Sassoon Academy

Yes to Sassoon Academy London.

My first Sassoon Academy experience was in Los Angeles. It went super well and when I moved to London in 2012, I checked out the location there. It was even better and more professional. Since then, I visit whenever I can while in London to try out a new style. I love the avant garde cuts.

Here are the downsides:
- long wait (but you'll get there eventually)
- uneven distribution of lead and student stylists means you don't know who you'll work with (but everyone's got talent)
- lots of "trying hard" to look and be cool amongst visitors and stylists (but who cares?)

That said, the upsides:
- they're doing their best to make you look good
- as low as £2.5 for a stunning cut
- new styles and fearless colours
- perhaps you can even work as a model for a class and get a cut and colour together for the price of one!

If you're on the fence, try it out. After all, it's only hair.

Great place to go to when you're short on cash for a haircut..

Since it's a learning facility, make sure you have the whole day to be there. I was there for about 5 hours. But it was incredibly cheap considering you get a wash, cut, dry and even color.

However, if you want a regular haircut and nothing artsy (as these students want to test out latest techniques) then maybe you should stick to regular salons.

I've been going here for the past 5 years and it has never failed to disappoint me. You just have to be ready to be sat in a chair for up to 4 hours and be open to the fact that you may not get a conventional haircut.

Everytime I have been, I have had full confidence in the students and the tutors. The tutors in particular are extremely knowledgeable which I have never experienced before. Especially since I have very thick asian hair.

So if you're looking for a cheap and professional haircut, give it a go!

Went for a haircut today and requested having "just the dead ends off". I emerged 3 hours later with 4 inches of my long hair gone and a weird shorter in the back and longer in the front style. Left the salon in tears and subsequently am having a horrible day. Really wouldn't recommend and if you do go, make absolutely sure they know what you want... not that they will listen.

Recently, I paid regular price for a cut/color at HOB salon in Camden (£120+) and it was totally meh. Never again. I've gone to training schools for mostly the last 7 years with great results.

I had long, virgin hair with pink ombre that I was totally bored of. The student was fantastic for my color consultation, as I just wanted to go dark all over, and she suggested a warm chesnut/chocolate with warm red tones underneath. Guided by her instructor Amber, I have some pretty fucking fabulous hair! I was even surprised at how there is not even a trace of the bleached/pink ends!

Cons - Omg, the phone line. It's such a bitch to get through. When they do answer, they are curt but they do seem impossibly busy. You must get a skin test before getting color, a pain for the first visit. My color took 4 hours, and I was very hungry by the end of it. And the sinks in the color room are uncomfortable, and the water temperature seems to waver.

But for £19, I look HAWT. And that is really priceless!

(I went to the 48 Brook St location but not seeing it on yelp)

It's not the best, nor the worst. Honestly, I recommend paying the money to visit a normal salon. The teachers here yanked my hair so hard it felt like they were trying to wax my head. Students are hit or miss, but my main gripe is that they told me if I wanted a cut, it had to be a classic Sassoon cut. I asked if they could do it longer, keeping the length (student was graduating or had already graduated). He treated me like a mannequin, made me uncomfortable and didn't have a mirror for me to see what was happening. In the end he thinned my hair far too much and took my back length hair to my shoulders. My biggest gripe is that they don't use toner (or so I was told by one of the teachers who did my hair). It's very difficult to get the color you want (especially ashy) without toner. Second biggest gripe is one of the teachers told me (when I showed her a photo of my desired color, a medium ash blonde), "Honey, you'll never be able to go blonde. It's just not possible" (I had naturally light brown hair and have always gone blonde in a single session...). The teacher added lowlights to my hair, claiming they would balance my hair and provide dimension (never had this suggested before at a salon...). The lowlights were so dark, darker than my natural color! My hair looked dated and cheap -- I mean technically it was cheap...worst is the woman stated, "You are lucky I bothered with your hair, usually I'd charge 800£ for all the work I did on you today". It's been a year since my last visit (~4 visits total, got worse and worse). My hair is still not nearly as long as it was, although it looks 100x better after visiting normal salons. And it's the color I asked for originally. Overall do not recommend!

My attraction to the Vidal Sassoon Advanced Academy near Bond Street in central London was quite simple: this was the only place I could find during my poor student days to get a haircut by an exceptionally well trained hairdresser for the price of a vodka tonic. Twice I visited Vidal Sassoon's renowned training academy for a haircut during my first year at uni, both times emerging with a classically chic bob that would doubtless have made Mr Sassoon himself proud. Well they say the third time's the charm, but for me at Vidal Sassoon it wasn't.

My third visit saw my hair was tended to by a girl who was part of a group of students training at the academy from Japan; none of whom spoke English, necessitating communication with my stylist via a translator. Long story short: something got lost in transation because my request for a simple bob saw me leave with an asymetrical crop, head shaved up the back, so short it's taken me almost three years to grow it out. My fatal error? Making an appointment at the 'Creative' academy as opposed to the 'Classic' academy by mistake.

Allegory aside, Vidal Sassoon's training academy really is a Godsend for the stylishly cash strapped. Rather than being staffed by beginners, most trainees are simply working hairdressers who have returned to the Academy to hone their skills, learn a few new haircuts etc. As such, you're getting a bona fide professional haircut for a fraction of the usual price. Just make an appointment in advance, be very clear with your stylist and for God's sake, avoid the 'Creative' salon like the metaphorical plague.

You just might receive a *fantastic* haircut if your student is careful and the instructor is diligent. DO NOT get a haircut from a Czech guy named Thomas!!! He was cutting a lady's hair next to me and (1) barely understood English; (2) was impossibly rude to his customer.

I came to Sassoon Academy for the first time as I'd used academies in the U.S. for haircuts and had good experiences. I ended up getting the best haircut of my life at Sassoon Academy. I think that's 98% due to the wonderful instructor who was supervising my student stylist - he was East Asian. My student stylist was Slovakian and also barely spoke to me. When I asked the instructor for clarification on what she was doing, the student stylist even said, "She doesn't trust me." No customer skills at all.

I was also talked by another instructor into getting a single strip of color in my hair, which also turned out marvelous.

The reason I give the Academy 4 stars, instead of 5, is because of the atrociously bad customer service many of the student stylists exhibit, particularly the Eastern Europeans. I don't know when the students are permitted to begin cutting hair for customers, but it does not seem as though they are trained in customer service at all.

In my cheap ass paid-nothing fash-pack days, I had hair cuts by Dove at advanced academy all the time. Various haircuts have been called "fruit salad", "rainbow" and 'OMG why is it so freaking short, it is NEVER going to grow back" by my family. Nuff Said. It's ok to be kooky when you work in fashion and fashion forward is supposedly your "middle name", not so ok if you hold down a semi- proper job. If your life mantra is not "whatever, hair grows back"; you don't care about having super asymmetric hair, buzzed cuts on one side and about 10 different colors simultaneously thrown on then please don't go. It will SERIOUSLY only make you cry because they sell it like you are going to come out with kinda normal looking hair. And you don't. You see all those uber cool pictures of haircuts that you'd not want to have on the walls? You are basically the guinea pigs for that.

Get in with the guys and be a demo model. Life is much better when you are a demo model and not some poor soul having your hair dried for about 3 hours because the student "couldn't diffuse hair properly"- I felt so sorry for that girl who went home with her hair utterly fried. Also having your hair cut by a person not being taught (even if they are technically capable) is a better. They have a vision of what they want to do so it generally turns out more coherent. You also don't have a chance seeing what's happening so you don't freak out until about 2 hours later when people show you the pictures they've taken of your brand new hair cut- yes the one you haven't had a chance to see yet. Oh yeah, your hair cut will only take 2 in front of an audience instead of 5. Bliss.

I see nothing wrong with their academy. I've stopped working in fashion 5 years ago and now I still only get my hair cut at Sassoon, I have a fab relationship with the hairdresser and a lot of respect for the sassoon technique. I now basically have the same thing done to me except I get the choice of not having rainbow colored hair and pay an extortionate amount of money for the privilege of being a guinea pig. They've convinced me from paying nothing to paying a lot for my hair so they couldn't have been that bad!

Finally a breakdown of the Sassoon academy system as I understand it:

Normal (Davis Street)- People learning how to cut hair. You will come out with vaguely looking (if slightly badly cut) hair.

Creative- This is teaching people to transfer advanced haircuts to the salon environment. A few colours, asymmetry but basically what you get if you get pay for an advanced hair cut at a salon. Students have established techniques. You still might look a bit twattish but at a bearable level.

Advanced- Any frigging thing goes. Can't guarantee you will come out looking normal. In fact, you'd probably look like a shoreditch twat. Sorry. You've been warned.

I went here twice when I was studying abroad in London. I had a hair dresser in the US tell me to get my hair cut at Vidal Sassoon, because London is the hair capital of the world apparently. Of course, I couldn't afford an actual salon cut so I decided to try out the schools. Heard bad things about the Davies Mews one so I decided to try out the Advanced. So glad I did.

They gave me maybe the best cut I've ever had in my life. Granted, I'm into crazy colored hair and edgy cuts so it's probably not for everyone, but even my conservative dad loved my hair when I sent him a picture. I had super long, thick Asian hair and the teacher said it would be better short than long. He got the student to chop off all my hair until it was chin length but kept one bang my original length. Then they dyed my hair red and blue black. It looked awesome.

Now, 3 years later I still have short hair and I'm never going back.

The process is long. Both times I went for cut and dye and it took around 4-5 hours. I was always the last person to leave the studio, probably because the dye took so long. It seems like the teachers cut more of my hair than the student, which is all good in my book. They listen too, since I said I didn't want a bob and the teacher said he wouldn't dream of giving me one. The second time I went my stylist didn't show up, and so they said if I rebooked I'd get a free haircut, which was awesome. And then they emailed me coupons.

I've tried out the VS Academies in LA and Shanghai and although they're also very good, they don't compare to this one. Love the Advanced Academy and I still wish I lived in London so I could get a haircut.