Pigtails & Crewcuts

I really wanted to like this place but the stylist were not friendly. The lady who did my daughters hair, polly, was ok. She talked and was nice but awkward and went too personal in our conversations. As for the other 3, it was like a high school clique. All 3 sat a t the front desk gossiping and doing absolutely nothing. When I walked in, all they said was sign in here. None of them smiled or asked what I was in for. Absolutely no interactions with my daughter. I think they would all benefit from some early childhood education courses. However, they did fix my daughters hair. She cut it herself and was uneven. Polly was able to remedy that but at a novice level.

Cute place, prices are high but expected since it’s a nice friendly place for kids. Gave a 3 because of customer service.

There are fundamental problems with the business model at Pigtails and Crewcuts. This is a children’s hair salon. Children, by definition, are not patient. Pigtails and Crewcuts does not allow reservations, so when you arrive, you put your name on a list and wait. Sure, you can wander around Tanasbourne for 90 minutes, if you want to, but I came out specifically to get my two preschoolers haircuts – dragging them around to shop is not my idea of a good time. The problem is that the salon is tiny, there’s only one little play area with a train table, and often ten or more children waiting for haircuts. We arrived at 10:15 AM. We were not called for haircuts until 11:55. That’s ridiculous. The kids exhausted the play area within 15 minutes and then it became a game of forced distraction, going in and outside repeatedly, and managing unhappy, bored children for over an hour. The cuts were fine, the stylists were fine, and the price is reasonable, but I will never wait so long for a kid’s haircut again. Pigtails and Crewcuts would do well to revise their business practice and allow for reservations. What a silly way to run a business serving young children.
As an aside, there’s something very weird about a salon that caters to both very young children and middle/​high schoolers in such a limited space. We had a 12-​year old shoving over toddlers to play with the train table. Granted, that’s a parenting issue, but it’s one that would not exist if the salon took reservations, had more space, or a separate area to cut older children’s hair.
We won’t return.

I wish my son behaved better, because he would have enjoyed this place. Cartoons, fun chairs, animal crackers, bubbles, train sets. It’s a kids paradise. The hairdresser was very patient, tried to make him happy and still gave him a good haircut. I’d go again. In fact, my 7 year old wants to go. They’re walk-​in only, which is nice.

Did well with my kids. I have no issues with them. It is pretty pricey though.

If I could give this salon ZERO stars then I would! We have been here two times and both times have ended badly. Three years ago we took our daughter and got her first haircut done by a lady that didn’t like children or her job. The haircut was awful! We had to go to another salon to get it fixed.
We went again tonight because I didn’t have time to drive out to our regular place, Little Clippers. I called ahead to make sure they could take us and that they didn’t have a wait. I was assured that it was no problem and we would be helped right away. We arrived less than 5 minutes later and were told it was going to be an hour wait or more. When I reminded the receptionist, Hannah, that we had just called she was not apologetic and didn’t offer any solution. She was also not accommodating when I asked for management contact info.
DO NOT GO HERE! If you want a place with cool kid chairs and a kid friendly environment go to Little Clippers in Lake Oswego. If you just want a good basic haircut Great Clips around the corner is great also. Josh was a great stylist for my four year old daughter. And the service is WAY better at both of these places.

This place was great! Tammie cut my daughter’s hair and it was her first haircut. She was so patient and loving. It was a great experience

We normally go to Little Clippers in Lake O but they didn’t have any availability for awhile (we aren’t the only ones who love them!) So I decided to try out this place. Wish I was just more patient and waited for the other. I walked in the door to someone at the desk staring down and never acknowledged me or my daughter. After saying hello I waited to be spoken to, since I was about two feet away. Eventually she said «fill this out» and walked away. No customer service AT ALL. When my daughter picked out a chair (all boy themed, nothing girly there at all) the stylist just looked at her and said «get up there.» of course my daughter needed help (I was carrying my other child). We managed. There was no kid-​friendly talk, no smiling, no effort to make her feel comfortable. Maybe 4 or 5 words were said throughout the entire cut. This gal definitely did not want to be there. I didn’t feel we got our money’s worth. At Little Clippers the price is comparable but it’s a fun experience. The stylists seem like they enjoy their job, and they’re friendly. They get sparkle hair spray to make it fun. Here it was just like at a regular salon only you could pick a truck or car to sit in. Definitely not going back.

I’ve been coming here for over a year and we always had great luck with Erika. She has since left and we’ve had three cuts since she left by three different people — all terrible. This last one was the worst and I won’t be returning. They are total amateurs and don’t cut hair like professionals. This last visit was a total mess — my daughters bangs are blunt cut and uneven — there’s a big chunk of longer hair on her right side. I’d asked for the bangs to be textured, not blunt and for her to fix the mess on the side, but she seemed really uneducated on how to cut hair and never fixed it.

Great and friendly staff. Took my boy for a haircut and they did everythinh to make him happy (including blowing bubbles).

We have taken our 4-​yr old daughter here about 4 – 5 times and have consistently been happy with the customer service, atmosphere and staff. Although the staff works hard and clearly has to deal with all sorts during the day, they always are kind and thoughtful when we are there.
When we go, we do a shampoo & cut and have a little ‘spa day’ treat out of it. Every stylist has done a lovely job making the event fun and enjoyable for my daughter. The cuts are always cute and they do a great job trimming her hair to bring out her curls.
I think that, like with all businesses, you will receive back the kindness that you give to the staff. We try to be nice and friendly and in return we have always had a fantastic time!

Super disappointed. Today we went to take our 2 year old for a trim. We’ve been growing out his hair into a longer rounded cut for months. Erica usually cuts his hair and does a good job, however today we got a different person who kind of blew off the description I gave her when she asked what we wanted. She said she understood and she’s got this. Guess what? Now my boy looks like Spock. Not what we were going for at all. She shaved the back down short and blended it up around the neck and ears — NO NO NO. Argh. I was too busy distracting my son and didn’t realize what she was doing til it was too late. :(
Months of hair growing down the drain. We’ve only ever had mediocre experiences here in the last year so I think this is the visit that encourages us to find a new kids salon. The employees at this place are not particularly good with kids either. It seems very forced when any of them have to interact with the kids. Time to move on and start regrouping the hair, dangit.

I have really mixed feelings about this place. The good is that the facility is kid-​friendly. Both of my children love the train set and there is always something on the TV’s for them to watch (although there was an issue today when my daughter was watching something during her brother’s haircut and then it was changed halfway through so that another child could watch something else). I will say that neither of my kids have ever had bad haircuts here, although we admittedly go for simpler styles.
There are some things that don’t make me happy about this place. For one thing, they are supposed to open at 9:30, and we usually try to get there right when it opens. However, every single time we’ve had to wait outside and the business opened 5 to 15 minutes late. Also, some of the stylists acted as though they would like to be somewhere else. They certainly weren’t unkind to my kids, but they didn’t really make an effort to relate to them. Finally, and this is a bit more sensitive, but many of the stylists appear unprofessional in their own dress and style. They are dressed sloppily and look like they just rolled out of bed (unkept hair, etc). This sort of thing would not be allowed in most salons.
I am going to continue to bring my children there – but only until they reach the point that they don’t need the distractions to get their haircut.

It felt to me like the employees there were doing a decent job of forcing themselves to be kid-​friendly (nobody was a natural). The woman who cut my daughter’s hair related well with her and there were certainly no issues during the haircut… the issues came after we got home and realized that because of the way the employee parted my child’s hair for the cut, several «chunks» of hair ended up being way longer than the rest and she had about 5 rogue groups of multiple hairs that were too long.
This was easily fixed by a grandmother who had a pair of scissors and a bit of skill, but it is a disappointing result for a children’s «salon.» Apparently a higher price is justified these days by the business description more so than the quality of work.

I have to disagree with some of the bad reviews. I have been bringing my son here for about a year now. Prior to that, he was getting his hair cut at various grown up salons throughout Portland that cost anywhere from $ 25-​$ 30. They were basically the same cuts that we get at Pigtails & Crewcuts for $ 17. They have fun stuff for kids to play while waiting, the movies are helpful in keeping the kids distracted and I think that is fine that they only offer one movie choice. Heck, take it or leave it kid! I personally have not noticed a frequent turnover of stylists since we have been going. We were in yesterday and a mom was there with her kids and she got her own haircut there as well. I bumped into her in the parking lot and told her that her hair came out great. It easily looked like a $ 60 cut. I have witnessed some really challenging kids having haircuts, so you have to cut these ladies some slack. They are holding sharp scissors and really have to focus on not hurting the child (or themselves) as well as trying to give a precision cut.

Poor service and bad haircut. My daughter was great throughout the cut, but the stylist did a horrible job on her hair and cut her bangs soooo short! Poor daughter looked so silly right before our Christmas vacation home; and all those pictures!

Date Visited: Saturday 6÷30÷12
I think I’m somewhere between Nicole D and Erika H on this. Granted, I thought this experience (a first real haircut at a salon) would go a lot smoother than it did and I was very sad with the outcome. My son, by the way, was almost 18 months old at this time and had a pretty good head of wavy hair.
Pro: The shop appears clean and has the Original Sprout shampoo products that we’ve used. I didn’t look at them closely to see if they had the exact one I think smells heavenly, but they had the products and I felt that was a plus.
Pro: The woman at the counter was friendly though I’ve completely forgotten everything else about her. I just know I wasn’t quickly annoyed or thinking it could be a bad experience.
Pro: They have a cute trainset that little toddlers can play with. Around the trainset are green couches that are good for a few people waiting. I heard the wait was 2 hours earlier in the day and I know many waiting parties would not fit.
Pro: They have cut individual seats for the kids, complete with buckles. I believe we had a bright yellow airplane.
Pro and Con: They have children’s programming. The con of this is that all TVs are linked to the same device, so all kids watch the same program. It would be better if each TV showed a different program for the child getting the haircut.
Pro and Con: The location is away from the craziness at the Streets of Tanasbourne. It’s tucked into the back of the plaza, by REI. One con is that if you don’t know that when you’re looking, you may miss it. I don’t think the logo is very easy to read.
So all that said, there appears to be a lot of pros. Why 3 stars? Immediately after the haircut finished, I thought how great it was that the stylist (Erika) rushed through and didn’t prolong the crying. Our little one cried from the start and though I think it was partly because he was tired and getting over being sick, I’m just not sure. Now when I remember the experience, I didn’t understand why there wasn’t a little more «Hi…how are you?» so that he could get comfortable with something totally new and frightening to him. He doesn’t cry a lot. Afterwards, Erika did blow bubbles and got him to stop crying and be a little more himself. I’m not sure why that wasn’t done beforehand. I guess there are 2 ways to handle a crying toddler… rush through it (that’s fine on a $ 10 haircut) or stop and take a minute to try and stop the crying. I would have preferred Option 2, especially for the ridiculous $ 18 charged. I realize they probably didn’t have enough stylists to keep up with the number of kids that came through (we were so surprised at how many kids kept coming in), but 1) That’s not our issue and 2) Erika herself didn’t take any time to try easing our little one into the experience and we all sorta left a bit traumatized as a result. Oh… if you have such high demand, you may want to look into having appointments!
I think we’ll stick to the clippers for his haircuts. If we try to get it styled again, I guess I’ll look elsewhere.

This place was great! We’ve done the home cut, the Great Clips cut, etc., but this was the best & quickest cut so far — a mini faux fade too. Super cute. The trick seems to be to get the right stylist. One lady butchered the back of this poor kid’s do. Huge gouge out of the back. We got a lady from Cambodia who was really good w/​our 2 ½ yo son (same boy who SCREAMED bloody murder last haircut even with a lollipop & iPad.) She took breaks so he could ‘drive’ the airplane he was sitting in and spin the propeller. Would definitely come back to this same lady.

Over priced and sloppy work twice on all three kids.

This is a great spot for kids. The «chairs» are fire engines, planes, etc. They have movies running and toys to play with. It’s very clean and everyone was very nice.
It’s around back from the main Streets of Tanasbourne mall area so parking is pretty easy.
The only thing I’m not wild about is that they don’t take appointments; it’s a first come /​first served deal. Because of this, we made the trek out there on a weekday so we would be sure to get in and out. And sure enough, we did!
They only have 3 «chairs» for kids so I imagine the wait on the weekends could be long.
Kids get a free toy on the way out, which helps with the extraction process.