Paul Mitchell The School Costa Mesa

"Taylor, Liz, Esmerelda, and Kennedy were the most fantastic people to meet. Hands down, the best hair experience I have ever had. These wonderful individuals had the courage, authenticity, intelligence, and compassion to take on my hair mess. Not many people will even touch my hair because of my physical condition, but these individuals put their heart and soul into it, and I am a better person having the opportunity to meet them. I consider them family now, and I just adore them all with every fiber of my being. They embrace the spirit of Paul Mitchell’s culture and improve on it. I am so excited and elated to see them again soon, and I am so fortunate to have them in my life."

"Tiffany - make up, Payton - hair. Both are graduating soon, but many other students looked very competent. I would definitely return. They were so personable and confident in their abilities. What a fun place! Shout out to @welcome2jessica for the recommendation. She's the best aesthetician instructor!!"

"Disillusioned. This location takes credit when the job is done well and deflects any responsibility when the job is subpar. Regardless of it being a school and their services being rendered by students, it doesn’t justify their unethical business practices, unprofessional leadership behavior, and poor customer service. Their quickness to deflect responsibility, blame it on a bunch of different excuses, and not deliver is a disservice to the clients they serve and the “Future Professionals” they pride themselves in training. This location’s leadership team has a reputation of shifting blame, not taking accountability, and being insensitive. My experience does not match their claim to provide “premium service experience.” I had consulted over the phone prior to booking my hair appointment and was assured that they would be able to complete the partial foil work on my hair during the evening appointment. The appointment was purposely scheduled with a phase two student because they have “advanced technical skills.” The leading instructor that evening was Liz. Liz frequently walked by the student at work encouraging her to expedite her process without offering any additional support. The student finished the foil work at 9:09pm. They had me process until 10pm without the results we anticipated. The instructor spoke to me about the “bad news” and what my options were at this point. Because I took time off work for my birthday, I was able to come the following day at the time they provided me with. Liz assured me that she would leave detailed notes so that they knew about the next steps the following day. The following day the receptionist had a difficult time “finding” my appointment. Once called by a phase one student, it was transparent that she did not know what I was in for because she asked me what I was looking to get. This reflected the lack of communication at all levels of the process. So, I had to explain to her and mentioned that Liz was supposed to leave detailed notes on my profile on what needed to be done to complete the job. The student came back to tell me that because of the lack of time they wouldn’t be able to complete the job at hand. This felt completely irresponsible on behalf of the leadership team. Jessica, the phase one leader on this day came to paraphrase the same thing the student was advised to tell me. At which point it was hard to not express my disappointment. Jessica emphasized that it was because they booked me at 1pm instead of 9:30am. This felt like they were blaming their own leadership team from the night before while actively not taking responsibility to make things right. Nonetheless, they were not able to lighten my hair on the second day. And to make matters worse Jessica made the decision to tone the pieces that they worked hard to lighten the night before by darkening it. This ultimately undid all the efforts made by making it look like nothing was done to my hair. The expectation is to keep coming until they get it right - which is ineffective and inconsiderate given the reputation they claim to have. The excuse of the “work is done by students” is a poor way to minimize and devalue the learning process for the students. I’ve had experiences where expectations were surpassed at this location. This is evidence that the expectations were reasonable and attainable. This experience was beyond unsettling and disappointing."

"Meggan M. and Joanne V. were such stellar stylists!! First visit here with my sister was a complete success and we received such great treatment and care from our Stylists. Their teacher Amanda J. was so fantastic as well, guiding and ensuring them along the way with our haircuts, such a great mentor. My sister and I are super thankful for the fantastic haircuts and will 100% be back!"

"Horrible experience and nightmare customer service. My sister and my niece went to get some services done. They trusted the brand-name of Paul Mitchell and a friend recommendation. Let's start with my niece, she is only 15 and she was eager and excited about her new look for promotion day. What started as a bonding experience ended up with my niece's face burned with wax, first because you don't do facial and wax in the same appointment, second the person doing her eyebrow applied wax over and over to remove one single hair, one single hair!!! Couldn't them just pluck it out? Like normal people? Then it was my sister's hair appointment, she has super curly hair and went for a retouch, she came very unhappy, I wish that was the only problem, however it was not. They burned her hair and broke it, instead of brushing her hair they just cut it, they let her hair sheared, when she tried to bring this to the staff attention they told her "it's a school, you know right?" Like it's expected they will screw customer hair or face, no apology, no emphaty no remorse, I can't stress enough how traumatic this experience was for both my sister and niece. They are so traumatized that they don't even have pictures, hopefully they will forget this as well. Please be aware of this place, brand reputation is not a guarantee here!"