Happy Salon & Spa

This salon is welcoming, professional, and offers great quality without astronomical prices! I had my first appointment with Kasey, and she was wonderful. I have curly hair and struggle with finding stylists who truly know how to work with my hair. Kasey talked me through her plan for my hair, asked for my input, and she was a joy to talk with the whole time. The rest of the staff was equally as welcoming. Between the team and the environment in a cool, older house, I will definitely be back.

I was lucky to discover Happy Salon, and Sonya Arrambide-​Maxwell, when I first moved to Austin in August, 2011. Sonya is hands down the best colorist and stylist I’ve ever met… and I’ve lived all over the country so I have a lot to compare her with. Besides her hair talents, Sonya is such a joy to spend time with when I’m in her chair. The salon itself radiates warm, cozy, artistic, healing energy, and has lovely rotating art exhibits. I’ve just moved to the East Coast and I’m actually contemplating flying back to Austin for occasional hair appointments! I’m going to miss my regular visits to Happy Salon.

Happy people attract happy people! This place is adorable, eclectic and with it being located in a big old yellow house off W 6^th it truly feels like a happy home. I highly recommend Happy Salon to anyone who wants quality service with quality products (Aveda) in a mellow environment.

Kasey is awesome! I am a platinum blonde and my color was perfected. I went in to see Kendal and was switched to Kasey so I can honestly say all the girls there are amazing. Complimentary hot tea & hand massages… Fantastic hair… Great afternoon.

I have been coloring my hair for quite some time and I have been to numerous salons. This one by far is the best. The Aveda products they use are amazing and the staff is always professional. I have blonde hair and I see Kendall to color it and she has done an incredible job. I am very picky about the shade of blonde and had the color botched at other salons and Kendall colors it exactly how I want it to be. I could not be more pleased with the results. She also can do a great cut!

Today is another great hair day! Brittany Baranowski has been coloring my hair for easily 5 years and cutting it for about 2. Her work is beautiful. I feel pretty and younger every time I see her. We’re growing my curly hair out and she’s helped me finally get it past my shoulders. And my color– there’s NO color line as beautiful as Aveda.
And– as a 20 year Aveda girl– I know my Aveda services! Megan Solonika has done 3 facials for me so far. She is my FAVORITE Aveda esthetician. She gives a flawless Aveda facial– every movement is perfect– meeting Aveda’s protocols 100%. Great hands, great recommendations– see Megan and be Happy!

Kat is the only person I will let cut and color my hair! She’s talented and professional and I always get compliments on my hair.

Happy really fits this business. The staff is always friendly. My stylists Kat and Sonya always check with me to make sure I am truly satisfied with the services provided. They make thoughtful suggestions about my my hair care and styling to bring out the most beautiful outcomes. I so love Happy! I would recommend this salon to anyone who wants truly awesome hair!

FANTASTIC salon and the sweetest staff!
I had the pleasure of being scheduled with Megan for a simple lip and eyebrow wax. She was so professional, kind and easy to talk to — if you can imagine easily talking while getting waxed! She was gentle with my skin and very knowledgeable about care.
ADORE HER! Favorite aesthetician so far — she definitely made me a forever customer.
Will absolutely be back!

I am a return customer at Happy Salon & Spa – just got a great haircut and deep conditioning treatment. My stylist was attentive and friendly (as all of my stylists there have been). She was willing to adjust the cut of my hair by mere millimeters to get it just right and took her time drying it and styling it to look very nice! I love the Aveda products they use and will certainly be returning.

My hairstylist Jade was absolutely adorable and super friendly. She did an amazing job on my hair even though I gave her nothing to go off of.
Jade also gave me a rundown of everything she used on my hair and how it would help, and showed me how to use certain products.
I will definitely be going back to her for my next cut, and maybe even a color. Give her a try!

I just happened to wander in to Happy today to hopefully make an appointment with Brittany. She came highly recommended by a friend for rockin’ some red hair. Happily, she had an opening today! Lucky me! A) her hair is fabulous B) she really took the time to gather what shade I was after C) she is now the ONLY colorist I will see in Austin. I haven’t loved my hair this much in a long time. She got it right on the first visit, not to mention she is an awesome human. Seriously, make your appointment today. Happy made me a happy girl today.

I’m using hair products that they recommended and am very satisfied.
My hair has never looked so good … and healthy looking too!
They really know their stuff & carry the highest quality products.
I’m sold on the Happy Salon!

Unhappy about Happy Salon.
My first visit for an eyebrow was because of a Belly campaign and I loved it! Chic location and attentive service (except for the girl at the front, it seemed like I was ruining her day somehow). After the wax, they even put eyebrow make up on to reduce the redness and fill in my brows. Awesome.
My 2^nd visit. Mediocre at best. Again the girl at the front desk seemed like I was keeping her from something. I made an appointment and still had to wait 10 – 15 min. No touchups afterward. Just a normal wax, but it wasn’t bad.
My 3^rd visit. Terrible. AGAIN, the girl at the front seems like I’m interrupting her. I am a walk-​in this time since i had to wait last time — even worse mistake. The front girl says that she has to check with technician, but never moves and plays on her iphone instead. I’m literally left for nearly 15 min before I’m informed that there’s another Brow Wax in front of me… which I equate to another 15 – 20 min. If I had that information in the beginning, I wouldn’t have wasted my original 15 minutes.
My advice. Get a new front desk girl — I get it that you’re hip and chic, but a nice personality goes a long way. Communicate internally so you don’t piss off your customers — our time is valuable too. And overall, make the customer feel like you want us there.

I’m so happy I decided to try this place! Best haircut I’ve ever had, Lauren is awesome :)

So I get this email that says this Saturday only take $ 40 off any regularly priced service. I’m always looking for a new stylist and I used to come here when it was Bradz, so I thought I would give it a try. The search will continue.
I’m guessing when they send out these emails it is to help bring in new customers or help encourage people who haven’t been there in a while to come back. To me this means putting your best foot forward and making an effort to impress. To my stylist it meant I was never going to return so get me out of there in as little amount of time possible, with as little effort as possible. The website states you are supposed to get a scalp massage. None for me. I did get what my stylist called a hand «massage» which was basically her rubbing some lotion in my hands for 15 seconds. She didn’t even wet my hair all the way before shampooing it. Rush, rush, rush. My haircut took about 3 mins, then she blew it out, then cut again, all the while telling me about the products. Felt more like a sales pitch then a relaxing hair cut. The haircut itself isn’t bad. It isn’t great either. I paid $ 25 for it and that is all it was worth. It certainly would not have been worth $ 65 and if I had paid regular price I would have been really pissed about it. As it was, well, I got an ok haircut and at an ok price. I guess I was expecting too much.
Happy Salon did not make me very happy!

I found this place via Belly and glad I gave it a try! Trish does an amazing job at waxing my brows each time. She’s not only fast, but thorough as well. She even gave me a quick make up touch up to cover up any redness after, which was great as I was headed out to an event after. This is now my go to waxing spot and likely going to try some of the spa services as well.

Since I last reviewed Happy, I have been impressed over and over with the changes and additions to the salon.
Let me first recommend Trish, the goddess of skin. I’ve had my brows waxed by Trish many times over the past year or so, but I just had my first facial with her and will no longer DREAD facials.
Trish is gentle, relaxing and very practical when it comes to skin care. She doesn’t use that death tool when doing extractions and if you’ve ever had a facial, you know what I’m talking about. She uses a technique that is not painful and doesn’t irritate my skin like the typical facial.
She’s not the type to up-​sell you with tons of products — she tries to find ways to use the products you have with little tweeks to optimize your skin care. She is very knowledgeable about skin and it’s sometimes moody temperament and has given me tips like, «if you dry your skin out with acne wash, your skin will start to produce excess oil to compensate which will make you dry out more. Just use the acne wash once a day.» Makes perfect sense.
The addition of Mary to the team has added 5-​stars of hair fabulousness. She recently gave me one of the best blow outs of my life and perfectly executed my best friend’s dream look for her wedding.
Kay is still reinventing the salon all the time and will always be my hair’s boss. Kat is awesome and even manages to tame my husbands curly hair into a perfectly professional coif.
Obviously, I can’t say enough about how much I love Happy. One final shout out to Morgan at the front desk who always brightens my day with her humor, kindness, and smiling face!

I purchased a Groupon for a haircut, gloss and facial for a great price and I have been incredibly happy with all of my services! They were so great to let me split up the services into two separate visits (since I have a little one, hard to get away for long chunks of time).
I intend on updating this post with the names of all the ladies that have helped me out there because I got a great haircut and gloss, and shortly after, decided to have them do my wedding hair and makeup. My updo was so beautiful it brought me to tears (I was quite stressed about the hair).
Most recently, I (sadly) had my last treatment, it was an AWESOME facial by Tricia. It honestly felt like it went on for longer than an hour! She had a great demeanor (would chat when I’d start or be quiet when I would so I could really relax). She was very knowledgeable, gave a FANTASTIC facial massage and I thought was very thorough with extractions. I loved the aromatherapy and the Aveda products used.
The spa itself is so cute, love the old house with wood floors. I’d love to give them my business every couple of months, but will probably book with their «new talent» for haircuts which are $ 30 and more in my price range and I «friended» them on Facebook because I was told they have facial specials from time to time.

This place makes you feel like you’re in your cool beauty maven friend’s just hanging out and making yourself pretty. The location downtown is very convenient, while the building itself is very quaint and cute. Everything is very clean and stylish and the girls that work there are super-​friendly. The Aveda products they use make the whole place smell amazing and serene.
I came to use a groupon for a facial and a haircut and was satisfied with both. It was my first time getting a facial, and I left feeling amazing. Not sure if I can keep doing them for $ 85 a pop but if I ever marry a millionaire, they will definitely see me more often.
After the facial, I got quick scalp massage and shampoo, and then the cutting began. I just wanted a trim, so there wasn’t much you could have messed up, but the end result was quite great-​my hair seemed more sharp-​looking than many other stylists I’ve gotten trims from. The stylist gave me advice for growing my hair out and products that could help with dryness, and then even gave me a free makeup touchup at the end! It was two hours of female bliss.
The prices are bit higher than what I’m used to, but I definitely think that this place is worth it. When I went there on Saturday afternoon, there was almost no one else there, which was great for just relaxing and taking a break.