Sax Hair Design - Central Dunedin

Resubmitting my review as it seems to not appear + the appalling response from owner. I thought a lot about whether or not to write a review, but given my final results at sax, I thought it necessary to share my experience, because of the money I spent and the results that I got. As a first-timer in all things blonde, I went in with very positive thoughts after reviewing multiple places around Dunedin and deciding to go with Sax. They seemed to care a lot about their work and their clients, and their work of Facebook and Instagram looked very pleasing and close to the quality of hair colouring I wanted. I asked for a balayage, not overly blonde, but nice and natural looking blended through my dark brown hair. I was told I would get a consultation to decide exactly what I wanted. However, after my arrival, I waited 2 hours before any work was done to my hair (except thinning which took all of 10 minutes), but I did not complain, because delays happen in these kind of businesses and I saw it worth the wait because I trusted the results will be worth it. My consultation turned out to be a 30sec chat of ‘what are you after?’ which seemed hardly like a ‘consultation’, but I was happy to get started. After the next 3ish hours, my hair looked nothing close to what I wanted. Still, I listened to their advice of using the purple shampoo which I was told will give me the desired final results. I could obviously see that it was nothing like what I wanted, but I decided to give it a chance. A few days later, clearly having seen no change, i went back and asked for them to fix my hair because it was everything I feared - blotchy, streaked and orange-looking. They agreed to fix it for me which I was very happy about, again letting them do what they thought was right to fix it. The second time around, I had more blonde streaks put into my hair, making my hair very blonde and nothing like a balayage. The result is very bad. They didn’t even dry and style it in the end to see if what they had done had actually fixed the problem, which I expected from someone who cares about what they’re doing. At this point I had given up in their ability to do what I had envisioned and left. However, I am very very unhappy with the result, I have had to spend more money on top of what I already spent to fix it at home. If I wanted to have a home-done hair do, I would’ve done it myself. I trusted people who I believed were professionals and left with an amateur-looking hair do which I am very upset about, especially since I had saved up and planned this for a while, as it was my first time ever properly dying my hair. I feel that there should be some kind of compensation because of the time, money and after-care that i’ve had to do to make my hair look somewhat ok. I really tried to be positive and gave them every chance to fix it but at this stage, I can definitely say that if you want a balayage, this is not the place to go. Photos show: picture of the first try (curled) - wrong colour, greenish indoors and too warm in natural light, patchy and only decent-looking when curled, picture of the second try (straight) - to much of the hair is bleached and the colour is very warm and orange-looking

Natalie is super gorgeous, Love her vibe, love her honesty and love her super experienced hair colours,cuts, advice and ideas, truly worth the visit x

Best hair extensions I’ve ever had, they look so natural and the hair feels amazing. Can’t recommend Natalie enough!

Very friendly team and amazing service! Natalie is a very talented hair stylist, great atmosphere and super happy with my haircut!

Natalie and her team are great, Nat is an amazing stylist and I loved my beautiful long extensions cannot wait to get more!!

Nat and her team have outdone themselves again. Love my new Refreshed colour.

Nat went above and beyond to fix my damaged hair from a previous salon. We waited till my hair was healthy then added extensions. She is kind, caring and lovely to be around with happy vibes. Nat really cares about people’s hair and it shows in her work. She is amazing! Highly recommend

Would definitely go back, I myself like others are always a little nervous about getting my hair done and different salons but i walked away really happy with my haircut, felt great and healthy again from a long overdue cut, Nat made sure it was clear what I wanted done and was great to chat with :).