Type “Ace Hair Salon” into Google from Auckland and you get three barber shops with almost the same name: one on Melrose Road in Mount Roskill, one on Thomas Road in Flat Bush and one on Puhinui Road in Papatoetoe. Between them they have 548 Google reviews. On 25 October 2026 we read every one, checked the prices on the booking page, looked up the public business records and compared each branch with the barbers down the road. Below: which branch is best for what, the barbers customers ask for by name, what the cuts cost, what goes wrong when it goes wrong, and how to walk out with the fade you asked for. For the owners, the second half is a free audit of how Ace looks on Google.
Quick answers
- Ace Hair Salon has three Auckland branches with 548 Google reviews between them, averaging 4.77 stars. Google shows Mount Roskill at 4.9 (162 reviews), Flat Bush at 4.7 (247) and Papatoetoe at 4.7 (139).
- Customers praise friendly barbers most (102 written reviews) and the quality of the fade or cut next (68). The team member named most often is Daljit at Flat Bush, in 68 reviews.
- The complaints that repeat: a cut finished in 8 to 10 minutes, an uneven fade, and a style that wasn’t what the customer asked for. 29 reviews (5%) give three stars or fewer.
- A regular haircut is $25, a zero fade $30 and a kids’ cut $20 on Ace’s online booking page. Six barbers in nearby Howick list $30 to $40 for a regular cut on Fresha.
- SEO4 Audit Score: 12 out of 30. It measures how Ace looks to customers and Google online, not how well anyone cuts hair.
Our verdict
Ace suits anyone after a quick, cheap and friendly fade or a kids’ cut without an appointment, and the reviews back that up. Mount Roskill has the best rating of the three; Flat Bush is the branch for women’s hair and brows. Watch out for speed: when Ace gets it wrong, reviewers say the cut was rushed. Bring a photo, say your guard numbers and check both sides before you pay.
In this review
- Three branches, three different salons
- What 548 Google reviews say
- The month Flat Bush got 97 reviews
- Complaints and how Ace responds
- What Ace charges
- Haircut budget check
- How Ace compares with nearby barbers
- Can you check them?
- SEO audit
- Marketing audit
- SEO4 Audit Score
- Where Ace could grow
- For barbers: your reviews and your own app
- Common questions
Three branches, three different salons
Same name, same price list, but the reviews read like three separate businesses. Mount Roskill is a barber’s shop where people name Ash and Manjeet. Flat Bush calls itself a unisex salon on Google, and 68 of its reviews name Daljit, who does women’s hair, faces and brows. Papatoetoe belongs to Paras and Billa, often praised together in the same review.
| Mount Roskill | Flat Bush | Papatoetoe | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Address | 88 Melrose Road | 3/2 Thomas Road | 169A Puhinui Road |
| Phone on Google | 09 558 5096 | 09 948 1227 | 09 600 2812 |
| Name on Google | Ace Hair Salon | Ace Hair Salon Unisex salon | Ace Hair salon |
| Google rating (reviews) | 4.9 (162) | 4.7 (247) | 4.7 (139) |
| First Google review | November 2022 | July 2023 | June 2022 |
| New reviews, last 12 months | 23 | 23 | 14 |
| Reviews at 3 stars or fewer | 5, all answered | 16, 7 answered | 8, all answered |
| Names customers mention most | Ash (34), Manjeet (16) | Daljit (68), Jaggi (12) | Paras (29), Billa (18) |
| Website and booking on Google | None | None | acehairstyle.com, Book online |
| Business record (NZBN) | Better Future Ace Limited, registered April 2024 | None found under this name | Vivek Sharma, sole trader, registered May 2022 |
Tip: click or tap any chart or screenshot to see it full screen.
Who owns what? The Papatoetoe branch is registered to Vivek Sharma as a sole trader, and Better Future Ace Limited, where he is the director, has its registered address at the Mount Roskill shop. Ace’s website and Instagram introduce Vivek as the master stylist and owner. The Flat Bush branch shares the name and the “customers are kings” line, but we found no public record linking it to the same owner, so we treat it as part of the brand and not as a proven branch of one company.
What 548 Google reviews say
418 of the 548 reviews have text. The rest are stars only.
Friendliness comes first by a distance: 102 written reviews call the staff friendly, kind, welcoming or polite. Then the cut itself, with fades, tapers and “exactly what I asked for” in 68. Price comes up in 41, almost always as “reasonable” or “affordable”. Twenty mention children, and all but two of those are positive.
The low reviews tell a different story. Of the 25 low reviews with text, ten are about the cut and ten about a rushed or uneven job. Seven mention language or communication.
Customers here remember their barber. Daljit is named in 68 reviews, more than a third of everything written about Flat Bush; her regulars come for hair, faces and brows, and several write that they have been seeing her for a while. At Mount Roskill, Ash (also spelt Aish) appears in 34 and Manjeet in 16, mostly for fades. Paras and Billa share most of Papatoetoe’s praise, often in the same review.
2025 was the big year, with 277 reviews averaging 4.89. 2026 is quieter: 50 reviews so far and an average of 4.32, because 8 of the 50 give three stars or fewer.
How to read barber reviews
Reading haircut reviews is like asking three mates where to get a pie. One says the best in Auckland, one says never again, and the third just sends a photo of the pie.
The month Flat Bush got 97 reviews
For two years Flat Bush collected a few reviews a month. Then, between 25 July and 20 September 2025, it received 130: 97 in August alone and 13 on 21 August. Every one of the 130 gives five stars. 58 of them name Daljit, and many read like long-time regulars finally writing down what they think. Papatoetoe had its own smaller rise the same August, with 29.
Our reading is a review drive: staff asking regulars to post a review over a few weeks. Asking customers for reviews is normal and allowed. The trouble is what came after. Since October 2025 Flat Bush has averaged about two reviews a month, and five of its 23 reviews in the last 12 months are at one or two stars. A wave fades; a habit doesn’t.
Complaints and how Ace responds
29 of the 548 reviews give three stars or fewer: 5 at Mount Roskill, 16 at Flat Bush and 8 at Papatoetoe. Taken together, they repeat a few patterns.
- Speed. Four reviews say the cut was over in 8 to 10 minutes and looked it. Ace’s own booking page allows 15 minutes for a regular cut and 20 for a fade.
- Uneven fades and tapers. Different sides, a crooked line, a fade that didn’t blend. The most common single complaint.
- Not the style asked for. Customers who showed a photo or asked for scissors and got something else, including one who booked a scissors cut online.
- Language. Seven low reviews mention language, communication or feeling ignored.
- Bookings and hours. One customer booked by phone and still waited; another arrived before closing time and found the shop shut.
How Ace answers depends on the branch. Mount Roskill and Papatoetoe have replied to every low review. Flat Bush has answered 7 of its 16, though it answered 4 of the 5 in the last year. Since 2025 most replies to low reviews are the same short apology with a request to get in touch. The best reply we read went further: it explained what had probably gone wrong with the trimmer and offered a free cut next time.
Replies to good reviews are even more uniform. One message, “Thank you so much for your wonderful review!” with a smiley and a barber pole, appears under 230 reviews across the three branches.
Barber’s logic
There are only two kinds of haircut: the one you asked for, and the one you get used to by Thursday.
What to do so it doesn’t happen to you: bring a photo, tell the barber the guard number for the sides, say “scissors on top” out loud even if you booked it, and ask to see the back and both sides before the cape comes off. Several of Ace’s low reviews begin with a brief that got lost, not with the clippers.
What Ace charges
Ace publishes its whole menu on its online booking page, with a price and a time for every service. A selection, as listed on 25 October 2026:
| Service | Time | Price |
|---|---|---|
| Regular haircut | 15 min | $25 |
| Zero fade | 20 min | $30 |
| Scissors cut | 20 min | $30 |
| Razor or skin fade | 20 min | $35 |
| Kids’ haircut | 15 min | $20 |
| Kids’ zero fade | 15 min | $25 |
| Beard trim | 15 min | $25 |
| Fade, hair and beard trim | 30 min | $50 |
| Skin fade, hair and beard | 30 min | $55 |
| Facial | 20 min | $35 |
| Keratin treatment | 1 hr | $130 |
| Hair colour | 30 min | $140 |
Against six barbers in Howick, next to Flat Bush, listed on Fresha, Ace is $5 to $15 cheaper on a regular cut and $5 to $15 cheaper on a zero fade. Two things on the list are worth knowing. There is a “Babies mundan” with a razor at $150, the traditional first head-shave for a baby, and an “India trip combo” at $120. You won’t find either on many Kiwi barbers’ menus.
Haircut budget check
How much does a year of Ace haircuts cost, and what would the same visits cost elsewhere? Pick your cut:
Haircut budget check: Ace prices against nearby barbers
Pick your usual cut and how often you go. The calculator shows Ace’s online price, the range nearby barbers list, what a year of haircuts costs, and a few tips drawn from 548 Google reviews.
Ace prices: the online booking page at acehairstyle.com, viewed 25 October 2026 (the booking page is linked from the Papatoetoe Google profile; ask the other branches whether their prices match). Nearby range: six Howick-area barbers on Fresha, the same day. Fresha lists no kids’ prices for them, so kids’ cuts show Ace’s price only. A budget check, not a quote.
How the calculator works
Ace prices come from its online booking page, viewed 25 October 2026. The nearby range is the lowest and highest price six Howick-area barbers list on Fresha for the same cut on the same day; Fresha lists no kids’ or skin fade prices for them, so those show Ace’s price only. Visits a year are 52 weeks divided by your gap between cuts, rounded down. The tips come from patterns in Ace’s 548 Google reviews.
How Ace compares with nearby barbers
We searched Google Maps for “barber shop” plus each suburb and collected every review of the biggest competitor near each branch.
| Near | Ace branch | Competitor | Competitor rating (reviews) | New reviews in 12 months, Ace vs competitor |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mount Roskill | 4.9 (162) | BarberShopCo Mt Roskill | 4.7 (332) | 23 vs 92 |
| Flat Bush | 4.7 (247) | Groove Kuttz Barbershop | 4.9 (180) | 23 vs 45 |
| Flat Bush | 4.7 (247) | Big Boss Barber | 4.3 (304) | 23 vs 24 |
| Papatoetoe | 4.7 (139) | The Fade Creators | 4.8 (295) | 14 vs 36 |
Ace holds its own on rating. Where it falls behind is the pace of new reviews. BarberShopCo in Stoddard Road adds about four times as many as Ace Mount Roskill, and answers 93% of them. In the Maps list for “barber shop Mount Roskill” Ace came sixth of seven; in Flat Bush, fourth; in Papatoetoe, Ace didn’t appear among the first seven.
Can you check them?
There is no national licence for barbers in New Zealand, so there is no register of qualified barbers to search. What you can check:
- Business records. Better Future Ace Limited (NZBN 9429052003431) was registered on 3 April 2024, trades as Ace Hair Salon, is classed as a barber shop and has its address at 88 Melrose Road. Vivek Sharma (NZBN 9429050613014) is registered as a sole trader trading as Ace Hair Salon from 169A Puhinui Road since 31 May 2022. Both were “Registered” on 25 October 2026.
- Council registration. In Auckland, hairdressers and barbershops register their premises with the council, according to Auckland Council’s application form; beauty services such as waxing need a separate licence. We couldn’t find a public online list to check, so ask the salon to show you.
- Complaints and news. We searched for Commerce Commission actions and news stories about Ace Hair Salon on 25 October 2026 and found none.
One small oddity: the sole trader record lists the trading areas as Auckland and “All Marlborough Region”. It is most likely a slip when the form was filled in.
SEO audit: how Ace shows up on Google
From here on, this review is for the owners. Customers can skip to the questions at the end.
What people see when they search “ace hair salon reviews”
Google suggests “ace hair salon reviews” and “ace hair salon unisex salon auckland reviews” as you type, so people do look Ace up before they go. What they find: an AI summary of the three branches, Ace’s Facebook page with about 50 followers, its own website, Fresha, an Instagram account, and then strangers: a barber in Stevenage, England, a Reddit thread about a salon near Cornell University in New York, and an app for a salon with a similar name. A search for “ace hair salon unisex salon auckland” also carried an advert for another salon, in Kingsland.
The Google profiles
Flat Bush has the most reviews of the three, and on a phone its profile offers four buttons: Call, Directions, Share and Save. There is no Website button and no Book button, because the profile has no website. Mount Roskill’s is the same. Only Papatoetoe links to acehairstyle.com and shows “Book online”. So a customer looking at Flat Bush has no way to see the prices or book a time with Daljit, unless they find the site some other way.
All three profiles use “Barber shop” as the category, Flat Bush included, even though its description talks about hairdressers for women and 36 of its reviews describe the stylist as “she” or “her”, mostly for hair, faces and brows. Its name on Google, “Ace Hair Salon Unisex salon”, adds a description to the name. Google’s guidelines ask for the real business name only, and the way to tell Google about the women’s side is with categories, such as hair salon and eyebrow bar.
The website
acehairstyle.com is built on Wix. On a phone, the first screen shows the logo, the name and “Our customers are kings”, then “Meet our team” with the note “This is only for Papatoetoe branch”. No phone number, no prices, no booking button. There isn’t a single tap-to-call link anywhere on the home page, and the only contact details in the text are a Gmail address.
- The page title is “Home | Ace hairstyle”, with no service and no suburb. There is no meta description, so Google writes its own.
- The home page has seven main headings (H1). One clear heading such as “Barber and unisex salon in Mount Roskill, Flat Bush and Papatoetoe” would tell Google what the page is about.
- Mobile speed: PageSpeed Insights gave the home page 35 out of 100. The main image took 21.1 seconds to appear on a simulated phone, and the page weighs 5.8 MB.
- The good parts: the site uses HTTPS, has LocalBusiness schema, and Google has indexed a separate page for many of the services on the booking menu.
The booking page works, but on a phone each of the 36 services takes a whole screen, and the cards repeat the same photo. Someone looking for a kids’ cut either finds the Kids tab in the sliding menu or scrolls past 26 services to reach it.
Marketing audit
Ace has three things many barbers would pay for: low published prices, staff whom customers name and follow, and a women’s side at Flat Bush, with hair, faces and brows. Most of that is invisible online.
- “Our customers are kings” is a slogan. The reviews give a better one: friendly barbers, $25 cuts, walk-ins welcome, kids looked after.
- The prices are published in full, which is good. They sit on the booking page, not on the home page where people land.
- There are 548 reviews and none of them on the website.
- Customers name Daljit, Ash, Manjeet, Paras and Billa in their reviews, but the site shows only the Papatoetoe team.
- Ace has two Instagram accounts (one for Mount Roskill and Papatoetoe, one for Flat Bush), a Facebook page and a TikTok account, with about 50 to 110 followers each on Facebook and Instagram. We couldn’t confirm a post in the last 60 days.
- Another salon advertises on a search for Ace by name. Ace doesn’t.
SEO4 Audit Score: 12 out of 30
Thirty yes-or-no checks in three parts. We scored the brand as a whole and say where a branch differs. The score measures what customers and Google can see online. It says nothing about the quality of anyone’s haircut.
| Part | Passed | Failed |
|---|---|---|
| Reviews (4/10) | 100+ reviews; 20+ in the last 12 months; replies to most reviews; staff named in 10%+ of reviews | Rating 4.77, under 4.8 (Mount Roskill alone passes); 13 reviews on one day in 2025; 20 of 29 low reviews answered; replies mostly one template; low reviews 5.3%; no second platform with 10+ reviews found |
| Search (4/10) | LocalBusiness schema; a page for each service; HTTPS and working links; own site first for “ace hair salon” | “Unisex salon” added to a Google name; two profiles without the website; no service or suburb in title and H1; no meta description; mobile speed 35; no tap-to-call |
| Marketing (4/10) | Prices published; real photos on the Google profiles; booking online in two clicks (Papatoetoe); price questions answered | Slogan instead of a promise; no guarantee; council registration not shown; no reviews on the site; no recent post confirmed; a competitor advertises on the name |
How we score
- Reviews: (1) rating 4.8 or higher; (2) 100 or more reviews; (3) 20 or more in the last 12 months; (4) no day with 5 or more reviews in the last two years; (5) replies to most reviews; (6) replies to every review at 3 stars or fewer; (7) replies are personal, not one template; (8) reviews at 3 stars or fewer under 5%; (9) a second platform with 10 or more reviews; (10) staff named in 10% or more of reviews.
- Search: (1) the Google name has no added keywords; (2) the Google phone and website match the site; (3) service and suburb or city in the page title and H1; (4) a meta description; (5) mobile PageSpeed score of 50 or more; (6) LocalBusiness schema; (7) a page for each main service; (8) tap-to-call on mobile; (9) HTTPS and no broken key links; (10) the business’s own site in the top 3 for its name.
- Marketing: (1) a clear promise above the fold; (2) prices or “from” prices; (3) a guarantee explained; (4) licences or memberships that can be checked; (5) real photos or examples of work; (6) a quote or booking within two clicks; (7) reviews shown on the site; (8) a social media post in the last 60 days; (9) the top “People also ask” question answered on the site; (10) no competitor ads on the brand name, or the business defends it.
- Each check scores 1 or 0. For a business with several branches we score the brand, and a check fails if any branch fails it, unless the table says otherwise.
Where Ace could grow
Most of these cost an afternoon, not a budget. Our view, based on the numbers above:
| What | Why, from our data | Effort | Likely effect |
|---|---|---|---|
| Add acehairstyle.com and the booking link to the Mount Roskill and Flat Bush Google profiles | 409 of the 548 reviews sit on profiles with no Website or Book button | Low | High |
| Ask for reviews every week, at the mirror | 23 new reviews a year at Mount Roskill against 92 at BarberShopCo; Flat Bush went from 97 in a month to about two | Low | High |
| One page per branch: address, phone, hours, team, map | Each branch has its own team and customers; the site shows one branch’s team | Medium | High |
| Tap-to-call buttons and the price list on the home page | No phone number on the home page; prices only on the booking page | Low | Medium |
| A personal reply to every low review within two days | 9 Flat Bush low reviews unanswered; most replies are one template | Low | Medium |
| Book realistic times and say them out loud | Four low reviews about 8 to 10 minute cuts | Low | Medium |
| Flat Bush: real name on Google, add hair salon and eyebrow categories | Name has “Unisex salon” added; category says barber only | Low | Medium |
| Faster mobile site: smaller images, fewer apps | PageSpeed 35, main image after 21 seconds, 5.8 MB | Medium | Medium |
| A small advert on the Ace name | A Kingsland salon advertises on searches for Ace | Medium | Low to medium |
| Fix the NZBN trading area | The record says “All Marlborough Region” | Low | Low |
The first 30 days
- Week 1: link the website and booking page from all three Google profiles, and check that names, phones and hours match the site.
- Week 1: reply, in a sentence or two of your own, to every low review that has no answer yet.
- Week 2: put a QR code for each branch’s review link at every mirror. Ask when the customer is looking at the finished cut.
- Week 3: add a short page for each branch with its team and phone number, and a tap-to-call button on the home page.
- Week 4: count the new reviews. Eight a month per branch would be more than any of the four neighbours we checked collects.
For barbers: your reviews and your own app
A busy chair does a hundred cuts a week or more. If even three in a hundred customers leave a review, the numbers add up quickly. Try yours:
Barbers: how long to catch the review leader on your street?
Near Ace’s Flat Bush branch, Groove Kuttz has 180 Google reviews and added 45 in the last 12 months. Near Mount Roskill, BarberShopCo has 332 and added 92. Ace Flat Bush added 23. Put in your own numbers.
180 and 332 are the Google review counts of Groove Kuttz Barbershop (Flat Bush) and BarberShopCo Mt Roskill on 25 October 2026; the calculator lets them keep their pace of the previous 12 months (45 and 92 a year). Reviews alone don’t decide Google’s map: distance, the business name, categories and the website count too. The defaults are an example, not Ace’s figures. A year is 48 working weeks.
Quote and Job Organiser: SEO4’s free app
Quote and Job Organiser is a free Android app on Google Play. We built it for tradies who quote and book jobs, and it suits salons that sell bigger services too: colour, keratin, rebonding, bridal hair. No account, no subscription, no ads, and your data stays on your phone.
- Quotes with your own prices, NZ GST and a quote number.
- A PDF on the spot, sent by email, SMS or WhatsApp when you choose.
- An accepted quote becomes a job, with the customer and price carried over.
- Notes and photos for each customer, and a calendar of the month’s bookings and payments.
Barbers usually want something a bit different: a walk-in queue on a tablet by the door, a text when a regular is due for a cut, a stamp card, a review request when the chair frees up, each barber’s bookings in one view. Send us your idea, even if it’s written on the back of a receipt. We build custom apps for barbers, salons and any other trade, and it costs less than most owners expect. We don’t quite work for haircuts, but a steak and cheese pie from the bakery next door helps more than you’d think. Tell us what you need.
Common questions
On Google, yes for most customers. Its three Auckland branches have 548 reviews averaging 4.77 stars on 25 October 2026: Mount Roskill 4.9 from 162, Flat Bush 4.7 from 247 and Papatoetoe 4.7 from 139. Reviewers praise friendly staff and good fades. The complaints that repeat are rushed cuts and uneven fades, in 29 reviews at three stars or fewer.
Ace’s online booking page lists a regular haircut at $25, a zero fade at $30, a scissors cut at $30, a razor or skin fade at $35, a kids’ haircut at $20 and a fade with beard trim at $50, as of 25 October 2026. Six barbers in Howick list $30 to $40 for a regular cut on Fresha.
There is no national licence for barbers in New Zealand. In Auckland, hairdressing and barber premises register with Auckland Council, and beauty services such as waxing need a separate licence. We couldn’t find a public online list to check Ace’s registration, so ask the salon to show it.
Talk to the barber before you pay and ask for the cut to be fixed. If that doesn’t work, call the branch: Mount Roskill 09 558 5096, Flat Bush 09 948 1227, Papatoetoe 09 600 2812. Ace replies to most Google reviews and, in its replies to low reviews, asks customers to contact the salon directly.
According to the NZBN register on 25 October 2026, the Papatoetoe branch is registered to Vivek Sharma as a sole trader, and Better Future Ace Limited, with Vivek Sharma as director, trades as Ace Hair Salon from 88 Melrose Road, Mount Roskill. We found no public record linking the Flat Bush branch to either.
Sources and how we checked
- Google reviews: SEO4 collected every public Google review of the three Ace Hair Salon listings in Auckland (548 reviews) on 25 October 2026, with date, stars and owner reply. Themes and names are keyword matches in the 418 reviews with text; each review counts once per theme or name. Low reviews are paraphrased, and we don’t name reviewers.
- Google search and Maps: searches for “ace hair salon”, “ace hair salon reviews”, each branch by suburb, and “barber shop” plus each suburb, 25 October 2026, from New Zealand. Results depend on where and when you search.
- Competitors: every public Google review of BarberShopCo Mt Roskill, Groove Kuttz Barbershop, Big Boss Barber and The Fade Creators, collected 25 October 2026.
- Prices: Ace Hair Salon online booking and Fresha, men’s haircuts in Howick, viewed 25 October 2026.
- Business records: NZBN register, Better Future Ace Limited and Vivek Sharma, trading as Ace Hair Salon, viewed 25 October 2026. The Companies Office search was unavailable that day.
- Council registration: Auckland Council, application for registration or licence of premises.
- Website: acehairstyle.com and PageSpeed Insights (mobile), 25 October 2026. Screenshots are used for review and criticism and credited in each caption.
About this review
SEO4 is not connected with Ace Hair Salon. They are not our client and did not pay for or see this review before publication.
If you work at Ace Hair Salon and something here is wrong or out of date, tell us and we will correct it: contact SEO4.
Corrections: none so far. Facts checked on 25 October 2026.
More from SEO4
- Local SEO across New Zealand: our city pages
- Quote and Job Organiser, the free quoting app
- Pricing and contact
- Ace Hair Salon reviews (you are here)
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