Edinburgh is Scotland’s second largest city, so it’s unsurprising that it’s home to a wide selection of hairdressers, barbers, hairstylists, and beauty salon professionals. Regardless of where you live in Edinburgh, be it in the inner city, the popular residential South side, Leith, or the number of small towns that jut on to the urban fringe, you’ll be spoilt for choice when it comes to choosing a hairdressing service in Edinburgh. But with so many hairdressers available throughout Edinburgh, how do you pick the best hairdresser for you?
Recommendations
It’s no secret that word-of-mouth recommendations from people that you trust are by far the best way to determine whether a hairdresser offers good value for money. If your friends or family members always talk positively about their local hairdresser, and look great to boot, then it might be worth giving their hairdresser a try. Some hairdressers will offer a small discount if you’re a first-time customer, so don’t forget to ask whether this is the case.
Portfolios
Some of the bigger hair salons in Edinburgh will have impressive portfolios of their work online or in professional hairdressing publications. These can give you a good idea as to the type of work that they do. However, it’s always worth checking whether these hairdressing portfolios are up to date, as the stylist behind the haircuts and styles in the portfolio may well have moved on. Many smaller Edinburgh hairdressers won’t have professional portfolios, but often they will have polaroid photos or non-professional shots of their efforts that you might be able to view.
Awards
It’s worth keeping an eye out for any awards that a given hairdresser or their hairdressing salon might have received, as these can indicate that you’re in good hands. However, if you’re on a budget, it’s worth remembering that awards often result in increased prices, so you may have to balance budget and prestige.
Longevity
Seeing how long a given hairdresser in Edinburgh has been around is another great way to see whether they’re good at what they do. If your local hairdressing service has closed down after a year, but the one nearby has been doing good business for decades, then there’s likely a reason for that. Good quality hairdressing, a personable nature, and fair prices usually translate into business longevity for hairdressers in Edinburgh, so don’t be afraid to ask how long your local barber or hairdresser has been in business. However, don’t forget that many hairdressing salons these days belong to chains, so it might also be worth seeing whether the owner has in the past owned other hairdressing salons in Edinburgh or its surrounding areas.