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Good Cheap Haircuts and Colors - er, COLOURS - in London

09:01 / 22.08.02

I am the mistress of getting a haircut at a fabulous salon for less than $10 - in Chicago. I lived there long enough to know when the hoity toity places turned their protogees loose, and almost never had a bad experience.

Well, now here I am in London and I need a haircut. And I want a dye job, too. But I don't really have the money for the superfabulous places.

So are there any schools or salons that I could be a "head model" for? Does anyone have the hookup?

Please help. My vanity thanks you.

The Natural Way

09:09 / 22.08.02

Well, there's the Toni & Guy training school. Forget whhere that is now, but they'll probably do it for free.

I normally use 'Fairy' in Neals Yard, Covent Garden (been cutting my runcemop since 95) - only a tenner for a bloke's cut and pretty bloody good too. Don't imagine it's that much more expensive for the ladies.

09:40 / 22.08.02

I think Toni and Guy at Holborn has a sign up looking for models. Worth a try.

09:51 / 22.08.02

What's the story with being a model at a place like this? Do they only want you if you're up for something interesting, so they can practice their skillz? What happens if you stroll in and ask for a trim?

10:14 / 22.08.02

yeah, that's it basically, my girlfriend and flatmate have both had this done a number of times. I think Toni & Guy charge a fiver and are located just off New Oxford st, near The End. You don't have too much control over what they do, you can say "I'd like it quite short with some colour" but not really any more specific than that.

Vidal Sasson's school near Bond Street tube do it too, i know this because the only haircut that I've had in the past five years that was not courtesy of myself and my Remington was from Damien at Vidal, and jolly nice it was too. My aforementioned flatmate was working there at the time and sorted me out, but I don't think you need a contact or anything, there were loads of people getting trainee haircuts when I was there.

10:20 / 22.08.02

Given that at least 50 percent of people will just want a 'trim', I suppose trainees have to learn to do that too, boring as it might be for them.

10:27 / 22.08.02

If you pick up one of the horrendous excuses for magazines (Ms London, 9 to 5, etc, etc - bleugh!)that are provided free on the tube in the mornings you will quite often find ads for Toni & Guy and maybe other hair studios offering discounts/freebies.

Mind you our lovely Plums is supreme mistress of the cheap hair cut/colour things and I would grab her and pick her brain if I were you!

Goodness Gracious Meme

12:57 / 22.08.02

Bless you, Angel. Good to have some talents!

yeah, I go to the Toni and Guy model school on New Oxford St, their appointments are at 945 and 1345/1445 i I think. If you haven't had a colour before they'll ask you to get a colour test, but this doesn't take long. They're great, and as Angel says, if you grab a ms.london, nine to five or girl about town (crappy free papers aimed at seccy types) you can go for free, otherwise, cuts are £5 and colours upto about £15. You don't get completely free choice, what tends to happen is you say what you want, and they adapt it slightly to fit whatever their thing of the moment is - but they won't do anything drastic if you don't want it. The cutting is fab, i've never had a bad cut from them in about 6 years of going and they're the only place I'd trust to do colour on my hair...

Loomis, they have different branches, depending on whether you want a complete restyle or a cut/trim, so you can usually get what you want...

any more questions?