L’Oreal Academy

You are going to love this place, when you hear that I got my hair cut and coloured for free! Yes, you read right, free! L’Oreal Academy is a place wherein there are stylists who have already been in the business for 5 – 10 years but are only brushing up techniques and learning even more. So, you end up with your hair in hands of a completely experienced stylist along with a supervisor, watching every move made, making your hair almost 99% fault-​free! At first, I thought, I would have zero preference and was a bit reluctant about it. Boy was I wrong! I had total authority in choosing my colours and style along with a really talented and friendly girl doing my hair. In the end it was the perfect red and the perfect cut and the perfect smile on my face! My excitement was literally exploding my body. The first appointment is free and the ones later, just need a meagre sum of £15 to get a cut and £20 for colouring (which is dirt cheap for their services and salons compared).
The place is fabulous and everyone is really friendly. The only thing you need to know is that this can take a while, so take a book or an ipod to keep you company! Appointment system is real easy as well and flexible. So if you’ve got no money and need a new look, jump right in and come out looking absolutely fab!

Ever wished you could get professional hair-​colouring, done with top-​of-​the-​range products for free, instead of shelling out £80? Well, look no further; welcome to L’Oreal academy Manchester!
I know that at first it seems a bit daunting, the idea of being a hair model. Especially when, on sign up, you’re told you’ll have to be flexible and give the stylist some leeway on colours/​styles. And then they tell you that the people cutting/​colouring your hair will be *learning*! Argh! But calm down, it’s fine. The ‘learners’ are all fullly qualified stylists who have been working for at least 5 years, and are constantly learning about new techniques and products, and getting new qualifications and becoming super-​duper stylists. And as for the leeway, both myself and Classy Friend were given 100% choice over our colours and cuts.
Classy friend ended up with deep red and caramel tones through a mane of chestnut brown, and I enjoyed chunky blonde under-​highlights in a very dark warm brown base. The session included a ‘stripping’ treatment, where the majority of my older colour was taken out while the roots were protected, to ensure an even colour when the dye was put in. Word of warning, kids, one of the other girls there ‘forgot’ to tell her stylist that she’d had highlights that she’d dyed over. Result: her waist-​length locks went a really weird orange colour, she cried and had to call her work telling them she couldn’t come in, because she had to stay and let her stylist fix it. So if you’re going for a colour anywhere, please try to remember your hair history (HAIRSTORY!).
The colouring sessions can take awhile; they advise that you allow about 3 hours for your visit but I’d say it’d be more like 4. So bring a book!
There is a wide range of classes you can model for; including creative colour (a little more exciting), restyle, cut and colour, and colour change (good for those who already have dye in their hair). The first visit is always free, and for subsequent visits it’s about £15 for a haircut and £20 for colour. If you recommend a friend, you get a freebie cut or colour, too. Woo! Oh, and every first-​timer also gets to choose any L’Oreal product as a free gift. It’s win/​win, basically.

I have had my haircut at the L’Oreal Academy about three times now and would recommend going to anyone, but there is a but. The hairdressers who cut your hair are trainees from other salons from around the country and pay to use the L’Oreal Academy-​so you are not neccessarily getting your hair cut by a L’Oreal hairdresser. This is where it can get tricky. I had my haircut there once and it was the best haircut I have ever had, but anither time I had it cut and that particular hairdresser wasn’t great. Also if you want your hair coloured normally they will only do half a head which is a pain. The charge is around £10 for a hair cut which is a bargain but I recommend you to ring ahead and check which salon is going to be cutting your hair and research them on the net. So long as you know exactly what you want and do your research you will have got a great haircut for only a tenner.