Fast beauty: London's speedy salons for express treatments

Louise Scodie checks out the best spots for a quick post-work/pre-night out touch up
Feel good: pick-me-up messages painted over the walls at The Parlour in Chiswick
Louise Scodie4 September 2014

New York has had fast beauty bars for years, which is why everyone looks amazing over there - daily blow-dries are de rigueur. You can get a speedy blow or top up with make-up and/or nails in many of these perky parlours.

The trend is only just hitting London, giving us a more accessible chance for a pre-work or pre-party de-scruff. I visited these beauty bars with two goals in mind. Firstly, to see if they could make my fine, frizzy hair look lovely. Secondly, when I visited on work days, I wanted to see whether the look lasted until the evening, when I present a live, hour-long show on London Live.

Blow Ltd

What's the buzz?

Billing themselves as London’s number one fast-beauty bar, they offer a glam plethora of hair, nails and make-up styles which you can combine as you wish. You choose from a pictorial menu, just like in a fast-food bar, except it’s blow-dries and not burgers on offer. I had the luxe-blow dry, on-trend nails and evening make-up which took 45 minutes in total. If you’re going there to get done-up for an event they can even steam your dress for you - just get changed and party away.

There’s a smorgasbord of styles on offer. I chose one style which didn’t work at all on my hair and the hairdresser kindly changed it for me to a luxe blow. I experimented for this article but with my hair I should have had a straight blow-dry or their new sexy summer up-do - next time, hair, I promise.

The make-up artist, Laura, was quite brilliant. I loved, loved, loved how she made me up and the cult products she used were fantastic, especially the Eyeko mascara and Jouer Luminizing Moisture Tint. There were lots of oohs and aahs when I showed off my look at work and my producer said that I looked very polished on camera that night. Happy me.

How much does it cost? Nails and make-up from £15, hair from £25

Location: 8 Slingsby Place, WC2

Blade Soho

Fill up on jazz and coffee whilst you get a quick trim

What's the buzz? There are iPads stuck to the chairs! There are funky hipster hairdressers with coloured hair! There’s a coffee bar with more caffeine-based drinks than you can shake a percolator at! It’s a small, fun and funky salon that looks edgy but actually the service is charming and friendly. It attracts the post-production crowd, lots of blokes and lots of party people wanting to get glammed up before their nights out. I visited on a Saturday morning where there was a relaxed vibe with some older clientele getting pampered. Blade use a mix of Sebamed and Schwarzkopf products tailored to your hair type and you can have a head massage during your shampoo.

My lovely stylist Ali in Wonderland (they all have nicknames) was a great head masseur. She asked: “Is the pressure OK?” I replied: “Mmmmm.” I enjoyed a honey chai latte and agreed to an experimental wavy do. Again, with my hair, I should have gone for a straight blow-dry - it didn’t last too long, especially with that day’s rain. It was at this point I decided to stop experimenting with wavy hairdos. But Blade is a fun salon to be in so I’d certainly go back and try a straight and sleek style.

How much does it cost? Blow-dry from £18, cuts and colouring from £27

Location: 26 Frith Street, W1D

The Parlour

Parlour gets you perfectly pretty and needs no patience with their timing

What's the buzz? This up-and-coming blowdry and braid bar in Turnham Green was founded by owner Jacqueline Fletcher as an antidote to what she saw as the harsh, homogenised nature of many chain salons. Certainly, with its retro feel, bright colours and pick-me-up messages painted over the walls, it really couldn’t be more different from your average high street hairstylist. Whilst vintage styles and intricate braids are on offer, you can also have a modern blow-dry.

As my enthusiastic stylist Danielle said: “You can have straight, wavy, modern, vintage, cocktails, cake - whatever you want!” You heard correctly - CAKE. There are free drinks and free cake. FREE CAKE. I had coffee and walnut. It would be worth going back just for that.

I refused a wavy do having learned my lesson by now. However, I was particularly impressed by the range of braids so I had a straight blow-dry (very good, very sleek) with a loose waterfall braid for a boho take on the old half-up, half down style. This also included a trim - if the stylist thinks your split ends need seeing too she’ll happily sort them out for you as part of your treatment.

Depending on what you have you’ll be there from half an hour to an hour, although you could make an afternoon of it by having a parlour party with some friends or a tutorial with one of the stylists. Overall I was very pleased, my hair looked unusually sweet and later that day my workmates did a lot of impressed cooing over the braid. It all lasted well into the evening giving me pretty hair for the show.

How much does it cost? Braids from £20, blow-dries from £30

Location: 8 Devonshire Road, W4

GlamBlow

What's the buzz?

William Thomas Gaughan have three full-service hairdressing shops in south London and now they’ve added a fast beauty bar to their offering. In Barnes, the two share a space, so essentially it’s like going to a regular hairdresser. It’s a small yet airy space with welcoming staff where smart clientele are just as likely to bring with their dogs as their designer handbags (I’m not a pet person, so I just brought my handbag).

My gorgeous stylist Jasmin was fresh off the boat from New York where she’d spent twenty years working in salons over there. Jasmin and I had a very good chat about dating in the two cities. She’s charming, beautiful and single. Men - snap her up. Jasmin’s Manhattan heritage was evident from her elegant dress sense as well as her amusing desire to give me MASSIVE HAIR. I protested. I ended up with a few rollers in my hair for said volume, but the result wasn’t too bad at all - perhaps older than the usual style I go for but certainly not the American newsreader hair I was worried about. At work, my producer was very enthusiastic about my hair and brilliantly the blow lasted for two days by which time it had settled and looked a bit more me.

How much does it cost? Blow-dries from £25

Location: 1B Barnes High Street, SW13 9LD

Louise Scodie presents Not the One Show on London Live, 7-8pm weekdays londonlive.co.uk

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