My niece and I planned a special girls' day and used a Groupon hair deal for the excursion. After…read moreliving abroad for over a decade, Always Perfection was my first beauty stop since returning home. My niece wanted a new color - she was a natural blond and desperately wanted to go red. I, on the other hand, wanted full highlights and a summer change-up. We were both nervous, however. My niece had never had her hair colored before, so she had no clue what to expect. I had experience with professional salons, but my hair is so thick and curly that it's never turned out the way I hoped it would. I called and made the appointment, honestly not knowing what to expect. On the appointment day, we met Amie - a specialist in curly hair, and Nicole - a specialist in first time coloring.
The consultations were performed. Immediately, Nicole sprung into action and whipped my niece into shape. Within an hour, she transformed her thin, straight, golden locks into smooth purple strands that were promised to fade into a dark red permanent shade within a week (promise met). The results were stunning and adored by all. Mine.. took a bit longer. I showed Amie a few pictures I liked and she discussed what would and wouldn't work for my hair type. She then began cutting, making sure all the while that I was happy with her actions. By the end of the cut, I was already impressed. This woman was the Empress of Hair. Then the fun stuff started.. the highlights.
My hair is naturally thick, curly, and dark. It doesn't take or hold color easily, but that didn't deter this lady. Amie instead took it as a challenge. Instead of simply coloring, she bleached. The last time I bleached my hair was in the 80's, and it turned bright orange. She thought that was hilarious and insisted that wouldn't happen, so I relaxed and let her do her magic. To call Amie a perfectionist is rather redundant. This saint spent the next 2.5 hours wrapping strands of my hair in foil, checking, rechecking, and re-highlighting as necessary to get to get the perfect tint before allowing me to view the final product in the mirror.
Once the foil was removed, the hair washed, and I returned to her salon chair, a quick curl revitalizing spritz and simple blow and scrunch finished the job. The result was a head full of the softest, bounciest, blond-highlighted curls I've ever had in my life. Suffice it to say, my niece and I were thrilled. Nicole and Amie are wonderful professionals and beautiful people. Amie is so real and adorable that I can just imagine becoming great friends with her down the road. But there's no doubt already that she's the only professional who will touch my hair again. Thanks so much, ladies!