A good, reasonably priced salon for getting my hair chemically straightened, near London

[nancy10]

I have mad curly/frizzy shoulder length hair and after years of straightening have decided to have it chemically straightened. So the above really would be very much appreciated!

I have this done once a year, I had it done last week in fact on my regrowth. It cost £330 for the regrowth, but I do have very long hair so it may not cost you as much. I had the IHR system done (Japanese) by a salon in Covent Garden called Color Nation. This is the fourth time I've had it done, always there, I trust them.

I don't have any knowledge on how much it costs elsewhere, sorry.

The only thing I would say is that once you have it done, you'll always need the regrowth done or it'll look odd, plus once its straightened its very difficult to curl it or do anything else with it. It has, however, made my life much much easier and all being said I still highly recommend it.

Thank you for your reply. Once a year isn't too bad for the regrowth. My hair is almost the same texture as afro hair. I don't mind it being curly, it's the frizz that drives me mad. When you wash your hair, what do you have to do to it. At the moment it takes just over an hour to wash, dry & straighten my hair and I'm sick of it!

My hair wasn't as strong in texture as yours, but its very strong hair, very thick and long too so I really struggled with it. It definitely took me a good 30/40 minutes to get it all dry and I found it really frustrating.

Now (especially when its just been redone) I can dry it with my fingers and its basically dry in 10/15 minutes and completely straight too. If I want to make it more finished looking I use a brush on the ends and very rarely I'll use my straighteners too to make it look more "salon" finished (if you see what I mean). I do think its made a huge difference to my life. You would imagine it might damage your hair but actually I've found its encouraged mine to be healthier because I use my hairdryer far less, plus as I mentioned I almost never use my straighteners.

I know £300+ sounds like a lot of money (and of course it is) but in the scheme of hairdresser visits it works out quite well because I now go only 2 or 3 times a year for trims, nothing else so I've kind of saved money back (if that makes sense).

I've just looked at the website and at the Brazillian method they use too. But prefer the Japanese method. Your right, although it's the most expensive option, it'll last longer and I'm paying £45 for a trim every 4-6 weeks at the moment because of the damage my ghd's do to my hair. So over a year I will have probably saved. Thanks

My friend has hair like you're describing and as I'd had Yuko done she went for a consultation. The guys at the actual, original Yuko salon in Mayfair told her that they wouldn't do it on her hair type as it would spoil her curls permanently and the regrowth would be unmanageable. I thought this was great honesty when they could have just taken her £300 and done it.

Anyway, she's just had a brazilian blow dry done and is thrilled with it. It is still lovely and curly but in a tamer way and no frizz plus faster drying time, or just leaving it to dry naturally makes her very happy.

Right, I'll go for a consultation then and see what they say. Although my hair is curly and very frizzy, I don't have lovely curls like some people do, it's more scraggly. If I had a decent curl and less frizz I'd be happy. It's the frizziness that drives me mad!

I understand what you mean nancy10, mine was just very coarse and wavy, not curly, curly I'd have worked with and been happy with, ha ... I have had the Yukos done in the past too and I just felt it didn't really "touch the sides" as it were with my hair, the IHR worked much better (for me personally).

Anyway, if you do go to Color Nation, ask for Brad, he's a lovely Australian guy and he's very honest, he'll tell you if its a good idea for you or not. They are so busy that they don't need to lie to you just to get another client.

Thanks for your advice. That's definately where I'm going to head!

There are a couple of Korean salons near where I live called AGASSI (one in New malden one in Kingston ) who do chemical straighteneing

They are reasonable in price for cuts etc so should be Ok with this too I would have thought