What Salon Treatments Do You (Or Your Friends) Still Get?
Salons are magical places where women get to forget their woes, read trashy magazines, and come out feeling like movie stars. But as many of you know, for a clean girl, the beauty parlor is a place shrouded in dangerous mysteries, where products and treatments are pumped out of big unmarked bottles and toxins waft through the air. And where there is no legal requirement to reveal ingredients.
As it so happens, S and I are currently doing a little research on some of the more nefarious treatments happening in salons these days. But no research is complete without you guys, our fingers on the pulse.
What treatments are you (or your not-so-clean friends) getting these days? Some we’re looking at are: gel nails, Brazilian blowouts (yep, still popular), and these new eyelash growth potions. But are people also still getting perms, going to tanning beds, and using hair relaxers? Have you heard of anything else creeping on the scene?
As you guys know, in these parts, the salon is no longer our main hangout. Sure, we’re getting occasional manicures but even the so-called natural polishes are hotly debated (see comments). We also both go for occasional highlights. It’s been about a year since I got mine, and yes, I’m currently debating a spring pick-me-up (and I dreamt I dyed my hair red last night!). But, while far from clean, these treatments are pretty vanilla compared to some others.
Help your girls out here, and tell us what you—or your friends and colleagues—are getting done.
Those mink eyelash extensions!
I get my nails done sometimes :)
I still have my hair coloured and I would like to stop, but it seems like a hard thing to do to have to grow out the dye.
Eyelash tinting and eyebrow waxing. Get it done usually once a year… before our vacation.
Zero for me. I continue to use henna to cover my grays but do it myself at home. As for salons, just haircuts …and since the salon I go to is as close to clean as possible, I do not have to endure the fumes for services being done while I have my hair trimmed. As for friends and the services they are still getting… Just this other day I was preaching on the harmful effects of the dreaded Brazilian Blowout and got the following comment…..” oh yes, there were salons abusing the chemicals but the salon I go to has mastered the right amount of formaldehyde and my hair is loving it”. Sad, isn’t it?
@Nancy. Ugh! But I guess we’re all guilty of believing what we want for a positive cosmetic result…
I am a hairstylist at a salon, and we are as clean as possible without compromising product performance. I still get manicures and pedicures when I have the time, and love having my hair trimmed. I usually try to only colour it once or twice a year, and because the line we use is so great it grows out really nicely without any harsh demarcation lines!
I still love a manicure. I give myself clean pedi’s at home, but I am such a sucker for a mani. I get my hair cut about 2-3 times a year, but I still get a manicure once every month or two, which I know I should do less but I love the whole experience so much still.
I get highlights 4-5 times a year, and dye my eyelashes 1-2 times per year. I wish I could give both up, but I can’t…
I would dearly love to still be getting wavy perms. I loved how my hair looked with volume and waves (I have very fine, very straight hair naturally), but once I figured out what it does to your hair and how awful the chemicals are, I can’t bring myself to get it done anymore. I don’t get any salon treatments except haircuts and an up-do once every year or two for an event.
A lot of my friends are very into manicures, though, including those gel nails.
Every now and then I lust after a mani or pedi but I’ve been able to resist temptation so far (but some of those Priti polishes for spring are REALLY tempting). My major sin is coloring my hair at home to cover the beginning of some grey hair but I try to use \cleaner\ lines; I currently use Naturtint. I would love to hear more about your investigations though. I have wanted laser hair removal for literally years – any chance you’ll cover that?
Occasionally (like once every 3-5 years), I can’t resist coloring my hair. Otherwise, it’s just haircuts for me. My real salon weakness is waxing. I can’t seem to kick the waxing habit in summertime. The rest of the year, I’m ok. But as soon as warm weather is back for good, all my green beauty ways seem weak, time-consuming, and not as carefree as one session a month of waxing. It’s been about a year since the last time, but I don’t know if I’ll be able to resist in a few months!
my friends are all nail salon addicts still (regular, not gel), as well as waxing, dying (hair, eyelashes, eyebrows) and terrifying tattoo eyeliner.
i don’t even think about going into a salon for anything other than a haircut these days, but i would give anything to find a natural pedicure place!
I have also wondered about laser hair removal, if anyone has any info on it? Also what happens when you get your eyelashes tinted?
My one salon sin is getting my roots dyed every 8 or 9 weeks. I have a ton of grey and at (nearly) 41, I’m just not ready to let it shine. My hair is dark brown, so when the greys come in, they really show. I wish I were brave enough to try body-grade henna, but the mess of it all puts me off (just as using box dye at home does, with my shoulder length hair). I haven’t had the color “pulled through” in over a year and a half, as it still looks good, so I guess that is something. But I do worry about constant use of the dark brown hair dye. sigh.
I only go to the beauty salon to cut my hair and do pedicure. That’s it.
Nail polish is my dirty non-green guilty pleasure.
I only go to the salon for a haircut. So far I’ve not experienced any toxic stuff going on while I’m there for my cut. I bring my own products for shampoo/condition/style, which my stylist has been very cool about. I henna/indigo at home now instead of the salon coloring. I’ve always done my own nails at home, so I can control the products and ventilation.
I have heard of several friends lately doing the shellac thing – looks beautiful but sounds horrifying!
@Robin and @Rebecca (hi other Rebecca!) don’t fear the henna, it does take a little getting used to, but I have been switched from regular color for about a year and I’m so glad I did. Once you get the hang of it the mess is minimal. There were no growing out pains for me at all – with the right mix of henna/indigo I matched my reddish brown hair.
I still get my hair colored (Aveda). Can’t resist my chocolatey brown color!
Robin, same here. I have very dark brown hair and still have it colored. I worry about the brain cancer element of this, of course. I would love to let it grow in grey, but then I see some woman who looks horrible with the grey and it turns me off. Plus, my eyebrows are nearly black and I’m not sure how goofy I would look with grey hair and such dark brows. I stopped the home coloring – it was just too messy and not worth it, plus I have to color more frequently now. I know someone who uses the henna and it looks just god awful on her. I wish I had the heart and the tact to explain this to her. I swear the next time I want to cut my shoulder length hair into a very short style that I will let the grey come in. Yes, I swear (sigh).
I love the look of highlights, but my last time was in August. It really dries my hair out. I don’t normally need conditioner, but if I have coloured/bleached hair it needs it.
I have used all over henna before, with great success. as well as combinations of cassia/henna/amla for various colors. There is also natural indigo, but I can’t go that dark. Once my hair is entirely grey I may be looking at using henna consistently. I just can’t do chemical dyes.
Not a salon but I can’t live without latIsse.
I go for regular mani / pedis but try to bring in my own 3-free base coat, polish and top coat. I occasionally get highlights and recently considered an “organic” spray tan but truthfully, it was more the fear of ending up looking like a Jersey Shore wannabe than the toxicity of it that made me decide not to do it.
Katie: I’ve had laser hair removal and while it was incredibly painful I am happy with the results. I would be interested in some NMDL research on the topic though! For all my research and label reading I do in every other area of my life I didn’t research this one out before having the procedures, EEKK!
Otherwise 1-2 times a year I go to a salon for a cut and a style and I’m with you Letitia in the summer I love waxing! Although this year I plan to try out Moom, a green sugaring kit I’ve heard really great things!
My friends… *sigh* dirty nailpolish is the least of their concerns….
I own a skincare salon and we do natural organic treatments and use all clean products, and I feel pretty good about that. I also use clean cosmetics, skincare and haircare at home on myself. However, I admit, I still get my highlights done regularly and my nails done occasionally. These are hardly “clean” services but I’m not ready to give them up yet….it’s something I plan to do in the future though….still looking for healthy alternatives.
@Kate and @Katie- I get laser hair removal and I love it, I don’t find it very painful (I’m getting my bikini line done and it’s much less painful than waxing!). I would consider it pretty green/natural, since it reduces the need for shaving (and thus reduces purchases of razors, shaving cream, etc), and the process itself doesn’t require any products (except the gel they put on you during the procedure- it’s probably dirty but at least it gets wiped off immediately afterward). I have heard that different people can get very different results- I’m considered a prime candidate since I have very fair skin and darker body hair.
The only other reasons I visit the salon are eyebrow waxing (I’ve been doing it for long enough that I only have to go every 6-8 weeks, and don’t tweeze at all in between, so it’s worth it. Plus I loooove the girl who does it!) and very occasional haircuts (I’m growing my hair out from a pixie right now, I have a friend who trims anything that starts to look weird, other than that I can’t afford to go in for cuts).
Only highlights on my hair about 3/4 times a year!
what about hair extensions ?? i do usually have about 30 in my hair to help with fullness as my shoulder length hair is very fine . are they bad ??
i do get my hair highlighted (just a partial ,not a full head )every 6weeks and get a pedi mani about 3 or 4 times a year .
i tried to go to my natural color but it was just so dull .
would love to not get highlites though .
thanks !!!
I get a cut and color every 6 weeks. I am highly allergic to hair color so I have to have highlights done. I am very grey in the front, not so much in the back so even if I decided to go \natural\ it would look really strange. I have talked to my stylist about going grey and I am not ready and she doesn’t think it is time yet. So vanity, once again, wins out. It is expensive and I know it isn’t particularly clean — but I just can’t go without — yet.
NONE! Hah! I do use nail polish, but I cut my own and my family’s hair, and I do my own waxing. The rest of it we don’t need/want. I cut some of my friends’ hair, too (I’m licensed), so that keeps them out of the salon fumes. When I worked in the salon, I had a manager who was right in there doing perms and color all day every day (not always with gloves) through her whole pregnancy, and I couldn’t believe it!
Well after reading this blog, I am in the minority (or people don’t want to fess up). I get both the brazilian blowout and have my hair colored done twice a year. My hair is very frizzy and the brazilian blowout has made my life so much easier.
Yes I have heard about all the bad things about about getting these treatments done, but I can’t see getting them done once in a while is going to have major effects on my overall health.