Christine F.
Yelp
I came to the area last year and have tried several salons unsuccessfully. So I took the recommendation of a friend and started going to Maude's in January 2009. Like others have said it's a cute place and has an eclectic funky feel. The receptionists were always nice to me and I got the feeling they have a lot of happy loyal customers. I don't know about the glasses of wine someone mentioned, I was never offered a drink.
My friend recommended Catina, who she has been very happy with for years, but I ended up with Kristin. When I came in I was growing out a bad hair cut. Before I saw Kristin I had my hair washed by an assistant. Honestly the hair sinks are the most uncomfortable I've ever experienced because I was pushed into a recline that was killing my neck, but I'm tall so it may not be a common complaint.
That didn't last long though and I was into the chair. Kristin was very nice and listened to me tell her about my previous botched haircut, which had been only minimally repaired. I also told her that I don't style my hair, I don't generally use product, and I don't generally blow dry. When I was done she told me what she planned to do with my hair, and honestly I felt like she hadn't been listening to a word I said. So I started to tell her again that I wanted a low maintenance haircut that would reduce the volume of my hair. She got really defensive and an attitude with me. But we talked some more and she said, okay., I think I can give you what you want but this will take two haircuts for all of the corrections. Fine. So she cut my hair and seemed to do a fine job. It looked great in the salon, but never styled well for me at home.
Seven weeks later I went back and she was again thoroughly unimpressed with my hair. I reminded her about the previous bad hair cut. So she cut my hair, said she thought that everything had been corrected and again, it looked great in the salon. But once at home, the cut seemed to add more volume to my hair at the bottom, exactly what I was trying to avoid. ("Bell head", as she called it.)
I went a third time to give her a fair chance. Again she said she could get rid of my "bell head". I almost laughed when I reminded her that she had been the one to cut it the last two times. This time she finally remembered the bad haircut and said, yeah, but you had a bad haircut to fix! I didn't remind her that it was supposed to be fixed after the last visit but I told her that I just wanted a low maintenance haircut. She sort of laughed at me and told me that I couldn't have a nice hairstyle without blow drying my hair and using product. Once again, the haircut looked good with a blowout and lots of product, but at home I had a lot of added weight at the bottom.
I was trying to find a new stylist but I got desperate before a long business trip in early July and went back to Maude's where I saw Claire. She was a real sweetheart and I had a good time talking to her. So good I forgot to tell her that I don't part my hair down the middle and didn't realize it had been cut that way until she was done styling it. It was also longer on one side, but I was gone for three weeks before I was back in the States so I never got it fixed.
To be fair, maybe Kristin isn't used to cutting hair for people who don't style their hair everyday. She does get little sparks of open attitude if you question her, but is otherwise nice. If you wanted a change but didn't know what you wanted, and like to style your hair on a daily basis, she might be good. But I've never styled my hair and have just about always had more flattering cuts.
Overall, I don't think I'll go back to Maude's, but I won't rule it out. I still haven't found a salon and stylist that I like in Reston, but I'll keep looking!