The Salon Academy in Wilsonville, OR

Love this place! The service I've gotten here has always been top-notch and the people friendly. Absolutely can't beat the prices. I've recommended this place to friends/family. I'll be back for sure :)

I have gotten color, highlights mostly, every three months for about a year and a half now.

A few things I feel they do well include COVID response, professionalism, explaining the process (or what they are doing), and pricing

Students are great, making sure to check in with their instructors prior to beginning any treatment and during when they have questions. Nancy (instructor) is wonderful and seems to really enjoy her job, which seems to be great for the students. Makes for a comfortable environment.

Things I think they could improve upon include... honestly, nothing. They are students so the techniques,  cuts, or color isn't always exactly what I want, but I'm not picky and I love the prices (extremely affordable) plus I highly value education of all kinds... so getting my hair done here really makes sense for me and my family.

We have gotten hair color (many techniques), hair cuts, eyebrow waxing, and we send my mom (in her 60s) for a wash and dry once in a while as a treat, she loves it.  

If you are picky, or have high expectations perhaps this isn't the place for you. BUT If you are flexible and tolerant of a possible mistake made by a student, then  I highly recommend making an appointment here!

They even do waxing, nails, and facials!

I will like to start this off with say that I've been coming here for six years. And I've never had such a horrible experience. The girl that I had doing my hair it was very sweet and wonderful. And I don't blame her for anything that happened because she was new to the floor And I know their students and they make mistakes. However Nancy should have been watching her and what she was doing. I'm going back to what I said I've been going there for years. And I have never not seen an instructor check up on the student. In the past I have always scheduled with very experienced students and the instructor has always checked on them once or twice throughout the process even with them being experienced students. And in my last visit not once did they come up and check on what she was doing to my hair. They decided that they were going to just chitchat the whole entire time and not check up on her while she fried my hair. I had shown them a picture of highlights and the coloring I wanted  and I currently had highlights in my hair when I showed up to the appointment. I told her when I was getting my highlights done that I wanted them closer to the scalp. She said that she could do that and I had spoken to Nancy When the student got the OK to proceed with my appointment. I am so beyond mad that it took me three months to write this review. The pictures I posted a before and after photo

I tried calling for an appointment over and over again and they never answered the phone I called about 4 times In different times and never answered me. The students are nice tho the teachers or whatever are not the best I was getting my nails done and the teacher approached the student doing my nails and told her some mistakes she did somewhere like kinda unprofessional and awkward I only go because Cynthia is nice and I like when she does my nails

I wasn't going to write this review on this platform but the salon academy has taken their reviews down off their Facebook page because of so many negative reviews coming in, but I feel obligated to share my experience with everyone so no one else has to experience this school as a client or student. I started going to the Salon Academy back in June 2020, the reason why is because one of my close friends was a student there and I was helping her get her services. Everything started out okay, until the director of the school Nancy Ferguson decided she had a problem with the student I was seeing. From this point forward everything became a horrible experience, not only for me as the client but also for this student as well. Here are some prime examples, in beauty school you have to provide models to test out on modules that you learn in school. I was going to be a make up model, for the student I arrived on time for my appointment and was the first one there out of the models, I proceeded to wait 20 minutes for the school to be ready to perform the test out on this module, this is when the instructor decided that there was no longer enough room for her whole class to test out and that she was going to exclude this student and me from this experience. I was then asked to leave in front of a whole waiting room and several students With no explanation as of to why or an apology for wasting my time. My friend messaged me letting know how distressed the situation made her and that she was coming home, before realizing Nancy took her purse and personal possessions, locked them in her office, then forced the distressed student to participate, starting 15 plus minutes late working on a random student, and then the instructor was irritated towards her the whole time. Definitely not a safe learning environment.

The next situation that baffled me, was when I was in the MIDDLE of receiving a facial when Nancy walks in again and instructed the student to walk out into the hall with her?? They then came back she informed me my service was over because the student needed to take a lunch.. I still paid for this service. I also later learned that the light therapy service I was paying extra for was not being counted for this student because Nancy had decided they had not yet properly taught the students how to be using this device.. (the student normally receives an extra point for this service as it is an add on.) So even though I was charged for this service, the student was not to receive any credit. This seems very unprofessional and questionable to me as a client.

Lastly, the receptionist Amelia Michaelson was SO unprofessional talking with clients and students about how unorganized she thought Nancy was and much more about how she couldn't stand working for her, etc. She also would talk about very inappropriate things such as paraphernalia with students and so on..

I could share much more on this situation but I will leave it at this. This school does NOT host a positive or supportive environment for their students or clients, and I would never and never will be going back to support this school as long as Nancy Ferguson is apart of this business.

Sincerely,

A concerned Wilsonville community member.