Your best hair starts before you even sit in the chair. A little preparation before your appointment helps your stylist understand your vision, plan the right service and get you closer to the result you’ve been saving to your camera roll.
Here’s everything we wish every client knew before their appointment.
Save Your Inspo Photos
If you’ve been screenshotting hair on Instagram and TikTok, bring it with you! Inspiration photos are one of the best ways to communicate what you love, especially when words like warm, cool, bright or lived-in can mean something different to everyone.
Try saving a few photos that show:
- Colours and tones you love
- How bright or dimensional you want to be
- Cuts, layers or fringes you’re considering
- A photo of anything you don’t want
Your stylist won’t necessarily recreate an image exactly. Instead, we’ll use it as a starting point to create something that suits your hair, features and lifestyle.
Stylist tip: Look for inspiration on people with a similar colouring, hair texture and length to yours. It can give you a more realistic idea of how the finished look may translate to your hair.
Arrive With Clean, Dry Hair
Forget the old saying about coming to your colour appointment with dirty hair (who even started that rumour anyway?).
Unless your stylist has specifically told you otherwise, clean, dry hair gives us the best starting point. It allows us to properly see your natural colour, texture and condition without days of oil, dry shampoo or product build-up hiding what’s underneath.
You don’t need to freshly style it for us either – your hair as you normally wear it is perfect.
Give Your Appointment Enough Time
We know you have places to be, but hair appointments aren’t something we want to rush.
Colour services in particular can involve multiple stages, from your consultation and colour application through to processing, toning, treatments, cutting and styling. Your appointment time has been allocated based on the service booked, so arriving on time helps us give every step the attention it deserves.
If you’re planning something afterwards, give yourself a little breathing room rather than booking it back-to-back.
Tell Us Your Full Hair History
What happened to your hair six months ago can still matter today.
Previous colour and chemical services can affect how your hair responds to your next appointment, even when you can’t see them anymore. That’s why we’ll ask about your hair history during your consultation.
Tell your stylist if you’ve had:
- Box dye or at-home colour
- Bleach or previous lightening
- Keratin or smoothing treatments
- Colour removers
- Extensions
- Any other chemical treatments
And yes, we really do want to know about the box dye. There’s no judgement! Having the full picture simply means we can make safer decisions for your hair.
Trust the Process
Sometimes your dream hair is one appointment away. Sometimes it’s a journey.
If you’re making a significant colour change (particularly going from dark to light, correcting previous colour or working through years of build-up) getting there safely may take multiple appointments.
We’ll always prioritise the health and integrity of your hair over pushing it further than it can handle.
Stylist tip: If your dream result will take a few appointments, ask your stylist what the journey will look like. We can create a plan so your hair still looks beautiful during every stage, not just at the finish line.
Your Consultation Is the Time to Talk
Your consultation isn’t just about choosing a colour. It’s where we learn about you.
Tell us how often you realistically want to visit the salon, how you style your hair at home and how much maintenance you’re comfortable with. If you only want to come in every few months, we can take that into consideration when recommending your colour, cut and upkeep.
And you never need to know exactly what to ask for. Bring the photos, tell us what you like and don’t like, and we’ll take it from there.
A little preparation and an open conversation can make all the difference – and helps us create hair that doesn’t just look amazing when you leave the salon, but works for you long after your appointment.
