‘She brings up how pregnant I am’: California woman leaves Yelp review after stylist ‘fries’ her hair. Then the owner responds
A woman says a salon called Studio Z threatened to sue her because she left a negative Yelp review. Now, she’s taken to TikTok to discuss why she left that review in the first place.
Sara W. (@haussdrama) went to Studio Z, a hair salon located in Norco, California. Then, her hairstylist allegedly “melted” her hair after multiple miscommunications. She initially posted about the experience on TikTok and left a negative Yelp review about the encounter. However, the hair salon’s response and general demeanor led her to make multiple other TikToks.
Her initial post discussing Studio Z’s legal threats received 608,000 views, with subsequent updates that included screenshots, each receiving thousands of additional comments. Now, she’s drawing attention to Jaime Zobrist’s response to her Yelp review alongside the numerous other communications she’s received from the salon.
Sara’s experience in the salon
Sara had gone to Studio Z at least four times based on her account before she left a negative Yelp review. Before her negative experience, she had darkened her natural 6-level hair down using a different stylist. That stylist ended up moving out of state, though, which left Sara looking for a recommendation from within the shop.
Her former stylist recommended a co-worker named Lilly (@lilly_hairstylist27), who agreed to take her on as a client. Sara sent exact pictures of what she wanted via text to her hairstylist and discussed the treatment before proceeding.
When she finally got in the chair for her fourth appointment with Studio Z, Lilly said she would try to get her to her goals. From there, Lilly apparently applied “Malibu CPR” to her hair for 45 minutes, then bleached it for 20. She toned Sara’s hair twice, and then, according to Sara’s account, rudely asked if she wanted her to tone it again.
Sara sees her hair, and it’s orange
Unfortunately, Sara described her result as not looking natural at first. She mentioned in her video that she had streaks in her hair that Lilly then attempted to color correctly the next day. But that color correction attempt ended up damaging her hair.
“As she attempted to fix her first mistakes with the second sit down, she melted my hair off… [She] blamed me and said it was normal to have melted hair and that this was to be expected since ‘we’ did the first bleach job and my hair was fragile,” Sara recalled in her public post. Sara described her hair as being “fried.”
Lilly apparently refunded the treatment entirely afterward, but it’s unclear when that happened. At some point, however, Sara left a negative review of her experience and said that she would, unfortunately, have to seek a different professional to fix her hair.
Who’s actually in the wrong?
Commenters generally agreed that there was a case to make for both sides in the situation, at least when it came to Sara’s initial review and experience. Many viewers generally agreed that Lilly didn’t treat Sara’s hair correctly. They argued that she should have used green to cancel out the red in her hair rather than continuing to apply ash treatments to her head. But others said it would have been difficult or unrealistic to treat Sara’s hair the way she wanted without damage.
One hairstylist said the entire situation depends on whether Lilly warned Sara that she might end up with warm streaks in her hair.
“I’m a stylist with strong education and experience with blonding and colour correction and I can definitely see both sides of this,” the commenter said. “When you were in the chair, did they warn you that walking away with warm hair was a strong and very likely possibility? If not, that’s where the salon failed in a major way because hair at a lvl 4, has some very strong red pigment behind it that absolutely exposes itself when lifting.”
Sara later said that very little was explained or discussed with her in subsequent updates, which seemingly answered that comment’s question. But the hairstylist claimed she did try to explain everything to her. Regardless, it was how Zobrist, the manager of Studio Z, handled the situation and her review afterward that made the situation spiral. Lilly, too, responded in a way that left Sara stunned at the way the salon handled things and baffled.
Zobrist escalates the situation
Toward the end of Sara’s Yelp review, she added, “I love the salon but don’t ever go to Lilly. It’s sad [because] I really liked this salon but the owner needs to send Lilly back to school before she butchers another person’s hair.”
Sara’s review, then, didn’t necessarily end with an outright dismissal of the salon as a whole. But, Zobrist’s response to the review escalated the situation entirely. She alleged that Sara was a scammer who routinely makes negative reviews as a way of conning people for refunds.
Her response read, “Hi all! This girl is a known scammer. She reviews places and gives a bad review and shouts it from the rooftops about her ‘bad experiences’ to [elicit] a refund. She’s done this to several businesses, and this case is no different.”
Zobrist also slammed Sara for leaving the review, adding, “Maybe coming in at 36 weeks pregnant isn’t a good time to [decide to] do something drastic and new to your hair. Lilly was kind enough to refund her, unfortunately, Because this client still decided to let the her [vicious] side take over and slander her.”
Zobrist makes alleged legal threats against Sara
Zobrist also allegedly threatened to seek an attorney when privately messaging Sara about her videos, something that Sara provided screenshots to prove. In those screenshots, Zobrist apparently based her legal threats on Sara’s social media following and the fact that she has a larger TikTok account. She said, “I have found your social media and you are liable for libel.” It’s unclear whether Zobrist actually sought representation after the fact.
The hairstylist responds to the controversy
The hairstylist who worked with Sara also responded to the situation, posting at least one TikTok about it. Lilly, however, has since privated her account. The only information about this post now comes from Sara, as she made a direct response video to combat Lilly’s claims.
Lilly apparently claimed that she did explain the risks of the treatment she was asking for beforehand, but Sara argues that she didn’t get much information from the stylist.
Yelp reviews flood in
After Sara shared her initial review and experience with the salon, a flood of negative Yelp reviews started coming in for Studio Z. Mostly, commenters were reflecting on the fact that it was extremely unprofessional for Zobrist to accuse Sara of being a scammer—especially after she had four other treatments with the salon.
Other Yelp reviewers also left negative reviews. But, they reflected on the fact that Zobrist routinely responds to negative reviews in a “concerning” way. A full month prior to the Yelp scandal, Zobrist responded to another one-star review that discussed poorly trained hairstylists, saying, “Everyone starts somewhere and leaving a review being vague and pointing fingers at me, the owner, is ridiculous since I’m trying to give even newer stylists the opportunity to grow. You have said you wont return, but I’m going to go one further and say you may not return.”
@haussdrama Studio Z hair salon, Norco Ca. What a nut case of an owner. I hate threatening to use my platform but honestly this owner is very deserving of this post. It’s shameful behavior.
♬ Aleph Gesaffelstein – SoundVisualized
The Mary Sue reached out to Zobrist and Studio Z via phone message and contact form. We’ve also sent a message to Sara via TikTok direct message. Lily, the hairstylist described in this article, was not available for comment.
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