I don’t know where to start with my hair journey. It’s been a wild ride. Colours? I’ve had them all – quite literally during a particularly fun rainbow of pastels during a ‘My Little Pony’ phase. Blue Weekend, by Bleach London, was the darkest I’ve ever gone. In sharing a lot of that navy blue hue with the lino and walls of the bathroom, I have no idea how I didn’t lose my flat deposit. Never drink and dye, my friends.
When we look across the patchwork of our personal history, a particular hairstyle or colour often marks each moment. We’ve all had that one bad haircut; for some reason, it’s seen as a masochistic rite of passage. My most traumatic event happened whilst modelling on stage, where the celebrity stylist changed the cut without consulting me. It took four years and the loss of eight inches of hair to correct. I was utterly miserable. One survey of female salon customers conducted by Kao (owners of Moulton Brown and SUQQU) showed that 30% of salon visits are for the purpose of feeling more confident. I missed this memo on that occasion.
I crossed the threshold to Blue Tit Crouch Hill feeling excited. I knew I was disastrously overdue for a cut, as every hair stylist I’d worked with in the last six months had tried to corral me for a trim over lunch. With my patch test already out of the way from a visit a week prior, I was warmly welcomed into Hettie’s chair, chatting about what we would be doing.
Blue Tit, Crouch Hill
I was pretty clear about my needs, namely, I am time-poor. If I have to heat style daily or make routine appointments for colour, it will be the ruin of me. I craved a little brightening of my natural colour and needed a blunt-ish cut with minimal layers to protect the ends of my fine hair. I came armed with photos of “yes”, I also carried photos of “no”. It was a great conversation wherein I was offered advice, explained techniques in reference to the images I’d brought and was told of Hettie’s plan of action. I felt heard and was completely put at ease.
Hettie embarked on a full head of backcombed babylights. As I sat in the plant-filled, pink-hued salon, she explained her approach whilst methodically weaving bleach through my hair. ‘A mix of traditional highlights and freehand balayage, it offers up an overall brightening and completely negates any obvious regrowth’, Hettie explained, reassuring me this protects from over-processing too, as she expertly adjusts the placement of bleach to prevent overlapping.
From their first opening in 2011, Blue Tit now offers a collection of ten salons across London from Portobello to Brockley, each with a style that encapsulates the feel of its home area. I caught up with director Matt Gebbie, after our first chat for The Industry Pandemic, discussing the effect of enforced closures on the beauty industry, to see what had been happening since.
‘2022 was amazing, our best year yet! Everyone had time and space to look at their lives, we got a lot of feedback and acted on it. We changed our opening times and introduced self-employment. We promoted Harriet, our Culture and Engagement manager, who ensures the culture we want to create is on point. We recently recruited Smitha, Head of People and Equality, Diversity and Inclusion, who will be working with Blue Tit in creating and implementing inclusion and sustainability strategies, as well as leading awareness training.’
Oway
Overall, training has been wide-ranging Matt explained, ‘We’ve recently held a deaf awareness training with the incredible Dr Amy Kavanagh and her guide dog. We also rolled out our Afro and Textured Hair training for all staff through the help of our educator and specialist, Pashcan’el Mitchell, who runs the training modules at the Blue Tit Academy. We’re pleased to say that our ten salons are ready to welcome all hair types.’
There has been expansion too, Matt shared, ‘After working for us for four years, Lee Beaver, previously the manager for our Peckham site, opened his first Blue Tit salon in Greenwich in 2021. It’s been so successful, he’s now looking to open a second in Woolwich’.
The Blue Tit community reaches beyond its internal successes, having become the first B Corp certified hair salon group in Europe, back in 2020. I asked Matt what this meant to them.
‘It’s incredible being able to say we’re B Corp and it’s very important that as a company we are held to a code of practice. It wasn’t always the goal, but on looking into it, it became something we really wanted to do. We had to review our operations, partnerships and who we shopped with. We had to monitor and save on our energy, gas and water use and focus on ways to reduce our carbon footprint.’
Oway Colour Protection Collection
All these aspects are not easy in a salon, but the changes they made were impactful, from introducing eco-heads for the basins, to product refill stations reducing single-use and recycling all their materials whilst eliminating plastic. It’s an ongoing journey Matt explains, ‘We are currently doing our recertification which we are working on as a team. Different from the original certification, we must show how we are continuing to make an environmental and social impact. Blue Tit will continue to set standards and work with more diverse and local suppliers. We’ll also be working with a group of B Corp organisations to continue reducing our carbon footprint, promote sustainability and increase awareness of the urgency of saving our planet.’
Thinking back to a couple of years ago (shudder) with over 140 working days lost in 2020 alone, clients were left to their own devices. I spoke to Dec Haworth, Colour Director at Blue Tit to find out what it was like to finally get their hands back on their client’s locks again. Were there any bumpy journeys on the way back to the salon?
‘My favourite lockdown horror story was a client who contacted me on Instagram to ask about colouring her own roots. She thought it looked pretty simple how we put the foils in and thought she could do a few to top up her colour. I obviously told her that I did not advise this, I don’t know many colour technicians that could successfully highlight their own hair, offering instead the advice to play with temporary hair colours like Oway Colour Conditioners. Unfortunately, she did not take my advice. Luckily we came out of lockdown two weeks later and she came into the salon. It was a disastrous attempt, spotty and orange with angular marks throughout the top of her head. She said she had to wear a hat for all Zoom meetings.’
I was intrigued to know if our return to regular salon visits had changed what clients were asking for, and influenced the trends we might see through 2023. Dec got me up to speed, ‘For me, I am currently seeing a huge shift towards full colour change services for clients that have previously been highlighted or pre-lightened. A full-head colour like coppers or natural brunettes can be just as impactful as a ‘creative fashion colour’. This shift towards light chestnut and copper hues works really well with some of the choppy layered haircuts that are starting to become more popular, as they can unify a layered hairstyle.’
Oway x Blue Tit
With the products used in the salon an important part of their B Corp status, Dec ran me through the basics of their in-salon and retail partner, Oway. ‘Oway styling products are created using green chemistry, which means that – where possible – any and all synthetic ingredients have been removed and replaced using a natural, organic or biodynamic ingredient that has the same or better properties.’
‘Last year, our academy team travelled around Europe with Oway and we are proud to be the Global Directors of the brand. As a professional Italian botanical hair care brand, they are the first to have 100% recyclable amber glass bottles and cruelty-free formulas with no toxic ingredients’, Matt shared. ‘Over the last year, we’ve been working closely with them, launching two new products in partnership, Finest Fluid and Next Day Cream.’
If you were wondering, the first is a super-lightweight leave-in hydrator for even the finest textured hair, and the latter, a second-day styler to tame and texturise locks, great for defining curls and smoothing straight hair.
Walking out of the salon with a spring in my step a few blissful hours later, my hair a touch lighter in tone and a minus a horrifying amount of dead-ends, I felt emboldened. It’s true, that survey. A great trip to the salon, in the hands of a skilled artist and using beautiful products, really does make you feel a whole lot better.
