Top Master 32 Knights Hill, London SE27 0HY

"Popped in for a haircut just before Christmas, I mentioned that I was enjoying the Bony M Christmas hit on the radio and it was duly cranked up. Enjoyed a coffee and some quality street and I got a great haircut and blow dry for a reasonable price. Highly recommend."

"I visited the salon on 08/07/20 At first it seemed fairly promising as I had been there once before and was happy with the service I received and how my hair turned out. However this time was completely different. I went in for a full head of colour, after a misunderstanding between me and the female owner over what colour i wanted my hair to come out she was very rude. When i asked if she was doing a full head of colour as she had only applied dye to my roots and went and sat down she was very passive aggressive and told me 'let me do my job' while huffing and puffing. As it is also during a pandemic i was very shocked when she moved an elderly lady directly next to me to finish cutting her hair when before hand she was a safe distance apart from me in another chair. The hairdresser also proceeded to take off her face mask and lift up the face shield to talk directly to my face while dyeing my hair which during this time is not following safety guidelines. After she made the comment of 'if your are going to get it you are going to get it' (meaning COVID19) I just wanted to leave but couldn't due to being in the middle of treatment. Hair dye had been left on my scalp for almost two hours, my scalp was so sore not to mention the fact she got it all over my forehead due to a sloppy and rushed application. Her husband then washed my hair very aggressively with luke-warm water FOUR times. (With a cheap shampoo that smelt of lemons) while he was washing my hair his wife was SCRUBBING my head with some form of flannel or towel with no soap on it trying to get the dye off of my forehead. It was so painful, i moved my head out of the way to gesture to stop which she did. He then conditioned my hair with a tiny bottle of conditioner from a box dye kit which did not replace any of the oils they had scraped off of my scalp during the four washes he did. I skipped the hair cut as I saw how ridiculously uneven the elderly ladies hair next to me was when she was chopping it off barley measuring it out. I asked how much a blow dry was to which she said £35 which is 'cheap for my length hair' and then attempted to guilt trip me that she only charged £80 for a full head of colour saying i 'got a bargain' and 'should be happy' in again a passive aggressive tone etc I asked how much my roots would cost the next time around and she replied with £70?! just to have roots done with no cut or blow dry. So i said i wouldn't like the blow dry and would just like a rough dry. She dried one part of my hair at the front and one strand at the back and left the rest completely soaking wet, at this point i couldn't wait to get out of the salon after being stuck in there for three hours. Today when washing and drying my own hair the water ran red and the towel turned blue, i found a huge patch at the back that had been missed and was still a light brown and my roots in places are dark brown instead of a consistent black all over. I will NEVER return and i would not recommend this salon at all. The customer service is non existent, the owners are very rude and there work is sloppy. My sister had come with me and was just as shocked as i was. They do not stick to the COVID guidelines and did not once wipe anything down (the chairs, seats, sink, hair wash basin etc) while we was there for three hours or wash there hands even though people had used the seats etc. Very disappointing. (i couldn't take clear pictures but here is the dye all over my forehead and the giant patch of brown under neath my hair)"

"This is a one star review for the entire experience, but frustratingly, my hair came out well so I would give 4 for the actual treatment. You know how there are some restaurants in China Town where you because the food is good but the service is non-existant and the waiters are rude? This is the salon equivalent. I went in to get my roots bleached on saturday. I had never been to Top Master before so was completely open-minded. I sat down in the chair and before my hairdresser started (I didn't get his name unfortunately, neither did he ask mine) with the bleach, I asked if it would be possible to read a magazine. He said no. Apparently it's annoying for him if a customer is reading while he is bleaching as their head is down too much. Something I've never experienced in my 20 years of being bleached! After the bleach had been applied I settled in for the hour wait. I asked again for a magazine and this time he told me they didn't have any. A hairdressing salon with no magazines! And I had an hour to basically stare at myself in the mirror... Got my phone out instead to find there was no signal (also no tea/water had been offered and I was parched but didn't want to ask at this point) so asked him for the wireless code. He didn't know it and was very dismissive. I said if I had known there would be nothing to read and no internet I'd have brought a book. He said I could try next door and ask for their code, telling me he couldn't go as it would mean leaving the salon. So I had to go out, in the street, with bleach all over my roots, to the barbers next door who kindly gave me their wireless code. *Just* what every woman dreams of doing! When I came back in it all kicked off. A young woman came in who had booked an online treatment to be performed at Top Master. The hairdresser told her he couldn't do it as they weren't doing that treatment any more. The lady had paid £25 upfront and told him this. Instead of him being apologetic and finding a way to get her money back he was rude and aggressive. The two ended up having a stand up row in the salon. The customer was clearly in the right and he didn't have a leg to stand on but it dealt with it in a disgusting manner. It was the way he spoke to her that made me vow to never return to this salon. She ended up leaving and telling him she'd be putting in an official complaint. Finally another hairdresser turned up and I was offered a tea which I gratefully received. When my hair was finished I was happy with the colour but the entire experience had been so stressful it outweighed any good results. I go to the hairdressers out of necessity but also for a little bit of a pamper, an unwind, to read a trashy mag and drink tea for an hour with no interruptions. I wouldn't recommend Top Master to my worst enemy."

"I was about to go away and was desperate to get a my hair cut before I left but sadly the salon I wanted to go to was fully booked so I went to Topmaster. I called and was told to come in at 11:30am but when I got there the man seemed confused that I was there. He washed my hair and then began the cut, he cut my hair many inches shorter than requested, I'd lost 8" rather than 3-4" and was so upset! It was also terribly uneven. I had to pay £45 for that experience. I was so upset that I had to go into another hairdressers and get them to check it over, they agreed it wasn't good at all so I went back later that day to get a refund but the lady ended up fixing it as best she could. She was a nice lady and said her husband hasn't cut ladies hair in a very long time so I was very shocked that he decided to cut mine! In the end it looks better than it did but still not a very good cut at all and a lot shorter than I was happy to go. I do not recommend this place sadly. The 2nd star is only for the fact that they were nice people but the cutting skill is a 1star."

"Had a haircut here which is one of the worst I've ever had. I asked for a basic trim of the style that I already had. The hairdresser raced through it without checking that it was even or that my fringe was straight nor did she offer me the chance to look at the back or sides with another mirror. I asked her to trim more off the length to even out the discrepancy between some very short layers she'd cut and the rest of my hair. It was only when I got home and looked more closely then rewashed and dried it myself that I realised how uneven the cut was. Bits missed here and there and other things cut too short. I returned to ask for a refund as I will have to get it fixed up somewhere else but was refused on a policy of "we don't give refunds". She said it would only be possible to check whether or not it was even if she washed it and checked it. She then suggested that I cut my own fringe when I pointed out how uneven it was. Needless to say I would not recommend this salon."