one of my best friends back in SF happens to have her own hair salon and ever since i let her loose on my head, i haven't let anyone else touch my hair.
you wouldn't know it to look at me, but i have uncooperative, random hair - by that i mean 1/3 curly (like ringlets!), 1/3 one giant wave, and the rest is straight-ish. so once i had someone that truly understood it, i developed a real, wake-up-in-the-middle-of-the-night-in-a-sweat, fear of going anywhere else. in the 1-1/2 years that i've lived here, i only had my hair done when i went back home. so you understand the state i was in when i finally broke down and tried somewhere local.
i looked up and down yelp and some of those other sites, you know the ones, we dare not speak their names... i found several that came highly recommended and highly overpriced. but then ignoring all that, as if it was calling to me, i decided to give Reds a call.
i sucked up all my fear and walked up the stairs to the salon. i was seated at a station waiting for my stylist, Solenn, who waved at me from across the room. she seemed nice, she had cool hair. win-win. in about 5 mins she came over, i showed her pictures, pointed at a girl in the salon whose hair i liked. she immediately called over the girl and asked me what i liked about it. very serious. and after a bit of that, she basically told me to shut up and let her figure out what she was gonna do. in a very nice, french sort of way :)
then i went over and got my hair washed by a lovely assistant where we shared stories of trying to be unique individuals. hehe. then Solenn worked her magic as i sipped my tea. we chatted a small bit, but mostly she was just really focused on getting my hair right. once she was done, i was so truly happy i felt like a new person! it's been about a month now and i still love the cut.
oh, i forgot the best part - the haircut was going to be 90euro, but with a student discount, it came to just 65. i know that's a lot for some people, but from what i've seen, you really get what you pay for. i'm in love and i'm totally going back. read more