Finding a great hair salon without costing a fortune

A great hair salon and stylist can make all the difference for your ideal cut

Finding a great salon is hard enough for many people when you consider the number of things that you have to consider such as the quality of the colour jobs, the cut itself and do you get along with your stylist or is three hours of conversation more painful then the hair is worth? All this is before you even consider the cost of such a visit.

As a result of these different variables, many people report that finding a great hair salon, or even a stylist they stick with, can be a long and sometimes ugly process due to the trial-and-error element of working your way through your local salons. Yet this does not always have to be the case with a simple checklist of what you deem as ‘necessary’ at a hair salon to help you decide on who to trust with your hair.

For instance, if you are looking for a new salon but are unsure where to go…ask around for advice. Sometimes this can be just asking friends or family who you think has quality hair styles and colours or you can visit online forums for local opinions and reviews of hair salons in your area.

Additionally you can book in for a (usually free) consultation with a hair stylist at a hair salon who will talk with you and advise on what they think would suit your hair and face shape. While not only gaining excellent insight into what suits you, you will also be able to use this opportunity to see if you get along with the stylist and if spending an afternoon with them will be bearable.

As a side note look around you when you go into the salon and check out the relationships between their clients in the salon and their stylists. Are they interacting well and is there a feeling that these clients are regulars? Nothing commends a hair salon higher than the amount of regulars they have as this is the true testament to how satisfied clients are.

Now there are also the type of treatment and the range of service that should be considered. Do you prefer just a simple hair and blow dry treatment or do you enjoy spending the day in the salon with treatments ranging from massage to pedicures to hair styling? This should definitely impact on what you are looking for in a salon as the range in services available will differ between different salons.

Of course for many of us the fact of the matter is we want great hair with a minimal price tag, so this is where careful consideration of the cost of the hair styling will come into it. Just because a salon charges more doesn’t mean it will give you what you want, but cutting costs and going for the cheap cuts doesn’t really inspire much confidence in the skills of the stylist.

Of course, if money really is an issue for you but you still want a change in your hair, there are a number of things you can do yourself to save the amount of money you spend in the salon.

•  For example, while cutting your hair yourself is virtually impossible, colouring your hair is not with the great range of different at-home colour products available which include flat colours and dyes to hair streaking kits

• Look into having a junior stylists perform the cut at a major hair salon brand. You will find that they are significantly less expensive than their senior styling counterparts, and they will usually perform the cut under supervision

•  Aim for a style that requires less maintenance and therefore less trips to the hair salon