Shoving match breaks out when stylist turns client’s brown hair blue

Christen Pontius’ first visit to LL Hair Studio in Houston, Texas, ended with shouts and shoves after a stylist’s hair color treatment turned her brown hair blue. KPRC Local 2 spoke to Christen and her husband, Jesse Reyes, who captured the heated incident on cell phone video. Christen explained to the station, "I was telling her, I was like just, ‘I don't care if it does not turn white. But just, let's just get it as light as we can get it, but don't damage my hair.’ I was so worried about that." With those instructions, the salon owner, Hedi H., proceeded to bleach Christen’s hair. When the customer saw the results, she was understandably disappointed. Her hair was blue.

Christen said, "She was like, 'Oh, um it'll rinse out and if it doesn't rinse out, you can come back you know, and I’ll, and I'll bleach you out again.'” Because Christen was dissatisfied, she said that she offered to pay Hedi half the charge then and would return for the hair color correction and would pay the other half at that time. Christen and Jesse say Hedi became enraged and began shoving Christen demanding payment.

Jesse took out his cell phone to record the incident and said, "I just didn't like what I was seeing, so I made sure I got it on camera." The owner was told she was being recorded and on the video is heard saying, “I don’t care. Give me the money,” as the tussle moves out to the parking lot.

Hedi defended her response to the episode and said that the fix would have been a simple one but Christen refused to pay anything. "With a little bit of bleach and shampoo, and wash it out, it comes right out,” said the stylist. “You come here stealing my product, try to walk out, I have to stop you."

To which Ms. Pontius said, “Don’t be aggressive and assault me in a store because you messed up.”

A look at yelp reviews for LL Hair Studio shows only 5 reviews, more positive than negative. However, customer Elizabeth M. shared Christen's dissatisfaction with the salon's service. Her one star review read in part, "Went in for hair color and not only had to argue about what I wanted but the stylist ignored me, my highlights were orange and when I asked for toner the stylist became huffy and said ‘I don't have time for this’ !!" The review also accused Hedi of failing to correct the situation when the customer told her she didn’t like the results. Online, Hedi’s response was calmer than her reaction to Christen. Hedi wrote an apology to Elizabeth M., and offered to make amends with another appointment to fix her hair.

As for the situation with Christen, deputies from the Harris County Sheriff’s Office were called to the scene but no charges were filed against either party. Feeling pressure by the presence of the deputy and the stylist, Ms. Pontius said she ended up paying the $110 charge despite her blue hair.

Videos and more info: KPRC, Jesse Reyes