"I love my hair" is a phrase my husband hears every month when I arrive home from Mantra Salon in Carmel. Located in the Court of the Fountains on Mission it is a charming salon run by the owner, Veronica. Veronica is an expert in color and gives the best hair cut in Carmel by far! It is a very friendly personable shop so offers a very pleasant relaxing experience which is very important to me. I've been going there for about 12 years now and love it! Also, Michelle, the manicurist, gives an excellent manicure or pedicure in a relaxing setting which is a relief in comparison to many of the frenetic nail salons around. All in all, a great experience and most important - a great result!

...Yes, being "punked"...or being on candid camera.... I felt like I was a tester client at a beauty school! She had me get my own robe, she had me go downstrairs and point out what swatch I wanted for color, when she went to rinse out my hair the water was scalding hot, she painfully pulled and tugged at my hair in the sink, she had to reach down and untangle the blowdryer on the floor, she poked my face many times with her fingers while blowdrying.... she was a very nice girl, and maybe she was having a bad day, but my gosh... She told me she would mix these two colors to get my "desired color"... I dont know if they should do this or not,but she was the "professional" so I went along with it....well, turns out they SHOULDNT do this considering that after the treatment my hair has never looked more fake, flat,off-color in my life...purple/brown/black/blue... My hair looks bruised. I paid WAAAAY too much for this color... I dont even want to bother going back in and getting my money back... Im just going to drive to my old stylist, 400 miles away, and happily pay twice as much, PLUS TIP...to correct it this weekend. Such a shame, I took a chance going to this spa I found online and I should have known better. ...speaking of online... the website hasnt been updated for years. Its a quarter of the size it used to be with only two chairs. They make you sit elbow to elbow with the other client... and of course... that day I sat elbow to elbow with a very eccentric woman who went on and on about her very personal life...and the stylist followed suit. OH AND... the other client took it upon herself to do her nails during her treatment... the fumes from the nails were so overpowering that I started to feel sick to my stomach... the stylist didnt say a thing. When all was said and done I couldnt get out of there fast enough... I have no idea where the stylist ran off to... I know she was making some personal calls and text messages during my treatment... so Im guessing she was finishing those up. I went straight home, turned on my own blowdryer and fixed my "style"... the next morning in the shower, I shampooed my hair and half my color ended up on the floor... absolutely disgusting... as if my color wasnt bad enough the first day.... now I dont know WHAT it is... My advice: NEVER blindly schedule a hair appointment... first impressions are key... and if I had walked in and seen their tools on the ground, their hair up and ratted in pins, and their carpets stained and archaic... I never would have made that very wasted appointment.

I love going to Mantra. I have tried other places, but no one does such a great job on my hair and I always return. One time, I did not clearly specify what I wanted, (it was my fault) and I felt the color was too dark. When I decided it was too dark, several days later, the owner redid my hair color, no charge and got me right back in. I would highly recommend Mantra to everyone. I love what they do to my hair. I am not exagerrating when I say that I am consistently told I have beautiful hair when Mantra does it, and I am a Senior! When I try to go anywhere else I do not get the same compliments!