Coloration Bar

This place and Vida are AMAZING. I came here due to the awesome Unilocal reviews and I’m never going anywhere else. I called today at 4 and Vida said she would fit me in. Came at 5:45 and boom out within an hour! I’ve gotten my hair cut and colored here and I absolutely love it. Also the prices you can’t beat anywhere else. Vida and everyone that works there are so polite and professional. I highly encourage everyone to come here!

I most definitely do NOT recommend this salon. I got a haircut here last night and I have been in tears ever since. I asked for some shorter layers in my front and got some choppy long bangs that do not blend at all. I could have done a better job myself. Never again will I go to this salon.

I have been having Vida do my color, cut and blowouts for 2 years. My hair ALWAYS looks wonderful when I walk out that door — princess time! Vida’s salon is very busy now but I am still greeted by David with a smile. I enjoy the atmosphere, professionalism and friendliness of everyone working at Coloration Bar. Another huge plus — close to home! So very glad that Vida opened her salon in Santa Monica — she is a treasure.

I should have listened to the bad reviews on this place. I went to Vida because everyone seemed to rave about her. I got my roots touched up and a cut. She didn’t get the right color for my roots and she cut my hair way shorter than I was expecting, and the sides are uneven. So upsetting!

Vida is wonderful, the best color at an amazing price and good quality haircuts, she spends alot of time to make sure you are happy! which I always am!

Vida does amazing golden blonde highlights. I love her work! She takes the foils in the back out earlier than the foils in the front so that the front of my hair is lightest. This makes it look sun kissed and oh so natural! Great work and great prices!

Again, Vida understands my (kinda weird) hair and knows how to cut it so it hangs beautifully and stays bouncy. The highlights she puts in my hair last and last and they just look wonderful … Vida’s terrific!!!

Went in for a short hair cut. The time to. cut took a. little longer than expected, but overall the results we’re satisfactory. There’s ample parking in the area which is convenient. The nail technician also does lip waxing. She took care of me.

I called Sunday AM right when they opened for a same-​day appointment and managed to get in during the afternoon. The salon outside says color correction or something along those lines, but it’s right across the street from Rite Aid.
I got there right at 2p and was seated. I wasn’t shown any pictures of styles like some other dry bar/​salons but just explained that I wanted a simple blow out. They charge $ 5 if they use a hot tool, so I asked for a round brush blow dry which was $ 30.
My hair looked really sleek and bouncy. They washed my hair and then was done in about 40 minutes.
They ask whether or not you want product (hair oil, spray etc) and I wanted my blow out to last, so I asked for a lot of spray.
My girl wasn’t overly talkative and got the job done quickly. The front desk receptionist wasn’t the most ”friendly” or ”energetic” especially when I was calling for an appointment but, other than that no other complaints.

I had an appointment with Lauren, and she was great! My hair was dead, but I did not want to take off much length. Lauren made my hair look so beautiful, without taking much length off which is my biggest problem when I get my hair done.
She was also such a fun person to talk to. She really made me feel like an important client from the first minute. I will absolutely return to her. HIGHLY recommend! Good atmosphere, great prices, and quick enough to go during my busy work week.

Today I went to Brush bar for color, cut and blow dry. I was very happy with everything and my hair looks great. I will be back there again as I an very happy with the services.

I hate writing bad reviews but when I have a bad experience at a hair salon I feel obligated to warn people.
I had an appt for full highlights at 5:45pm. Walk in, and the receptionist is sanding the wall, while one of the hairdressers is just sitting and staring at me. So I say I have an appt. As they walk me to my chair, I notice hair all over the floor and on tables from clients that hadn’t been cleaned up. First sign that I should’ve left. So I bring in my hair extensions to get my hair matched to them and ask for highlights and lowlights. So the lady mixes my color and starts doing my foils. 30 min in she walks away, grabs a wet towel, starts taking out my foils and pulling the color off with the towel. So I’m thinking she messed up my color. I eventually ask, and she tells me that color is done. So she has me go to the sink to rinse the bottom half of my head, clips up my hair and has me go back to the chair. My hair is dripping everywhere, so I ask her to put a towel on my shoulders. She does, then continues my foils. In the meantime, the receptionist is now painting the walls, hair still hasn’t been cleaned up. She then finishes the middle of my head, has me go to the sink and rinse again, then go back to the chair to finish my top foils. Finishes the top, waits 5 min and then washes my hair. Almost pulled my earrings out of my ears twice while washing my hair. I also had to tell her numerous times the water was way too hot. We then go back to the chair to dry my hair. I have thin hair so it gets easily tangled. She starts brushing my hair with a bristle brush when my hair is in a huge tangle. So I ask her to use a comb because otherwise she’ll rip out my hair. She eventually sprays some type of product on my hair and then half brushes my hair and starts blow drying. I eventually see the color, and it’s nothing close to what I asked for. I went in with light blonde hair, asked for golden blonde, and ended up with dirty blonde and ash blonde highlights. So she says she’ll tone it. I’m already nervous it’s going to get worse, but she insists. So she pretty much brushes a ton of toner into my head super fast then rushes me to the sink to wash it out and is still adding more toner as she washes my hair. Then rushes me back to the chair because by now it’s 8pm. Starts brushing my hair again with the bristle brush. I eventually just stop her and say I’m done. She offered to fix it for me another day but I declined. I walked out of the salon with half wet hair in a tangle. Looked like I just got blown with a leaf blower. Got home, dried my hair and found a ton of spots on my head that had zero highlights so you can still see my dark roots. Specifically where my hair parts, which I parted for her.
Needless to say, the worst experience I’ve ever had.

I have a fantastic hairdresser, and I just got my hair done about 4 days prior to my visit here. I just needed a blowout before going out of town to look fresh, so I fould Brush Bar on Unilocal and decided to give it a try.
Nice place, and clean. My blowout stylist was an older woman, I don’t recall her name. I told her that I just got my hair done recently and wanted to look nice for a trip. She immediately (before even finishing a shampoo) started suggesting doing a glaze, said my hair looked dull, selling her services. No problem, but unwanted, I’m just here for a blowout! I politely declined, said I had just gotten my hair doneand they do a glaze What kind? What salon? Who’s your hairdresser? Should we call them and ask? And wrote down all the info! I’m already feeling accosted. Just a blowout please, I need some lift in my roots and shine.
My blowout was lackluster at best. My hair was dull and flat, I could have done this myself. When she saw that I was clearly dissapointed, she passed me along, apologizing for «not understanding what I wanted». A young blond girl curled my hair, and shaped it up nicely. She gets the stars but I wish that I would have just had her as my stylist in the first place. She never even came back over to look at my hair or see if I was happy or satiate anything.
I wouldn’t go back.

Some of the reviews that I read made me a bit nervous but I had an awesome experience at this place. JEWEL was amazing — so sweet, so fun to talk to and she did an amazing job on my long/​thick head of hair. I consider myself somewhat of a hair snob and ended up here bc my salon was booked. That said, it was a great experience and my hair looks beautiful. Would definitely visit her again.

It’s the weekend and my hair is a mess. One phone call and Vida fit me into her busy schedule. 40 minutes in her chair and my hair looks like a billion dollars, and I can go on to enjoy my weekend.
I really enjoyed the atmosphere on this busy Saturday; Great energy, and friendly clientele.
See you Tuesday Vida!

I visited this place today because of Vida, I used to highlight my hair with her when she worked in Brentwood. I’m happy to find her again cause she knows exactly what I need and her prices are available! The salon itself is beautiful and light, you can breathe there. Very easy to find and no problems with parking-​lots of meters on Wilshire and they’re off after 6 p.m.

The reality is this isn’t the drybar. They don’t have champagne, blasting music and movies playing on a big screen. But it is cheaper than that place and it’s not that far off in terms of blow outs.
I’ve never had any problems with the place being dirty or the brushes.
The positives:
— people are friendly
— they do a decent job (yes, I’ve gone home and fixed it up a tad… but I’ve done that before from the drybar)
— it’s affordable, especially for a quick relaxing hour
The negatives–
— no cool, loud music (which makes the vibe of the place so old and boring)
— the quality of the products aren’t that good. I leave here with my hair smelling ok, not amazing
— no champagne (come on, I’m here to relax… but I guess if I could save a little on a blowout I’ll skip the champers)
they’ve taken me pretty easily and quickly on many walk-​ins, so they’re flexible which is great. The blow out isn’t insane, but honestly it’s better than I would do. I hope this place makes it, but there’s a coolness factor that is missing… that would make the place the go to blowout salon, cuz we all know that matters a bit when it comes to marketing and making people want to use your services. Bottom line, The price is right, the blowouts are decent and the people are nice and accommodating.

I find it funny that after a horrible visit here with my friend earlier this week and her leaving her bad experience review along w. the others, suddenly there’s all of these 5-​star reviews, please — all of those users just started ‘yelping’ as of this week!!! Don’t be fooled.
I’m not a high maintenance woman, all I expect is good customer and business service. I’m not going into the horrible details, you can reference my friend Jessica C’s review. But wow, I don’t think it’s my responsibility as a customer to tell them how they should run their business. I only made it pass the hair wash and left. Never had such a bad experience.
I’ve been to other places like this and this spot pretty much is a desperate attempt by luring customers in with a $ 25 pricepoint, for $ 10-​$ 15 dollars more at Drybar or others of that caliber, you get the full valuable service. Even at the $ 25 pricepoint, I wouldn’t even go here!!!
UNSANITARY!!!
— hair all over the counter/​chairs — hair is natural at a spot like this but it should be cleaned up after each client, as it is in hair salon, common business practice
–un-​cleaned brushes, by this, she’s pulling out hair from the previous client washing it under the sink, noting to me it was in hot water — that’ disgusting — after telling her that there’s still hair, she tries to pull out a few and tell me it’s all clean
BAD SERVICE
— the wash was barely a wash, she was flopping my head all over the place while she was trying to give directions to another; did not get a scalp massage which should come with a hair wash… AND I still had soap in my hair!
I know some people will say you pay for what you get… it’s still $ 25 — for blow dry only, hot tools is a surcharge. Don’t care if it’s a new business or not —- it’s a fake cheap business trying to make money off of the blowdry craze, if you’re going to do it, do it right — it’s a beauty business after all, c’mon.
Oh, and there was no air circulation, so hot for a spot that is using hot hair! The guy at the front claims that they just turned on the air so it’ll take a bit to cool, after reading other reviews about the temperature, they’re just too cheap to turn it on.
DO NOT GO HERE!

I wouldn’t even give them 1 star if that was an option. I bought the 3-​pack from Gilt CIty which is 3 blow-​dries and scalp massages. I must also preface this by saying that I went in with a friend as a surprise for her birthday, so that just magnified the horrifying experience to new levels.
FIrst of all, the place was 100 degrees. UM, it’s HEAT that come out of those hair dryers, so maybe AC would be in order.
Secondly, my friend waited 30 mins for her appt, which, after arguing with the guy who takes appts, he made it sound like if I was late for my 4:30 appointment, he would’t be able to take us at all.
Third, they did not do ANY kind of scalp massage, and in fact, left shampoo and conditioner in my friend’s hair.
Fourth, the brushes were NOT clean, and neither was the work station. We were totally grossed out by the pube-​looking hairs left on the chair and counter (which are white) by the old lady before us, and the bushy hairs left on the brushes. It looked as if the hairdresser was going to go ahead and just use the same brushes, so we asked politely if the hairdresser had others, and she proceeded to argue with us that they were actually clean. While my friend tried to towel-​out the shampoo left in her hair, the hairdresser ran the brushes under warm water and claimed that they were finally clean, even though we could still see the hair wrapped in it. When we asked again for her to clean it, she started ripping out hairs from the brush and throwing it around her work station to prove a point (that she was «cleaning» them out).
Also, to prove that she had other brushes, she pulled out a 2^nd brush from her drawer that was completely wrapped with blonde hair (EW) so we just got up and walked out.
I am filing a complaint with Gilt to get my money back and not even because I’m cheap, but I want Gilt to contact the salon and reprimand them.
gross. don’t go there.

I’m so disappointed as I wanted to like this place.
I’ve had a lot of blowouts in my day and this is by far my worst one ever, as I left the salon with frizzy hair, a ton of flyaways and curls at the end that left as soon as I walked to my car.
I saw all the signs of a bad blowout from the beginning. The hair washing didn’t feel good at all, as she never took the time to massage my scalp and only weakly washed my hair. My naturally curly hair was in one big knot after towel drying and my stylist proceeded to detangle my wet hair with a bristle brush (for those of you who don’t know, that causes a ton of breakage and damage when done to wet hair). Then she started blow drying my hair. The way she angled my hair and the low wattage on her blow dryer caused a ton of frizz, and I sat there watching the mirror, thinking she was eventually going to smooth it out. Maybe use a flat iron or even a bit of serum, but she just sent me on my way, frizz and all.
I’m off to my bathroom to use my own blow dryer and curling iron to see if I can salvage this mess. What a waste of money.
Next time, spend the extra $ 7 and go to Drybar.
Although 2 stars for nice employees and a pretty, clean space.