The company behind M2 Hair Salon, at 221 Dominion Road in Mount Eden, was registered in October 2010. That makes it sixteen this month. It has 91 Google reviews, a 4.6 rating and regulars who say they have been coming for six years. It has no website. Search for “m2 hair salon reviews” and you get a Reddit thread, a booking site the salon doesn’t use and salons with the same name in California, New York and Illinois. So on 26 October 2026 we read every Google review of the Dominion Road salon, in English and in Chinese, checked what nearby salons charge and looked at what Google shows people who search for M2 by name. The first half is for anyone thinking of booking. The second is a free audit for the owners.
Quick answers
- M2 Hair Salon, 221 Dominion Road, Mount Eden, has a 4.6 rating from 91 Google reviews (26 October 2026). 79 of them give five stars.
- Customers praise friendly stylists and a relaxed salon (23 written reviews), getting the style they asked for (19) and colour work. Maggie is the stylist named most often.
- Seven reviews give one or two stars. Three of them say the cut or length wasn’t what the customer asked for. Only one of the seven has a reply from the salon.
- M2 doesn’t publish prices; you book by phone on 09 963 4912. Salons nearby publish women’s cuts from $39 to $120 and all-over colour from $100 to $180.
- SEO4 Audit Score: 4 out of 30, mostly because there is no website. It measures what people can find online, not the quality of the hair.
In short
M2 suits people who want an experienced colourist or a cut from a stylist who will take time to talk it through, and who don’t mind phoning to book. Its regulars stay for years. The risk is the one every salon has, in M2’s case written down three times: a cut that ends up shorter or different from the photo. Say the length in centimetres and ask the stylist to repeat it back.
What’s inside
- M2 at a glance
- What 91 reviews say
- The complaint that keeps coming back
- What a cut or colour costs near Dominion Road
- Salon visit check
- M2 and its neighbours
- Can you check them?
- Who answers when you search for M2
- The Fresha page M2 doesn’t run
- Marketing audit
- SEO4 Audit Score
- Where M2 could grow
- For salon owners: reviews and your own app
- Common questions
M2 at a glance
| Address | 221 Dominion Road, Mount Eden, Auckland 1024 |
| Phone | 09 963 4912 (bookings by phone) |
| Hours | Monday to Saturday 10am to 6pm, closed Sunday |
| Services listed | Men’s, women’s and children’s cuts, colour, perms, straightening, treatments and make-up |
| Company | M2 Hair Salon Limited, registered 27 October 2010, status Registered |
| Google rating | 4.6 from 91 reviews; first review March 2018 |
| Website | None |
| Owner replies on Google | 4 of 91 reviews |
Tip: click or tap any chart or screenshot to see it full screen.
What 91 reviews say
51 of the 91 reviews have text, and eight include Chinese, which suits a salon on Auckland’s best-known street for Chinese food and shops. The rest are stars only.
The most common praise is about how the visit feels: friendly staff, patience, a calm salon. One reviewer compares it to a get-together of friends who happen to be very good at hair. Next comes the cut itself and whether it matched the request, and here M2’s fans are specific. A customer with curly hair got exactly the cut they wanted. Another had a box-dye disaster colour-corrected. A third, with very thick curly hair, writes that the blow-dry and straightening held for five days.
Loyalty runs through the reviews. At least six customers say they have been coming for years, one of them for six, and two say they have never gone anywhere else since their first visit. Maggie is named in seven reviews and Vivian in three, sometimes together.
The stars split almost into two camps: 84 reviews at four or five, seven at one or two, and none at three.
Reviews have trickled in since 2018, with one exception. On 5 August 2023 the salon received ten in a single day, all five stars, six of them about colour. Since then it has collected between seven and thirteen a year, and 2026 is already its second-best year, with 13.
Lost in translation
Hairdressers measure in centimetres. Clients measure in “a little bit”. Somewhere between the two lives every bad salon review in New Zealand.
The complaint that keeps coming back
Seven reviews give one or two stars. One has no text, another says only that it was the first and last visit, and two from 2019 call the salon expensive, one after a perm. The other three, from 2023, 2025 and 2026, tell the same story: the customer explained the length or showed a photo, and walked out with something else. In one, hair the customer wanted kept below the chest ended at the collarbone. In another, a second stylist took off another 8 cm after the customer had agreed to keep the length, and the customer was charged in full. The most recent was a look for a wedding that Sunday, which left no time to fix it.
The salon replied to one of the seven, with an apology. The other six, including June 2026’s, are unanswered. A reply doesn’t change the haircut, but it is the first thing a nervous new customer reads.
How to avoid it, at M2 or anywhere else:
- Say the length in centimetres and show it on yourself with your hand. A photo shows the style, not how much comes off.
- Ask the stylist to repeat it back before the first cut.
- Ask for big changes in two steps: most of it, then a look in the mirror together, then the rest.
- Don’t book the day before an event. Leave a few days for a fix.
What a cut or colour costs near Dominion Road
M2 doesn’t publish a price list anywhere we could find: not on Google, not on Fresha, not on the Dominion Road directory. You ring and ask. To give you a yardstick, here is what other salons in Auckland’s inner suburbs publish.
| Service | Published nearby | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Women’s cut | $39 to $120+ | Live & Let Dye, Mount Eden Road: $55 to $70 with wash and blow-dry |
| Kids’ cut | $35 to $45 | Live & Let Dye: $35 to $45 by age and length |
| Root colour | $95 | Live & Let Dye colour retouch |
| All-over colour | $100 to $180 | Live & Let Dye from $105, plus $20 for each extra bowl |
| Balayage | From $165 | Live & Let Dye |
| Perm | $150 to $300 | North Shore salons on Fresha |
Two questions Google’s searchers ask most. Balayage around Mount Eden starts at about $165 and goes up with length and the amount of colour. Permanent straightening is harder to price: none of the nearby salons we checked publishes it.For one reference point, in our Ace Hair Salon review Ace lists rebonding at $150 and keratin at $130. Ask M2 for a quote that includes any follow-up treatment.
Salon visit check
Salon visit check: what to expect around Mount Eden
M2 Hair Salon doesn’t publish prices, so you have to call. Pick the service and your hair, and the calculator shows what salons nearby publish, what to ask M2 on the phone, and how to make sure the cut matches your photo.
Nearby prices: Live & Let Dye’s online booking on Mount Eden Road and Fresha listings for salons in Mount Albert, St Lukes, Epsom and Onehunga (perms: North Shore salons on Fresha), all viewed 26 October 2026. “Plan for” is the upper half of that range for long or thick hair and the lower half for short hair; it is a budget guide, not anyone’s quote. M2’s phone number is from its Google profile.
How the calculator works
“Published nearby” is the lowest and highest price we found for the service at salons around Mount Eden on 26 October 2026. “Plan for” takes the lower half of that range for short hair, the middle for shoulder-length hair and the upper half for long or thick hair. It is a budget guide only: M2 doesn’t publish prices, so ring the salon for a quote. The tips come from patterns in M2’s 91 Google reviews.
M2 and its neighbours
Two salons on Dominion Road and two on Mount Eden Road, about a kilometre and a half away, give a sense of the competition. M2 has fewer reviews than any of them. Its 4.6 is above Smart Hair’s 4.5 and below the other three. The real gap is in replies. Smart Hair has answered 98% of its reviews, Live & Let Dye 86% and Vivo 76%. M2 has answered 4%.
| Salon | Google rating (reviews) | New in 12 months | Reviews with a reply |
|---|---|---|---|
| M2 Hair Salon, 221 Dominion Rd | 4.6 (91) | 13 | 4% |
| Smart Hair, 583 Dominion Rd | 4.5 (124) | 40 | 98% |
| Amazing Hair & Beauty Studio, 433 Dominion Rd | 4.8 (102) | 3 | 78% |
| Vivo Hair Salon Mt Eden, 451 Mount Eden Rd | 4.7 (195) | 39 | 76% |
| Live & Let Dye, 476 Mount Eden Rd | 4.7 (170) | 12 | 86% |
Can you check them?
- The company. M2 Hair Salon Limited (NZBN 9429031330305) was registered on 27 October 2010, is classed as a hairdressing service and has its registered office at 221 Dominion Road. Its status on 26 October 2026 was Registered.
- Council registration. Hairdressers in Auckland register their premises with the council, according to Auckland Council’s application form, and beauty services need a separate licence. We found no public list to check online. Ask to see the certificate if you want to be sure.
- Complaints and news. We searched for news stories and Commerce Commission actions about M2 Hair Salon on 26 October 2026 and found none.
Who answers when you search for M2
From here on, this review is for the owners. Customers can skip to the questions at the end.
On a phone near Mount Eden, Google answers “m2 hair salon reviews” with M2’s own profile, which is good news: the stars and reviews are the first thing people see. Below it, Google suggests “m2 hair salon reviews” and “m2 hair salon prices” as people type, so there is real interest in exactly the two things M2 doesn’t publish. And on the first page of ordinary results, M2 controls almost nothing:
| Result | What it is |
|---|---|
| Reddit, r/auckland | A thread about a disappointing $65 haircut somewhere else. M2 comes up in the comments as a recommendation. |
| Fresha | A listing Fresha built from public information; M2 isn’t a Fresha customer (more below). |
| Dominion Road directory | The business association’s page, with services and hours, and no reviews. |
| Instagram, @m2hairsalon_ | Probably the salon’s own account. The handle without the underscore belongs to a salon in the United States. |
| Four other salons called M2 | In San Leandro, Staten Island, Chapel Hill and Oak Park. |
A name like M2 is short and easy to remember, and hard to own online. The only way to win your own name back from American namesakes is to give Google a page that says clearly who you are and where.
The Google profile
M2’s Google profile is tidy: the right address, phone and hours, real photos of the salon and the “women-owned” label. On a phone it offers Call, Directions, Share and Save. There is no Website button, because there is no website, and no prices in the services. Four of the 91 reviews have a reply, all since 2025.
The Fresha page M2 doesn’t run
Fresha, the booking platform, has a page for M2 built from public information. It says so at the bottom: the business “is not currently affiliated with or partnered with Fresha”. The page has a “Call to book” button and a “Website” button that leads to the Dominion Road directory. There are no prices.
Scroll down and Fresha suggests other places to book online, starting with a Thai massage in Kingsland. Further along are hair salons in Mount Albert and Eden Terrace. Someone who searched for M2 by name and clicked Fresha is one tap from booking somewhere else. Fresha offers businesses a way to update these pages; claiming it, or at least correcting it, is free to ask about.
Marketing audit
M2 has the hardest part of marketing already: customers who come back for years and say so in public. What it lacks is any place online where it speaks for itself.
- There is no website, no price list and no online booking, so every question, from “how much is a balayage” to “are you open Saturday”, needs a phone call.
- Its best proof, 79 five-star reviews, sits only on Google. None of it is on a page M2 controls.
- The salon serves English and Chinese speakers, and its reviews come in both languages. A website could speak to both.
- Maggie and Vivian have followers of their own. Nothing online introduces them.
- We found no adverts on M2’s name, from M2 or anyone else.
Salon secrets
Why do hairdressers keep secrets so well? Everything they hear stays between the foils.
SEO4 Audit Score: 4 out of 30
The same thirty yes-or-no checks we use for every business. M2 scores low because most of them need a website. Sixteen years on Dominion Road and a loyal clientele aren’t on the list, and the score says nothing about the hair.
| Part | Passed | Failed |
|---|---|---|
| Reviews (1/10) | No day with 5 or more reviews in the last two years | Rating 4.6, under 4.8; 91 reviews, under 100; 13 in the last 12 months, under 20; replies to 4%; 1 of 7 low reviews answered; the four replies are short thank-yous and one apology; low reviews 7.7%; no second platform with 10 or more reviews; staff named in under 10% of reviews |
| Search (1/10) | The name on Google has no added keywords | No website, so no title, heading, description, speed, schema, service pages, tap-to-call or HTTPS to check; the salon’s own site isn’t in the results for its name |
| Marketing (2/10) | Real photos on the Google profile; no competitor ads on the name | No promise, prices, guarantee or visible registration; booking by phone only; no reviews shown on a site; no recent post confirmed; Google’s price questions unanswered |
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. A business without a website fails every check that needs one.
Where M2 could grow
A salon with sixteen years of regulars doesn’t need a makeover. It needs a few hours of work in the right places. Our view:
| What | Why, from our data | Effort | Likely effect |
|---|---|---|---|
| A one-page website in English and Chinese | No site at all; American salons with the same name fill the results | Medium | High |
| Add the website and “from” prices to the Google profile | Google suggests “m2 hair salon prices”; nothing answers it | Low | High |
| Ask regulars for a review, every week | 13 reviews a year against 40 at Smart Hair and 39 at Vivo | Low | High |
| A length check before every cut | Three of seven low reviews are about length or style | Low | Medium |
| Reply to the six unanswered low reviews | Only 1 of 7 has an answer; 4 of 91 reviews overall | Low | Medium |
| Claim or correct the Fresha page | Fresha’s page has no prices and suggests other venues | Low | Medium |
| Online booking | Booking is by phone only, during opening hours | Medium | Medium |
| Link Instagram from the Google profile | @m2hairsalon belongs to an American salon | Low | Low |
What the one page needs
- The name, “M2 Hair Salon, Dominion Road, Mount Eden”, in the page title and the main heading.
- Address, a map, hours and a tap-to-call button at the top.
- “From” prices for a cut, colour, balayage, perm and straightening.
- Maggie, Vivian and the team, with a photo of their work each.
- Five or six Google reviews, in English and Chinese.
- The same text in Chinese, on the same page or one beside it.
The first 30 days
- Week 1: reply, briefly and personally, to the six low reviews with no answer.
- Week 1: add “from” prices to the services on the Google profile.
- Week 2: put a review QR code at the counter and ask every regular once.
- Week 3: publish the one-page site and add it to Google and Fresha.
- Week 4: search “m2 hair salon” again and see who answers.
For salon owners: reviews and your own app
A salon with sixty clients a week sees nearly three thousand visits a year. A few percent of them writing a review is enough to change the map. Try your own numbers:
Salons: how long to catch the review leaders near you?
On Dominion Road, Smart Hair has 124 Google reviews and added 40 in the last 12 months. On Mount Eden Road, Vivo has 195 and added 39. M2 has 91 and added 13. Put in your own numbers.
124 and 195 are the Google review counts of Smart Hair (Dominion Road) and Vivo Hair Salon Mt Eden on 26 October 2026; the calculator lets them keep their pace of the previous 12 months (40 and 39 a year). Reviews alone don’t decide Google’s map: distance, categories and the website count too. The defaults are an example, not M2’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, and salons use it for the bigger jobs: colour corrections, bridal hair, extensions. 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.
- An accepted quote becomes a booking, with the client and price carried over.
- Notes and photos for each client, so the colour formula is there next time.
Salons usually want more: the menu in English and Chinese, a text when a regular is due for roots, a review request when the client pays, each stylist’s day in one view. Send us your idea, even if it’s written on the back of a colour chart. We build custom apps for salons and any other trade, and it costs less than most owners expect. We don’t work for dumplings, but a box from Dominion Road would get a very warm welcome. Tell us what you need.
Common questions
Most of its customers think so. M2 Hair Salon on Dominion Road, Mount Eden, has a 4.6 rating from 91 Google reviews on 26 October 2026, and 79 of them give five stars. Reviewers praise friendly stylists, colour work and cuts that match the request, and several have been regulars for years. Seven reviews give one or two stars, three of them about a cut or length that wasn’t what the customer asked for.
M2 doesn’t publish prices, so phone 09 963 4912 for a quote. As a guide, salons around Mount Eden published women’s cuts from $39 to $120, kids’ cuts from $35 to $45, all-over colour from $100 to $180 and balayage from $165 on 26 October 2026.
By phone on 09 963 4912. The salon is at 221 Dominion Road, Mount Eden, and opens Monday to Saturday from 10am to 6pm, closed on Sundays. It has no website or online booking.
M2 Hair Salon Limited (NZBN 9429031330305) was registered as a company on 27 October 2010 and was still registered on 26 October 2026. Auckland hairdressers also register their premises with Auckland Council; we found no public online list, so ask the salon if you want to see the certificate.
Live & Let Dye on Mount Eden Road published balayage from $165 on 26 October 2026, with $20 for each extra bowl of colour on longer or thicker hair. M2 doesn’t publish a balayage price; phone the salon for a quote.
Sources and how we checked
- Google reviews: SEO4 collected every public Google review of M2 Hair Salon (91) and of Smart Hair, Amazing Hair & Beauty Studio, Vivo Hair Salon Mt Eden and Live & Let Dye on 26 October 2026, with date, stars and owner reply. Themes and names are keyword matches in reviews with text, in English and Chinese. Low reviews are paraphrased, and we don’t name reviewers.
- Google search: “m2 hair salon”, “m2 hair salon reviews”, “m2 hair salon prices” and “m2 hair salon auckland”, 26 October 2026, from New Zealand. Results depend on where and when you search.
- Listings: Fresha, M2 Hair Salon and Dominion Road business directory, viewed 26 October 2026.
- Prices: Live & Let Dye online booking and Fresha listings around Mount Albert, viewed 26 October 2026.
- Company: NZBN register, M2 Hair Salon Limited, viewed 26 October 2026.
- Council registration: Auckland Council, application for registration or licence of premises.
- Screenshots of Google and Fresha are used for review and criticism and credited in each caption.
About this review
SEO4 is not connected with M2 Hair Salon. They are not our client and did not pay for or see this review before publication.
If you work at M2 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 26 October 2026.
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