgeable (and she has a gorgeous shade of red I want to get next time — maybe as the weather warms up!).
I’ve also gotten my nails done here, as well as the spa pedicure. Very relaxing, great massage segment. The gel manicure lasted three weeks.

I’ve been going here for a couple of years now. Great people and great place! I always trust Lindsay with my hair. Johanna did amazing wedding makeup for me. Their spray tans rock. Great boutique gift shop area. The owner is responsive to emails and very helpful. They also take spa finder gift cards!

I was able to get a last minute prenatal massage before we hit the road back to DC. Jill, my massage therapist, was just wonderful. She talked through my pregnancy symptoms with me so should could focus on areas that I needed relief and made sure I was comfortable the entire time. I love a good deep tissue massage and have found with some other prenatal massages that the therapist will be too gentle to really be effective; not Jill. She dug in there and by the end of the massage I felt as if I was floating! I’d highly recommend Jill at Studio Z for a prenatal massage — I’ll be back next month when I’m in town for my baby shower.

I had needed to find a new place to go since my prior hair sylist had left. I went to Studio Z — they welcomed me, were very nice. They provided me with a welcome packed with different discounts inside. One of them was for a discounted facial. I had set up an appointment, went for the facial — and when it came time to pay for the facial, I was told that I owed about 30 dollars more than what the certificate had said. I showed the cashier what I had. She went in back to talk to the woman who did my facial. The lady who did my facial came up to me and was disgusted and asked me «where did you get this?!» I told her that it was in my welcome envelope, she then proceeded to tell me that it was clearly wrong and that it should not have been that cheap. She then scoffed and said «wow, you just got a good deal» and walked away all upset. I was so upset by it because she made ME feel bad for using a coupon — I don’t care if the company may have printed off certificates wrong, not my fault! I was so upset by the way that I was treated. Never going there again.

Studio Z. What a place. I’ve been going there for nearly 5 years now, seeing Karen on a regular basis. She turned my box-​colored, damaged, short hair into a healthy, natural looking mane, that people often stop me and say, you have beautiful hair. Seriously. I’ve also had massages there and the therapists there are top-​notch, thoroughly professional, and most importantly, experts at listening to me, where my aches and pains are, and then instantly relieving them. Also, all the receptionist staff are extremely professional and welcoming. I will go no where else. Studio Z is the best salon in Madison. Hands down.

Best salon in the Madison area! I got my hair cut with Todd a few weeks ago and love it! I moved to Madison 6 years ago and have been trying desperately to find someone who can cut my hair to my liking, finally I found Todd! The cut looks great and he suggested a product that makes it look even better. I’m glad I finally found my stylist in Madison, it’s just too bad I couldn’t have found him 6 years and many bad haircuts ago. Awesome, awesome, awesome!!!

I first went to Studio Z last summer (July of 2010) because it was the first place I could find with an opening to color my hair. I wanted to do something drastically different and didn’t want to chicken out. I was paired with Bonnie, and since then I’ve never gone elsewhere!
Bonnie has a fantastic eye for color — she pulled out their swatches and listened to what I wanted, then threw in some suggestions (which was greatly appreciated, as hair color is not my forte!). She said something about throwing in a bit of this color and a splash of that to prevent whatever, and use this as a base because it would look great in the sun and so forth. I said sure, since as I mentioned before hair coloring is not my thing, and she set about mixing it all together.
I have to say, the results were fantastic. I got so many compliments on my hair color — how it complimented my skin tone, how it looked in the sun, how soft my hair was (Bonnie threw in a conditioning treatment that did WONDERS), etc etc etc. I was so thrilled with how it turned out that I kept going back. Since I’ve been a repeat customer, she’s occasionally thrown little things in for free (like a conditioning treatment, not charging for a filler, or things like that), which I think is so nice of her to do and definitely keeps me coming back to her!
I recently decided to change my hair color up a little bit again, and Bonnie worked her magic. I’ve again received so many compliments. I’ll never let anyone but Bonnie do my hair again!

I booked a pedicure & a gel manicure here well in advance of my May 21^st wedding. There was an initial slowdown in communications when a manager apparently replied only to my original contact & didn’t copy me on the message, but I resolved that & was assured that a gel manicure would look great & not chip for at least a couple of weeks, so that getting it two days before my wedding in Las Vegas would be fine.
I came in on May 19, the day before we were set to depart, & it took them some time to find my appt because they had another customer with my given name (very rare, admittedly) & had booked me under her account despite numerous emails I had sent w/​my full name.
Paula did my gel manicure (OPI Axxium). She was very rough with the tools, but I know my cuticles were kind of out of control – still, it was probably the most painful manicure I’ve had in recent memory. I had never had a gel manicure before, & I thought at the time that she was applying it very thickly, but had no basis for comparison. She had me put both hands in a UV device that I later learned is only intended to cure one hand at a time; when she was finishing up, my pinky nails weren’t cured at all & she took off half the gel w/​acetone while trying to wipe them down, so she redid them, but she didn’t even try to start from scratch – just put new gel on top of the half-​destroyed stuff.
Then she passed me off to Lisa, who was doing my pedicure. Lisa commented that the manicure had been done really quickly – much more quickly than they’d scheduled for, so I spent about 45 minutes waiting for my pedi.
The pedi was good quality but I found Lisa pretty grating – she had a really jerky, abrasive manner while talking to me, & I felt like I was being questioned about the validity of my career path at points.
The next day, my gel manicure starting showing visible cracks in three different nails. I called the salon & got a bored brush-​off from some guy who said there weren’t any appointments for the day, regardless of when I was leaving for Vegas. I sent an email to the manager I had previously spoken with, but didn’t get a very quick response.
I was fortunate enough to find another salon in town that was able to squeeze me in that afternoon & fix it. The first thing they said when they saw my nails was that the gel had been applied MUCH too thickly – when they fixed it, I also discovered that my original manicurist had only done one coat of color rather than the two she should have done – no wonder it was done so quickly! (It also should have been cured one hand at a time, & Lisa had DEFINITELY not left the UV on long enough for the individual coats, either.) It took awhile to find this out because it took over half an hour to get the original way-​too-​thick gel OFF. At one point my new manicurist actually called over another woman to «get a load of» the incredibly bad job.
I did eventually get a call back from the manager at Studio Z offering to refund my money for the manicure & apologizing – she was obviously very sorry about it, unlike the guy I’d spoken to in the morning. However, after having a COMPETENT gel manicure, it was clear to me that Paula at Studio Z had no idea what she was doing. I consider it extremely irresponsible of the salon to offer a service like that with untrained personnel.
I actually held off on writing this review until the refund process was complete – & that’s why they’re getting ONE star instead of two. After returning from my honeymoon, I phoned the shop to ask after my refund. I had paid with a debit card but nothing had shown up on it. I got some random receptionist to whom I had to explain the whole thing over again because there was no manager to speak to me; I emphasized that I had already been told by Colette that a refund was in the works. The girl was completely silent for about five seconds & then put me on hold for about five minutes. When she came back on the line, she perkily declared that I had reached Studio Z & asked what she could do for me. I pointed out that actually, I was still waiting for my refund & she got flustered about how difficult it is to keep track of the lines on their phones.
She then told me that «unfortunately, Rosie handles all that, & she’s not here today.» (This was the first time anyone had mentioned such a person to me.) I asked when Rosie would be back, & she didn’t know, but declared she would leave a note. Then she started to hang up. I interrupted her with a request for a response time frame, to which she replied, «Oh, hopefully soon!» I said I did very much hope it would be soon since I’d been waiting two weeks already, & hung up.
Two days later, I did get a call from the elusive Rosie, who offered absolutely no apologies (neither had the receptionist) & just confirmed my address. A few days after THAT, I received a check for $ 40. Why they didn’t just refund my card, I have no idea.
I definitely would not return to Studio Z for ANY reason, coupons or no.

I went here for a haircut – I’ve also gotten my hair colored here before – honestly, I don’t remember the details about the cut and color. Although in retrospect I wish I didn’t take the stylist’s suggestion of coloring my dark brown hair to beige blonde (I guess it was an… interesting experience in terms of maintenence). One nice thing, is as a new customer they gave me a pack of coupons to use on future services. I had the best massage experience here with a therapist named Erica. The massage room was really nice – gas fireplace, full bathroom attached (including shower!) I really liked how the massage also included steaming hot towels after parts of your body were worked on – both in terms of relaxation and the therapist used them to wipe off oils. I would go back to her in the future for massages even sans discount.
The tip system is kind of odd. If you want to use a credit card and tip, they ask you how much more money you want on the card, then you’re given cash and you put the cash in and envelope and put it in the staff person’s mailbox.
My friend also went here for a makeup trial for a wedding. For bridal services, they typically will not travel to the wedding site. The skill of the artist was good, but her kit was limited – she didn’t have a foundation that was light enough, so my friend and I bought a foundation from Sephora for the wedding. The makeup person did insist that the old color was a good one: wince: I’m very picky about makeup, and it’s hard to find a makeup artist who has a really extensive kit… you have to pay out the nose. Bridal makeup was only $ 35 though, a very reasonable price.
Will go here again and would recommend it to others.

I liked Studio Z. My whole bridal party and I went there to get hair and makeup done for my wedding. The job they did was quite solid. The service staff is sufficiently but not over-​the-​top polite, and as for the work that they do, it’s good. Unlike SOME salons in Madison (such as Cameo Spa Salon, which totally blows), they quote fair prices and stick to them.
My hair on my wedding day stayed nice for hours, and my makeup looked so natural in the photos it looks as if I am not wearing any makeup at all (perfect!). We all had a good time. Nicely done all!

I had a mixed experience the one time that I went to Studio Z. I was going on broke, but really needed a haircut and eyebrow wax on the cheap. Studio Z had ½-​off haircut coupons for first time clients, so that’s where I went.
The front desk was full of very pretty, busy, important-​looking men. I stood there, waiting to sign in, until one of them took note of my existence. Rather than asking my name, they asked who my stylists were. Uhh… what? I don’t know. I know they mentioned the names when I was booking, but I didn’t write that down. *siiiiiiigh*, now they have to look it up this way instead. Gosh, sorry I’m so stupid and didn’t understand your process which no other spa/​salon in the world uses. This didn’t bother me too much until just now, when I reflected on the experience.
My eyebrow wax was first. A nice looking lady came out to get me. She was dressed well and had her hair back, except for a long, pretty curl hanging out near the front. She sat me in one of the chairs they use for washing hair, so my head was tilted way back. She then proceeded to do my wax.
Problem #1: Her hands (and clothes, hair, etc, but particularly her hands) REEKED of cigarettes. I’m not a smoker, but I know smokers, and their hands don’t smell like that. I don’t know if she really smokes that much, or if she never washes her hands… but I don’t want to think about that.
Problem #2: The curl was hanging *in my nose* the entire time she was working on me. It kept brushing back and forth between my nose and mouth. I’m glad I was there relatively early in the morning, because I shudder to think of all the people’s faces that curl had already been in otherwise.
Between the two, I really started to feel nauseous. She was holding a conversation with a young boy the entire time, which I thought was a little unprofessional, but whatever.
My haircut was with a girl named Rae (Ray, maybe?). She was very nice and professional. She gave me a great haircut, didn’t over-​style it (y’know, sometimes you walk out of a salon looking like a poodle because of stylist overzealousness), and it’s still looking good about a month later.
The front desk was weird again while I was paying. The older lady who ran my credit card gave me the total due and said, «Is that all you want to put on there?,» which is usually a hint that they would like for you to include a tip in some way, shape or form. I told her to please add x-​amount of money. At this point, she handed me the money I requested to be added to the card in cash with no further explanation.
«What’s this for?» I asked, obviously confused.
«You asked for cash back, did you not?» she said.
«Um…yes…to be added for a tip on the card. Isn’t that what you were asking?»
«Right. And we have mailboxes for each employee with little tip envelopes that you can use.»
OH. Well. Thanks for the info. :p
It was just so weird. I’ve been to more than a few salon/​spas before and it’s never been so confusing. Plus, at other places, the staff (especially the front desk staff) seem to be trained in being courteous to the customer.
I might go back, but that’s only because they gave me more coupons toward other services.

I have been seeing Jim Phillips, who has a suite in Studio Z for 4 years now. He’s bounced around recently, between a studio he owned on atwood ave, then the capital square, and now here. He gives a great haircut, and when I ask to switch things up some (about once a year), it’s no problem for him. I really trust his scissors and have never been disappointed. The cuts he gives are classic and modern at the same time. It’s not much work to make them a little bit funky, either.