Branch: Naturals Unisex Salon, Chrompet(Located right above Sony showroom on GST), Chennai, Tamilnadu. I happen to be a member at this parlor and visit occasionally for haircuts, head massages and mild facials.
Aesthetics:
The infrastructure is mediocre as you have to make way to this parlor, only through the Sony showroom below. In case you are visiting this parlor in the early morning, the security personnel at the parking lot will show you a dirty staircase to go through. The stairway ends up in a store room full of dirty clothes for you to breath-in in the early morning as a result of your bad karma in the previous birth.
Reception:
Once inside, you will be asked to be seated but will not be provided with a catalog to go through the services available at the parlor. When you ask for one, they will make you wait till they deal with all the awaiting customers at the front desk and search through every nook and corner of the salon to give you a torn catalog with numerous corrections made to the rate column in pen. They either have no money and intention to print a revised catalog or into some "Go Green" initiatives to save our entire planet from doomsday.
Staffing:
Staff at this parlor have the least ethics in dealing with, what the customers actually want and more into selling their premium products and services. Once you are put up on a chair, you will get the typical observation from them which is,
"You have tanned so much/your hair is so rough. Why don’t you open your wallet and get the most costliest spa at our parlor, so that my boss can get his kids to Disneyland in US?"
Don’t budge here and stick to what you really want. Once they are done with you, get the neurons of your brain ready to face another question "We have this amazing product from L’oreal which will make your skin glow like Tamanna’s. Why don’t you get this home so that it accidentally gets rolled beneath your cot and ends up being discovered on the day you vacate the house?"
You can get away here by looking at product and saying "Hey! What do you know? I have same sit at home!"*.
If you are someone who has not been listening to latest Tamil songs, you are in for some treat already. They will play you almost all the latest Tamil "Kuthu" songs when you have your eyes, closed up and trying to take off the burden of a week long’s tension at office. When you walk out of the parlor, you turn into either of two; A Vijay or an Ajith fan and this is applicable to even people from other states, who do not know a word in Tamil.
If you are a gifted soul, you can occasionally witness few war of words among the staff. Once a guy barged into a private session of mine to ask the other one inside the room about his comb, which the other person seemed to borrow most of the time. And now, you get to have the pleasant moment of watching two perfectly built adults, indulge in a game called *"Who’s the bigger boss before a customer?"
Goodies:
This is better than the local barber shops around. The only thing which excites me about visiting this place is the Sony showroom through which you get through while returning back. You are free to touch and feel the latest Sony gadgets in the market as long as you don’t faint away from your experience at the salon above.
Verdict:
Visit this parlor if you are getting services like a haircut or a massage which does not cost more than 500 bucks. Any service which is costlier than this, is simply not worth it here. Never reveal that you are working in some XYZ MNC as they will try to use this information to speak their way out to get you to be the next "Bakra".
Advise to the owner of this parlor:
Get a reality check on the parlor. Treat customers well and do not force them to buy products and services. We do not like it when we are being taken for a ride. Improve the hygiene and aesthetics by having clean catalogs, pleasant spa music etc and train your staff on how to behave before a customer.