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Getting the snip

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There are so many codes of behavior that getting our haircut forces us to follow; stumbling over which way the robe goes on, describing how we want our hair like Gigi Hadid’s whilst simultaneously acknowledging that we know we won’t look exactly the same because we aren’t all supermodels, and then beaming with delight even if we hate what the stylist has done as they hold up a mirror showing us the back of our heads. It can often make getting a haircut seem more effort than it’s worth, and when you transport all that to a foreign country, it’s unsurprising that many people either don’t dare visit a salon, or take matters into their own hands.

At the moment I’ve been cutting my own hair, not due to any bad experience, in fact I’ve had a couple of decent bargain haircuts at Tchip, but out of pure arrogance because I felt like a can do a decent-ish job myself and save the 20 euros. This plan probably lacks foresight and I’ll have to fork out to get my bob evened out eventually, but for now, as I wear it very messy, I’m getting away with it.

Getting your haircut in Paris can be expensive but I completely understand why people pay up. One should not underestimate the power of a great haircut. On extreme makeover shows it is always the haircut that makes the biggest difference, not the cosmetic surgery, in my opinion. If I’m ever feeling down a wash in/wash out rinse in a playful colour will reliably pick me up. Simply cutting in bangs can transform your look in a way that a whole new wardrobe cannot, and for a far smaller price tag.

When it comes to finding a hairdresser anywhere it is always best to get a recommendation from a friend. So I rounded up a few of mine (those that aren’t avoiding the experience altogether or, like me, taking a DIY-approach) and got them to share their tips. There’s also a few horror stories at the end, and I can’t thank you gals enough for sharing.

The Good…

“I found Joseph completely by chance on an expat Facebook group. His friend had posted an ad saying he was looking for models and to drop her a message if you were interested. I was in, as it meant a free haircut. And although I would’ve muddled through in French for a freebie, even better that he spoke English as I had been searching since I’d arrived in Paris. Preferably someone decent who wasn’t gonna charge me upwards of 75 quid. But with so many in Paris I didn’t have a clue where to start. So a Facebook ad seemed as good a place as any.

We discussed what I wanted for a while, and he listened, really listened. I am very precious about my very long hair, and I am not a fan of the hairdressers, I guess in a way most people don’t like the dentist. But I really felt like I could trust Joseph. He took off exactly what we had agreed on, spent time cutting in the layers, and gave me some fringe advice which I trusted him well enough to go with. He didn’t use any products on my hair, but at the moment I’ve put this down to it being just a model for a night. If I was paying, yes I’d want products, but we’ll see what happens next time. He also didn’t dry my fringe how I like, but to be honest, no-one does, I always prefer to do it myself, but yet am far to polite to tell them. Overall I left very happy with my new hairdressing find, and my bouncy blow dry to swish over my shoulders through the streets of Paris. Cuts cost between 37 and 52 euros, depending on the length/style. ” – Nicola Leigh Stewart

Les coiffeurs de la rue
10 rue Saint Antoine
Open Tuesday to Saturday from 9h30 to 19h30
Thursdays open 12h to 21h30
01 44 54 09 02.

“I got my hair cut at Tony Xanthos Coiffure. It’s an individually owned salon and I was able to walk-in without an appointment. This was the time I chopped all my hair off. They understood what I wanted through broken French, though I had to look up how to say layers (en dégradé) beforehand. It was a good hair cut but I paid 45€ including the student discount. I would recommend it to someone living in Neuilly, but there are cheaper options elsewhere in Paris.” – Sophie Barrowman

Tony Xanthos Coiffure
5 Rue Berteaux Dumas
92200 Neuilly-sur-Seine
Phone:+33 1 46 24 96 76

“I got my hair cut at Tchip for super cheap. It’s like the super cuts of France. It was only about 30€, and they massaged my head and did a fabulous job. It was the Tchip by Periere, I would recommend them, they didn’t speak English but I explained with my little french and showed a picture.” – Lizzie Gremminger

T-chip <3
(Locations all over Paris)

“I went to Living Room twice in 2014. I made my appointments to be with the head stylist, Matt, who speaks both English and French. My French level is B2/C1 (depending on the day haha) but my haircut vocabulary was not very good at the time, and I didn’t want to end up with awful hair, which is why I looked for an English-speaking stylist. I also took in a couple of pictures of the cut that I wanted, just so there wouldnt be any confusion. The other stylists in his salon don’t really speak English, however they were all quite nice! Matt specializes in dry cuts, and I was quite happy with my haircuts. I would recommend to a friend! A haircut at Living Room is between 40 and 50 euros.” – Liz Compson

Living Room
22 rue des Taillandiers
Paris 75011
Métro Bastille.
Téléphone : 01 43 55 66 81

“The other salon that I went to (in October 2015) was the Frank Provost Salon on Boulevard Saint Michel. I actually just googled the salon to find out their address, and it says that they’ve closed permanently. That’s definitely disappointing, because I had a great experience there! I went in the middle of the day on a Thursday without an appointment, and they were able to take me right away. I did speak in French with the stylists, who were very friendly and funny! They were both actually non-native French speakers as well (one Spanish, the other Algerian) so they were very understanding when I had to pause to think of the right words to describe what I wanted. One of them did speak some English, but at that point in time, I had definitely become more comfortable with using haircut vocab in French, so we just stuck to French. I had a shampoo/conditioning, cut, and blow dry. All together I think it was around 45 euros. If they were still open, I would definitely recommend to a friend!” – Liz Compson

Frank Provost Salon
(Locations all over Paris)

“For my first haircut I went to a little salon on Rue de Longchamp and the haircut cost 90€!!!!!??? It was good but nothing special or worth the money & the time. When I cut my hair very short it was just at a Jean Louise David chain salon at La Defense – pas chic du tout but for 50€ it was pretty decent. No one spoke English and they were ‘French nice’, so bearable.” – Alexandra Borden

Jean Louis David
2 Place de la Défense
92800 Puteaux
Metro: La Defense
Phone:01 40 90 78 90

The bad…

ainsleyhair

“A hairdressers parting words of advice should never be, “Don’t worry, it will grow”. On Saturday after thinking about it for weeks (and needing it for months) I finally had had enough of dealing with split ends and booked an appointment at a nice (yet overpriced) salon on the next block over from my place. I turned up with a photo of exactly what I wanted done, after spending hours traipsing through Harpers Bazaar and pinterest. I showed the hairdresser on my phone, she pointed at a length on my hair and we both agreed. She got out the scissors and quickly took off a good 10cm. There it goes.

I knew she was going to trim it up a bit from there, so it looked like it was all going perfectly. I had a great wash, and she put a treatment through which smelt like cookies. Then she put me back in the chair and started cutting…. and cutting, and cutting…There were moments where I was physically putting my hands up to stop her…but words couldn’t come out of my mouth, I just sat there and watched in disbelief as she cut. My heart was pounding, I felt like I could possibly cry, but I really just had no idea. At the end she could see my apprehension. She tried to reassure me that it looked great, I would just need to get used to it. I felt like picking up my phone, shoving it in her face and screaming “BUT IT LOOKS NOTHING LIKE THE PHOTO!!!!”” – Ainsley Duyvestyn-Smith

Tony and Guy Academy

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“Hated it. She spoke English but refused to use it with me even mixed with my broken French. It was free. If you go there they use you to teach a class on cutting techniques. I asked her what she thought of a really short hair cut like Kaley Cuoco on me. She said it was fine and just sort of went for it. My friend had been previously and the guy gave her all these ideas and tips and was amazing. The chick I got wasn’t happy to be there and wasn’t happy to help me out. If you want a freebie haircut don’t do anything extreme the first time around.” (Before, after the crazy way she styled it, my own styling of it, my Mom.) -Georgia Woodard

And the hair miracle…

“I’d been in Paris a while when I realised that my roots were starting to veer from unkempt cool into the territory of scruffy heathen. As a blonde hair-dying veteran I knew all too well the tonnes of possibilities that could go wrong when using a box dye so I did hours of research (go on, judge me for being a vain bugger – I don’t care) looking for English-speaking hair salons in the city of light. I eventually found one that looked pretty perfect. English speaking, understated interior and a hefty amount of positive reviews on various websites. I immediately emailed the owner and booked myself an appointment.

Slight disclaimer for the rest of the story – I am fully aware that I come across as a spineless hungover moron…
I’d been booked in for 10am on a Monday morning, which is a time and a day in which any respectable person would be up and about – a few café crémes in and ready to head to their hair appointment with ease. It’s safe to say that I am not a respectable person and I in fact found myself at five minutes to 10, about four metro stops away from the hair salon, with a head full of drunken regret.

First impressions of the salon were amazing – beautiful interior and an unnervingly handsome Dutch hair stylist. After a brief consultation (in English – thank baby hairstyling Jesus) in which I explained that I wanted to go for a darker, more natural blonde, the attractive Dutch dude made me an espresso and started to work his magic. And on and on and on he went working his magic for four hours.
I was so relaxed in those four hours, happy to chatter on to the handsome man as I left my hair in his capable hands. It was all fine until the blow dry. Up until then, my hair was either covered in dye or wet… during which I just assumed that it appeared darker than it actually was. It wasn’t until my hair was completely bone dry when it dawned on me… I was completely, unquestionably ginger.

I took one look at my fiery, coppery alien head and another at his expectant smiling face and said: “Oh wow, I absolutely love it so much, thank you!”
I know. I am a backbone-less idiot. Want to hear something even worse? I paid over one hundred euros for this service. As I left the salon, expressing thank you’s and false proclamations of adoration for my hair as I left, I swear a tiny tear escaped from one hungover eye. Later that day my worst fears were confirmed when sat on a bench outside a friend’s apartment lamenting my hair. My good intentioned friend simply pointed to an autumnal orange leaf and said “It’s not that bad, it’s the colour of that leaf over there”.

Being autumnal-orange-leaf coloured lasted just under 24 hours, when the next day I decided I couldn’t bear it any longer. I emerged from my chambre de bonne and wandered the streets of the 17th in search of a trustworthy salon. That is when I stumbled across Jessika Ester. It looked clean, it looked Parisian and it looked trustworthy.

My appointment at Jessika Ester was perfect in comparison to the day before in the salon I will not name. She listened to my hair dying woes and couldn’t believe that not only did I profess that I loved it but also paid for the service. Sometimes I curse my reserved nature. After a further three hours in a salon chair (I was currently on a week off from my au pair job, in case you were wondering where I found the time) my hair was blonde again. I could have leaped up off my chair and hugged Jessika but instead I offered her my most sincere smile and profuse gratitude. With a humble shrug she agreed that her work here was done.

My highlighting session at Jessika Ester was also not cheap, as it came in at almost one hundred euros. She does however offer a 20% discount for those under 25, which should make her an obvious choice, if her sheer hair dressing expertise hasn’t already.” – Hana Barten

Jessika Ester
Rue Jouffroy d’Abbans
75017
Phone:+33 1 47 63 74 63

 



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