I have never been happier with a cut and a color before. I went the other night for partial highlights, deep conditioning, cut and blowout. I had a groupon and it said it would be ""senior- level"", so I made sure to let them know this when I booked the appointment. The groupon cost $119, but when I researched the reviews it seemed like it would be worth it. It was my birthday so I told myself to splurge. I made the appointment for Thursday, but called on Tuesday to see if they could accommodate me on Wednesday evening, and they could. Yay! Didn't want to spend my whole actual birthday in the chair at the salon. I had to work so they had an appointment for 715 which was perfect. It's hard to find salons that are open so late.
Anastasia did my highlights after talking with me about it for a little while. I have red hair and have had a very hard time getting highlights that look natural. Most places do not understand that highlights do not always need to be blonde. I made very clear that I wanted a sun-kissed look with a lighter red, a little coppery strawberry color. I had done a single process myself with a box a few weeks earlier, and I told her so she knew what she was dealing with. She was very nice and although the salon itself has an upscale air about it, everyone was very nice and non- judgmental. I came from work and was wearing scrub pants, sneakers and a t- shirt, but it didn't seem as though anyone even noticed. She told me she wasn't sure how my hair was going to take the color because I had colored my hair, but she said she knew what she wanted to do and she mixed up the color. She used the balayage technique of painting the highlights on and covering them with plastic wrap going through each layer of my hair. I had them done this way once before and this is definitely the way to go. If you have only used foil highlights before then you are really missing out.
I got a little nervous because she seemed to cover most of my hair with the color. I was cooking under the heat lamp for about 15 minutes and she came back to look at my hair and told me I needed 15 more minutes. Of course I was worried that my hair was going to be bleach blonde, but her reassurance comforted me. After she rinsed the color, she said that she was going to apply some toner to the ends, because the ends turned out a little bit lighter than she wanted. I stayed at the sink for about 10 minutes and then she rinsed the toner. She applied a gloss and I waited a few more minutes and then rinsed. I'm sure that this probably should have cost extra, because toner and gloss were not part of the groupon, but she did not say a word about that.
I sat back in the chair with a wet head and could see that my hair was definitely not blonde, and I could already see the dimension even though it was wet. Awesome!
David came to cut my hair. He had already introduced himself to me earlier before my color. I found out later that he was the owner, and he could not have been nicer. I have long hair that is wavey and layered. I told him that I wanted to keep the length and soften the layers. He started cutting, which usually makes me nervous, but I felt like I could trust him. He cut all of the choppiness out of my layers and now I have the most beautiful long layers that all flow together. I could not be happier. And after it was blown out and the layers all have a gorgeous subtle glow of highlights I was overjoyed. My hair has never looked better and I just turned 36. This was the look that I always wanted but was never able to achieve. I will definitely go back and pay the fancy prices because feeling this good is priceless!
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