Blown Away By A Professional Blow Dry

Londoners are up there with women from other big cities such as New York, Paris, Rome in being fashionable, funky and self possessed but there is one area we fall behind, particularly from our American counterparts across the pond – grooming. New Yorkers are immaculately groomed and polished from their manicured toes and fingers to their glossy blowouts (as they call a blow dry).

These women spend hours on their appearance from regularly having their brows shaped, teeth whitened, manicures, pedicures, blow dries, facials and massages but the reason they can do all this is that these treatments are a lot more cost effective in the Big Apple than here. With mass nail bars are on every corner, every hairdresser with a blowdry menu and facialists a dime a dozen, competition is high, prices are low but you are not compromised on service.

London is a little slower to pick up on some of these mass market trends. Although we can certainly get fabulous blow dries, facials, manicures and brow grooming, they are still expensive luxuries instead of weekly must haves.

For great hair, this is starting to change. Blow Bars are popping up in salons and shopping centres across the UK. And the more they pop up, the more people will use them and the more competitive the pricing will get.

Why Get A Blow Dry

When your hair is professionally blow dried it doesn’t just looked groomed and glossy for one day but it can last a few days. Whether you have an important meeting, a job interview, a date or just a night on the town there is a style to suit. One of the best blow dry menus is from Headmasters, whose combination of blowouts and up dos are a combination of classics and straight from the catwalks to ensure you are not just groomed but on trend as well.

I opted for the Bergdorf Belle (#4 of course) with gentle curls, side sweeping and a little root lift at the crown. Ollie, my stylist, pin-curled, back combed and tonged my hair into sophisticated tumbling waves and although he had used a variety of L’Oreal Techni Art products to ensure that the style lasted, my hair was still silky to the touch.

In just 60 minutes  (I have very long hair) my hair had been washed, including a wonderful head massage, and blowed to perfection. Next to me, another client was having Rock Candy (3) and the end result was equally as stunning. In fact the stylists at all the Headmaster salons have been trained to achieve these perfect results meaning you can go locally and get the same results as you would in the Mayfair flagship salon.

At the end not only did I have great looking hair but it changed my whole mood. It’s amazing to think how fabulous hair can make you feel like a better version of yourself. The best thing was it lasted a good four days! The second and third days I ran a brush through it and the curls bounced back beautiful and the fourth day I did my own version of the side twist bun shown in picture 2. It could have actually lasted a fifth day but I really thought I’d better wash my hair! If you tend to get oily roots, simply use a dry shampoo and you will have great hair for four days too.

Headmasters blow-dries start from a very reasonable £24, visit their website hmhair.co.uk for your nearest salon.

[picture credits: Headmasters]
  • Miss B

    Belinda Wanis, aka Miss B, is a Belle About Town who likes to bring a little bit of style into every aspect of her life. An experienced journalist with over 20 years in the industry she turned to the web, creating Belle About Town in early 2010, to fill a gap for tech-savvy stylish women who want the best life has to offer at their fingertips. She loves a decadent cocktail bar, a beautifully cut dress, cultural getaways, quality over quantity and is partial to Asian-fusion food. A globetrotter, who has lived in Australia, the UK and Denmark, she enjoys holidaying in the sun and you can often find her on a beach in Thailand or on shopping breaks in Sydney or New York. But her first love is, of course, London!