Salon 02

One word: Shifa!
I absolutely love the haircut she just gave me! I asked her to help me choose my cut, and she knew precisely what would look good for me based on the shape of my face. She is so sweet. I will definitely be coming back to her again.

Stephen Stoll has been coloring my hair now for about 4 years, he is the best because he listens! He makes my dulling blonde locks look like they did in 3^rd grade — totally natural. And he is really the nicest guy.
The salon is very peaceful and the reclining shampoo experience is lovely. King, the assistant who also blew out my hair (no charge), did a wonderful job, it looked perfect after I slept on it.

I have been going to Salon 02 close to every four weeks for color and cut for more than four years. I originally found the salon near my office but I am now long gone from that neighborhood but keep going back. Hiroshi, the owner, is wonderful — as a professional and as a person. I am constantly being complimented on my hair. He’s created a look for me that is both modern and elegant. His salon and his demeanor are very zen, which I love. And he hires friendly and very attentive staff. FIve stars from me!

Marko does amazing haircuts and Lee is a stellar colorist. Their work is outstanding. I highly recommend them. You won’t be disappointed.

This review is only for the waxing:
Yes they double dip. It’s unhygienic.
I bought the Groupon and went all three times and deep down hoped somebody had complained before I went for my last one, but it never changed. She double, triple, and quadruple dips every time. If I wasn’t hurting for money I wouldn’t have gone back after the first because I knew after the first wax that it wasn’t that great.
And the only time the woman (I’m assuming her name is Debby?) smiles at me is afterwards when I tip her. Otherwise, she seems to be pretty unhappy about her job and has a cold energy.
I’d say go elsewhere.

I have mixed feelings about this place. I also got the Brazilian wax deal, and tried one a few weeks ago. But I’m hesitant to go back to get the 2^nd & 3^rd…
The waxing itself was great, the facilities were clean enough. Debbie was extremely nice, had good technique and was professional. My only concern was that she double-​dipped the stick (granted it’s a new one per customer), but I am pretty sure they don’t use a new pot of wax per customer.
It might just be me being too picky… but a hygienic wax is very important to me! I just felt really uncomfortable about it– crossing my fingers that I did not contract any diseases.
I am glad I tried this place out though– I would come back… maybe for something else besides a wax.

For some reason, the place I have been going for waxing for months hasn’t been doing as good of a job lately — I would leave with tons of hairs still remaining and it would grow back really fast. So I decided to go to Salon O2 because I got a Groupon for 3 brazilian waxes from them and it was a great deal. I’ve read some mixed reviews here but I had a very good experience. The salon itself was really nice, although I have to admit the waxing room could use some better ambiance. It’s as if the waxing room was an afterthought from the rest of the salon, because it’s a stark white exposed pipes industrial room whereas the rest of the salon is well appointed. However that didn’t have any impact on the quality of the waxing I got which was very good. Debbie was very nice and very thorough — brazilian waxes are a very… intimate… experience so it’s important that the waxer makes you feel at ease. I will definitely be going back there.

I bought a groupon here and it was the worst mistake! Completely unsanitary! They use the same wax for everyone and DOUBLE DIP the same stick for Brazilian waxes. DISGUSTING! When i spoke up about this to Debbie, she seemed infuriated that I made her use a different dipping stick every time she put it in the wax. This is the first time that i have had to pay additional tax when I went there every time for my 3 waxing sessions. The waxer Debbie was not good at her job at all. Extremely painful and she was so bad that she spent just as much time plucking as waxing (for a Brazilian!). DO NOT GO HERE!

I bought a $ 45 groupon package deal and I’ve so far used 2 out of the 3 brazilian waxes and I’ve so far had a great experience. Debbie makes sure that you’re comfortable the entire time. She does an incredible job with catching every hair. she even uses a tweezer to pluck the strays afterward. Love this place, especially for $ 15 a pop.

Got a brazilian wax
Pros
— wears gloves
— on time
— clean room
— nice receptionist
— tweeze stray hair afterwards
— relatively clean
Cons
— 1 stick, 20 dips on same bowl of hot wax, in other words double dipping
— 20 painful pulls on 3 sheets of waxing paper. Other places normally do bigger areas but only has about 10 pulls.
— waxer stood there watching me while I undress and dress in the room which also has a wall that’s all mirrors. Was sort of uncomfortable. Like my other place where waxer leaves the room, I undress, cover myself with a sheet of paper, then she comes in, after waxing she also leaves the room for me to get dress.
— no coaching of taking a breath in and release when she pulls and no pulling of my skin tight to make it less painful
— no advise on what to do after the treatment such as no body scrub for the next 24 hours

Meh is right. This place was boring and the waxing room is sort of grungy and awful. Waxer was «fine» in that she wasn’t abusive but she barely recognized I was there. If I hadnt bought it for ¹⁄₃ the price on Groupon I would be super bummed. I’ve been going to Thread for a year and literally walk out smiling (from a brazilian). Go there instead.

Hiroshi is a Master hair stylist!
I have very fine, thin hair, and Hiroshi’s hand just transforms my limp straight hair into voluminous textured sexy layers that remind my of flames of fire… seriously it sounds silly but the layers and style of cut gives natural wave and texture that look like fire. i love the V shape it creates in the back. i walk out feeling so good about the cut, but what’s even better is that his cut is so well executed that when my hair grows it looks even more amazing, that i don’t want to get it cut. go see Hiroshi for his cut, it’s totally worth every penny!
I would recommend him to anyone looking for gorgeous sexy layers.

I got a Brazilian wax. I survived, Debbie was really nice and made me feel comfortable. I can’t really ask for too much more, place was clean and I felt welcome. They actually took me earlier than my appointment when I asked.
No complaints :)

I totally agree with Meow Mix… the owner was an a@#$…he was training a lady who was blow drying my hair. She really didn’t know what she was doing but she was very polite.
I almost walked out when the owner came out to analyze my hair. He was very rude.

Went Tuesday for the hair modeling cut around lunch time, not crowded at all, and the experienced owner oversees haircuts very meticulously. Got a great haircut, great service, and really calm atmosphere. $ 35.00 for a haircut! Affordable!

I don’t know how I exactly feel about the salon but maybe it has to do more with the stylist that I had. I went there for a hair coloring and just wanted to lighten my hair a notch so it was more of an ashy brown vs. a reddish brown. The stylist I got was very friendly and we had good conversation but the results of my hair were quite disappointing if not horrible. It came out way too light and looked practically orange. Perhaps bleach had been in my hair for too long, but the results were definitely nowhere near to what I was envisioning. I haven’t ventured back to this place again because of this, but then it really has to do with the stylist who probably just didn’t know how to work with my hair. Otherwise, the place is very nice, clean, spacious and the staff at the front and the back area are friendly.

Katherine did a wonderful angled bob cut on my tight curly tresses and was great blow-​drying it pin straight. She’s very funny and light and makes the time pass by very fast. Hiroshi is always around the salon giving pointers to the staff so it feels like he is cutting your hair. Don’t be put off by his quietness, the man is quite knowledgeable about hair and how each strand will react to cuts/​colors over time.

Ami is consistently awesome. Out of 10 haircuts, every one of them looked great both the day of the cut and all the way through to my next cut. And for $ 90, I don’t have to worry about whether I’ll have to wait an extra month to get my hair done.
The owner Hiroshi has done 3 Japanese straightenings for me – which at that price, obviously means I’m quite happy.
Debbie is very good for waxing, though I wish they had different product for hyper-​sensitive skin.
Everyone else there is friendly and professional, from the receptionist to the shampooers.

I too was led here based on CitySearch reviews. I figured I would pay the extra money for piece of mind and a guaranteed good haircut, so I booked an appointment with the owner and master stylist, Hiroshi. Figured he would do a fabulous job and I would strut out of salon in slow motion, tossing my shiny hair and letting blowing in the wind. WRONG.
Don’t know if this man was on some kind of crazy ego trip or something, but he definitely did not respect my opinions about my own hair and how I think it should look like. Lots of forceful suggestions and basically telling me that the existing hairstyle I had and the haircut I wanted would be fugly.
I went back and forth a little bit in my head and compromised with him on a cut that we both sort of agreed on. I should trust the expert, right? After he finished Edward Scissoring my head (that’s seriously what it felt like) for literally less than 10 minutes, he had the same guy who shampooed my hair give me a blowout, much to my disappointment. The shampoo guy was a sweetheart, but he just didn’t have much skill when it came to styling hair. At several points he was lingering with the hair dryer a little too long and a little too close on the same spots… to the point that I smelled my own hair burning and saw a bit of smoke rising.
For the money I paid, I was hoping Hiroshi would have done the styling. When all was said and done, I was horrifed to see that the back of my head was pretty choppy, with layers that looked almost blunt cut. The tapered V-​shape back that he was aiming for looked more like a crooked W. My hair looked borderline frizzy, with no indication that it was just professionally blown out. I went home and washed and restyled my hair, hoping it was the crappy blowout that made it look like that. No luck. I felt like an idiot paying all that money to get my hair butchered. This happened in 2007 and I have never been back.

I don’t think I would have gone here if I hadn’t followed my awesome stylist, Betina, over from Parlor in the East Village. But, people make changes, and sometimes you do, too. I really like the location since it’s a pretty short walk from my place, and apparently they do free bang trims, which I have yet to take advantage of.