Kakaboka Hair Salon in Queens, NY

I've been a customer here for years after hearing good things and being recommended by a friend. The new location is completely remodeled, more spacious, current, and a big improvement over the old space. Very prompt and personal service: shampoo before and after haircut, and whole process takes less than a a half hour (im a guy with a relatively low maintenance hair style) my stylist, Nahee, does a great job and is up to date on current male hair trends. My previous barbers were solid but more basic, no frills. Ive only gone to traditionally guy-only barbershops before kakaboka and considered hair salons unnecessary for my simple hairstyle. One visit convinced me that it is worth it even for a lifelong barber shop guy. The new location offers added amenities such as teas and a larger sitting/waiting area. I consider this one of the nicest salons in the area and recommend to guys even with "limited" hair styling needs.

On my third visit, for the "Japanese magic straight" I was very DISAPPOINTED. The service was apparently nice at the beginning- they offered coffee/beverage (not sure if this is on the house) in about every 20 minutes, brought various magazines to help me escape my boredom. The entire procedure transpired well BUT when I paid my total of $350 and even left a decent tip, the cashier called me back refused my tip and told me the minimum tip should be 15% of my total (worked out to $52.50) I will admit that I was beyond embarrassed had I not extra money. I'm not upset about the tip amount it's just that NOWHERE it's written that the minimum tip is 15%, I somehow felt like I was targeted and robbed because I don't share their ethnicity, never before was this an issue and it's clearly not my first time there. It would have been ETHICAL to mention to the customer about their tip policy in order to factor in the actual/total cost. I had my credit card on me but how can I trust to use my information there when apparently no one regards the customer beyond the "dollar value" - don't get me wrong they do a pretty amazing job but my personal encounter was that they were completely unprofessional at the time of billing me, not to rub salt on the wound but I observed some unpleasantness when they thought I wouldn't pay the tip and right after "the green dollars" popped I got smiles and giggles more than anything else. I used to enjoy their services but now I'm unsure whether I should ever return or recommend... Again- I'm not upset about the amount of the tip it's just the manner in which I was treated at the end of my visit. It was very impolite and unprofessional.... I bet after reading this review a sign would be posted in regard to tipping, which would make sense.

I went in for a hair cut today at 7pm. There was 3 people working. I was assigned to one stylist who looked like she had no idea what she was doing. I asked for short on the sides and back. But she proceeded to cut almost all of my hair. Now I look like an army recruit. I specifically told her not too short on the top. But after the cut was when she asked me about the length of my hair in which i replied too short. She responded with laughter. Needless to say I am very unsatisfied and will go in again tomorrow just to shave my head.

Jane is fantastic. I love going to her for beautiful pin-straight hair. She is very sweet and lovely. This hair salon even gives you fresh, cold water with ice in a mason jar. I love going here to pamper myself!

I went here without much expectations nor fear since one of my friends had recommended it. I went with her stylist: Jisun. Despite the fact that i had made an appt to see her, she was working on another customer the whole time and coming back to be in between rolling the other customers' hair and forth. She worked on my hair for about 15 min of me sitting there for over an hour and a half. Then she proclaimed that she was done cutting my hair despite it looking extremely choppy and unkempt when all I asked was for a neat trim, and proceeded to have her assistant take longer than her entire time of cutting my hair to dry and straighten it. I would have asked to fix the mess, but I didn't wanna sit there waiting for another 2 hours waiting for her to go back and forth with my hair. A waste of time and money.