The Village Coiffure

Had a great haircut with Nancy today. I’m new to Victoria and it’s always a challenge finding a new hairdresser. In no time at all we reviewed some options for my hair and she did a great job of bringing our ideas to life.

I love going to Nancy! I know that I will have a consistently good hair cut every time I leave her adorable shop. She is also just so easy to talk to and I always have such a lovely time. You can really see the years of experience in everything she does :)

I had a great experience at Village Coiffure.
Ranka the owner of the quaint little salon was gracious and professional from the moment I stepped in. The best part was that she really listened to me.
We looked at a few photos of the style I was thinking I wanted for my overdue cut and she gave me a new style I love! I will be back shortly for some highlights and low light's.
I found my new hair dresser!!
Thank-you Ranka

Mady gave me a super cute cut and I was in and out of there really quickly. There is nothing fancy about this place but it’s cute and you can’t beat the price. I highly recommend getting your next haircut here!

This was a baffling experience, I haven't received such hostile and short-tempered treatment in a while. :(

I originally came in for a long-to-short haircut; I had a photo album with me to demonstrate as reference, and explained my needs as well as approach to hair. Immediately after the haircut, since the hair had been thoroughly styled, everything looked fine. However, once I returned home and treated my hair as I normally do to see what it would look like naturally, it was completely different and didn't meet the expectations at all. It looked bad, uneven and unkempt and didn't have the intended shape.

I had never had that issue before, having repeated said cutting cycle for years. So I approached Nancy about the problem, wondering if I could come see her to show her and discuss. From the very start, she got extremely defensive about it, claiming that she did what I requested and that the shape works only if I use a hairdryer and round brush (which I explicitly stated I never did), that she's always busy and doesn't have time for anything, etc., making me feel like an inconvenience for requesting help.

Normally in case of problems I would expect something like: sure, hop over soon so I can take a look and we know what to do next. Instead, it took a long while to arrange even just a simple talk: we had to reschedule because Nancy had other plans, and it took about 1.5 weeks.

Given her behaviour on the phone, plus the fact the second appointment was a short half-hour window, the prospects weren't looking promising, my hair was looking suboptimal and bothering me, so I had someone else look at me. They recognised the problem and over a 1.5-hour session my haircut was fixed in a way that was accommodating my needs. I was still looking forward to seeing Nancy so I could at least have her look at the intended result and how it differs from the previous work, and talk to her in person rather than on the phone, to part on decent terms.

The visit was uncomfortable. Nancy was behaving in a very condescending and disrespectful fashion, not letting me show or explain anything. She didn't even notice that my hair had been cut elsewhere and had lost quite a bit of length. Regardless, she wouldn't let me finish a sentence and it felt like a struggle to get my points across. As I showed my reference photos again, Nancy claimed that she had never seen them before! It was the same album, unchanged. It didn't look like she was going to do anything productive with me, she was impatient and rude. She was first to mention money, asking if I want it back, only to mock me and state that it isn't happening.

The moment I confessed that I'd received help from someone else, and was just trying to show her and explain, is when Nancy completely lost it. She said she's done and doesn't care anymore and I might as well just leave. I was taken aback and wasn't sure how to approach it, asking her to simply listen for a moment, which she would refuse. She would dash from place to place within the salon, raising her voice at me and demanding that I go. Saying that all of that was my fault and that I offended her, and so on. It was something else, I don't understand how an adult, working with living clients at that, could behave like that. The situation was being escalated by her to an utterly silly degree, as if I had come in there having her at gunpoint. Instead of admitting that her behaviour was inappropriate she would attempt to gaslight me into thinking I was aggressive or too confrontational, which was not the case at all: from the start I was polite and remained as calm as possible given the bizarre circumstances.

Please be careful with Nancy: if you are lucky or your requests are simple, then everything may turn out just fine. Pleasant chatter, best wishes etc. But if there are any issues or concerns, you might have a bad time. I feel like newcomers deserve to know this.

I understand it's Nancy's salon and she can do whatever she wants, as she stated, but I wish her to gain more patience, understanding and tact for clients. Thank you.