Paul Mitchell
Reviews and Complaints

I would never return and let them even touch my hair again. Last year I decided I wanted a bob, and finally after three haircuts they got it even. So, I decided this year I would get highlights to cover my gray around my face, thinking that it was just one bad experience. Prior to any work done, I asked the supervisor what was the difference between highlights and lowlights. He told me that I already had lowlights and that my lighter color brown from the sun was the lowlights, since it was lighter than my darker brunette and that the blond would be my highlights. Googled that once I got home. Boy was he wrong. Anyway once highlighted, my hair was so blond, I didn't even see my original hair color (#4 and #7 according to the brunette color chart) and it was all wheat blond. The only original color was buried in the back and I had to lift my hair off my neck to see any original color. I complained and was told I just had never had highlights before and that was how it was supposed to look. Shouldn't my main color still be my #4 and #7 brunette, and less of the blond? I thought maybe 80 percent should be original color and the remaining highlights. Thankfully they stripped all of the color out and returned it to the original brunette. The supervisor Anthony was rude and said I should have known what I was doing since my hair was colored before. I specifically told the stylist and Anthony prior to any service that my hair has never been colored and to be easy on the highlights and had stated so when he checked to verify that the stylist was correct in picking my original color from the chart. Apparently he was too busy cheerleading to pay attention to what I said. I then had to pay for the extra solution to get the wheat blond out of my hair. So basically I paid $53 for a shampoo and lost 4.5 hours of my night. I realize this is a school, but maybe the “supervisor” should pay more attention, or the students have more training before trying it out on an actual person. Also when she washed my hair after taking out the highlights she couldn’t even get a comb through it since it was so tangled. I asked if that would be the case and was told no, it’s only this one time due to the solution. Well, wrong! I had to go buy detangler and have never had to use that or conditioner ever. So now I get to wait and see how bad my color is going to look after my hair grows and see the two different colors since they had to dye it back to brunette. Great hair day and more to come it seems. Right.

Knoxville required me to show a positive review of their school as a graduation requirement. Need i say more. The stories read on this page are through & through daily occurances in knoxville. Owner is money hungry & has a loophole to steal every penny of financial aid you could ever qualify for. The culture preached is a do as i say not as i do situation. For $20k per student there should be more staff, supplies & working time clock. You are charged by the hour, measured by a non functioning time clock. The contract actually threatens you with irrepairable harm if you challenge their contract that they reserve the right to change!

This school is not a good investment of you're money I will tell you now, please save yourself the trouble. This school cost 20, 000 dollars to go to, now I don't know about you but that's a lot of money to me! This school WILL NOT teach you 20 thousand dollars worth of education, I PROMISE you that! The staff comes and goes and most of them are barley any older than the students and do not have much more experience than the students themselves. They will sweep you away on the tour if you go on one, it goes by so fast it does not really give you enough time to truly look at the school from every aspect. The BEST thing you can do if you are considering this place as a school is to ask (because they won't offer) if you can spend the whole day shadowing different students out on the floor and the classrooms! When I started school here I started to see everything they hide from you on a tour, one day as a student at this place I was asked to go around and tell everyone to put their cell phones away and to clean up pop and drinks off other students stations and to clean and "tidy" up because we had a tour coming, so I then realized this is what they did to me when I took my tour they made it seem extra clean there when it's really NOT. The thing is people shouldnt have their cell phones out on the floor anyway, and things should already be clean even if there isn't a tour coming! This place is so uncleanly it makes me sick, even my family and friends who have come up to get their hair done have said things about how dirty and unprofessional it is here. Students always leave crud in the sinks (bleach, color, etc) which ends up getting on you're clients hair (unsanitary). They are ALWAYS out of products at this school and are cheap to order more supplies! They also run out of towels to dry you're clients hair 100% of the time while they have ONE, one student only in the back with only one working washer because the others are broke and the school is too cheap to fix them, so they have that one person working to wash and dry 300 and some towels. Also another really bad and unprofessional thing is there is a learning leader "teacher" assigned to each row every morning but when you need them you the student have to go searching high and low for them always, they are never in the row they are assigned to, the wander around the school, some go out to smoke, keep in mind at this time you could be in the middle of a highlight and hit a point where you NEED HELP and you have that bleach on you're clients head AND the client is $PAYING money for this service and you go looking for you're teacher and there's no one around to help! Not only is that RUDE to the client but it doesn't help us learn as students when they are not there to help us and guide us. They let students put there makeup on at the stations that are supposed to be used for clients. This school is not fair and it's all a favoritism game you have to play or you're not accepted. Well Im sorry but I didn't sign up for school to kiss people's feet. Instead I'm getting kicked in the teeth along with a lot of other students who are too afraid or too nervous to reach out and just say something. You dont learn enough, they teach you barley enough just to pass starboard. As to where the L.A. School and the Hamptons NY Paul Mitchell learn so much more than us! It was embarrassing the things this school did not know when Vivian McKinder came to teach us amazing things that nobody at this school knew how to do, how are we supposed to learn when our school can't even teach us a full head Razor hair cut using JUST a razor like Vivian showed us? How are we supposed to learn when we aren't allowed to play with hair color on our doll heads to see how the colors come out or how different colors look when mixed with other colors, they make you pay for color if you want to use it, WHAT A CHEAP SCHOOL! We are paying 20 grand and that's no enough to cover color to use on our doll heads? Instead we have to use cholesterol which is lotion basically. I am so embarrassed to even be coming here. It's a waste of you're money so please do not get suckered into it like they try and do. Weigh out you're options, shadow, look at other schools, be SMART!

I recently enrolled at Paul Mitchell the School and after having paid a $100.00 application fee I was denied enrollment. The reason I was first given for being denied was that my high school diploma was not equivalent to a U.S. High School diploma (although I had my transcripts from high school certified by a nationally known accreditation service used by major colleges and universities in the United States). I was told that I would need to obtain a GED (even though I am in my second year at a California State College). I tried to explain to the inept manager of the school that you cannot even enroll in a State College or University unless you have completed high school, but she knew better, NOT ! I also tried to explain that you cannot even take a GED test if you have already graduated from high school. After insisting that my high school diploma was valid and recognized in the United States as being equivalent to a U.S. high school diploma the manager said she would send my application back for consideration (turned out to be just lip service). A day later I received a certified letter from the school that, "AFTER CAREFUL CONSIDERATION YOUR APPLICATION HAS BEEN DENIED !
After receiving this letter I did some research on my own and found out that Paul Mitchell is NOT ACCREDITED (even though they try to convince you that you can receive financial aid just like in college), I also learned that they do not even have a license to operate in California as a school (Not approved by the California Board of Barbering and Cosmetology).
My advice to anyone looking to enroll at Paul Mitchell...DON'T !

In Jan 2011 I went in for a highlight touchup...after consultation the student died it all one color. Despite my many attempts to tell both her and the teacher that this is not how I normally get my hair highlighted and asking "where are the foils" and "how are you going to get the different colors"..her answer shrugged her shoulders and stayed away from me. The teacher trying not to look "shocked" said, oh it is going to be beautiful. NO ONE STOPPED TO SAY..OH, THIS IS WRONG, Let's fix it. Instead they went on and just sent me on my way like I was the fool. So, I lived with the shocking new color and grew to live with it. BUT the straw came in March when I went in for a trim to the back...you know, like 1/4 inch with shaping around the face/crown...and left missing a good 6 inches. Yes...hair formerly at my waist that I worked YEARS to grow is up to my shoulder blades. Long? still long...sure. But not what I came in for. We consulted and talked and what she did was not at all what we discussed and did the teacher make sure she learned or did the right thing. NO. When I called for constructive criticism/education so they could talk to the student guess what they said. "well, you can come in for a cut to fix it...but we can't glue it back on, so I guess we can't do anything for you." Sure s&&&T sherlock...I KNOW that, how about talking to the student so that she can learn from this. I guess your not really being prepared to face the world when you leave there.

I went to the Academy in SI, a Paul Michell School under the unbrella of AF Bennett Spa. They get you a Sallie Mae Loan, make you sign contracts while you are in the night classes. All I learned was how to use color crayola, draw and sit and eat pizza. Asked to spend 5, 000. on a Trip to Las Vegas to promote Paul Mitchell products, i still have my Text books wrapped in orginal plastic. We never learned anything about hair Style, cutting or shaping hair, I cryed I made a mistake.. Now I left after 4 weeks. and Sallie Mae is added Interest to my account. I will not pay a trade school that does nothing. Their teachers are awful, drama queens.

They are not interested to teaching you what you are paying for.

Now I have to get help in paying off Sallie Mae and hope that the president

closes Sallie Mae Loans, Like he did with Freddie Mac Loans, a rip off completely.