06 Nov, 2008
Posted by andrea tomkins in: - Ottawa for kids
Quick question here… if you live in Ottawa, where on earth you get your kid’s hair cut?
Do you cut it at home?
Do you go the cheap route?
Have you found a really good kid-friendly hair place?
Do share.
(Thanks!)
November 6th, 2008 at 11:25 am
Each girl has only had one haircut each. You get what you pay for. I take the girls where I get my haircut. A reasonably priced hair salon. While it’s tempting to go to First Choice I think service and PATIENCE will be lacking.
2 | Chantal
November 6th, 2008 at 11:51 am
I cut my 3 year old sons hair myself. My 7 year old has very thick hair and when I tried to cut it myself this summer the results weren’t great (hubby thought I gave him a bowl cut and wasn’t happy). So now my hubby takes him to a local salon and he gets his hair cut for $14 (I think). It isn’t as cheap as First Choice or the Zellers place but I have had mixed results with those.
My 7 year old is begging me to take him to Goobers (in Kanata on Hazeldean Rd). They get to play video games and have fun seats to sit on. But I just can’t bring myself to pay $20 for the privilege of playing X box for 10 minutes. It seems like such a sham. I think that parents need to give kids credit that they can sit quietly and still for a few minutes while their hair get cut. They don’t need to be distracted EVERY minute of their lives (or do they…) just my opinion.
3 | porter
November 6th, 2008 at 12:08 pm
Ohhhh Andrea…I don’t live in Ottawa and can’t suggest a place but PLEASE go to someone who knows how to cut curly hair???? Your girls both have gorgeous hair…I wouldn’t trust just anyone with a pair of scissors. : )
4 | Ange
November 6th, 2008 at 12:40 pm
I bring my son to the Barbershop at Carlingwood (accross from Rinaldo’s) – Francesco Hairstylists.
5 | ImogenSky
I live in Ottawa and so far I have cut my 2.5 year old’s hair myself. She needs a professional cleanup but I have NO IDEA where to take her! I can’t wait to hear more of your replies
6 | Anna
I wonder if it might be easier for boys – there are so many good traditional barber shops out there (I know people that take their girls there too btw). One of my favourites is the barber in the Westgate Mall.
Also Joe Barber in Hampton Plaza is excellent. He used to work at Westgate, but just opened up his own place.
I love to take my son, we sit and wait with men of all ages, there is usually some friendly talk between customers and we don’t have to make appointments….we go when he’s in a good mood and ready for it.
I’ve also taken him to Madisons (on Merivale, close to Baseline) with excellent results. And it’s acutally the same price as with the barber. The only draw back is that you have make an appointment.
7 | Lindsay
My hairdresser at The Spa suggested Salon Ravello for my daughter’s curly hair. She said they have a “Kid Price”. Haven’t taken her yet, but that’s where I was going to try.
There’s also a Melon Head at Place D’Orleans (I think) and I’ve heard good things. :-)
8 | Lynn
Not too much help here, as we cut our kids’ hair at home. The Captain just gets an all-over with the clippers, same as his dad. Gal Smiley gets her bangs trimmed by me every three months or so; the back is still just growing free, but we might take her in to have it trimmed up in the near future. Little Miss Sunshine is still haircut-free in her life.
We used to take the two older kids to the First Choice. I’ve heard mixed reviews of the First Choice but the one just near us (on Eagleson) is actually quite good — we like the ladies that work there, they are kind and gentle with our kids, they listen well, and give good cuts. It still cost $12 per kid, though, and since we are cutting the Captain’s hair about once every two weeks, it just seemed too expensive, so we went with doing it ourselves. That’s working out really well, actually — it’s not too hard, and I think we do a good job. It just makes a really big mess :).
9 | J.
My parents always brought me to First Choice (or places like that), when I was little. All I needed was a trim anyway… for my brother, they did that at home
10 | The Veg Next Door
The place at Carlingwood (like Ange suggested) is very good apparently. My friend brings her son there.
11 | Julie
We bring the boys to the barbershop at Westgate and love it there. I think they charge $11. On rare occasions our daughter has gotten a trim there too. I get my hair done at the Spa too and was disapointed to hear they wouldn’t see children. Her hair is straight and easy so for the most part I have done it myself – but would love to find out where to bring a young lady for a cut. As a fellow curly hair girl I just want to say that you need to beware of stylists who want to straighten their hair – usually it means they don’t work well with curly hair. It has been a lifelong struggle to find someone who “gets it”. Let me know if you find my saviour out there.
12 | Soire
I take the girls to the one inside Zellers on merivale, or over to the “barber” shop at Lincoln Fields across from sleep country where I get my hair cut.
We cut the man thing’s hair at home (the girls think it’s fun…) and will likely do the same when LittleBoy needs his hairs cut.
13 | MomOnTheGo
I take Reid to Melon Heads at Place d’Orleans. They specialize in kids hair which is a fabulous thing when you have a 4 year old who is afraid to get her hair cut. She sat in what seemed like one of those cars that are in the middle of the mall (that some people put money in but I don’t ;+). There was a video on the televisions and in the end the hairdresser sprayed Reid’s hair with glitter hairspray. As we left the salon, she asked to go back. High praise indeed.
14 | MomOnTheGo
Sorry, I should have said that they do have conventional salon chairs as well as the cars/horses/etc.
15 | Meghan
One thing I learned when I brought my two girls for haircuts is ask the price ahead of time. I left Salon Ravello at Carlingwood after shelling out over 50$!
They both have long straight hair so its easy to cut. I think the price was so high because they STYLED it. Beware that once you start going to a salon with girls they want to go back there again and again……..
I like Hair Committee on Wellington across from St Vincent’s, I have gone there and I think they would do a good job with kids.
16 | Vanessa
November 7th, 2008 at 12:36 pm
ooh..there’s a new KIDS ONLY hair salon in Kanata…
for “the works”… shampoo, hair cut and finish of your choice, it’s $20… pretty reasonable.
17 | Amy
I used to live in Bells Corners, there was a place at the corner of Richmond and Robertson that cut hair for cheap (woman’s wash/cut for $14 when I moved in 2001), but the quality was hit and miss.
18 | Debbie
February 22nd, 2009 at 7:19 pm
A quick response to Chantals post, the price for a cut at Goobers is $12.50. The price of $20.00 that you quoted is for Wash, condition, cut & blowdry :-)
19 | TwinMom
I was really disappointed with Goobers…the staff and owner are unbelievably unfriendly, and all the video games and toys don’t make up for bad service. We took about 20 pictures of our kids getting their hair cut and the girl doing it was not smiling in one of them. And don’t even get me started on their horrible gift cards. Beware! No change back and you can’t carry a balance.
My husband loves the barber in Westgate for him and our son, and I’ve taken my daughter to the Cappucci Hair Salon on Strandherd and they did a good job. $15 for cut and style.
20 | Karen
I love the concept of Goobers but we have had hit and miss times there. Currently my sons have lines in their head where it looks like waves. This has happened before and I took them back and had them fix it (not a good sign when in total you have been there less than a dozen times) but this time I couldn’t be bothered and luckily they wear hats in the summer.
21 | Allison
Came across this post on Google when looking up kids’ salons in Ottawa. Let me add Chiquicuts to the list! http://www.chiquicuts.com I’ve used them a few times now for my son who is 2yrs and have not been disappointed! They are not open on Mondays though which is why I was looking to see what other alternatives there were if I wanted to get my younger son’s hair cut today!
22 | Sarah
September 12th, 2010 at 12:43 pm
I would NOT recommend Goobers. We’ve gone twice and both times have had to go for a second cut to fix the initial cut (and I took my daughter elsewhere, as I didn’t think they’d do a better job the second time). The setup is great but the stylists are totally third rate.
23 | Lisa
December 22nd, 2010 at 3:32 pm
Would never recommend Chiquitacuts….unfriendly , never washed the combs or the cars after someone elses cut , did I mention unfriendly to the point of rude !!! They need new personalities especially when you are working with kids !!
24 | Jenn
Chiquicuts is horrible first time was rushed and they are very rough. Stupid me went back again this time the hair dresser took off the guard on the clippers and caught my sons ear then as he turned left 2 bald patches. No sorry or anything and I still had to pay $15.
Now my son wants nothing to do with getting his hair cut he screams bloody murder.
Took a chance with Melonheads because they have a Thomas chair which I thought might help. The lady was great and very patient and really helped my son through his fear.
25 | Dee
September 6th, 2011 at 11:29 pm
Hi Andrea!
Are you still looking? Dianne (Publisher @ OttMag) has an excellent guy named Sebastian, who is also a trainer at the Y). If I didn’t have my amazing guy in TO, I’d be going to her guy.
26 | Dee
September 6th, 2011 at 11:31 pm
You do recall that Dianne has C U R L Y hair, as do I ;-). First Choice, and pretty much any haircut under $30, is likely NOT going to be an experienced cut for a curly mane.
27 | margo
September 30th, 2011 at 11:00 pm
i went to chiquicuts the other day to have my children’s hair cut and what a disaster. the hair cut was so uneven i could have done a better job at home myself. salon was very dirty, stylist dropped her comb many times and kept on using it with out washing and sanitizing it, how gross is that. the child be fore me was crying and what not all over the car and it was not even cleaned after. I had asked the stylist to clean the car and she did not have time, since i am the only person working and i only have 15 mins to cut hair no time to clean. why dont they have more stylist working here?? that is the question i had in the back of my mind..
I paid for both cuts, it was so expensive for the service what a scam and a waste of money will never go back and will not recommend this salon to any of my friends
Since then i had to go and get my kids hair fixed,
took them to a salon in bayshore mall.
It was that bad the stylist thought i had cut my kids hair and i had told the stylist where i took them and she replied, oh that place, i fix cuts on a daily bases from them!!!!!
watch out other parents that’s all i have to say!!!!
28 | Heather
I take my kids to Salon Ravello. My son and daughter have been going there for years. Katerina has been consistently giving them perfect cuts. I remember when Justin Bieber was first discovered. She gave my son the “Bieber” haircut and he was thrilled.
29 | Sarah
Wow, thanks for all the input! I found this site by searching for places in Ottawa… my son is not quite 9 months old but desperately needs a haircut (he has “Einstein hair”). I was looking at Chiquicuts because their website is so cute but after these reviews I will NOT be going there! I think we will try Melonheads… we’re in the east end anyway so that would work out well!
30 | Niko
November 25th, 2012 at 1:00 pm
I have been to a couple of kid’s hair styling places with our children. The common denominator between all of these niche places is the stylist need a considerable amount of patience and an amazing ability to assess which approach to use with a scared child.
Some are naturals at achieving this – some are lacking in their bedside manner.
However, I believe in the adage “the customer isn’t always right — but their perception is.” On this note, I am going to give some of the bad-mouthers on this site a pass since they do not see it from the point of view of the stylists.
A lot of time there are not compliant parents whose anxieties are imprinted on their children and inadvertently scare the bejezus out of their own kids. Asides from ignoring stylists’ recommendation to use clippers to speed up the process and to rely on the guard to prevent accidents – a sense of entitlement for the 15$ haircut takes over all sensibilities transforming the client into a diva.
I have also seen 4-6 y.o. actually swatting, hitting, grabbing their equipment and throwing it on the ground and even spitting at the hair stylist. Meanwhile some of these entitled parents are laughing, not intervening, or continuing to take pictures to capture little Junior’s “cuteness”.
I personally try to help out first by giving the stylist space instead of hovering over my girls when they are getting their hair trimmed. I am not trying to startle/distract them either while the stylist is trying to even out bangs or cut around the ears!
At one point, I almost spoke up as a customer to invite one parent to leave after their disgraceful behavior from their Queen/Princess team.
In a nutshell, just because you pay your 15-16$ for a haircut does not entitle you to abuse and later bad mouth the stylists. Put the shoe on the other foot and take this into account sometime!
31 | Angie
I agree with a lot of the other parents here. I have takene daughter to both chiquicuts (dirty, and rushed), and to Goobers, which has to have the worst customer service in the world. And no- my daughter was not misbehaving and she was not acting like a diva as the previous poster suggests. I walked into an empty salon, where there is a sign that says ‘walk-ins’ welcome. The lady at the desk did not even look up at me, let alone say anything. After 2 minutes I asked of it would be possible to get my daughter a haircut. She asked if I had called ahead because she didn’t see our name in the book. I said that I thought that they took walk-ins. She said they would do it this time. ( keep in mind, an EMPTY salon. Not a kid in sight- we were the only ppl there!). She cut my daughters hair with a scowl on her face, pushing her head this way and that ( she could have easily asked her to tilt her head- my child was quite compliant). At the end, when my daughter asked for some glitter please, the stylist scowled again, took a big sigh as if she had to go out of her way and just dumped it on. That was the 3rd and absolute last time that I ever went there! All my friends who have gone there have had similar experiences. While inunderstand that some kids an be unruly, that is no reason to take it out on all the well behaved ones and ruin the experience. oNow, I take my daughter to my regular salon where she is gets a smile with her haircut. Most salons have a kids rate and I pay $15.
32 | Alex
I took my 2 year old to Chiquicuts last week and it was fine. My kid just zombied out on the tv so barely noticed having her hair cut. Took my kid to Goobers last year and they charged $20 for what was literally a 5 minute hair cut. The place was empty too so not sure why they had to rush it. Last time I went by they had gone out of business. I’m in the west end so never been to Melonheads.
My name is Andrea and I live in the Westboro area of Ottawa with my husband Mark and our dog Piper who is kind of a big deal on Instagram. We also have two human offspring: Emma (24) and Sarah (22). During the day I work as a writer at the Royal Ottawa Mental Health Centre. I am a longtime Ottawa blogger and I've occupied this little corner of the WWW since 1999. The Fishbowl is my whiteboard, water cooler, and journal, all rolled into one. I'm passionate about healthy living, arts and culture, travel, great gear, good food, and sharing the best of Ottawa. I also love vegetables, photography, gadgets, and great design.
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