Orange
Something different: a review of a hair salon I just went to in Norwich. Pics to follow of my lovely new do :-)
I am petrified to get my hair cut, always have been. Until I worked (as a receptionist) in a hair salon, my hair was very long, one length, and stick straight. Then, all hell broke loose and it was chopped off. But working in a hair salon is one thing, finding a hairdresser who you trust is quite another. Even more petrifying is finding a colourist. Unbelievably, in the city of Norwich, I have found both stylist and colourist rolled into one girl named Kate. I decided to try out Orange Hair Salon on Lower Gate Lane based on some recommendations from friends. As most of my friends are twenty-somethings still trying to save money, you can only imagine the places they go, but hey, Orange was brightly coloured, carries Tigi products, and is in a really convenient location, so I stopped in for a consultation.
Purely by luck I landed with Kate, she happened to be available for ten minutes on a busy Saturday to help me flick through magazines, discuss face shape, skin tone, and what I like to wear, and she made an appointment for me for four days later. We had discussed bright red to black to purple, and I needed a bit of time to think it over. We had to book out a large chunk of time because I was going to have the works, so Thursday after lunch she had me until dinner.
When I arrived at Orange, the door was locked because it was just Kate in the salon. It’s small, three cutting chairs on the ground floor with no room for a lounge, so that’s downstairs, with the one sink for washing hair. I was ushered to the basement lounge where I flicked through numerous and very up-to-date magazines of hair styles. Kate sat me in front of a mirror, we chatted a bit again, decided to cut before the colour, and she got straight to washing.
My cut was brilliant. Time was spent on me, the fringe was fussed over for perfection, each strand was perfectly measured, and I felt like it was such a luxurious outing to be having mid-week. Teas and coffees, chit-chatting with friendly staff. I can see why so many of my friends recommended this salon! I will say this though: the chair became so uncomfortable about half-way into my cut, and it was hard to fix by the end. I just happen to be the unfortunate height where the chair back hit my bra-strap and must have severed a nerve-ending because I couldn’t feel my left side by the time I was brought upstairs to have my cut done! I survived though, and the pain was worth it.
We moved upstairs to the colour room next. Kate bleached my hair first. I’ve never had that done before, and she talked me through all the processes, what the steps were to achieving the red colour I wanted, and exactly what she was going to do. The chairs upstairs had taller backs, so I didn’t mind when the peroxide took twice as long to lift my hair to a ridiculous shade of orange. Well worth it though, the red that filled in over top was a beautiful shade of scarlet I never thought my dark, stick-straight, and boring hair could achieve! With only twenty minutes under the dryer, a cup of tea, and a read of the new InStyle magazine, Kate took out the hairdryer and styled. I think I smiled the whole way through.
I had been psyching myself up for the cost at the end of the day; I realized I had never bothered to ask when I came in, and after being in salon for four hours, I was sure my bill was high. Kate wasn’t a new stylist either: almost four years at Orange, Vidal Sassoon courses under her belt, and full of information and ideas. I was prepared for some damage. Yet, the grand total was… drum roll please… seventy pounds. Yes, you read correctly, only a measly seventy quid for a radical overhaul that left me radiant. To be fair, I did have a new client first visit 30% discount from my haircut, so normally she’s a bit more expensive, but still, all this for closer to fifty quid than a hundred, let alone over one hundred! Kate had the perfect amount of chatty-gossip, important-information, and finger muscles in her shampoo massages, that I’ll be going back. It’s not just me either. My curly hair friends swear by Sue, and all the students I know love their student discount. Plus, the product range is well-prescribed and enticingly coloured.
I was quite impressed by Orange, the traditional training and modern ideas left me feeling like no one could walk out of that salon looking like anything less than a rockstar.
Sxx
