Xylem: An AVEDA Concept Salon & Spa

I had such a great experience today with Mary! I am a brunette dyed red and I’ve been hating how my roots would grow out. Also I had pretty bad split ends from my crazy curly hair and needed a cut.
I called in the morning and made a same-​day appointment with ease. The receptionist Sabrina was nice and professional. The salon is clean, smells nice, no hair on the floor, and music playing.
Mary took about five minutes to assess and play with my hair, ask what I wanted, and suggest what she thought would work. She thought we should bring my natural brown color down and do some lowlights plus a red tint on my hair to even things out.
The coloring process took about two hours — standard, because I have a lot of hair. We chatted some and were quiet some; it was never awkward. Then Mary gave me a fantastic haircut with lots of layers and a blowout. I left Xylem feeling like a Pantene model!
Did I mention she gave me a hand massage while waiting for my color? Five stars!

Called for an appointment and was quoted a haircut at $ 50. Went in for the consultation and decided that we were only going to clean up the neck and around the face and the price was going to be $ 49. No thank you.

I am surprisingly very happy with my hair today!
I am usually very disappointed when I get out of an hair salon, and I mean really disappointed. I only go to get my hair done when they start to be damaged. And I beg the hair dresser not to cut too much, as I am trying to let it grow. Of course, they always cut, and cut, and cut. And then they blow dry like if I was a senior lady (I’m thirty, thank you). Anyway, it is never a very pleasant experience, neither for me or the hair dresser.
Well, this just changed. It might be the second time in my whole life I’m happy after an hair salon appointment! The whole experience was smooth, from booking to leaving with something upon my head to protect my hair because of the pouring rain.
Andre did a great job. A very great amazing job. First he listened what I was looking for, and he respected it. Then he had a quick but professional look at my hair and he asked about how I treat my hair. The little scalp massage at the shampoo station was heavenly good. He took his time to trim my hair and then did the most beautiful blow-​dry I have ever have. He gave me nice and useful tips to take care of my hair better.
I appreciated that Andre talks but did not try to talk no matter what as I am not a jabberer.
The salon is nice and very clean, the music was good too. I liked that the atmosphere was so warm between other clients, who seem regular, and hairdressers. It felt nice and cozy.
So no need to explain longer that I highly recommend this place!

It was my first visit to Xylem and I am so incredibly pleased with my visit! Not only did Andre provide me with great conversation, but he completely exceeded my expectations as I left the salon. I have INCREDIBLY thick hair and Andre managed to do some serious wonders to my unruly mane. I would highly recommend Andre and this salon!

If you’re looking for a great eyebrow wax go to Danielle. She is very friendly and thorough in making sure your eyebrows come out matching each other as well as exactly what you want style wise. I have paid up to $ 45 for my eyebrows in the past going to professional eyebrow studios, where they only do eyebrows and no other treatments, however Danielle beats them all! She truly does a 5 star job and is very personable. Hurt waxing and tweeting doesn’t even hurt! Which is saying something, because am very sensitive. No watering eyes or sneezing whatsoever!
Best eyebrow service I have ever experienced time again. The atmosphere in this salon is very relaxing and the tea is awesome.
Also, Olga does a great job on nails. Her massage techniques are extremely relaxing almost putting me to sleep. The quality of the products she uses is very good! Best my nails have ever looked and they lasted over a week. Even with my toenails growing out 1 ½ months later the pedicure polish still had not chipped at all. She is very nice as well. I love that they use nontoxic, Zoya nail polish. She asks you what shape of nail you like before beginning and makes sure she meets your needs. she was extremely accommodating and paitent since I had to bring my 1 ½ year old. Excellent service! I love that they do nails one at a time, in a small seperate room where you get total relaxation without being in the busyness of the salon. Also you don’t have to breathe in the chemicals from other people’s acrylics, etc. like you would at any other salon. Love the solitary nail-​environment. Very relaxing experience!

I really like this place. I get manicures from Olga on a regular basis, and it is the anti nail salon experience. There are no stacked appointments, it is a quiet peaceful environment, very clean and I leave there feeling cared for. Olga is sweet, calm and a little shy at first. I feel like she really cares about doing a good job. My nails always look great!
I also see Danielle for eyebrow waxing and she does a fabulous job. She is also detail oriented and consistently does a great job. She also does facials but I haven’t had one yet.
Xylem is also a full service salon. I do not use their hair services but walking through I see many awesome blowouts and haircuts.

Let me be blunt– this place is awesome!!! I’ve been to Mary a handful of times for my hair and I always leave her chair with my best color/​cut ever! Her ombré technique clearly works– I get compliments on it all the time!
I also got a facial with Danielle through the groupon deal and it was nothing less than amazing! She knows her stuff and was attentive to my needs while offering her expertise.
ALSO! Melanie at the front desk is always courteous!
Great place! Great people!

I had a great experience with Allen and Erika… love this place. Very clean salon, plus the employees are very nice! I would recommend both Erika and Allen!

My first visit to this salon will not be my last. The stylist chosen for me was Brittany and she was pleasant, skilled and gave me a beautiful cut. The atmosphere is upscale without being stuffy, everyone made sure I had a lemon water and was being taken care of. I just moved to Monrovia and it feels good knowing that I can get all of my beauty needs met in this friendly, warm beautiful salon.

ALEN is the best.
This review is a few years overdue. We have been coming to ALEN for a few years and he has always done an amazing job no matter what he did: be it extensions, color, or simply a haircut.
He is friendly and extremely knowledgeable about all things hair related.

Loretta is fantastic and can do it all! She has an attention to detail that is second to none and she always suggests cuts and color that look good on me. I’ve been a client of hers for about 5 years after landing with her by chance when my former stylist left.
I love Aveda color and products and Xylem keeps a nice supply on hand including skin care, make up and hair care. Although I haven’t taken advantage of it yet, the salon also offers manis, pedis, facials and massages too.

Purchased Groupon for a stress fix manicure pedicure with sea salt exfoliation. The receptionist told me the original cost is $ 75. The words sea salt exfoliation is the removal of the oldest dead skin cells on the skin’s outermost surface. This procedure was not done. When I brought it up, Olga told me she added salt to the water, however, no physical removal was done. Olga did tell me to purchase a pumice stone to exfoliate at home. This, I believe is false advertisement.
Olga was pleasant, however, it was difficult to make conversation. I gave up after ten minutes. There was really not much difference — with the exception of cost– from Xylem and a local mani/​ped shop. Would I go back? No.

WAAAAY overpriced for what it is, i.e. a manicure in a stuffy closet.
Also don’t buy their groupons, I bought one for myself and used it then a friend bought me one as a gift and they won’t let me use it because the fine print says «Valid for new guests or those that haven’t received services in the past twelve months.» Because I’ve been in there in the past year it’s basically wasted money. Fine print BS = scammers.

My review is long over due for Brittany. I’ve been here a couple of times with the help of groupon and for my last visit, it was a last minute thing and Brittany was going to be my stylist. I’m so glad to have gotten to meet Brittany and for her to do my hair. My groupon deal with cut, color and botanical condition. She was very meticulous with coloring my hair and cleaning up on areas where there shouldn’t be any (many times I have to show the stylist places that they missed… and this is when I am ready to leave!)
As for the hair cut, I loved how she tried to give me a very easy and manageable look since I really don’t have too much time to tend to my hair in the a.m. Normally, I just wash my hair and clip it back.
A plus was that she was very nice and easy to talk to.

So I went to this Aveda salon because of the reviews on Unilocal and a groupon deal. This salon is located in the heart of Old Monrovia. There is only street parking available.
I decided to give this place a shot as I was desperate for a haircut and didn’t want to drive 35 miles to Aveda Vicara (my old fav salon). I wish I did as I wasn’t too happy with the results. My stylist was Ericka, a transplant from the now-​closed Aveda Blu salon in Arcadia. She was friendly but she didn’t really listen to what I wanted. I went in for a trimming with a settle layer touch-​up. I went home with a choppy two-​layer look. Maybe I didn’t explain it well to her or that she didn’t have time to do more (the salon only blocked 1.5 hours for me) and she was running behind. Oh well, I trimmed off that second layer myself and waiting for my guy at Vicara to get a legit trim.

I went in for a massage. I was looking forward to it because it always seemed like they were booked for massages. And the place was really nice. And I got to choose which oil.
But the massage was pretty bad… The lady went soooooooooooooo slowly over my muscles I was falling asleep. It was really boring… I didn’t get any knots out or any stress relieved…
Oh and just like all over Aveda salons, they try to sell you products at the end.

I’ve found my new salon!
After my previous Aveda salon closed, I needed to find a new one, so I bought a groupon for Xylem for $ 69. It included a cut, botanical treatment, and partial highlights. I made my appt with Melanie, and when the day finally arrived, I was greeted warmly by the receptionist (Melanie) and offered a beverage. She informed me that my stylist was running 20 minutes late and kept asking if there was anything she could do for me in the mean time.
Destiny was my stylist and she was fantastic. I was making a big cut (10inches for charity) and she listened to what I wanted, noted the pictures I showed her, and went to work. She wasn’t overly chatty, which was great because neither am I, but she communicated with me throughout the process. Since I’d never had my hair colored professionally before, she erred on the side of caution and didn’t process my hair too drastically. When she rinsed out the color, she told me that it wasn’t as light as we had discussed and immediately said that we could schedule another appointment to get the desired result at no charge. She continued with the botanical treatment and gave me the exact cut I had asked for and a fantastic blowout. Even though the highlights were subtle, I loved my hair! We scheduled an appt for the following week to fix the highlights.
I just came from salon visit #2, where I was immediately greeted by name by Melanie and Destiny, and offered a beverage. Destiny got to work and we went over color samples again. She applied the highlights with an expert hand, and gave me a color gloss too. She blow-​dried my hair and was patient in answering all of my questions about hair care and hair styling, giving me some really good tips to use. I walked out with celebrity hair! Soft waves, and beautiful, golden ombré highlights. Destiny had a great memory and didn’t even need to reference the pictures I’d shown her previously and totally and completely nailed my vision. I totally trust her with my hair, which as I’m sure most of you know, is a big deal to do with a hair stylist. Her 18+ years of experience show in how amazing my hair now looks.
It also must be mentioned that I was NEVER treated any differently for having purchased a groupon, and I truly appreciated the experience I had. I will most definitely be back.

upon entrance you figured this place is just all about hair, than you walk towards the back and noticed the secret passage rooms where a room was dedicated for just mani and pedi.
There I was getting my nails done by Olga, she was very professional and def very very details. it was def. job well done. The only thing lacking was just that I was a tad bored… She didn’t talk to me, (which I don’t really mind) But I need some sort of distraction. a magazine or tv or I don’t know something!
I wounded up using up to almost like 10% of my phone …-_–

I had my facial with Kandi this morning and it was THE BEST FACIAL OF MY LIFE!!!
I originally found Xylem through Groupon and I did thorough research and everyone was saying how awesome Kandi was… I couldn’t agree more.
She asked me what my skin concerns were and told me what to expect. She does a lot of massage during her facials which is one of the best parts!!!
I got a 90 minute facial and it just FLEW BY. She was giving me tips and tricks about my skin and recommended a few products. She wasn’t pushy at all. She is so intuitive about the body too. She could tell I held all my stress in my neck and shoulders. I felt so comfortable and right at home.
I’m a convert. Definitely go see Kandi. You won’t regret it. She even gave me a hug when I left! Love her!

I am so happy to have found this salon through Livingsocial! I have been coming to get facials from Kandi since August and I love it. Sometimes, facials are not the most fun (boo to extractions), but I honestly look forward to getting them here.
First of all, the facilities are really clean and relaxing. The receptionist always offers you something to drink while you wait. Then you are lead to the back (there are two facial rooms) to where you can undress and lay down. My favorite part is the heated bed! The room has candles and relaxing music playing.
The first time I had my facial with Kandi she asked me my concerns and what I liked the most/​least about facials. This was my first time at an Aveda spa and I am in love! Kandi always manages to calm me down with the aromas. Aside from the actual facial, some additional things I love about the service is that she wraps your feet with warm towels and massages/​lotions your shoulders and arms.
Kandi is a true sweetheart and I love coming here especially after work because I’m able to fully relax (and sometimes doze off hehe). She doesn’t try to push their products on you which is an additional plus. They sometimes have great promotions and I’ve seen them on Groupon, etc. so keep an eye out for them!
I always find parking on the streets, no problem. And bonus, they accept credit cards even if you’re just tipping!