01/Prices and services
Every price here has a ceiling.
“Starting at” is not a price, it is the smallest number a salon can print. Ours has a floor and a top, and below you can find out which one your hair is closer to before you sit in the chair.
02/Do not pick from the menu
Tell us about your hair and we will name it for you.
Most people book the wrong service, because service menus are written for stylists and read by everyone else. Four questions, no email, nothing saved.
Your estimate
0 of 4
Four questions and this becomes a real number.
Not a starting price. The number it will most likely be, and the number it will not go past.
Would rather just ask
The consultation is free, twenty minutes, and no one will try to sell you anything in it.
Book a consultation insteadThe whole list.
Plain name first, what a stylist calls it underneath, and what actually moves the number.
A haircut
Cut and finishcut included
45 min to 1 hr
$65to$85
Hair past the shoulder blades takes longer to section and dry. That is the whole difference.
A curly cut, done dry
Dry cut, curl by curlcut included
1 hr to 1 hr 30 min
$85to$110
Cut dry, one curl at a time, so the shape is the shape you leave with. Tighter and denser curl takes longer.
A shine and tone refresh
Gloss or toner
30 min to 45 min
$55to$75
Longer hair takes more product. Nothing else moves the number.
Roots done, same colour as last time
Root retouch
1 hr 15 min to 1 hr 45 min
$95to$135
More regrowth means more product and more time under the brush. Past about two inches it becomes a two-step application.
Lighter around the face and part
Partial foilcut included
2 hr to 3 hr
$150to$240
The count of foils and how far your hair has to lift. Going up two levels is one process; four is two.
Lighter all over
Full foilcut included
2 hr 30 min to 4 hr
$190to$310
Density and length set the foil count, and how far you are lifting sets the number of processes.
Lightening, painted on by hand
Balayagecut included
3 hr to 5 hr
$220to$380
Painted freehand, so it is length, density, and how many levels of lift your hair can take in one sitting. Virgin hair lifts cleaner and costs less than hair carrying old colour.
Fixing colour that went wrong
Colour correctioncut included
4 hr to 8 hr
$340to$900consultation first
This is the honest one. Box dye, old black, and previous bleach all have to come out before anything goes in, and that is usually two or three visits rather than one. We will not quote it without seeing your hair.
Colour appointments over two hours hold a chair for most of a day, so we ask for a $50 e-transfer to book one. It comes off your total. Move it or cancel with 48 hours notice and it moves with you.
Nobody has ever been talked into a colour they were unsure about and been glad afterwards.
03/Before you give up a Saturday
What actually happens in the next three hours.
A colour appointment is most of an afternoon. Almost no salon will tell you what you are agreeing to, so here it is, minute by minute.
0:00
You sit down and nothing is mixed yet
We look at your hair in daylight, not under the station light, and hold the swatch against your root. If what you brought in is not going to happen today, this is where you hear it, before any money is spent.
0:15
The price is agreed out loud
A number, not a range, and what would change it. If it moves during the appointment we stop and tell you before it moves, not after.
0:25
Sectioning and application
The long quiet part. Between forty minutes and two hours depending on how much of your head is being worked on. Bring something to read. The wifi is fine and the coffee is free.
1:30
Processing
Colour needs time to do what it does, and it gets checked rather than timed. This is the part that cannot be rushed and the reason a colour chair is booked in blocks.
2:15
Wash, tone, and the cut
At the bowl, then toned if it needs it, then cut. The cut is included on every colour visit and it is not an upsell.
2:50
The window
Before you pay, we walk to the front and look at it in real daylight, because salon light flatters everything. If it is not right you say so there, standing up, not three days later by message.
04/The shelf
Six bottles, and who each one is wrong for.
Colour keeps costing after you leave, so here is what that actually is. Prices are what you pay at the desk, and the monthly figure assumes three washes a week on medium length hair. Yours will differ, and we would rather you could do the maths than trust a number.
Colour-safe shampoo
$34
Cleans without stripping. Sulphate-free, so it does not pull the pigment straight back out of a fresh colour.
- Size
- 300 ml
- Used
- most washes
- Lasts
- about 2 months
about $15 a month to keep using it
ForAnyone carrying colour, in any family.
Not forHair that has never been coloured. Virgin hair does not need protecting from a shampoo, and whatever is under your shower now is fine.
Colour-safe conditioner
$36
The other half of the same job. Closes the cuticle so the colour has somewhere to stay.
- Size
- 300 ml
- Used
- most washes
- Lasts
- about 2 months
about $16 a month to keep using it
ForAnyone carrying colour, and anyone whose ends are dry.
Not forFine hair that goes flat easily. Ask for the light version instead, or condition the ends only.
Violet shampoo
$32
Cancels the brass that lifted hair drifts toward between visits. It is a toner you use in the shower, not a colour.
- Size
- 250 ml
- Used
- once a week
- Lasts
- about 6 months
about $6 a month to keep using it
ForAsh tones, and anything lifted past a level 7 in any family. This is the bottle the consultation means when it says an ash needs a toner between visits.
Not forNatural, gold, copper, mahogany and red. Violet cancels warmth, and on a warm family it spends its week cancelling the colour you paid for.
Colour-depositing conditioner
$38
Puts a little pigment back every wash, so a warm tone fades slowly instead of falling off a cliff at week three.
- Size
- 200 ml
- Used
- once a week
- Lasts
- about 4 months
about $10 a month to keep using it
ForCopper, mahogany and red. These are the fastest-fading families in the book and this is what makes them affordable to keep.
Not forAsh and natural. There is nothing to top up, and on an ash it will warm the exact tone you are trying to hold.
Bond repair treatment
$46
Rebuilds the internal links that lifting breaks. Used in the shower, left on ten minutes, fortnightly.
- Size
- 100 ml
- Used
- every second week
- Lasts
- about 5 months
about $10 a month to keep using it
ForAnyone lifted three levels or more, anyone who has been bleached, and anyone mid-correction.
Not forHair that has only ever gone darker or moved a level or two. It is a bottle of nothing for you and we will say so.
Heat protectant
$30
Sits between the iron and the hair. The cheapest thing on this shelf and the one that saves the most colour.
- Size
- 150 ml
- Used
- most washes
- Lasts
- about 5 months
about $7 a month to keep using it
ForAnyone who uses a dryer, a wand or an iron more than once a week.
Not forAnyone who air dries. Skip it and spend the thirty dollars on the gloss.
We do not work on commission and nobody here is scored on retail. If you walk out with nothing because you need nothing, that is the shelf doing its job.
05/Honest limits
Three things we are not the right shop for.
Saying this costs us a few bookings and saves you a wasted afternoon. That trade is worth making.
Same-day colour.
Lightening is booked in three to five hour blocks. If you need it today, a shop with more chairs will serve you better.
Extensions, perms, or Japanese straightening.
Nobody here is trained on them, so we would be practising on you. Ask us and we will name someone in Nelson who does them properly.
A guaranteed match to a photo.
Most reference photos are long hair, styled, in perfect light, and often filtered. We will tell you honestly how close your hair can get and how many visits it takes.
Or read how to get in the door: parking, stairs, scent, noise, and silent appointments.