Happy Birthday Danique: Here come the Leicester girls!

Danique Hairdressing, on Highcross Street, Leicester turned 6 yesterday! They have been having a whale of a time celebrating their birthday. I’ve heard about giant Millie’s cookies, Krispy Kreme‘s and all manner of other delights being consumed in honour of the occasion. It was great to be invited down to share in their merrymaking, although admittedly all the cake had been consumed when we arrived! However, I was told that they would definitely have offered me some and it is always the thought that counts…

And it couldn’t have come at a better time. We’re in the final stages of preparing to open a new set of medieval galleries at Leicester Guildhall, so things are busy, busy, busy right now. You can see from this photographic evidence that we are getting down to the serious business of installation with due gravitas and diligence. After all somebody has to make sure the costumes work.

After a long Friday, what better way to unwind then getting a bit of a reinvigoration to your tired work week hair than popping in to Danique Hairdressing for a lovely blow dry? I took along my friend Heather, who had shared my tough week, so we could put the stylists to the test with a shorter style as well as seeing what they could do with the great new cut that Sean gave me a couple of weeks ago, which I have sadly neglected this week.

I know, the shame! My before picture shows the true horror of my hair neglect.

After meeting the Danique Boys on Valentine’s Day, now it was time for the girls to come to the fore and give us a spot of pampering. We decided to make an afternoon of it and popped along to Danique’s lovely neighbours at the Cosy Club for a pre-salon drink. We were then welcomed by our super-friendly Creative Designers, Sarah and Hannah who took fabulous care of us throughout our visit. That is one of the things I really like about Danique – the attention to detail in every aspect of the customer service as well as the talents of the staff in actually giving you the style that you want.

Sarah giving the full consultation and receiving the answer in BSL apparently.

In particular I was impressed that Heather told me afterwards that normally she hates going to the hairdressers and finds it quite a stressful experience, worrying that she is going to come out with something she hates. None of that for her this time though!

After our consultations, we had our hair gently cleansed and that all important scalp massage. We could not help but feel relaxed, being in such a bubbly and friendly environment and being carefully tended to by expert hands.

I was treated to products from label.m‘s new thickening range, which I am really pleased with. The shampoo and conditioner smell great and leave your hair feeling light and fresh. When we got down to the styling, Hannah also used the Volume Foam massaged into my roots once the excess water had been blasted out with the blowdrier and then a dash of Thickening Cream right at the top, for extra super big hair. As someone with incredibly fine hair I was really impressed at the level of extra volume that these products provided. I challenged Hannah to see just how big she could make my hair and she did not disappoint!

Heather had a full restyle and will probably never forgive me for posting a picture of her online with wet hair, but if you are friends with a blogger that’s the sort of shoddy treatment and public embarrasment that you have to come to expect, so I offer up little in the way of apology.

Sarah took a lot of the excess fullness from Heather’s hair, giving it a much lighter, more natural style overall, but then went to town on a high impact asymmetric cut which really complemented Heather’s fact and brought an astonishing new lift to her look. I was super impressed by the speed with which Sarah worked to do this dramatic reshape – Heather was finished well before my blowdry was! Just goes to show that short hair is the way if you want to save yourself a bit of time. Sarah used the label.m Protein Spray on Heather which gave an additional strength, protection from the heat of the hairdrier and healthy shine to her hair.

Bubbles!

We were having a great time, given a nice glass of something bubbly and literally ending up giggling like schoolchildren at the banter in the salon. Every time I go into Danique I feel like I am amongst old friends, a real rarity these days. I think they probably feel like every customer is an old friend waiting to happen and treat everyone accordingly.

Tada! A very happy conservator

And here is the finished result, you can see that Danique treat short hair as well as they dealt with my mop. The word ‘fabulous’ was being bandied around a lot and Heather was extra-impressed with her swooshy front, which she had never even thought of having before. She told me that she thought it was a brilliant haircut, that the staff were very friendly and that she was really happy, especially as she’s normally so reticent about haircuts! Heather’s cut with Sarah, the Creative Designer, would have come in at £46.00, which she would happily have paid (and more!) but thanks to Danique and their birthday celebration, she was even more made up that it was free! The delights of blogging.

My style was coming on a-pace in the meanwhile. Hannah used a large round brush when drying to give lift and shape. She turned the hair round the brush in sections, using heat to dry it then switching to a cool air flow to set the shape. Even just left straight the style looked fab, but of course I had to go for a bit more curl and volume because in for a penny, in for a pound!

I was also amazed by the swoosh factor. I think they are going to have to find a way to incorporate swoosh into their marketing strategy, because that is certainly a hairdressing technicality that I look for. So much body, so much delight!

The large irons quickly added a very soft, natural curl to my hair. The hair was left to fall as it choose over my side parting, giving flow. My hair was super soft and floaty light (but obviously not flyaway!). The label.m products really did the job of adding volume without being at all sticky or heavy so my hair felt like there was nothing on there at all. I’m still volumed to the max after sleeping on the style!

Hannah and me – isn’t her hair beautiful?

My style would have come in at just £23, but you can get blow drying done from £8 to £33 depending on which stylist you want to book in with. I would wholeheartedly recommend this styling service if you’ve got a big night out planned, it’s a great pampering experience and you can be sure you’ll head out looking awesome and feel full of confidence.

Many thanks to Danique and Cici PR for inviting us along for such a lovely treat. I think I’m spoiled for hairdressers now and can’t imagine going anywhere else!