Salon Antou in Evanston, IL

Free blow-out for my hair?! I'm there! You see, I have thick, wavy, unmanageable hair - so straightening it becomes SO time consuming. Ugh. But, thanks to a Kerestas promotion, someone else could straighten my hair - FOR FREE. SIgn me up! The salon is super cute - small and intimate with high ceilings. The staff was VERY friendly, although I thought they would be intimidating at first. Shampoo was great as I got a lovely and relaxing scalp massage. Love. Christine did an absolutely wonderful job on my hair. It only took about 30 minutes for the blow-out and my hair looked FAB. Super straight and sleek - with a tiny hint of a curl at the ends. I was super excited about how wonderful it looked! The best part is that I received a $10 gift certificate for my next visit! And they're running promos for 30% off for new clients. Deal, for sure! Can't wait to come back!

I've been going to George Salon for years but left when my favorite hairdresser took some time off. I tried Salon Na Quon based on other yelpers reviews and it wasn't that I was unhappy with Salon Na Quon but I just didn't feel like I got my monies worth plus I didn't get tons of compliments on the color like I'm used to. While I was gone George Salon changed it's name to Salon Lotus and I'm happy to report that Diane, truly the most talented hair artist I've ever been to, is back. I'm half tempted not to mention her by name because I don't want it to be impossible to get in to see her but since I'm a recovering salon-hopper and Diane is the best I've found at both cuts and color I figure I'd better be honest. I've got long hair and I get half-head blonde highlights done (not often enough) and it's not cheap ($130 before tip) but I walk out of the salon and get soooo many compliments that it makes it all worth it. Plus Diane is super cool and easy to talk to so it's slightly less painful to drop that much cash. Oh, speaking of tips, you can now charge tips (before you had to fork over actual cash - who carries actual cash these days?)

i desperately needed a hair cut before a trip to europe; i was seriously approaching side show bob proportions. walked in. got paired up with alexis. walked out looking FINE (not the type, how you doing? i'm fine, the type where one says 'damn, he looks fine'. i don't live in chi anymore but if its possible, i will wait to get a haircut until i come home because alexis + my hair = walking out looking goooood. she's super nice and easy to talk to; its not all awkward or what ev. (the loss of star is not for alexis; i'm just hard pressed to find anything that is as good as it gets. i don't want to be that guy who calls everyone his best friend, you know?)

I went to George Salon because I got a package thing from those guys that sell cards on the streets by approaching random girls and saying, "Wow! Your hair looks great! You'd love this-and-this salon." I promised myself I wouldn't fall for those scammers again, but they convinced me to buy this card because I'd passed by George Salon before and knew it wasn't totally sketchy. But I should've known better. Anyway. When I went into George Salon, I was pleasantly surprised by the clean professional atmosphere and the Keristase and Aveda products. My stylist was Amalia, who was super nice, and I really wanted to trust her with my hair. I had some direction of what I wanted to do, but I really just wanted a stylist to work her magic. So I'm Asian, and I love my hair. It's really easy to handle and take care of, but also requires a certain touch... a lot of times stylists go WAY overboard with the styling and the snipping. Amalia was laughing and chatting with me about how she can do the hair of every ethnicity, no problem... and I believed her. MISTAKE. She got way too into snipping my bangs, and I didn't stop her in time. Now I have these random little wisps floating in my forehead area. And that's not the worst part.... because after all, bangs grow out. Amalia also decided to curl my hair. I complained to her that when I use a curling iron, my curls never stay because my hair is stick-straight. She answers: "Oh, well your curling iron is probably not hot enough!" Simple as that, and she proceeds to throw in some pretty cute curls. So I leave the salon decently satisfied.... but it isn't until the next few days that I notice crazy frizzy patches in my hair!! My hair is naturally sleek, and suddenly there are these bits of hair that are just clearly damaged beyond repair. I don't know how it happened, but my guess is that Amalia's "hot enough" curling iron destroyed my hair. It's been a few weeks, and I was hoping that maybe the frizzy patches would settle down and resolve themselves, but no... I find myself constantly stroking my hair... bewildered by the roughness of random sections. At first I just swore not to go back to George, but now, I think I need to go back just to get these chunks of frizz cut off. And to give the salon a piece of my mind. So BEWARE... DON'T let stylists go crazy with your hair at George, because clearly some of them don't know what they're doing.

I first met master stylist Amalia at George Salon over 5 years ago and was impressed from the beginning with her excellent technique with cutting edge creativity. More importantly, she understands how to work with my hair. She's been away briefly here and there, but I'm happy to see that she is now back. Worth the extra money.