Salon Review: Taylor Taylor Hairdressers, Cheshire Street

TAGS: Hair Salons • Hairdressers • Out and Abouts • Review •

I was invited to Taylor Taylor hair salon (their Cheshire Street branch) for a colour so went along on the IMATS weekend.

It was blardy freezing and it was quite a trek to the salon…but someone didn’t bring the map I had painstakingly taken 3 minutes to print out, and someone expected us to use our internal Sat Navs to find out way there.

Amazingly enough we got there on time. Down past Brick Lane, which was rather cool, full of little restaurants and vintage shops.

The outside:

TaylorTaylorLondon Cheshire Front Window 2.jpg

The salon was quite small but perfectly formed. Inside is like this – well it looked different when I got there cos it was soooo dark! I was greeted right away and my colourist, Claire chatted to me about what I wanted.

Here’s my coffee….I always take a picture of the coffee they bring me in the salon. I love this cup! Had a few of these so I was bouncing off the walls.

Now, I immediately warmed to Claire, who reminded me of Phoebe Cates circa the Drop Dead Fred Era, who was so easy to chat to. I didn’t really know what I wanted – like a typically annoying customer I wanted to dark, cos then its shiny. I wanted it light, cos I find dark hair too….dark.

Here is my hot mess of a mop. It had started to go mega brassy with random streaks of colour. The Tila Tequila Hot Mess I call it:

So what did we do?

Now, here is my confession….

I don’t really go to salons to get my hair coloured. Why? Well I feel like my home colouring is ok – it does alright. Besides, when I have had my hair coloured in the past, I get the same old suggestions:

1. Dye over it

Because my hair tends to be light (thus it goes brassy) stylists love to go over it with a brown, which always, always ends up black. I do find anything overly dark a little to witch like on me.

2. Highlight it

Even though my hair is already light some stylists go over it again with highlights and I end up with bands of varying brass. I mean…there is TOO light sometimes, especially for my warm skintone and I have once been taken to BLONDE and I mean WHITE BLONDE. It was utterly utterly horrendous.

3. Computer Says No….

I’ve also had other stylists tell me that there’s nothing they can do, as if I am asking them to make my hair luminous purple with a strip of red lettering saying ‘Go England’ at the back. Either because they don’t want to dye over it or they don’t want to lighten it – they just don’t want to touch it.

Thus….I reach for the bottle a lot. Unless a salon can offer me something I can’t do at home, whats the point?

At Taylor Taylor…

Claire immediately suggested some darker chocolate tones (with a semi) to even things out, THEN some highlights around the front so things still felt light, with an ashy toner over the top to finish. I loved how she knew I disliked the strong red tones in my hair…ASH ASH ASH! I love ashy based browns and blondes.

The whole thing took about 2 hours, because we were chatting inbetween…the whole process was very comfortable. As you know my scalp can be a little sensitive but I had no problems at all the the dye they used.

The Results…

I lovveeeee it. I do. Its everything I would ever want from hair colouring session (and not something I could do at home – Claire mixed a few colours together, put highlights around the crown, etc.).

The brown all round is perfect for me – dark but not too dark and the highlights around the front I love. The ashy toner made a big difference in giving me a cool toned look:

Any my hair is very glossy. And the whole thing was very gentle.

Another view:

In all seriousness – the best colour I have had in that it was very much the result I wanted. I felt it was tailored to my needs, and the result is polished but also natural – nothing to stripper-hoochie-ish.

Verdict:

Yah it was fab really, I can’t fault the salon in any way. When my drinks were finished, there was always someone there with another, when I was sat twiddling my thumbs, there was someone there with a stash of magazines. They also let Mr Candy in from the cold so he could slob out on the sofa to which he is eternally grateful.

Go visit, I’d go back every time if only I lived closer to London!

Info:

Salon is closed on Mondays, call for info.

Visit the site here and book online here. There are lots of different prices so check the website out!

{ 18 comments… read them below or add one }

Caroline February 4, 2010 at 7:02 pm

I love your new hair colour!
how much did it cost you?

Row February 14, 2010 at 8:55 pm: Hi Caroline

It was complimentary I think it would’ve been about £60

sunmom February 5, 2010 at 1:22 am

gorgeous!

Row February 14, 2010 at 8:51 pm: Thanks Sunmom!

Rae February 5, 2010 at 3:13 am

Ahh!! I love your hair; it looks great! The ash tones look great with your skintone; for whatever reason too much ash makes my hair (and I ) look rather unhealthy, so we go for a large dose of violet-red with very subtle blue-black lowlights.

Speaking of which, I really need to recolour my hair this weekend… I too am guilty of colouring my hair at home, but in my defence, it’s salon colour and I’m done my hair colouring courses!

Row February 14, 2010 at 8:51 pm: Hi Rae

I loveeeeee ash in my hair but how do I retain it! So hard!

Violet red with blue black lowlights – sounds so interesting!

chocolate cosmos February 5, 2010 at 4:50 am

It looks really good! I love it!

Row February 14, 2010 at 8:50 pm: Thanks Chocolate Cosmos!

kuri February 5, 2010 at 6:27 am

Wow, sounds like the perfect experience! Hope you can go back often.
Speaking of which, I’m in dire need of a hair cut. Maybe this weekend, but I wanted to clean up my apt first.