Guide
Hair guides
Clients have asked us whether they should stop washing their hair for a month. Somebody online told them to. We said no, and then we spent ten minutes explaining why. That conversation is this page.
These are the questions we get asked in the chair every week, answered properly and without the sales pitch. Written by the people who do the work, for real hair and real mornings on the N train. Each answer is short on purpose. If you want the long version, ask us at your next visit.
Color is the service where a good stylist earns their money and a bad one costs you a year of growing it out.
The consultation tells you everything. A good one takes ten to fifteen minutes. The colorist touches your hair, asks about every box dye and salon visit for the last two years, and looks at it under a window. If they only look at your photo, that is a warning sign.
Ask four things. How many sessions will this take. What will it look like after the first one. What does the upkeep cost, in dollars and in visits. What would you do if this were your hair. A confident colorist answers all four without flinching.
When you read a portfolio, look for hair like yours and for grow out photos taken eight weeks later. Very few colorists post those, and the ones who do have nothing to hide. Walk away if anyone promises platinum from black in one visit, or will not give you a price before they start.
Honest advice sounds like this. “I can get you there, but it will be two appointments, six weeks apart, and warmer than the photo after the first one.” Nobody loves hearing that. It is the sentence that is true.
There is no single rule. There are sensible rhythms, and they depend on your hair and what you are trying to do with it.
Short hair loses its shape fast. Four to six weeks is the usual gap, and clippered sides need doing every three. Medium and long hair does well on eight to twelve weeks. Hair grows about half an inch a month, so a quarter inch trim every ten weeks still gains you length over the year.
Curls hide damage well, which means people leave them too long. Ten to fourteen weeks works for most curl patterns. Ask for a cut that is checked dry, because curl shrinks and a wet cut can come out two inches shorter than you expected.
If you are growing it out, you still need to come in. Every twelve weeks, ask for the smallest trim that keeps the shape. A client growing out a bob told us, “I thought not cutting it was the whole plan.” Six months later she had to lose three inches.
You have left it too long when the ends look thinner than the middle, it tangles at the nape, split ends show as white dots, or your style takes longer every morning. Two of those means book the appointment.
A New York August is hard on curls. Here is what actually helps, and what is a waste of money.
Curly hair is dry hair. The cuticle sits slightly open, so wet air gets in and the strand swells. Each curl swells a little differently, and the pattern breaks up. On a 90 degree day on the platform at Astoria Boulevard, no product stops this completely. The aim is to slow it down.
Wash one or two times a week. Condition every time. Scrunch the water out with a cotton t-shirt or a towel, so the hair is damp and not soaking. Then put in a curl cream, such as Sebastian Twisted curl cream, and a light gel, such as Sebastian texturizing light gel. Leave it alone until it is fully dry. Touching it while it dries is the mistake we see most.
The gel makes a cast. Scrunch the cast out once your hair is dry and the curls underneath will be soft and defined. An anti frizz serum is fine once the hair is dry, with or without silicone. Sleep with your hair in a silk bonnet or on a silk pillowcase to keep your curls, and refresh with water in the morning.
Sometimes the frizz is damage. If your curls behaved last summer and have stopped this summer, the fix may be a trim, and no bottle will do it.
Good color is an investment. A handful of small habits decide whether it lasts six weeks or twelve.
Wait 48 hours after your appointment before the first wash. Then wash no more than every other day, and turn the water down for the final rinse. Every wash lifts a little pigment out, and hot water lifts more. This is the rule people break most.
Use a shampoo made for color treated hair and a conditioner you can comb through. Blondes add a purple shampoo as your stylist instructs. Hair masks help with dryness. Only use one your stylist recommends, because the wrong one can cause buildup or too much protein, and that will break the hair.
Heat opens the cuticle. Use a heat protectant every time and keep your flat iron or curling iron under 350 degrees. Sun fades color and lifts highlights faster, and some chemicals in water can turn hair green or another color. Wear a hat at Rockaway, and coat your hair with conditioner before you go in the water.
A gloss at four to six weeks takes 30 minutes and tones the color back to where it started. Book a refresh for highlights when the roots pass an inch. For single process, book when you can see your greys coming through. Do not wait until you hate it. Correction costs more than maintenance every time.
Fixing color that went wrong is real, careful work. Going in with the right expectations changes the whole experience.
Hair can only take so much in one sitting. Push too hard on day one and it breaks. A client came to us after a home bleach over black box dye, wanting ash blonde. We got her to a warm caramel in the first four hour session. She was disappointed and said so. Two visits later she had the ash. The hair was still on her head, which is the point.
Correction costs more because it takes three to six hours and a lot of product. It also takes the most experienced person in the salon. The quote we give covers the whole plan across every visit.
Before you come in, stop doing anything to your hair. Write down everything you have put on it in the last two years, including henna. We never book correction without seeing the hair first, so start with a consultation and a 20 minute strand test.
Face shape is a useful starting point. It is not a rule, and anyone who treats it as one is not looking at you properly.
Pull your hair back and compare the width of your forehead and jaw against your cheekbones. About equal and longer than wide is oval. Cheeks widest with a soft jaw is round. Jaw as wide as the forehead and angular is square. Wide forehead and a pointed chin is heart shaped. Most people sit between two of these.
Round faces gain from length below the chin and long layers that start at the jaw. Oval faces can take almost anything, so choose for the hair itself. Square faces soften with layers and waves around the jaw. Heart shaped faces get width from a chin length cut and balance from curtain bangs.
A chart cannot see your hairline, your cowlick, or how much time you have on a Tuesday morning. One of our clients has a textbook round face and wears a sharp chin length bob. It looks right on her. The chart says it should not. Come in and let us look.
They are not the same booking, and booking the wrong one is a common way to be disappointed on an important morning.
A blowout is a wash and a round brush dry. It takes 45 minutes to an hour. You leave with smooth, finished hair that moves, and it looks its best for two or three days. It is the right service for a date, an interview, a dinner, or a weekend.
Event styling starts with dry hair, usually washed the day before. The stylist builds a shape that has to hold for eight to twelve hours. An updo, pinned waves, a braid, or a sleek look with a lot of product. It takes up to ninety minutes and often needs a trial. It is built to last one long day and then come out.
Book event styling if you are in the wedding or in front of a camera for hours. Book a blowout if you are a guest. One bride asked us for a blowout for a June ceremony in Astoria Park. We talked her into pinned waves. By the reception, the pins were the only thing keeping her hair off her neck.
Blowouts can be booked within a few days. Wedding styling needs six to eight weeks, with a trial three to four weeks before. Bring the dress neckline and the photos to the trial.
A few minutes of preparation is the difference between a good first visit and a frustrating one.
Bring a photo of what you love. We will tell you if it is not realistic for your hair. Try not to bring too many photos of what you hate, because you do not want that stuck in your head. Tell us what you need. You do not always have to show us.
Know your color history for the last two years. Box dye counts. Henna counts more than anything. A client once told us her hair was virgin, then mentioned halfway through the lightener that she had used a plant dye the year before. We stopped and rinsed, then started a different plan.
Be honest about your mornings. If you spend five minutes on your hair, say five. A cut that only looks good after 30 minutes with a round brush is a bad cut for you, however good it looks in the chair.
Arrive ten minutes early. The consultation is where the result is decided, and it needs to happen without a clock ticking. We touch the hair and check how it behaves dry. Then we agree a plan and a price before anybody picks up scissors.
Salon pricing feels opaque from the outside. It is not complicated once somebody explains what you are actually paying for.
A cut is priced on time and on who does it. A senior stylist has more years of experience, and the price reflects that. Ask whether the price includes a wash and blow dry, because
salons differ.
Color is priced on product and hours. A root touch up is one bowl and one hour. A full head of highlights on long hair is several bowls, three hours, and a toner at the end. Toners and glosses are add-ons, so ask for the all in figure.
Hair past the shoulder blades takes twice the product of hair at the chin. Thick hair takes more foils. Two people can book the same service and pay different amounts, and the stylist is measuring work.
We cannot price a service we have not seen. The consultation is free, and you leave it with a figure. If something changes on the day, we tell you before it changes, never after. A client from Long Island City told us she chose us because we were the only salon that gave her a number before she sat down. We would like that to be true of everyone who walks in.
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Frequently Asked Questions
The questions we get asked in the chair every week, answered straight. If yours is not here, call the studio and ask us.
Do I need an appointment, or can I walk in?
We will always try to fit in a walk-in, and sometimes we can. Booking ahead is safer, because it holds your stylist and the right amount of time. Book online or call 718-204-2096.
What is parking like?
Street parking is usually available on Ditmars and the side streets around us. If you are taking the train, we are a short walk from the Ditmars Blvd stop on the N and W.
Do you work with curly and textured hair?
Yes, every day. Come in with your hair worn the way you normally wear it so we can see your real curl pattern before we cut.
How much is a haircut?
It depends on your hair and the service. Starting prices are on the pricing page, and your stylist confirms the exact figure at your consultation before any work begins.