We have a date (say goodbye to those roots!)
Well, if we cast our minds back to this time last year, there was this notion that things could get quite bad. We may not be able to see as much of our nearest and dearest and, crazy as it seemed, we may even have to wear masks in public – surely not, that would be ridiculous!
One year on and there is finally light at the end of the tunnel to draw a line under this mad year, and we cannot wait to get back into the salon and do what we love doing (and clearly what you love us doing also).
It seems a bit futile to talk in terms of ‘what’s hot and what’s not’ for Spring/Summer 21, but I’m going to throw a BIG prediction out there for you all – the BIG request that we are expecting for Spring 21 is a much-underrated look called a ‘haircut’! Yes, the professionally performed haircut is scheduled to see a return to our streets around mid-April (Monday 12th at 9am to be precise). Those trend-setters amongst you will be sporting this look when hitting the streets (with one person from one other household), and it will be complemented by what fashion pundits call ‘casualwear’. I have often wondered why, when I look at programmes and films from the 1970s, hair was so bad, so shapeless and so colourless. The truth is people did not visit the salon that frequently and did not have professional colour – the whole ‘salon thing’ took off in the early 80s and, looking around at hair currently (men’s in particular), it looks like we have been thrown back to that era. And let’s not even start on roots! We have done our best to help our colour clients to touch up their own roots, but when it comes to balayage and highlights… we feel your pain!
Fashion Predictions.
So, once we’ve got our salon open and got over the initial joy of just sitting in the salon being pampered, we
have an professional duty to keep you up-to-the-minute with the ‘what’s hot and what’s not’ when it comes to hair fashion. Unsurprisingly, smokey eyes are the big thing when it comes to make-up for SS21 (not least because it’s the only bit of the face you can actually see!). Our friends at L’Oréal have complemented this look by coming up with five smokey new shades that can be used alone or intermixed with your other tones (in the case of highlights), or blended through from a darker base at the roots, to a lighter colour at the ends (see illustration). As ever, this ‘smokey’ look will trickle down and we are sure our clients will incorporate these tones into their current looks. To complete this look (when we are eventually allowed to remove our masks), statement red lips are going to be very popular
Cutting Predictions:
Also unsurprisingly, the lack of professional fringe-trimming may have inadvertently caused the re-emergence of the bang-fringe. A ‘considered’ fringe is predicted to be on-trend, shaped to complement your face shape – there is indeed a fringe for every face shape. Jaw-length bobs are going to be huge this season (with or without fringe), but whereas the ‘longer at the front’ bob has been absolutely the way to go for the past decade or so, we will see softer bobs that are more flatteringly shortened towards the jaw.
Longer hair will always be on-trend, but the super-glam looks of recent years will give way to the softer, more natural looks that have featured dominantly in the fashion press recently. The wet-look has also been really popular, but finding the right balance between ‘intended wet look’ and ‘greasy and lank’ is somewhat more easily pulled-off by your average supermodel… but the ‘influence’ will nevertheless once again trickle down to mainstream fashion.
Finally, men:
Our menfolk have really suffered hair-wise during this lockdown; the guys that just run the clippers over their whole head have been the real winners here… the rest of us (myself included) have resorted to covering mirrors! I have been used to waking up looking like Ken Dodd, but spending
my days with my wife saying “where’s your tickle stick?” is somewhat grinding now (age specific joke there… sorry for the younger readers who will have no idea what a tickle stick is). But for SS21, men’s hair seems to be spilt in two directions: there will be men that just cannot wait to get back to their groomed shorter looks, but there is a distinct trend towards much more length on top (but without the distinct ‘fade’ separation we have seen in recent years). However, there are a lot of guys that have gone through the pain-barrier and will have come to love the longer look – we predict a lot of longer hair for men, more natural and less-coiffed. Plus, a return to subtle colouring and less product (wax, gel, clay etc.).
Generally, hair will be less ‘fixed’ and more natural – more product you can’t see than product you can. Think serums (Moroccan Oil’s Mending Infusion and Davines Invisible Serum being our favourites) or Lightweight Oils (Olaplex No7 and Kerastase Elixir being our go-tos).
Be more Girl Guide.
Be prepared! Many of our clients love the security of knowing that they have booked many appointments ahead – in fact, some of our clients book a whole year’s worth of appointments in advance! As a result of being closed for over 30 of the last 52 weeks, many of our clients have got well and truly out-of-sync with their future bookings. Whilst we have done everything we can to ensure our regular clients get seen as soon as possible after we reopen, with over 1,000 clients to contact, we were largely unable to book more than one appointment in advance.
If you know what appointment frequency and what appointment services you require over the next three to six months, we would recommend using our website booking function to secure your future bookings and therefore avoid disappointment when trying to guarantee your next cut/colour.
Additionally, due to how busy we already are for the month after we reopen, we are expecting another surge in bookings when all of our clients want to come back in for a cut/colour in five-six weeks’ time – our suggestion… be more ‘Girl Guide’ and Be Prepared!
Price Increase.
Finally, Novo were due to implement a small price increase in April 2020, which we postponed (for obvious reasons!). This overdue price increase will be implemented upon reopening.
Unlike the majority of salons, we took the decision to make no additional charge for PPE etc. and we have tried to absorb our increased costs ourselves. However, we have had to increase the prices of some services (not all) to take into consideration inflation and increases in costs. We hope that our clients understand this small increase (approx. 5%) and continue to feel that novo represents a much-needed and affordable luxury.