Protecting Your Hair From Heat

How to Find the Perfect Hair Salon for You

Getting your hair done should be a relaxing and enjoyable experience, not a stressful one. Finding the best one for you can be a little tricky, but taking the right steps will ensure you fight a quality salon with a stylist you'll love with little fuss. Here's how you can do it.

Do Your Research

There are several ways you can immediately narrow your search. First, look beyond results for reviews and photos; beyond looking for a broad consensus as to the quality of the salon, look specifically for things reviewers liked and disliked about their experiences. Second, look at the salons' websites to see what information is posted on them. They should give you a general idea as to what they specialize in, their credentials and qualifications, and some examples of their work. Third, check social media; plenty of salons will have profiles where they post regular examples of their work, which can help you see what they seem to work on often and how much you like what they do.

Remember to look just as much for what isn't included as you do for what is included. That is, if a salon's website contains hardly any important information, or if you have a hard time seeing what kind of work they do, this should impact your choice.

Have a Consultation

Many hair salons will let you come in and talk with a hairstylist about what you want to be done to your hair. This consultation shouldn't feel like a sales pitch. Rather, it should feel like a conversation where you're free to learn whatever you need to without feeling pressured into anything. Ask questions about their process, what products they use, and how they communicate with their clients. Also, make sure they understand your specific hair type and how to work with it; there are many different types of hair and they cannot all be treated the same way.

It helps to be specific, so talk about what you'd like to do with your hair and see what they recommend. Bring in pictures as examples, or ask if they can do a patch test on your hair if you want to do something like dye it or test a new product you may use. Finally, take advantage of the consultation to get a general feel for the stylist and see if she's someone you could see yourself having regular appointments with. If you don't connect well or if things feel awkward, this may not be the best choice even if everything else sounds great. You should be able to communicate openly and effortlessly with your stylist, so make sure you feel like you can be yourself around them.

Look Out for Red Flags

While there are some positive things to look out for, there are some things that you should pay attention to that may cause you to cross a salon off your list. For example, if they aren't upfront with their fees, this can be a bad sign. Next, if they have plenty of photos on their website or social media but most of them are digitally manipulated, you aren't getting an actual representation of what this salon does. Finally, look out for prices that are drastically lower or discounted far more than most other salons in your area, as this can be a sign of the quality you can expect.


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