This place deserves 4 stars. Really, it does. "Why the hell are you starting out a 3-star review by stating it should have 4 stars?" you're probably saying. "You should really start making sense, Robin, or else I might have you punch you in the ovaries." Geez, you don't have to be so mean. But keep reading, we'll get there.

The place is sort of "hoity toity", which is my favorite way to describe any place that's trying to be fancy to the point that I don't quite feel like I fit in. 'Cause I'm a fancy girl. Okay, so I'm not, but I can definitely pretend to be.

Lets start out with the reason I came here, considering my normal go-to place is the Electric Chair in OB (still AMAZING, btw). After signing up for their email alerts years ago, every once in awhile I receive 'deals', and this time I got one that was too good to pass up. 30% any service (so I got their 'top stylist two' at a normal $60 rate for $40), plus a $20 gift certificate to Old Venice Restaurant in PL (see my review, they're amazing) and 6 free travel pieces (which are dinky, but still free) of their fancy shmancy Phyto products.

So I go in. I don't have to wait long, and the girl was nice enough to find me a 'hipper' magazine in the interim (so I didn't have to browse through Home and Garden..."Oh! red-handled stainless steel shears to match my red-handled stainless steel hoe!"). So that was sweet. Then I had to go into a 'back room' to put on their hair cutting sheath on, which I was 'free to leave my shirt on or take it off'. Weird. On, thankyouverymuch, I don't know how many ladies have lactated in that thing.

I lie down to have my hair washed by a very sweet girl. The stuff she used smelled delectable and got a few minutes of scalp massage out of it (much better than any other hair place I've been to). But here comes the reason for the lack of 'greatness' - they're all PRODUCT PUSHERS. Excuse my language. That's right, ya'll. They'll treat you like royalty and give you a pretty decent haircut, but they'll spend the wh

There is a small parking lot for Dearinger, but it fills up quickly. There's usually parking along the neighboring streets, though, and I've never had a problem finding a space. Inside may be a little spartan, but there's plenty of seating and the stylists take good care of you once you're there.

I am very picky about who I let near my hair. My hair is awesome and I want it to stay that way. I love this salon and recommend it to everyone. Come to this salon and you will NEVER have a bad hair day. I only go 2 or possibly 3 times a year (the cuts are so perfect they stay looking good). EVERY stylist is an expert and does meticulous work. They pay attention to what I want and I have never seen a patron leave that didn't look terrific.

first of all i dont typically write reviews online about the places i receive services from, however, this time i wanted other people to know that Dearinger does not live up to all the hype. i was a customer of Dearinger for over a year and referred many new customers to them - which i regret now. Krystal the salon manager is completely unprofessional and did nothing to address my concerns after receiving a less than satisfactory highlight. She clearly does not care about client retention. I dont know why i kept going back to the salon, probably the convenience of location, but every time i left i was upset with my services and more upset for swallowing a huge bill on top of receiving services I was not happy with. They schedule appointments basically on top of one another so you might have your hair washed by one person then your hair brushed by another then cut by another and dried by another. All in all that makes for a very impersonal experience - more like a car on an assembly line just waiting for the next worker to attend to me. So not only was my colorist overbooked and never on time they left during my service to consult on another client - very, very unprofessional. This is the usual routine for this salon - clearly Mark Dearinger is not concerned with quality and building true client relations rather pushing as many people through the salon as possible and spitting them out just as fast. Not to mention every time someone washed my hair, who was never the person who had colored my hair, washed it so hard it became so insanely tangled it took the hair brusher like 40 minutes just to detangle the mess they had created. And most importantly the salon services i had done were not that great - i was never satisfied and left just feeling angery. Not to mention every time i went to salon i spent 3+ hours there, which is just too long. With all the overlap in booking i spent a great deal of the time waiting for the next "assembly worker" to address my hair. So instead of feeling good about my hair i was just ready to heck out of the salon (it usually was not until i was home that i realized i was also unhappy about my hair). On top of that the salon workers are constantly throwing new magazines on your lap - which have other people cut hair in the margins like they had swept the floor with them - absolutely disgusting. And on top of the poor service the stylist are constantly trying to get you to buy products from the salon. It was really distracting and made the situation awkward. Most people have a hard time spending 50 more dollars on some fancy shampoo after spending 150 dollars for a less than par salon service. I am all about giving people a second or even third chance to make things right but Dearinger does not seem too concerned with keeping loyal clients. This is amplified by the salon manager Krystal's unwillingness to address customer's concerns.

I had an awful experience at Dearinger. I thought it would be fun as it is in a great area of town and supposedly has a good name. I went to Orange Salon & Spa, a local salon in Encinitas and had a girl named Lisa fix it. She wouldn't comment on another stylists hair cut but her face said it all.