Summer highlights

WHEN I told friends I had plans to go from brunette to highlighted blonde, the response I got can best be described as polite. Faint nods of the head. Mild smiles. It was like I'd said I was shaving it off rather than going a few shades lighter.

Perhaps they were imagining something more extreme than I was. On my pre-appointment consultation with colour technician Kieran at Trevor Sorbie salon in Spring Gardens, I used the word 'natural-looking' more times than a spray-tan brochure.

He reassured me that I wouldn't be left with a discernible blonde-brown borderline when the highlights started to grow out. The salon is as adept at doing subtle colourings as it is at doing bold new looks. The consultation gives the technician a chance to find out what you want and recommend a colour that'll suit your expectations and lifestyle.

On the day itself he did that ruffling movement through my hair that hairdressers love, saying the thing about short cuts is you don't generally let the hair hang straight. It tends to be a mixed-up, haphazard affair so highlights last particularly well.

Then he got busy with the L'Oréal paste while I quizzed him on various pressing hair issues, such as blonde hair that goes green after swimming. “Very rare,” he said. And almost unheard of from UK swimming pools, which keep chlorine at sensible levels. Also it's only very porous, very damaged hair that could get that Kryptonite tinge.

Home dying? He said that they don't advise it. You'd have to be double jointed in your arms and fingers to create the kind of spiral-angled, expertly placed highlights Kieran was dexterously applying to my hair.

He mentioned that the trend at the moment is dark roots with blonde hair, a la Drew Barrymore and Fearne Cotton. It's a slummy-looking hair-do that in reality takes time and skill to create. While I was fretting about visible roots, these ladies are deliberately having them put in. I'm way behind.

Kieran just does colour at Trevor Sorbie. It's not because he isn't as nifty with the scissors as he is with the silver foil – it's just that the salon prefers specialists rather than jacks-of-all-trades when it comes to looking after your locks. Before arriving at Trevor Sorbie, Kieran worked at Daniel Hersheson Salon in Harvey Nichols London and at Urban Retreat in Harrods. He's also worked as a stylist for fashion shoots and magazines including Grazia and Elle.

To book Kieran for a half head of highlights normally costs £102 (£112 for longer, thicker hair) but Confidential readers get 50 per cent off those prices at the moment – click here for details.

Once the highlights were in place, I spent an enjoyable half hour reading gossip magazines and sipping Coca Cola. There's a bar at Trevor Sorbie so you can have a proper drink if you want: wine, champagne, cocktails and so on – and they're all complimentary. There's even free cakes.

My initial reaction to my newly highlighted hair was, like my friends' response earlier, polite. But I've been in this position many times before – what looks extreme in the first few minutes magically turns into a gorgeous new hair-do after you've got over your initial panic. A talented stylist got to work on cutting it into an effortless-looking shape, and by the time it was dry, I was getting quite excited.

Half an hour later in the pub, my friends said that they thought my hair was this colour anyway. Like I had always had blonde highlights and that whole brunette thing was just a strange dream they'd once had.

This is the kind of reaction I like after I've been to the hairdressers. I prefer to look like I'm just having a really good hair day rather than like I've just spent three hours having it coloured, cut and styled. It goes back to the days when I'd deliberately scuff new shoes or cut a hole in the knees of my jeans.

Any salon can give you highlights but few can make it look so 'right' that friends of fifteen years start imagining it's your real colour. Trevor Sorbie's team at Spring Gardens has made an art out of creating natural-looking locks.

Confidential readers currently get 50 per cent off all colour services at Trevor Sorbie Manchester, including highlights, semi-permanent, root retouch, creative colouring, colour correction and colour change. Limited number of appointments available. To find out more, please click here.