by Annie Vischer
I may be a tiny bit biased about my visit to Gina Conway. Mainly because it’s a hop, skip and a jump away from my pretty little West London flat. But seriously, if a hair salon manages to give my hair a cut and blow dry without awakening the beast that is my control freak side, then it’s doing well. And this salon made the cut. Geddit?!
First of all it’s an Aveda salon, so as soon as you enter you’re enveloped in a swirl of botanical fragrances that relax and invigorate in the same breath. Then came the consultation. My hair was held, weighted and twisted as my stylist got the measure of it, and we talked options. Well not that there were that many options. I’m a stylist’s worst nightmare. A girl with long hair who wants the minimum taken off to make it look healthier, and not a lot more besides. My stylist had visions of soft layers flowing around the back, complimenting the natural movement of my hair, and achieved in an incredibly technical manner. It sounded visionary, it sounded exquisite and perfect for my hair. But I backed out.
I spent a good number of hair styling sessions as a young girl smiling sweetly at various hair dressers as they showed me the finished product, before going home to cry into my pillow about the too short layers, the too thick fringe, or the over-enthusiastic shaping around my face. So I have educated myself to ask for the least change possible and to avoid layers of any sort. So I settled on a decent trim and more graduation at the front. I deprived my poor stylist of creating what he had ideally imagined. Which I’m sure would have looked wonderful.
In any case, he happily set to work, giving me a wonderful end-of-the-day head massage before my hair wash. After my cut he asked me how I would like my hair blow dried. I reeled off my usual ‘I normally wear my hair wavy so like lots of movement, most normally pin curl it as that’s how my hair holds it best’, smile, hint hint. And without any question he wielded a hairdryer in sync with a radial brush in the other hand, pin curling as he went. I barely looked up from my magazine, I was so relaxed. He blasted my hair with cold air from the hairdryer to set the look before unfurling from the pins and brushing through, tipping my hair upside down and tousling to add volume.
I don’t think I’ve been any where where advise has been given so expertly and reasonably, and where my particular wishes have been so kindly adhered to. It matters a great deal to be able to have confidence in and trust your hair stylist implicitly, and it seems that at Gina Conway I can do so. And to have this place on my doorstep? Well what more can a girl ask for?
Gina Conway has locations at Fulham Road, Westbourne Grove, Wimbledon, and Kings Road. All contact details and opening times can be found here.
And check out this nifty little offer they’ve got going for summer.
