Aveda Institute Portland

It can be trial and error at first but once you find the right person, you’ll end up coming all the time. I found Rachel C. And now she’s going to Dosha in Clackamas. She’s amazing at eyebrows and facials. They are lucky to have her!

I ultimately had a nightmare of a unprofessional experience here and my next call will be to the state attorney general; because they took money for a service and refused to ultimately finish it.
Technically I get 3 colors in my hair. One of them is brown with the slightest hint of purple to give it some depth — instead of auburn/​red because it looks no bueno on me when it fades from red to blonde.
They said they understood that the purple was only to be visible in bright light — very subtle. Not only did I end up with that pulled through so fast that my hair was two different colors, not only was it a very bright, even slightly pinkish purple brown, but the chunks I asked for were invisible. When I came back to have it redone, their floor manager thought it was much more messed up even than I did — and looked directly at the colors that he himself had overseen to be used the previous time. But he made no move to comp the service. Instead, he explained that that days girl would need to dye my hair before he could bleach it to get the purple chunks. I asked him why. Over a period of 10 minutes a small crowd gathered around, because he couldn’t explain it so that me, or the student stylist could understand it. After over 10 minutes of talking, after he suggested that maybe I just shouldn’t get my hair there if I wasn’t prepared to just trust his 25 years of experience, we finally thought we understood it. But once he left, the student no longer did. At that point, when I wasn’t comfortable, she joined him in suggesting that maybe I just shouldn’t get my hair done there.
Also, those who answer the phone there are not trained to ask you if you want anything about the previous service redone — so, for the first time in having my hair done for over 10 years, I wasn’t even scheduled for a haircut. Also, the price was different, even though the first time I had called, they said their price for color was $ 63. I hadn’t initially reacted because $ 71 isn’t that different, and if you’re looking for perfection in this world well, you’ll be disappointed a fair amount of the time.
I thought the experience was ultimately very unprofessional and asked to tell the manager i wanted my original payment refunded. Who told me that they are under no obligation to give my money back because you have to give them an opportunity to fix it. But I wasn’t comfortable doing that, with supposed professionals whose ideal solution was to tell me they didn’t want to.
But after a month and asking three different stylists and finding out that no one would fix it for less than $ 200 — when the only reason I had gone there in the first place was because of loss of income due to an injury from a car accident (bc students are and well should be cheaper), I went back there to give them the chance to. Which they only refused after Id gotten to my car and spent $ 5 on parking — which really if you wanted to be a professional place you would offer to comp anyway. Their reasoning was that complaining that my experience was unprofessional had insulted them. Apparently facts insult some people. I don’t use the kind of language with people in stores that you’re not allowed to use say, in a television show on cable, bc there’s no point and it’s not necessary to what you’re trying to communicate, so that was not part of the problem.
This is ultimately theft, and should be treated as such, and the only reason it often isn’t in such cases is because people are too busy to make reviews like this.

I come here to have my hair done by the amazing Elizabeth Eisenstein. She’s here until March 2016. So get here while she’s cheap! Not only have I been very impressed with the quality of service I have received from Elizabeth, I am very happy with the instructors involvement to ensure perfection. I have curly hair which I am very particular about and the instructors have been very good at listening to my needs and my concerns as well as understanding how I prefer to style my hair. I am a fan of this place. I plan on coming back for facials with my mother next month.

So.. . I decided to give Aveda Institute another chance since it’s been over a year since my last service. I was really hoping my previous bad experiences were flukes and that maybe things had improved. Unfortunately, my experience was even worse this time around. My basic weave took over 4 hours (this is from a student who was graduating in less than a month). I left with my hair looking brassier than when I walked in (I had to tone my hair with stuff from Sally’s), and shitty looking bangs (she didn’t want to cut the length of my hair, only my bangs.. .which took her 3 snips of the scissors but I was still charged for a haircut).
I also saw a lot of unprofessional behavior (students bitching to each about the teachers, talking back to teachers, plus general apathy from students and teachers). Even with a half price coupon, it wasn’t worth my time or $$.

I am so disappointed with my service today at Aveda school. I went in for a shellac manicure and got a disaster on my nails (see picture). It took the girl 45 minutes alone just to get my old shellac off. Then she started doing the color, her hands were shaking and she completely missed the outer edges of my nails. When I put my hands in the uv machine the color came out and one of the nails had wrinkled up. She reached for the nail polish remover with out even asking me and I stopped her and told her I was sorry but I would just let it be warped because it had already taken so long to just get color applied.
At the end when the instructor came over I expressed how I wasn’t happy and he said I could come in later for a redo, when I said no I would just go else where he actually rolled his eyes at me! It was a tad ridiculous.
Once downstairs the gal asked again how it was and once the girl who did my nails walked away I said I’m sorry but I’m really not happy with my service and showed her how terrible they looked. She knocked $ 5 off the price and apologized (the first apology I received for how bad my nails looked after an hour and a half) it should never take that long to get a manicure and I was very disappointed with the unprofessionalism of the teacher.

I’ve gone to Aveda many, many times for various services. In my opinion the best services to get at Aveda schools are the facials and waxing services.
Facials– can be customized based on your skin concerns or what you’re looking for (relaxation, redness). As for waxing, I’ve never had a bad experience. I love blue wax.
Tips:
The tea that they serve is amazing. TRY IT.
Chat with your student. Even if it’s just a little bit, you’ll learn a few things. Find out how far they are in their program. If you really enjoyed your service, book again with them. You can also try to keep it touch after they graduate and do services on their own.
Be conscious of parking and plans after your service. Appointments can often run a lot longer than you’d expect.
Over communicate. You’ll never get what you want unless you speak up.
Be understanding. You’re paying a fraction of the costs. You’re being serviced by students. Be nice!