Richard Ward Salon Review

RICHARD Ward Hair and Metrospa is a serious departure from my regular salon favourings (that being, any place that can offer me 50 percent off as a first time customer). Its list of cliental include, hem hem, Kate Middleton…and…Kate Middleton… and KATE MIDDLETON. The offer of a cut and blow-dry of such royal standards was something I could not forgo, however much I might enjoy allowing amateurs to attempt to blow-dry my thick as anything, almost bum-length, frizzy, blond hair. Trust me, it’d put Venus Williams’ arm strength to the test.

These little touches that Richard Hair and Metro spa offer suggest that they are not there to turn every customer out looking like Jennifer Aniston circa 1990 Friends years, but to really care for your hair’s wants and needs.

 

The spa is set within the cosmopolitan shopping serene of Sloane Square, deceptively fronted by a very stylish bistro, homing many of Chelsea’s well-to-do ladies who lunch. I started to become conscious of the four days worth of grease I’d left on my hair in anticipation of my south to north-west London transformation. On entry, don’t expect a mundane array of stylists with pixie haircuts, wearing all black, offering last winter's issue of Cosmo to customers with hair that has been replaced by tin foil. Instead, expect a melting pot of London’s most passionate for everything hair, and that’s even including the charming little old lady checking in my coat.

Before I could even apologise for the many fluff balls and layerings of hair on said coat, I was whisked upstairs to await my stylist in the salon's own private bar. Awkwardly perched on the only stool in the room, whilst attempting to exude a confident acceptance of my greasy locks, I couldn’t help feeling a little antsy. From Veuve Clicquot bottles being popped, to clients and stylists embracing each other after two painful weeks of not seeing each other, it was a far cry from my normal yearly hair butcheries. 

Once greeted by my stylist Karen, my earlier apprehension of my hair being classed with a mission impossible label was laid to a temporary rest. From hair hang-ups to urban myths, Karen knew it all. Worried that many years spent with my head on an ironing board trying to achieve poker straight hair clarity would have caused a bit more damage than a few split ends, it was clear after a brief hair low-down, that I was in the right hands.

Richard Ward Hair and Metrospa, renowned for innovative hair styling and forefronting the future of hair, is now home to the new, and dare I say it, 'state-of-the-art' technology, Le Diagnostic Avancé by Kerastase. And to those of you like myself, who find it hard to order an espresso macchiato without messing up the pronunciation, Le Diagnostic Avance basically translates to a really fancy high tech camera that magnifies your hair follicles to up to 1,000 times, to truly expose the amount of damage that that DIY peroxide kit really did to your hair.

At last, my reasoning for spending half my wage on fad hair products turned out to be justifiable, as to my sheer surprise, the results were that of perfectly kept, healthy hair. These little touches that Richard Hair and Metro spa offer suggest that they are not there to turn every customer out looking like Jennifer Aniston circa 1990 Friends years, but to really care for your hair’s wants and needs.

Reception

The cut itself felt like a blur in retrospect, as Karen and I mostly spent the time rambling about our favourite, must-have beauty products, must-have boyfriend credentials and general life stories. The overall outcome? Well, after multiple washes, (which really is a true judgment of a new hair cut) I still hold the same air and grace as I did the moment I walked out and look forward to giving Karen a long overdue hug next time I see her. Although I might hold out over two weeks to do so, because, let’s be serious, we don’t all have the bank account of a princess, however much I still do feel like one.

Women’s cuts at Richard Ward Salon and Metrospa start from £52 

Le Diagnostic Avancé by Kerastase is a complementary service for all customers