I haven’t visited a hairdresser since I last made steps to go blonde from very dark brown back in March 2012.. madness! I had a hairdressing a contact, friend of a friend type who used to come over and do my highlights for me for a while but it was the same every time and there was no consultation involved, I’m fairly certain she used on level of bleach for everyone so I haven’t had a proper colour in a long time. After my recent dalliance with crazy colour and my many attempts to fix it I got to a dark blonde stage I could live with but the ends were still drastically different and tinged with blue *sigh*
I decided to seek profession help and visited my local SAKS Salon in Doncaster. I’ve never been there before but it’s so lovely, having been to a lot of salons over the years it’s definitely one of the nicest and the staff are really friendly too. It wasn’t as expensive as I’d initially expected either, especially as I was booked in with a senior colourist. She took a look at my hair and decided on sporadic highlights (chunkier around my face on my instruction) and an all over warmer colour to (hopefully) even everything out. I wasn’t convinced but decided I was in capable hands. I waiting for my colour to process, very much enjoyed the vibrating chairs at the sink while I got a head massage from the girl removing my foils and then was the moment of truth. When it came to drying I was nervous.. there were some very golden tones and despite the toner I was told I’d been treated to I thought I was going to hate it.. much warmer than I was used to. Once it was totally dry however I’m happy to say I loved it, she did a brilliant job and I will definitely go back. The colour needs osme time to settle, highlights usually look a little piecey at first but that doesn’t really bother me because the overall colour is great, I wanted to be a little blonder but she chose colours that would be more flattering, I think I will go back for more highlights in a month or two and I’m hoping she will be able to give me a better blonde for my skin tone since I’ve historically had ‘blonde as you can get me’ highlights or dyed my hair myself – and lets face it I have NO idea what I’m doing.
The only thing I wanted that she didn’t really seem to grasp was roots. I was hoping that going to a ‘swankier’ salon she would be a little more open to newer techniques/trends but out came the foils and standard highlights and that’s just not quite what I wanted. I’m more than happy with the lengths but I don’t like visible highlights in my roots and I’m hoping that’s something I can discuss with her next time, I have a feeling I will have to travel further south to get anything close to ‘balayage’ – it’s grim up North 😉
Do you have a go to hairdresser? I never have but really want to try and develop a relationship with someone who will hopefully understand what I want from my hair.. 2014, the year of no more DIY? …mmm we’ll see. The stylist I had was Becky and you can find more info about the salon here. I wasn’t paid to review Saks Doncaster or compensated in any way but there aren’t all that many blog reviews of northern hairdressers and since I would recommend this one I thought it was worth plugging them!
Until the next hairy adventure
Miss BB
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Haha I’m from Liverpool and we have balayage here. And Trevor sorbie in Manchester offer balayage too xx
I too have found it near on impossible to find a hair stylist open to new ideas and one who actually listens to what you want but gives an honest opinion too, so much so that I didn’t get a hair cut for around 5 years!!! However, I came upon the fabulous Conrad Blandford who is nothing short of marvelous. On the pricier side of things for sure but well worth it, I cant rate him and his salon enough. He’s based in Sheffield on Ecclesall Road, well worth a look if you’re interested in someone relatively local to you.
I always go to a hairdresser! Defo not as adventerous as you are! If you dont want the obvious highlights in the root you should as for a toner next time. I get a full head of highlights then a toner in the roots to make it look that bit more natural 🙂 dont know if it would work as your base colour is still quite dark but migbt be something to suggest 🙂
I really hate going to the hairdressers, I have a really dry scalp and I worry about it reacting badly. Also, it costs a small fortune and never seems to end up how I want it. I’ve been DIY-ing it with a pair of hairdressers scissors from boots and watching some Youtube vids. lol. Fortunately, it’s quite long so I can get away with it being a bit “wonky”. I too would love a stylist that gets what I want though as I have no clue what I’m doing either.
I think it looks great! Ive been around that block and back again several times too – I almost never go see a hairdresser, started highlighting it myself which was ok but then I full-on bleached it (looks like we have the same dirty blonde natural hue) and now I’m back to a natural dirty blonde color that I get soft highlights in twice a year at a salon. ARRGHH haha!
I don’t know if you know but if you still feel the tone is a little too warm some day you can buy a blue shampoo and use it once in a while, it neutralizes brassy tones.
Thanks for sharing your hair-history! made me smile!
xoxo anne
http://powderandpuff.wordpress.com
Looks good, I wish I was more adventurous with my hair but I think I may have to be now to save money as I can’t really afford the hairdressers at the min!
http://thebravestindividual.blogspot.co.uk/
I love your new look, definitely flattering. Just recently I found a hairdresser who totally understood what I wanted to do with hair, priceless, will be sticking to her forever;)
I’ve had the same hairdresser for around 18 years and have a fantastic relationship with her. She knows what suits my face, and knows what trends are in when I’m unsure what I want. I also 100% trust her opinion if I have absolutely no idea and go for an extreme change!
And if I don’t like what shes doing, or want something a certain way, all I have to do is ask, I don’t think I’d feel as comfortable if I had different hairdressers each time I went…..
p.s: I love your blog and youtube channel! Your entertaining and engaging to watch, keep up the good work!
thank you! I definitely want to try and stick to one hairdressers.. I’ll try it for the year and hopefully manage to leave it alone.. no DIY for a while lol
I wish I could do all this to my hair and it still be sleek and shiny but it seems that I straighten my hair once and it goes dead, dry and frizzy! 🙁
LydiaGraceXO – UK Beauty Blog
I am lucky, my hair seems pretty resilient to the crap I put it through