Cortex Hair Studio

Jan 05, 2025

Jessica is an amazing stylist who does outstanding work. She really sits down and listens to what your hair goals are. I would be lost without her. Not only is she good at hair, she is so welcoming and easy to talk to. 10/10 stars

Apr 05, 2024

Always a great experience!

Apr 05, 2024

Second time going and both great experiences. My stylist Lyons is great. Chill environment with good music.

Mar 05, 2024

I had my haircut today. I've started loving my hair again. Service, fees, location, etc everything was super satisfying. I will definitely be a regular customer.

Feb 05, 2024

I got my haircut by Marion virtually my entire life. I would never go anywhere else.

Feb 05, 2024

I’ve been getting my hair cut and colored at Cortex for more than 15 years. Brandy is the best!

Feb 05, 2024

Love Brandy and John. Both are fabulous people and great at their jobs!

Feb 05, 2024

Love this place and Olivia is the best at a wolf cut and color!

Feb 05, 2023

Very professional, the owner is very nice and respectful! Everyone is nice and kind!

Feb 05, 2022

Cortex staff and stylists are awesome. My whole family goes there. A pretty wide range of costs depending on stylist, which is nice.

Feb 05, 2022

Got a cut and color today, I was extremely impressed with the cleanliness of this salon! Olivia did my cut and color and did an incredible job! I am very picky about my hair and there is not one thing I would change about it and that is a first! If you are looking for a salon with fantastic stylists this is the place to go!

Feb 05, 2022

Let me start this off by saying I've never left a bad review nor have I ever even reviewed a business online. So leaving bad review is just not in my nature. I have been a customer of Cortex since 2015 and I will never return after my latest experience. If the haircut and color service that I paid for wasn't bad enough, the poor customer service from the owner, Marion, really drove the nails into the coffin. I had a horrible experience with a cut and balayage on May 1st, 2021. I saw Olivia and asked for a very simple hair trim and balayage. What I got, quite frankly, looked like a child took dull scissors to the ends of my hair and dipped the top portion of my hair only (!) in pure blonde hair dye. My hair is a medium brown so the underside was still medium brown. The owner called and left a voicemail stating that that was how balayage was supposed to look and spent a minute and a half over voicemail trying to convince me that what was done was done properly and with skill. It was not. To then tell me that the pictures she saw that the stylist took looked "absolutely gorgeous" is incredibly unacceptable when I sent the pictures attached here to her and it's clearly not at all what I asked for nor is it how anyone should execute a balayage technique. We all know how styling, lighting and filtering can make things appear different than they actually are....it's the magic of social media. The pictures here where I styled my hair how I do on a daily basis are completely unfiltered and in the same lighting to show the difference. Not only was I completely let down by Cortex I had to pay $300 MORE to get it fixed at a different salon that was highly recommended to me by people that I trust. The owner explained their policy to me and said had I come in to get it fixed there then we could've avoided this issue; however, I did not trust that they could fix the damage that had been done and didn't want to risk more damage and loss of hair. So instead I chose to go to another salon where friends of mine go and whose hair is always done with the highest of skill and integrity. Since they are not refunding my money for a horrendous haircut and color, I hope that they will use that $305 to further Olivia's education. The first picture is the inspiration picture I showed to the stylist. The second and third are the results after I got my hair done at Cortex. The fourth picture is after it was re-done at a different salon.

Feb 05, 2022

Olivia has been doing my color and cutting my sons hair for about a year now and it has been great every time! She gives me the most seamless balayage and my sons have never been able to find someone to cut their thick curly hair right. My sons get compliments from all their friends. She does a great job every time! She is the first hair stylist I have found that can cut the right layers into my long hair. I love my style!! If you’re looking for a great hairstylist, definitely go see Olivia!

Feb 05, 2022

Olivia was excellent i love my hair. Very nice place and everyone was very friendly.

Feb 05, 2022

Thank you Cortex! I have gone to Olivia now a few times. To say that my hair is hard to cut is an understatement! I have very short hair that grows in crazy different directions. I have literally been turned away from places that say they do not know how to work with my hair or what I want. Olivia listened me and my concerns. She gave me just what I was looking for an I feel comfortable returning to have her shape up my hair again. I will be back!

Feb 05, 2021

Always a great and professional experience here. Olivia has been my go-to for a couple of years now, and she is very skilled and always so lovely to work with. Would highly recommend!

Feb 05, 2021

Always top notch. Well defined safety protocols in place. Jon is amazing in ensuring my hair looks it's best.

Feb 05, 2021

Emily Newman is an outstanding stylist. There is no one else who understands what to do with this head of *very long* hair as well as she does. It’s a 30 minute drive for me and 100% worth it. Not to mention, Emily has a way of making everyone she meets feel like a long time friend, so the time spent in the chair is always filled with great conversation. Cortex Studio has consistently offered a friendly, attentive, relaxed and clean environment for every visit over the last 4 years. *Given the current state of affairs, it’s worth mentioning that I’m also impressed with their efforts to have responsible COVID-19 protocols in place as well.

Feb 05, 2021

Great stylists and great atmosphere! I've been a customer for 18 years! Drive 25 miles each way just because I'm so pleased with the services I receive -- cut and color.

Feb 05, 2021

Local and friendly hair salon, where everyone knows your name.

Feb 05, 2021

My ex got her hair done hear and it looked fabulous for our wedding anniversary. We had a lovely dinner anniversary at the Tokyo Japanese steak house and fun night out on the town. Rented stretched limo, and danced the night away in buckhead. Fun fun!

Feb 05, 2021

This has been my salon since I moved here in 2014. After doing my research, and making the first visit, I knew I'd found the place for me. Friendly and welcoming staff, and Emily is the best! When Emily was off for a bit Olivia stepped in and delivered/proved the same high standards I've come to enjoy here at Cortex. If you want an educated, professional, collaborative stylist, then, Cortex is the salon choice for you!

Feb 05, 2021

This studio is the BEST! Emily (Newman) Cunningham is an incredible stylist and an amazing person. Its nearly a 40 minute drive for me and its absolutely worth it. I leave her chair happy every single time.

Feb 05, 2021

love this place

Feb 05, 2020

I am so happy to have found Cortex and Emily in particular.  I have short hair and its a bit wavy, so it really needs someone who knows what they are doing.  Emily nails it every time! I am now so loyal that I will move my own schedule around to make sure she cut it.  I also love how friendly everyone is there.  Such a good find in Virginia Highlands.

Feb 05, 2020

I have been seeing Emily for nearly 7 years., and it's been the best 7 years of haircuts! She is simply wonderful! Not only is she a wizard with the scissors, she also gives amazing advice. No matter what kind of hair problem I've been looking to solve, or cut I'm interested in trying, she's been there to provide excellent guidance. I cannot recommend her highly enough!

Feb 05, 2020

I have been to this wonderful salon twice now. And when I tell you that Speaks volumes...I’m not kidding. I have now dyed my hair pink 5 separate times with five separate salons. I have never TILL NOW gone back to a salon because I liked it enough and the hair stylist enough. Emma is so sweet and talented. She is very special I will dare to say I have a salon and a stylist of my own. This last visit was a bit crazy cause I ended up having a time constraint due having to pick up my niece and nephew. So instead of saying oh well. Emma asked Olivia to help. Olivia is wonderful as well. So sweet and super funny to talk to. I will definitely be coming back to this wonderful salon. And I fully recommend both Emma and Olivia. Thank you both for everything, even with the craziness surrounding my visit. I went from hot pink to blonde. Come to find out...that is not an easy thing to do. They did an incredible transformation on me. Everyone is loving my hair. Thank you both very much.

Feb 05, 2020

PIC's taken directly after service provided by salon (3 days) .... not 5 months later as manager reply likes to imply. I have nothing to gain by posting a bad review/ I know bad reviews always sound bitter, so I hate to leave them. But, I have never experienced hair damage like this in my life, and I just want to save someone going through the same awful experience. I just moved to Virginia Highlands area, and was looking for a new salon. With all of the positive reviews for Cortex, I decided to give it a try. I decided to go in for a cut just to test the waters and meet the stylist before I let her work on my platinum blonde hair. She was nice, cleaned up the damage from extensions and processing hair, and gave me a good cut. However, I was concerned that she might not have the experience needed to take my blonde down to a more natural color. So i decided I would ask the manager if they thought that she could preform services I was looking for. The manager guaranteed me that she would be able to safely work with coloring my hair. I shared that I am used to spending 500/visit on my hair and would spend any amount to make sure there was no further damage. Manager again assured me that the Stylist would be "Great at this" referring to coloring my hair. With this recommendation, I made an appointment to come back for my color. huge mistake. The process seemed like it was going fine - after I was rinsed off, I asked the stylist how my hair held up, because I knew it was damaged from being blonde. She said "Good - hardly any hair came off in the bowl". I would come to find out that this woman had ZERO integrity and completely lied. As you can see from pictures, she burned off a huge portion of hair. She styled around the mishap, charged me her whole fee, and accepted my 20+% tip. When I got home I thought something looked off, but no one likes how other people style their hair and put it up in a ponytail until I could wash it the next day. After washing it was so clear that something was wrong. All of the hair on the right side of my face was missing about 3 inches down from the root! Just gone!!!! I am amazed that anyone would have so little integrity and class. Not only did she ruin my hair, and lie to me about it... but then she billed me. I have never in my life been treated so horribly by a salon. I just wanted to share this story so that you can be cautious when choosing this salon for coloring. It could cost you 3 years of damage grow-out + the insult of paying them to destroy your hair. UPDATE: I see the owners reply here and it is laughable. I took my time in posting this review because I wanted be be fair and unemotional. It did take me a lot of time to come out and speak about this, but as I said in my original review - I hate posting bad reviews, but i just did not want anyone else to have the negative experience that I had. I have time stamps from when the photos were taken and they were taken directly after my visit - any Iphone provides time of photo taken so this is just further evidence that there is little integrity here. The owner himself comments below that they took before photos of my hair- and they did take them. But, they REFUSED to take the after pic's!!!!! Probably because they did not want any one to see just how bad my hair looked after they were done!!!! This damage did not exist before I came to the salon. I have no reason to lie about this --- obviously a business trying to cover up and save face does. Clearly I am not getting anything from lying..... but a business trying to cover up their ineptitudes by blaming the victim will always have to pipe up and defend their actions.