Westrow Harrogate

I decided to try Westrow after numerous attempts at getting beautiful, natural-​looking highlights elsewhere. I have been to quite a few salons, both budget-​friendly and very expensive, and was starting to lose faith in hairdressers and considering going brunette to cover the brassy/​uneven streaks in my hair.
My stylist at Westrow was James. He immediately made me feel comfortable and really paid attention to what I wanted. James is very knowledgeable about hair colouring and is meticulous in all he does. I was so very impressed with the final result! My hair colour had the highlights and lowlights I was after. I recommend James at Westrow to all, especially if you colour your hair blonde and want it to look healthy and natural.
It’s also worth mentioning that the overall atmosphere in the salon was friendly and relaxed. I thought the place looked bright and very clean. A great salon and I’ll definitely be back!

Guys, please dont believe everything you read on here, I have recently been into Westrow in Harrogate and they have restored my faith in hair salons. It was christmas and I was sat in there in tears from what a previous salon had done. When I walked in, the receptionist was lovely but the manager was doing another client. Even though she was busy, she barely gave me a nod, but did give recognition that I had entered. Half an hour later, it was established what could be done that day without me having an appointment and having no skin test. The owner told me she could sort me out so atleast I could look at myself in the mirror over christmas. The colour she told me is the colour I got, but is the original colour I had wanted that the others couldnt achieve as she was doing my hair and chatting she was very serious, i know that this is a problem to some but when you get past the proffessionalism she is actualy realy realy nice. there were times when she had other clients to see to before me as i had no appointment, her side kick sophie helped and she was just as serious. these people take your hair and their job very seriousley, if some think that is bitchy then you are wrong. when my hair was being blowdryed three hours later we all sat about and had a good giggle. i can see why there are some bad comments on here but when they are with other clients are too busy yes they do look to see who has come in the door but leave the reception to meet and greet. when i was leaving the owner gave me a big hug, i said thank you she said hey its my job. im sorry but in all the years ive never had that.

I have had a similar humiliating experience at West Row, relating to hilights on previously coloured hair. I had a colour test and explained what I wanted doing when I made the apointment but when I turned up not enough time had been booked and I ended up having an all over colour almost identical to the colour I already had. I didn’t have a cut but did pay for a blow dry but the finish was terrible. I wrote a letter of complaint and didn’t expect any response really, I just wanted to vent, but someone did actually try and ring me in response. This only served to annoy me further as I had not supplied my telephone number on the letter (they must have taken it from when I booked my appointment). The problem with this is I work nights, I don’t want contacting durng the day! I tried to call back but was told she was with a client (3 times) so I left my email address as a preferred method of contact. I did not receive an email, but another message was left while I was asleep askng me to call back. So I am not going to bother, just put it down to a dreadful experence. Harrogate does have a wide range of salons, so I will simply take my business elsewhere.
Message to West Row: You really need to sort out booking new clients in, perhaps the stylist should be chatting to the customer prior to bookng the appointment so you can agree a plan of action and book an appropriate length of time for the appointment.

I tried to go in for my appointment today with X at Westrow. This was my second visit to the Salon and I returned because previously, I had received excellent service.
Unfortunately, that was not the case on this visit.
A little background, I scheduled today’s appointment last Saturday. I went in, in person and let them do their skin test since I had requested color and cut.
So this morning, the day of my appointment I received a call at 10:30 asking if I had done the skin test. Not a big deal — I offered to come in early to show them my skin test card. The other half which was their copy they lost.
So I went in at 11:00 and showed them the card and offered to wait there until my appointment — I didn’t demand to be seen early or anything else. I waited patiently.
A little bit later the assistant comes over and asks if I would like to come back and get the gown on. I went back only expecting to be seated and prepped.
This is when I met X.
From the beginning she was confrontational. When she asked me what I wanted I told her I wanted some highlights and color to lighten my hair for the summer. Then she pulled a face and said she only had me down for all over color today and didn’t have time for highlights and the only reason why I was being seen today is because her last appointment didn’t show up. I told her I had scheduled my appointment last week for today at 11:30. At this time now it’s about 11:15 only a short while for my appointment, but if she couldn’t do the highlights she could just cut my hair and I would come back in. She told me to wait while she checked her schedule. Fair enough I said, and asked to see the color book to pick an all over color.
She brought me the color book and laid it out and told me she didn’t have time for highlights. That was not a problem but she made it one when she became extra unhelpful telling me the color I wanted was too light for my hair and since I had a darker color in my hair it wouldn’t be even and instead of suggesting alternatives she just made a bunch of excuses why she couldn’t do what I wanted.
I didn’t think I was asking for anything too difficult and the color I picked out was a brownish blond. I have brown hair. It’s not a big stretch. This isn’t my first time having color done — I’m 29 years old and I’ve been coloring my hair since I was 16. I’ve never in my life been treated so rudely in a salon.
Eventually I gave up on the color and told her it was fine and just to cut my hair. My hair is all the way down my back to my butt and it’s hot outside. I would of just been happy with that to be honest.
So she took my pony tail out and asked me how short I wanted it. i told her I wanted 3 inches taken off and just to trim it around to take the dead ends off and thin it out. She then looked really puzzled because she noticed that my hair had previously been cut to frame around my face so of course it wasn’t all the same length and this seemed to be another issue she didn’t have time to deal with. I have very fine hair and alot of it. I think perhaps it just seemed like a really big job for her.
I told her it was ok she didn’t have to cut my hair either and I proceeded to get up and take the gown off and leave. It was so frustrating and she was so incredibly rude and unhelpful and to be honest I wasn’t comfortable with her and didn’t feel like she was at all interested.
I asked the girl at reception — who is always very sweet and very helpful to have the owner call me. We’ll see if that happens though.
I expected to spend about £200 to £300 today getting my hair done and I tip pretty decent as well. I also live in walking distance. I’m not sure how many customers the owner plans on pissing off and having walking out of their salon never to return again, but I certainly wont be made to feel like I’m asking for the moon and being rushed when I’ve made my appointment well in advance and plan to spend good money in their business.
I would of been ok if X had simply told me she wasn’t experienced enough to handle my hair. As I think that’s the bottom line here. She simply didn’t know what she was doing. I would offered to set up another appointment with another stylist and Westrow could of retained my business.
I’m very dissapointed as I try and support the local businesses around me because I feel they offer a better service and are an important part of the little community here.

I have tried a lot of different hairdressers but have always returned to West Row as I find them consistently high quality and have always been given both a high standard of service and an excelletn haircut. The salon is light and airy.
The hair washing is wonderful, with a great scalp massage too. Although pricey, the haircuts are good, time is spent on them and you don’t feel as if you’re being rushed in and out in oder to empty the chair for the next customer.