Santo Salon & Spa

I am so disappointed by my experience at Santo. I had not had a haircut in nearly 3 years, because I have a very hard to manage curly hair type, and I’ve never really gotten a totally stellar haircut, so I usually just keep it long and pull it back in a ponytail because its too hard to manage. I found the website
and they have a salon section so people can find salons that do well with curly hair. Santo had over 200 reviews, and the next closest place had like 12. I was convinced-​nearly all the reviews were just raving about the special training the Santo stylists went at the Devachan salon in NYC, and how their hair has been changed for the better.
I excitedly made my appointment and couldn’t wait for the week to go by before I could go. My appointment was for 10am (a confirmation text 2 days before was a nice touch!) and I arrived 5 minutes early. I was promptly greeted, offered water and a robe, and sat in the waiting area. The salon is really nice inside and definitely has a high end feel, which I expected, based on the prices. I’m not stranger to salon wait times, and even consider 15 minutes to be acceptable. 10:20 rolled around, and the two people who arrived after me were taken back. Then 10:30. At 10:40, I was asked again if I wanted water or tea while I waited, which I declined. I was considering just leaving at this point, since I had other things to do that day. Finally, at 10:45, my stylist comes out nonchalantly, introduces herself, and motions to me to follow her. No apology, no explanation for her lateness, not even an acknowledgement that she was 45 minutes late.
She sits me down in the chair and asks me a few questions about my hair. I explain why I don’t get it cut often, and that I really struggle with it turning into the dreaded curly pyramid, so I just throw it into a ponytail. I showed her a picture of roughly the shape and length I was thinking of, and made sure to note the roundness, and not the bluntness, of the cut. She gets to work on the haircut, which is done dry. I have never met a stylist that was less talkative. I kept trying to ask questions about the Deva cut, her specialty training, and anything else I could think of to get her to talk, but it was like pulling teeth, so I eventually just gave up and sat there awkwardly.
As she neared the end of my cut, there were a few pieces towards the front that she wasn’t sure how to cut to give it a good shape, so she said that after washing and drying me, she would get her scissors back and trim it up to align with the new cut. We went back to the sinks, which are really nice-​you get a massage chair and a soothing eye mask while getting your hair washed. Then I was put under the dryer for 10-​ish minutes. While I was drying, I saw the stylist get her next client and start working on her, while leaving me under the dryer that had turned off many minutes ago. She finally came back over, took some clips out of my hair, and told me how «great» the shape of my hair was now. I think she maybe snipped off one extra piece from the front that she told me she was going to do after the wash and dry.
I looked in the mirror and was horrified-​the «great» shape was a pyramid! I couldn’t wait to get out of there, so I just mumbled something like, «yeah…thanks» and high-​tailed it to the counter so I could leave. The total somehow came to $ 5 MORE than the highest price quoted on their website for a Master Stylist, which is the highest level for a curly girl cut.
I have been trying to let the cut grow out a little bit and style it myself to see if it would grow on me at all before writing a review, but its been almost a month now, and its still a no go. I hate it. I never want to let anyone near my hair again. There are no layers at all. It just ends in a blunt line and all pouffs up at the bottom, creating the triangle shape I was trying to avoid. The only good thing is that now my split ends are gone. I still wear my hair in a ponytail every day, but now instead of being nice and long, its choppy and looks like a lampshade hanging off my head. I’ve never had such a terrible cut in my life, and this place is supposed to specialize in curlies. Stay away if you value your hair and time!

I just recently had a wedding and used Santo Salon for my hair and make up. Using them truly made my wedding day! I cannot say enough great things about the Salon and all the workers there. Not only did they provide great service, the atmosphere was fun while maintaining a high quality of professionalism. I purchased the bridal package while my bridesmaids got their hair styled and some got their make-​up done. Everyone looked beautiful with immaculate hair styles.
For my bridal package it included a trial hair and make-​up which I used Michelle for Hair and Missy for Make-​Up.
Michelle was very patient with me as we created my look on the fly the day of my trial, which surpassed my expectations, and it was even better for the day of the wedding. She truly is a hair style genius.
As for Missy, all I can say is WOW! She transformed me, an absolute artist when it comes to make-​up, and the make-​up lasted through tears, the heat and humidity the entire day and night.
I worked with Jessica to coordinate and plan my trial and day of hair and make-​up, which was a joy. She is so easy to talk to and answered all my questions to let me know what to expect. Furthermore, she was able to accommodate my scheduling needs as I live across the country and they were able to squeeze me in for my trial with my limited time.

All and all, Santo Salon has great staff and atmosphere, if you want to pamper yourself and also get the best stylists, make-​up artists, and mani/pedi’s you should definitely come here.
I whole heartedly recommend going to Santo Salon and ask for Missy for Make-​Up or facials and Michelle for Hair Cut/​Hair Styles.
Thank you all from Santo Salon for truly making my wedding day!!! You were worth every penny!
Thanks,
Andrea

Santos is a beautiful salon with excellent service. I had my hair cut twice by Frank, and could not recommend him more highly. He took the time to look at my hair dry, look at the pics I brought in, and talk to me about my hair routine. He used that information to interpret what I said I wanted into what would work best for my hair. My mom goes to him as well and her hair has never looked better.

Until recently, I have been a REGULAR MONTHLY customer at santo’s for the past 6 years. I was referred to a stylist there who specializes in the curly girl cut. And while I have more or less been generally pleased with my haircuts, absolutely nothing about the experience of doing business with santo’s has been pleasant. One should not dread calling for an appt or going for a haircut. But most everything about the experience was unpleasant. Customer service at the front desk is mediocre and impersonal. And I was willing to overlook that and continue to go there until the stylist’s snarkiness and ‘tude were making my appts just as unpleasant as well. With so many of the employees defecting from there these days it was easy to find another curly girl stylist who had recently left for another location.
Santo’s clearly made a huge investment in a beautiful facility. But it would be prudent for them to invest in customer service training as well… For ALL their employees. There’s a lot of competition out there. Making your customers feel valued goes s long way in strengthening your business.

Disclaimed: I have not gone to Santos for any hair services, only waxing services so that is what I am reviewing.
And as far as waxing… don’t go here. Please, don’t go here. For one, it’s overpriced. Two — they do a bad job and kind of seem to not know what they are doing. I have bad my bikini area waxed countless times over the past decade. Probably close to 70 – 80 times by now. I don’t have a ton of hair. It should take 30 minutes to do a brazillian, maybe a few minutes more.
Here, it took over an hour. OVER AN HOUR of pain and torture as she waxed the tiniest strips known to man, and still managed to get the wax stuck in my hair and not pull it out fully and… ugh. It was just a painful, waxey, disgusting mess. I don’t know what she was doing wrong, but the strips would continuously not come up and it was terribly painful.
After this experience, I decided not to go back but somehow ended up going back anyway a few weeks later for a face wax… you’re busy, it’s close by, you know how it goes.
To me, a face wax is self-​explanatory: wax the parts of my face that have hair. I was sitting in the chair, and (a different woman this time) was doing like, inch-​wide squares of my cheek, one by one. I have no hair there so I asked her what she was doing. She said «well, you said you wanted your face waxed.»
…
I explained I only needed the places where there was actual hair waxed.
Not to mention, the wax was REALLY hot. I just dealt with it because I figured I was being sensitive and wanted to leave. She then managed to somehow drip hot wax into my ear. This should have been impossible considering she had kindly wrapped a towel around my head, but she did it! Then she said (unapologetically) «Sorry, the wax drips when it’s too hot.»
???
If the wax is TOO HOT, why are you using it on me? And dripping it all over me and burning my ear? Why don’t you fix it???
And yeah, my eyebrows were uneven.
I also got a shellac manicure here and it had worn off within a week. At my usual salon it lasts three weeks.
Overall, the women who work here are super nice. The hair services might be awesome. But as far as nails/​waxing, it seems like they do not fully train their staff and I would recommend not going here. Especially because you can get it better and cheaper elsewhere.

i had my hair highlighted at Santos. I have medium brown hair. After 2 hours at the salon, my hair looked no different. I was told that it would lighten up after a few washes. After a few washes it looked exactly the same. They said they would not give me refund unless I showed them my hair. So I went back and they did refund my money. However, they were not nice about. I asked them to have the manager call me. It has been two weeks and I have not heard from the manager. So I am out about 3 hours of my time, and the 15 dollars that i tipped the colorist with. Poor service.

Seriously a great, fantastic place to go for massages. A girlfriend came in and visited for the weekend and we got the couples package (massage, mani/​pedi). The provide a bottle of wine, but we brought our own and they were very accommodating. The massages were great (you even get in a little steamer shower thing before hand!), and the mani/​pedi were good (nothing special). The two women who did our nails were really nice and we had great conversation with them. I will be going back!

I have been seeing Brittany since January. I went in for a Brazilian because Brittany was recommended to me by my friend. I never had one and I was quite nervous because this is not usually something I would trust someone with. I was more then pleasantly surprised. She was professional, made me feel completely at ease, and even made me laugh.
Since then I have booked massages, facials and much more with her. She is a delight to be around an I look forward to my appointments. It’s a great experience and I feel like going to santos is like a little oasis.

I have known Brittany for several months, she is not only very professional, she is excellent at every service I have ever received from her. She is thorough and meticulous making sure each time to make me look and feel my best! I have had many services performed by Brittany, and recommend her with the highest praise and assure you, you will be satisfied with any services received from her.

Great place they really know how to take care of a client, top notch service all around, excellent vibe. I would suggest if you are a guy looking for a great cut ask for Angie.

I get my hair cut by sandy as does my wife. My hair is easy and she does a good job. My wife has really curly hair and Sandy specializes in curly hair. She does a GREAT job. Cutting curly hair is an art form and Sandy gets it. If you have curly hair, try her.
The salon itself is typical. They are moving any day now, further down Chagrin (by Heinens) and I am looking forward to the new location. It will be interesting to see what they do with a brand new space.