I think I’ve cracked it. It’s only taken me 30 years but I’m absolutely, definitely, completely (most-likely) going to return to the hairdresser I visited yesterday for a trim. I was doing some shopping in town whilst Leila was on her first-ever play date *bites knuckles* and I dared myself to walk into the first hair salon I saw for a cut (I do shit like this to myself all the time – I think it’s a touch of OCD).
I did have some exceptions to that rule: no salons with the word “cuts” and “super” in the name, no salons with more children than adults in the chairs, and no salons which filled their windows with the products they would be blatantly hard-selling me thirty minutes later.
The first salon to cross my path was Trevor Mitchell on East Street. From the outside, I wasn’t convinced, it was like the 1970s had met with a 1990s revival and gotten lost on the way to the nought-ies. The inside wasn’t a whole lot better and I don’t like the name Trevor. Still, I can’t deny that I wasn’t tempted by the offer of a £25.50 haircut on the price list. I mean, I didn’t want anything too drastic… just a (good) trim and a fringe-reshape. I shuddered at the thought of all the different ways the fringe-reshape could go horribly wrong. I stepped inside anyway.
There isn’t much in the way of luxury going on at Trev’s place. There are no cups of tea on offer and the dayglo gowns felt and looked like something I’d put on Leila to protect her from a Play-Doh attack. Does anyone else get anxious about which way round you’re going to be asked to wear the gown? Posh salons have ones that you put on like a coat and the rest make you wear them like a straight jacket right?
I’m not a big talker when someone is holding a pair of scissors centimetres from my ear, mostly because I’m fairly socially-retarded and tend to giggle inappropriately. Thankfully, my stylist Kylie wasn’t much of a talker either – except for where it mattered. I gave her free reign to chop off what she needed to restore health, tame the over-processing and neaten everything up. Before she started cutting, she showed me the various lengths of my old layers and reassured me that she would leave it well-beyond the annoying ‘growing out’ length.
Admittedly, a basic trim isn’t the easiest thing in the world to mess up… but the scary bit was still to come. The fringe.
Long story short, she cut it perfectly and not only that but she had my hair foibles sussed within seconds of looking at me. Dodgy lick on one side of fringe = don’t touch it until it’s dried. I went to one hairdresser in January who literally snipped in a straight line across my wet fringe… I had a puffy sticky up bit for weeks. Traumatic. She suggested that the outer edges needed more blending and by this time, I trusted her. She also thinned the hair at the edges and boy, that’s made a huge difference as to how it sits against my forehead! Before I left, she gave me some tips on fading old colour and apparently Vosene works better than Head & Shoulders for lifting dark dye!
I hadn’t had a good, full haircut since I first got my fringe cut in last year and had only found one salon in Soho (Studio12) who had trimmed my fringe to my liking. A bit of shine spray and £25.50 (+ tip) later and I’m walking somewhat taller with my noo doo.
Cheers Trev! Oh and just for giggles, Trevor Mitchell (the man behind the local salon chain) introduced Kevin Keegan to his infamous perm in the 80s! I think I had a lucky escape!
Have you had a happy haircut recently?
You look beautiful! Of course, what’s new there? 😉
I think that your hair suits you so well… Amazing actually.. And umm… you look so much more radiant and slimmer… kudos on that ^_^
I haven’t tried Studio12 but perhaps I should if they come with a good recommendation as well as a decent price! My current favourite hairdresser is Anna at Headmasters on Poland St, but it costs about £40, as I recall (I at least don’t go in very often so I can almost justify it!). Definitely falls into “posh salon” territory, with a little drinks menu to choose from, coat-like gowns, and a lovely head massage. My hair isn’t that complicated – shoulder length with long layers, slight side parting, NO FRINGE (they drive me up the wall and I develop a mad face-flicking tic until it grows out enough to clip up), but Anna’s far nicer and better at making it look good than anyone else I’ve been to in recent memory 🙂 She’s also completely cool with the ida that I spend £5 on a box of hairdye and do it myself at home rather than spend half my wages on having it done in the salon, which I always like in a stylist.
You look lovely and she’s done a grand job. I hear you about putting the capes on too, I always make myself look like a commoner by trying to put the post ones on back to front. I need to dare myself to get a cut, it has been w-a-y too long since my hair last saw scissors.
I love your fringe! I snipped mine, and it doesnt look too bad, I can always brush it to the side when the block fringe annoys me.
Glad you had a good experience!
A posh salon, a highly recommended stylist, and I still ended up with a very expensive hair disaster last summer. A year later and my hair still isn’t where I want it to be, but I did find a great new stylist who is worth her weigh in gold.
Wow, you look amazing! They did a brilliant job with the fringe, it looks to be the perfect length on you x
I found my lovely, lovely hairdresser last summer and between that and switching to Naked haircare my mane has never looked so good! I think the best thing about her is that her hair is similar to mine and looks elegant and well-kept, which is always a good sign. Plus, she and I agree on the definition of ‘an inch’, which shouldn’t be nearly as rare as it is!
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Your fringe looks fabulous. Kylie did a good. I’m glad you don’t like talking at the hair dressers either – I hate talking at the hairdressers! Why do we have to talk? I’m so bad at small talk. Ideally I’d just email my requirements in advance, and they could just tweet me any queries whilst I was sat there. Sometimes I wont even go to the hairdressers because I’ve got nothing to talk about. Stupid social construct.
as long as they don’t phone the queries through… that would be THE WORST SCENARIO for me.
Don’t tell me you have a phone phobia? (Because I do. Starting to look a bit antisocial now, I realise!) 🙂 x
This may earn me a kicking, or not, but I do think you look very like Melanie C in her new incarnation as gorgeous chanteuse in the above photo. Never has a woman suited a fringe more, it just whacks all the attention straight to your very lovely, stupidly huge, eyes and emphasises your hard earned little pointy chin. x
NEVER go to Headmasters, in Mayfair, Kingston, Richmond- they will ruin your hair!! i’m so upset, i had lovely natural hair after growing the colour out for the last few years but wanted a few highlights, i took in pictures- even my laptop to show the colour- a common blonde really. could that go wrong????!! YES. I’ve been back 5 times as they’ve assured me that toner will correct it, no maybe more foils, no wait no I have colour in it ‘just to break it up’…what started as beautiful healthy hair is now copper and it looks like a poorly done home colour- oh yes don’t forget the designer price tag to go with it! What an awful company who clearly don’t train their staff on how to listen and how to colour hair- they master idiocy but are by no means ‘headmasters’. please be warned and if you are after a nice natural blonde then stay away!
is that east street southampton? I’m just finishing first year at Southampton Uni and I work in GAME in southampton, always in need of a good reasonable haircut so might pop in there sometime!
that’s the one x