Glass visits Gielly Green boutique hair salon for a colour change

I APPROACHED Gielly Green, the award-winning sanctuary for hair and beauty, with the trepidation of a guilty child, who’d been chewing gum into her hair. This I had done in the distant past, however now was more recent – messing with box colours, lighteners and henna, alone at home during the last long furlough time.

The things I had done to my already tortured, by being unnaturally blonde hair, were too terrible to even reveal to my colourist, so he was made to work pretty much blind, which I am now publicly apologising for. 

I was feeling low and had been using dye as a pick-me-up, which ultimately left me with a hideous tangled tangerine mass on my head, that I could only pull a wide brush through with the help of a hair mask, left on. I had become bashful and uncomfortable on video and zoom calls, with grey roots creeping through the bright red henna – one of my least-liked looks.

How vital a good head of hair is to feel sane and face the world, knowing it will reverberate out, attracting kind remarks and restoring esteem like nothing else. It really does work and although I loved the holier than thou affect of using all natural henna, I just didn’t know how to control it, or to stop it getting darker and darker, making my regrowth appear even more discordant. It was time to move back to safety and by putting my trust in an uber colourist I knew I could finally sit back and relax.

We started with a treatment to protect my already colour stressed lengthly hair, from being damaged by the process of a complex colour change, from a rich red to a more natural blonde effect. Seated very comfortably in the calming and beautiful interior of  Gielly Green boutique salon in Marylebone, I felt immediately lifted and well cared for by the attractive, generous staff who after arriving me, kept me fed with tea, water, smiles and magazines.

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Gielly Green boutique hair salon

My stylist, Darijo, is a true professional, an artist who colours hair, concentrating on finer details to get only perfect results worthy of the stars. I enjoyed the in depth consultation process, where I was offered three different colour options before we came to see that Scandinavian blonde was the ultimate best choice.


Gielly Green boutique hair salon

He used AirTouch technique, a new way of balayage highlighting, originating from Russia, one of the most sort after colour processes of the moment, to obtain awe inspiring and natural looking colour. It was heavenly, relaxing as Darijo soothingly combed and very gently tugged my hair, creating tension using a blow dryer, dividing the longer ,stronger layers from the shorter, inner layers.

As the process developed it felt almost medical, his glamorous assistant with her mesmerisingly lengthly black hair, standing by with foils, mixing and passing over tints and lightener to be applied incrementally by my intensely focused stylist.

Soft brown with an underside of creamy baby blonde, slowly developed with only a 3% volume peroxide, used for even the lightest areas, my hair health was kept in the forefront.

Hair masks and treatment sprays were magically applied and rinsed off with pieces of colour and reapplied during different stages. I drifted off, imagining how new I was about to feel whilst being gently guided back to beautiful blonde, closer to my real dark blonde peppered with grey.


Gielly Green boutique hair salon

Fresh, pop music played during, as variously well-styled people came and went and I was able eavesdrop some fun conversations, retrieving podcast tips, poetic homestyle design ideas and log various images for my future life. The biggest treat, apart from the magnificent result, was being invited upstairs to lie on a plush caramel coloured, vinyl bed for a supreme head massage and milkshake toner treatment, my head rested back in a state of the art basin at just the right level to see a glimpse of blue sky.


Gielly Green boutique hair salon

The immaculate blow dry made the colour even better, tongs reinstating my 70’s flick fringe and waves, blonder front and hair ends subtly blended through the back, returning the smooth curvy locks of my teenager years. I use hair oil daily since Darijo opened my eyes by saying: “The skin can speak and say it’s uncomfortable but the hair cannot, it has no voice.”

Thank you for making me love my hair again and be ready for a summer of fun.

P.S. If you want to restyle or gloss up without moving, or are having an event or party where the guests will be deeply indulged, try booking the new  Gielly Green mobile salon, that will appear at your door in London, Surrey and further afield. You’ll get a treatment in a new setting, with the same lux, modern design as in house and your choice of expert from the team.

by Sara Kirkwood