TEMPLE TERRACE, Fla. — A Temple Terrace beauty salon advertised a $50 weave.
A customer says she was charged $130, and when she disputed the price, the salon owner attacked her.
It's all on video.
Kathy Monroe, a registered nurse, says she booked an appointment at Mane Attraction Beauty Salon after confirming the advertised price over the phone.
"I called the salon the prior day to ask if they had the same special I had two years prior, and they did," Monroe said.
The salon's Instagram page and front door advertise the business as the "Home of the $50 weave.”
A promotional video posted on its Instagram site says: "You heard that right, $50 sew in. You can walk in and walk out with a whole sew-in for $50."
But after receiving the service, Monroe says the salon owner, Tyronese Bivens, told her she owed $130.
"A bait and switch," Monroe said.
'My hair was yanked from behind'
When Monroe disputed the charge, she said Bivens physically attacked her.
Cell phone video recorded by Monroe during the confrontation captures the exchange.
"Suddenly, my hair was yanked from behind, and my neck was yanked all the way back,” Monroe said.
The video also shows Bivens going through Monroe's purse during the confrontation.
Monroe can be heard on camera saying, "She's crazy! Going in my purse. This woman is assaulting me."
Bivens responds on camera: "I'll do exactly what I wanna do!"
It was Bivens who called Temple Terrace Police.
Body camera footage shows Bivens telling the responding officer: "I got this lady here — got her hair done. She don't wanna pay. She's getting rowdy. She acting crazy."
Monroe told police she was willing to pay, but not the full amount Bivens demanded.
"I'm trying to pay her. I'm just not gonna let her hijack me for 3 times what I thought I was gonna pay," Monroe said in the body camera footage.
Monroe ultimately paid Bivens $120 as officers looked on.
'My hair is gone'
The night after the confrontation, Monroe recorded a video showing the damage to her hair.
"All of this, she pulled out all of this hair here," Monroe said in the video.
"I just finished taking the weave out, and yeah, my hair is gone," she said in a video she recorded a few hours later.
Monroe kept the hair that broke off and was cut off during the attack.
Medical records Monroe provided to the I-Team show her doctor wrote that the attack aggravated a prior spinal injury.
A dermatologist also diagnosed her with permanent hair loss.
"I'm never going to be the same. Right now, I have to wear wigs or clip-ins," Monroe said.
State agency closed complaint, citing lack of jurisdiction
Monroe filed a formal complaint against Bivens with Florida's Department of Business and Professional Regulation, which oversees nearly 300,000 cosmetology licenses.
Data from the most recent year available shows DBPR investigated 2,607 consumer complaints, but only 269 cases resulted in discipline.
DBPR closed Monroe's complaint, stating in a letter: "The matter you described appears to be civil in nature and does not fall within our statutory jurisdiction."
"This is a matter of public safety. She's still practicing," Monroe said.
Criminal charges filed, but cosmetology license untouched
A police report shows Temple Terrace Police originally considered felony charges. The State Attorney's Office ultimately charged Bivens with misdemeanor battery and criminal mischief.
We contacted the State Attorney’s Office about why the case was not prosecuted as a felony.
“There was not sufficient evidence to successfully proceed with felony charges of aggravated battery based on serious bodily injury,” Communications Director Erin Maloney wrote in an email.
That case is still working its way through the courts.
If Bivens is convicted, she will have to notify DBPR under state law and could potentially face discipline.
We spoke with Bivens by phone.
She called Monroe a liar but declined an on-camera interview.
Monroe says she explored civil legal action, but two attorneys investigated the case and declined to take it because Bivens has no professional liability insurance, which is not required in Florida.
Monroe says she continues to live with physical and emotional pain from the incident every day, and worries that without state action, other clients will have no idea what happened inside the salon.
"Nobody should go through what I just went through. Nobody," Monroe said.
Share Your Story with Adam
Adam Walser has spent more than a decade fighting for what’s right in Tampa Bay as part of the I-Team. He’s helped expose flaws in Florida’s eldercare system and held leaders accountable for questionable HOA practices. Reach out to Adam with any issue you think he needs to investigate.
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