As a former employee of Dean of Shadyside Salon, I am here to give you some advice. Stay away. I have never been treated so badly in my LIFE. I started working there in 2008, and worked there for a year before quitting. I hated it so much that I actually gave up my cosmetology career to go to school as a vet tech, something much more meaningful. I moved to Pittsburgh when I was 18 with barely anything in my name, and when I came in for an interview I dressed the best I could with a pair of black jeans you could barely tell were jeans. I showed up 15 minutes early and waited almost an hour, only to have the owner Dean come out and tell me he'd give me another chance (like he's God or something) if I came back dressed better. So unfortunately I made the decision to come back. They had me work at least 20 unpaid hours in a week as a slave without pay, and called it a ""working interview"". When I was hired, I started to learn how evil that place really was. The sylists are so catty, I never did a thing to them, I kept my mouth shut and did my job, but I would walk past the break room on several occassions to hear them talking about me. Dean acts like a devout Christian, but he is one of the most evil people I've ever met. On one occasion while I was working as a receptionist, he pushed me out of the way and threw all the papers and post cards he had me working on on the floor and yelled at me in front of clients. Richard is another story, he is absolutely vulgar and I have never heard such disgusting things come out of a man's mouth before. I once heard him say he wished male ejaculate tasted like blueberry yogurt. He also told me that I wasn't pretty. Which is abolutely ridiculous, not to be concieted or anything. I also got in trouble for talking to a client about my boyfriend, who is now my husband, I was told it was innapropriate even though Richard screams about how he's gay every day. The girls that work there stab eachother in the back constantly, and talk about all the clients in the breakroom, trust me on that one, so if you are a client, I can promise you you've been talked about, and not in a good way. I was underpaid for working overtime, and assistants are supposed to get commision for the products they help sell with the stylists. I sold quite a bit with Richard while his assistant was away, and I heard him in the office say he'd rather give the commisions to Christina (the other assistant). So.. no extra money on my paycheck. I cried almost every day after work, and I had never been like that before working there. I always stood up for myself, but that place breaks you so much I turned into a completely different person. There is so much more I have to say after a year of that miserable hell, but I think I've said enough. So all I can say is, you are too good to waste your time at that salon. You deserve better, and I hope you make a good decision.
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