Aveda Institute: Pain is Beauty

My never-ending quest for inexpensive quality hair salons in NYC led me to the Aveda Institute for the fourth time this past Saturday. When I first heard about the Soho spot, it almost sounded too good to be true. Haircuts are $20! Partial highlights are only $40-$50! And they only use Aveda products. How bad could this be? (Well...I tried not to think about that). The catch is that non-licensed students who are attending the Aveda Institute practice their skills on your head.

Each time I go I end up thinking it will be my last. First of all, everything takes at least twice as long as I expect. And the entire experience depends on the student randomly assigned to you. My last visit I had a perfectionist who was so detailed that my haircut and highlights (on only part of my head!) took more than four hours. I fell asleep several times.

Saturday I ended up with a woman who seemed extremely incompetent. A half hour passed while she was trying to get a hold of a color wheel so she could figure out what color highlights to give me. At several points she rested her hand on my face and I had to shut my eyes so her palm wouldn’t touch my open eyeball. And her long pink fingernails made having my hair washed feel like she was sandblasting my scalp. I had faith only because the instructor who supervises all the students did most of the work.

To my surprise, my hair looked great when I escaped three hours later. The highlights were subtle but bright – exactly what I had wanted (see before and after photos). The blowout looked sleek and my hair smelled intoxicating from the Aveda products. The bill came to $46.80. Amazing. With highlights that cheap I have a hard time not going in twice as often...even if the experience is a little short of luxurious. Luckily I can’t justify burning four hours at a hair salon more frequently than every few months.

Bottom Line: $46.80 for partial highlights (3 hours)

Aveda Institute
http://aveda.aveda.com/grow/inst_schools/ny.asp
233 Spring Street (between Sixth Avenue and Varick Street)
212.807.1492