Finding a Hair salon you love can be difficult and sometimes looking for a new one is even more difficult. I’ve been going sulfate-free and silicone-free for just over a month and starting to get a few more waves out of my hair although they’re not fully there yet.
One day I walked past my local hair salon, The Curious Comb and saw a sign in the window stating that they were looking for models so I enquired about Colour for me. I was asked what I’d like to do and had been thinking about going mermaid hair for a little while but didn’t have the courage to do it but that day I decided to bite the bullet and take a chance. I booked myself in for a total colour transformation and am sooo glad that I did because I really love my hair!
If you’re not sure what mermaid hair/unicorn hair/rainbow hair is, check out Pinterest and you’ll find a plethora of this new and popular creative colouring technique that’s taken London by storm. As I booked in as a hair model, I needed to start my appointment at 08:30am before clients arrived to avoid disruption to the salon and also give the colourist enough time to perform the service. I also had to pay a small fee for my model colour as the salon has to cover their cost for the materials/ingredients used, naturally.
On the day…
Tuesday, 08:30am I was greeted by Chris at reception who checked me in and introduced me to my colourist Vivi – a funky lady whose work I had been admiring on the salon’s instagram page, @thecuriouscomb. Vivi greeted me and sat me down, offered me a drink and asked me what I’d like to do to my hair. I told her that I wanted to have mermaid hair and was looking for pinks, purples, blues and greens. She explained that as my natural hair colour was such a dark base, it would be possible to achieve mermaid hair but not to the pastel colour I’d like. Chris, who was overseeing Vivi also told me that it would be impossible to go from almost black to pastel in one sitting unless we were there for a whole day as in 8hrs+ and use high-strength bleach which would be really damaging to my hair. This I knew so it was no surprise to me, I confirmed that I would be happy with any lift and know that I won’t be super light but as long as I can get a vibrant colour, I’d be a happy bunny. Chris mentioned that Olaplex would be added to my colour to help protect my hair from excessive damage – Olaplex is a protein based treatment that actually helps the hair to repair. The Curious Comb also offer it as a stand-alone treatment for about £30.00.
Chris and Vivi spoke about how she was going to do my hair – I mentioned that I’d like a balayage application and Chris recommended Vivi to use foils instead of freehand. My hair went through one process of bleach which lifted it to an orange colour – this, I’d also expected to happen. Vivi applied the foils and bleach evenly and with speed for a colourist in training. My head felt so heavy from the foils and this part of the process took about 2hrs. After the foil application was done, Vivi rinsed my hair and sat me down again with another lovely coffee and showed me the colours she was going to apply on my hair. She applied the colour carefully and blended them well using a special hand-blending technique. I sat and watched my hair changed colour… multi-colour.
The blending by Vivi was absolutely amazing! My own unique mermaid hair which I liked to call Watermelon Hair. There’s even a hashtag for #watermelonhair on the gram and it describes my outcome perfectly.
And for the guys who love ‘before and after’ photos… here’s mine. What a drastic colour change – a super transformation!
The result
My hair still felt surprisingly soft. I really thought it was going to feel like hay but it didn’t. Maybe that was thanks to the Olaplex? I’m not 100% sure. Vivi told me that my colour will last aroun 8-10 washes and the less I wash my hair, the longer the colour will keep. That’s great news for me as I only wash my hair 1-2 times a week and it’s with a low-poo (a sulfate-free, silicone-free shampoo).
Vivi styled it for me using hair tongs and curled it beautifully. The curls lasted for 3-4 days and it was the first time in about a month since I had used any heat products or styling on my hair since going CGM.
Three months on (it’s now March) and my colour has only faded about 60% – the multi-colour tones have somewhat blended into each other and the colours are no longer as vibrant as it was on the first day but I still love it so. I have been thinking about going back for my Olaplex treatment and also a colour refresh. I will be sticking with The Curious Comb from now on for my colour.. now I just need to be brave enough to go in for a cut!
