Phoenix Rising Salon

Cramped, hot quarters and blaring music. Not restful.

I saw Kayla on Tuesday 5÷24÷16 for color and cut. She is very young, 24 years old, but very talented and an old soul! She is very sweet and really listens to what you want. I liked how my hair came out. The only issue was that my scalp and sides of my forehead was really red with hairdye and it took two days to get it off. Otherwise, Kayla is a true gem. Very talented for her young age. The salon itself is a bit hard to get to and it’s really small and has a million internal doors. It had a strange layout where the bathroom door was in the middle of a wall that led to a hall with three other doors.

Got a balayage done by Farrah! She was amazing. She gave me expert advise and an amazing price! My color looks so natural and my lob is cut to perfection! I highly recommend her!

Cynthia has been styling my hair, as well as my husband’s for almost 6 years. A family friend recommended Cynthia when we first moved to the Bay Area from NYC. She is fantastic! Not only does she know how to style curly hair, she is an expert colorist and manages to cover all of my grays! She’s also great with the guys. She handles my husband well and worked with him over a few hair cuts to get him looking hip and fresh again.
Cynthia is also a genuinely wonderful human being. She is thoughtful and kind and so easy to talk to. I recommend her 100%!
The salon is comfortable and the staff always offer tea or water. Everyone is friendly and welcoming and I look forward to getting some much needed «me» time!

LOVE this salon and LOVE Cynthia. She is a master of her profession and always gives me a no fuss, blow dry and go, looks fabulous haircut. She is absolutely brilliant at color and highlighting. Whatever you want she can do it! Contemporary, savvy or edgy and she will make it happen. I have been going to her over 3 years and have never had to wait for my appointment. She is prompt and reliable and in my world that means a lot as I have a busy schedule. She also has a great friendly personality and is a good soul. I recommend her highly and am so grateful I found her!

Cynthia is an amazing hair stylist. I moved to this area over three years ago and struggled at first to find someone to take care of the worries of what to do with my hair. I’m a guy who appreciates attention to detail and the little things that ahe does to make my experience fabulous every time. I can only ahare my point of view as a man who decided going to Super Cuts wasn’t for me anymore. If you want to be taken care of by someone who really listens and cares for you as a person you owe it to yourself to go aee Cynthia Black.

Cynthia, the salon owner, reached out to me after my bad experience with another hairdresser at Phoenix Rising. Cynthia offered to fix my hair free of charge and that she did! She assessed my hair, agreed with my disappointment, and gave me a gorgeous cut. She’s also a great listener and understood my style without a belabored explanation. She «got» me. After sitting in Cynthia’s chair, I left the salon with the experience I’d been seeking: a professional, refreshing cut, a relaxing wash with quality products, and a blowout/​style that made me feel glamorous (but not overdone!). Cynthia is clearly a master stylist who possess that fine mix of intuition and skill. Beyond that, she’s a lovely person and I’m glad that my initial bad experience brought me to her chair. I’m so glad to have found a great hairdresser. I’ll definitely be back to see her. Thanks, Cynthia!

Cynthia is a master stylist and owner of Phoenix Rising. She takes great care in getting the cut and style you want. She is attentive to what I’m looking for, but also provides feedback and suggests how to make the chosen style custom to your face. Before my first cut with her, Cynthia asked me what I wanted over the phone. At my first appointment, she showed me multiple pictures that fit the description of the short edgy style I wanted.
She has a great eye and is a (hair) perfectionist– what I want in a stylist.
I’ve felt comfortable every time I sit in her chair, and the added bonus is that she is a warm and fun soul to chat with. I’ve loved and received multiple compliments on the cuts I’ve received from her.
She also asked a co-​worker if I could get inexpensive hair-​cuts for my two little girls when I told her that I was thinking of taking them to supercuts. Cynthia disapproved of my plan and got me the same supercut pricing for my kids at her salon for me. She hooked it up.
I’m the March 24, 2016 pics of the short asymmetrical cut.

My hair needed so much TLC and maintenance, I had been neglecting it for years and years on. A close friend of mine referred me to Cynthia at Phoenix Rising and knowing my hectic schedule decided to contact her personally on my behalf. The next morning I get a call from one of the employees at the salon to schedule an appointment with Cynthia… (WOW how convenient) I was able to get my foot in for a consultation the following day…
Met Cynthia for the first time and let me tell you, that was the best decision I think I’ve ever made for my hair because she is absolutely fabulous! (If I can give her 20 Stars I would)
She is friendly, personable, and very good at what she does. Not only did she listen to what I wanted, she was able to deliver and educate me step by step on what she is performing, the type of damage I had, from what source it came upon and what I needed to proceed with.
I briefly explained what I wanted my hair to look, feel, and shine like and WAAAAALLLAAAH* just like that my hair turned out better than I expected, and I am definitely looking forward to coming back again and letting her work her magic on my hair. I love what she did, and really appreciate the time that she took to make sure that my hair came out exactly like I had asked. I am in love with my hair! My hair and I have you to thank, Cynthia :)
What I had done:
Color correction from un-​even bleached blonde to new champagne blonde…

This Unilocal review goes out to Trinh.
This is my 2^nd time ever getting my hair done by a professional. Trinh has done an absolutely amazing job on my hair. I showed her a picture of how I wanted my hair to be done and the outcome was very close! My hair does not feel shaggy or brassy due to the bleach and dye, instead it feels light weight and soft!!!
Thanks to my girl Erica for referring me to such a awesome hairstylist!
She also did my cousins hair as well and the process took us a total of 4.5 hours. The wait was def worth it. We will def be back!

This was my first time at this salon and I will definitely be coming back! Farrah was my stylist for a cut and color. I was having a mini hair crisis and she listened and helped me with a solution I am happy with. Farrah has a great energy and you can tell that she loves what she does. I purchased a groupon which was at a very good price. The salon itself is nice and has a great vibe to it.

Called this salon on a whim since they get excellent reviews for all of their stylists and my current stylist ONLY does color, so I was casually «shopping around». Got an appointment same-​day with Naomi, who is new to the salon. Naomi has been in the biz a long time, and it shows! She gave me exactly what I described, creamy blonde balayage and a haircut. My hair can be a little tricky sometimes, and lightening it often goes the brassy route for my first time with a new stylist. This is why I’m super loyal to colorists when I find good ones. Not a brassy tone to be found; my color is amazing and looks natural. She even went the extra mile and ran to pout coins in my parking meter when I had foils in my hair– so thoughtful!

YAY, Kayla! On a whim, I bought a Groupon for a haircut and partial highlight with Kayla. From the moment I walked into Phoenix Rising, I felt pampered, valued, and well-​cared for by Kayla and the whole team. I arrived and was promptly greeted with warm smiles and several offers of tea. Less than 5-​minutes after I arrived, Kayla had me sitting in her stylist chair, patiently listening as I listed all of the reasons my hair sucks (transitioning from a short haircut to long, dark red color that never highlights well). Kayla responded warmly and with confidence. She was one of the few stylists that I’ve ever met who didn’t seem overwhelmed by my thick, frizzy, red hair. Instead she seemed excited about my desire to add blonde highlights… even suggesting the perfect shade for my eyes and skin tone.
She was sweet, considerate, and (above all) did a GREAT job. The blond looks great, the frizz is tamed, and she even gave me some great tips to keep my hair looking good until my next appointment.
I highly recommend Phoenix Rising, both for Kayla’s skills and the excellent customer service. It was a perfect salon experience! :)

I bought a Groupon for a haircut with Irene and couldn’t be more satisfied. I arrived a few minutes after 5pm and Irene was welcoming & gracious. Irene’s warm way of making me feel at ease enabled me to actually take the plunge for a little sidecut that was just small enough to cover for work. She patiently worked with me to section of various shapes for the sidecut to make sure I was satisfied and secure with taking this small plunge.
At the end, she styled my hair to accentuate the side cut look so that I could imagine what it would look like when I went «all the way» (shaved off a larger section)! When I looked at the time, almost 1.5 hrs had passed (easily, especially with the fun and enlightening conversation we had); I was utterly amazed at Irene’s patience and care given to the best work/​experience for a client. I highly recommend Irene and will definitely be going back to her for my next trim.

Last night, I was feeling a bit impulsive to change up my look a little and decided to call up Phoenix Rising Salon. I called to set up an appointment with Irene Avelar (after seeing an offer on Groupon), but I was told that she was busy at that moment. I left my name and number with the stylist who had picked up the phone and figured Irene would call back after work.
However within minutes, Irene called back and we set up an appointment for this morning, despite the fact that she was not supposed to work today at all. I was super surprised and delighted that she was willing to set aside some time and take in a new client right away, because usually, people do book appointments days or weeks in advance.
She arrived right at my appointment time. We talked through what I wanted to do with my cut and had her input on what color highlights I would be getting. She conjured up a nice mix of caramel and auburn highlights for my plain black hair that turned out absolutely beautifully — subtle and natural looking, but added some color which is exactly what I had hoped for! Needless to mention, she evened out my whacky layers beautifully.
I had an overall A+ experience at Phoenix Rising Salon with Irene. She whipped up some green tea for us, brought out some magazines while my foils settled in, and I got to know her quite well as she is an amazingly humble, grounded, and aspiring person to chat it up with. I’m already excited for our next session.
Do set up an appointment with Irene if you’re looking to spice up your look! She also does hair and make up for all occasions.

Found out about Phoenix Rising through a Groupon deal for a cut and style with Kayla. I had no problems booking an appointment on fairly short notice: I literally bought the Groupon the Monday of, and crossed my fingers when calling in on Wednesday hoping to make an appointment soonish, and lo and behold! Kayla was able to fit me in that Friday morning. Parking was a little bit of a puzzle for me because the salon was on the face of a rather busy but small-​ish street so I ended up roaming some of the nearby side streets until I found metered parking.
Kayla was super sweet and really listened to what I wanted out of my haircut. I essentially wanted to just clean up all my split ends from all the sun damage and maybe add a little flair in (but nothing crazy because I’m super lazy when it comes to work mornings). Kayla suggested taking off and inch to and inch ‘n a half and adding in a few extra layers. To my pleasant surprise, she actually stuck to it and didn’t hack off anything more than 2 inches at the max. The layers turned out beautifully, and Kayla took extra care in giving me a nice blowout at the end to really highlight the new feathery layers she added. She also made sure to do that diagonal upward cut so the layers didn’t have that super chunky I-​obviously-​just-​got-​a-​haircut type deal. I really appreciated that because I already have thick hair, and a lot of it, so it really doesn’t need any help being blunt and heavy.
Very happy with my cut! Will definitely return next time.

SO I have followed Trinh here through now 3 salons over the years– she’s that good. Very good at what she does, very nice person, very gentle human being. I’d recommend her to anybody out there, she’ll take care of you quick and for a great price.
This place is great too, very festive interior, comfy chairs and always someone will ask if you’d like any kind of beverage as soon as you get in the door.

Not impressed. Came in for a wash, deep conditioning and blow dry– style with John Yates.
After getting my hair cut at a different place and got a blow dry style, I realized how cute my hair looks when blown out. The lady who did it for me last time is out of town so I went on groupon to find someone else. Of course, I came across this great deal and decided «how hard could a wash, condition and style be?»
First, I give 2 stars because I did enjoy the brief head massage when he shampooed my hair. But my hair still feels like it has conditioner left in it– as we speak. The style has already fallen flat and whatever styling he could do with my bangs, is no longer. This sucks… Now I have to find someone else to do my hair and spend more money. I’m irritated. It’s my bday and all I wanted was perfectly blown out hair and bangs on fleek. Is that too much to ask for?!
#done
All in all… I will not be recommending him to my friends, family, co-​workers, etc. and to spare any awkward shade, I won’t be returning here to see another stylist.

I totally recommend Trinh!
It was my 1^st time in here and I was pretty nervous of unknown but Trinh stepped up like a pro and created a masterpiece out of my hair! Trinh is a very passionate hairstylist and also very nice and friendly. She also gave me a few helpful tips for my type of hair which I appreciated a lot. Thank you!

I LOVE MY NEW HAIR AND BANGS!
Seriously Trinh did such an amazing job. I think this may be the best first haircut I have ever had with someone. She was friendly, listened to everything I had to say and then explained to me in detail what she was going to do to achieve the look I wanted. I was really nervous to cut bangs and she was really understanding of that too. She was confident and fast but also very careful to make sure I was aware of what she was doing and that I was still happy with it. I think I have definitely found my new hairdresser.
Besides that the salon is clean, hip and has a mellow atmosphere. The girl at the front desk was polite and instructed me on the best place to park. They also had a coat closet which was a nice touch. I definitely recommend this salon.