I have very mixed feelings about Salon Stefano because of a very negative experience I had that affected my face.
PROS:
Stefano is a good hairdresser and I watched him do a brilliant cut on a woman in no time and her hair looked wonderful afterwards.
The color Stefano mixed looked nice and complemented my skin tone.
The salon is clean, charming (it's a renovated bungalow), and the staff is very friendly.
CONS:
I suffered from a chemical burn. While I didn't have a reaction to the hair color itself, Stefano told the girl who rinsed my hair to clean me up. To be honest, I didn't even see any color that got on my skin and if there was any, it was a small amount and certainly could have been wiped off with a tissue or soap & water. I later found out that the girl used Clean Touch on my face even in areas where I didn't have any color. Well Clean Touch contains ammonia, the same stuff you used to clean your house and is very toxic. Ammonium hydroxide is not something anyone should be putting on their skin and I'm livid that they used such a product on me without asking me first and without telling me what they'd be using. When you have your head back in the sink, you have no idea what they're using on your head/skin. I assumed they used water to rinse the color and maybe a conditioner. When I called the salon (after I woke up with huge red patches all over the left side of my forehead and left side of my face -- patches that turned into a flat pink/red and later purple burn), Stefano advised me to take Benadryl. The Benadryl did nothing to help my reaction and the fact that the salon didn't even offer to refund at least part of my service is disappointing since they are liable. I had to go on Prednisone and Rx steroid cream and even those things didn't work. Why? Because this wasn't an allergic reaction but rather a chemical burn. Try putting ammonia on your skin and see what happens. They owe it to their clients to make sure they never use ammonium hydroxide on anyone's skin in the future. Not only is the chemical burn unsightly and ruined my weekend (and now week as part of it is getting worse and might be infected), but there's no telling how long I'll be dealing with this. The salon owes me more than an apology and owes it to themselves to never use that product on anyone's skin in the future. Color can be removed with plain old soap and water or by wiping it with a tissue. Ammonia should not be used to remove color on a client's skin.
CONCLUSION:
While I had a horrible experience and one that is costing me a heck of a lot more than the $85 for the hair color and $45 for the blow dry it doesn't have anything to do with Stefano's skills as a hairdresser. He is a very talented hairdresser and the color did turn out nicely but unfortunately the product they used on my skin is something that should not come in contact with skin. Ammonium hydroxide is extremely irritating and will burn skin. Needless to say, I'm extremely disappointed with the way the salon handled my situation. I truly hope no one else suffers the same fate I did. The left side of my face is deep purple and burning and at the end of the day, even a nice hair color isn't worth that.
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