Living up to the hype. (Toni & Guy)

Member Name: Adorablelittleme

Product:	Toni & Guy
Date:	04/05/03 (4053 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Stylish salons., Pricing according to training.

Disadvantages: Luck of the draw for quality of service., Over-inflated pricing., Pressure to purchase add-on sales.

The Toni and Guy chain is one of the first if its kind to bring fashionable hairdressing to the masses - celebrity hairdressers allowing the public to buy into their brand on a wider scale.
However, with the hyped-up branding comes over-inflated pricing policies and £44 for a hair cut by anyone other than Toni or Guy themselves may seem a tad unjustifiable.

The salons are certainly stylish, immitating London design with their mixture of minimalist white walls, glass and chrome. The staff are on the whole an affable lot and it is quite likely that by the end of an appointment, you will be slightly fed up with refusing the constant offers of tea and coffee or the constant offers to replenish your stack of magazines. Unfortunately the encouragement to purchase the salon's own lines of styling products is equally as constant and pushy.

One particular aspect of the Toni and Guy experience that i found particularly annoying was the feeling of being pushed from pillar to post; colour is applied by the colour technicians (who do not cut hair), hair is then washed and treated by a student and then on to a stylist for the cut and/or blow dry - it does feel like a slightly disjointed process.

The pricing policy (staggered according to ability) is as follows;
STYLE DIRECTOR
cut & blow dry = £38 mens cut & blow dry = £30
TOP STYLIST
cut & blow dry = £34 blow dry = £20 longer blow dry = £24 mens cut & blow dry = £26
STYLIST
cut & blow dry = £30 blow dry = £20 longer blow dry = £24 mens cut & blow dry = £22
MANAGER & ART DIRECTOR = £44
COLOUR TECHNICIAN
highlights/lowlights = £65 half head = £50 fashion colours = £40 change of colour = £55 colour correction = £60 tint re-growth = £35
pre-lightener & toner = £45 natural glossing = £30 permanent waving = £45
relaxing = p.o.a hair treatments = £15
SENIOR COLOUR TECHNICIAN
highlights/lowlights =
£75 half head = £60 fashion colours = £45 change of colour = £60 colour correction = £65 tint re-growth = £35
pre-lightener & toner = £50 natural glossing = £30 permanent waving = £55
relaxing = p.o.a hair treatments = £15
TECHNICAL DIRECTOR
highlights/lowlights = £80 half head = £65 fashion colours = £50 change of colour = £65 colour correction = £70 tint re-growth = £40
pre-lightener & toner = £55 natural glossing = £35 permanent waving = £60
relaxing = p.o.a hair treatments = £15
Consultations are free

Toni and Guy can on occasion live up to their hype, they do have a number of extremely talented staff in whom you learn to place your trust and whose advice you tend to believe. However, it is not unknown and a very real possibility that you may instead fall into the hands of one of their many staff who are not so highly skilled (even amongst the senio levels), and as in any other salon you take that risk in that first appointment - the true ability of the stylist or technician that you see will be as dependant upon the luck of the draw as it would be in any of the less expensive salons found on the average high street.

On a personal level, having been a regular customer of Toni and Guy's for almost three years, i have now managed to find a more talented and yet significantly less expensive colour technician at another salon - and guess what, she colours, washes, treats, cuts and blow dries my hair all herself!

Summary: