Waxing The City

I'd been visiting the Waxing the City Ballard salon since early 2022 and had been seeing cerologist Alexa Mock (also assistant manager for this salon), for my waxing needs for nearly that entire time. My experience had been largely pleasant and it had been a fun experience for me to chat up with Alexa during our sessions and she did ensure a smooth service.

Accordingly, I had tipped her towards the end of each service and would set up each of my follow-up visits with her.

However, when I went in for my waxing session in the month of May 2023, Alexa went ahead and passed a couple of rude, insensitive comments regarding the appearance and health of my skin just out of the blue. One second, we were having a regular chat regarding how the week had been for each of us and in the very next, she began complaining loudly about the texture and overall health of my skin and started giving suggestions as to how it needed to be taken care of instead. All this while, I was trying to politely let her know that I was taking as much care as possible of my skin after consultation with my dermatologist - but she simply paid no heed. Her tirade continued for another 15 mins, well until the end of our session and was simply below the belt, insensitive and frankly stank of body shaming.

I left the session very disturbed and was unsure of who to reach out to, to report my experience. Nevertheless, I did my due diligence and consulted with more than one dermatologist. I was barely surprised when they asked me to continue my present routine and did not welcome any of the suggestions that Alexa had recommended with regards to my skin care needs.

Since I already had an appointment scheduled for the month of June I did come in for it and was hoping that my traumatizing experience from earlier was a one-off and would not recur. To my shock she greeted me in the same rude manner, leaving me with no inclination to pursue any conversation with her - so as to avoid any repetition of the same unpleasant experience as before.

Needless to say, I did not consider it apt to leave any tips behind on both those occasions just owing to the poor quality of service meted out by Alexa Mock.

What I found even more disgraceful was to receive an email from the salon some days back, explicitly demanding tips for a session or requesting me to seek service elsewhere.

This is without first enquiring as to what actually transpired with the customer and that caused them to behave in a certain manner. It is simply reprehensible and speaks to the poor quality of customer service both meted out from this particular salon in regards to the training provided to the cerologists on their payroll and the aftercare they claim to provide.

Trained aestheticians should know better than to provide flippant remarks regarding a client's healthcare needs and should know when to rein it in.