I use Kérastase

It's been quite a while since I forsook getting my hair cut in The Lanes in Brighton. I started to go to Trevor Sorbie there in March 2009, and only left to give my business to another salon in November 2016. Still, that's six years ago. 

One reason for quitting Brighton as my hair-time destination was that my stylist (by then a senior stylist and designated a 'director') had migrated to a new posh out-of-town salon in Cuckfield, right out in the sticks. I loyally went with her.

Nowadays a local lady - a friend of a friend - comes around to my home and does my hair for a fraction of what I ended up paying at these salons. And she achieves the same result. Importantly, it's the result I want, and not what the stylist thinks I should have. My inclinations prevail without demur. So I'm happier, as well as having considerably more left in my purse. 

I'm also perfectly easy about wanting longer between cut-and-blow-dry appointments. Which wasn't how it used to be. I always used to feel under a certain pressure to fix up regular and rather frequent appointments, really twice the number my straightforward hairstyle needed. So I'd find myself booking an appointment in advance - after paying, and before I left the premises - every four or five weeks, rather than every eight or nine. This was fine while I relished the buzz of The Lanes. But later on I grew tired of it, and other things such as the traffic crawl into Brighton and the big expense of parking began to get to me. The much more relaxed atmosphere of Cuckfield was far more appealing, but even so finding a place to park still wasn't easy. And although the salon prices were a bit less, they were still high, and I began to feel I wasn't getting proper value for money. Pleasant staff, and wine or coffee to sip, no longer compensated. 

So even Cuckfield palled. I'd got older, my tastes had got simpler, and the need to 'treat' myself to expensive hair care - whether in The Lanes or at Cuckfield - had vanished. 

The Covid-19 lockdowns stopped the show without my having to invent an excuse. I won't go back to salons now.

But I haven't abandoned one aspect of hair care luxury: I still use an expensive shampoo and conditioner. Somewhere along the line - it must have been when I was going to the Cuckfield salon - I was switched onto Kérastase volumising shampoo and conditioner. And I'd buy it for home use from the salon, presumably at a mark-up. These high-class products (why do salons always say 'product' in the singular, even if several items are being talked about?) aren't necessary to keep my hair looking nice, but they look, smell and feel like quality goods, and although expensive they last a long time. Nowadays I have an online account with Kérastase and order one or other of them as required with their app. They arrive very quickly. One of my few regular uses of the Internet for shopping. 

This is the shampoo: 

And this is the conditioner. This fresh tube arrived via DPD today.

It came with that card showing a range of women with different body shapes and different hair styles, no doubt to make the point that anyone can benefit from using a Kérastase product, not just supermodels. 

Only two years ago, in 2020, I spotted this Kérastase poster in the window of a Worthing salon:  

Undeniably striking. High impact, and very in-your-face. Clearly in the last two years they have had a rethink and have toned down the advertising, making it subtler and more inclusive. So that older women with shorter hair can be drawn in.

One thing that intrigues me is that in that latest picture there is an older woman in sunglasses who reminds me of Yoko Ono. Is she a lookalike - or is it in fact Yoko Ono? Here's a close-up:

Hmmm. Could be. A Yoko Ono turned blonde in her old age? 

Incidentally, please don't think that I'm plugging these products. I'm just coming clean about what shampoo and conditioner I use, and making a blog post about it. I have no intention of becoming one of those so-called influencers who endorse and push pricey products for reward.