tuesday afternoon at aveda (lyn)

Beauty maintenance is expensive.  Weekly manicures.  Monthly pedicures.  Facials and massages (I wish).  Monthly leg waxes (less often in the winter).  And of course, hair.  Because I wear my hair long, I can go about eight weeks between cuts, which run about $80, exclusive of tax and tips.  I know when my hair needs cutting when one day it’s fine, and the very next day I think, “OMG, I need to get my hair cut NOW!”  As for color, I really should do it every three weeks, but I push it to five, unless something big comes up in between.  That’s another $80 (single process).  According to Valerie, hair coloring is something I should do BEFORE it’s desperately needed, because (and she’s right about this), “If you ever expect to meet anyone, every time you leave your house you should look your best.”  Maybe that’s why in 26 years of living in New York, I’ve never once met anyone just by leaving my house.

Robyn gets her hair done in Soho, at the Aveda Institute.  It’s where stylists become stylists in seven months.  First they practice on wigs, then they invite in their friends and family, and during their final phase of training, they practice on real people.  I book a single process ($45), a cut ($20), and a gloss ($10).    

Upon arriving at 1pm, I am offered a small cup of Aveda's Comfort Tea.  It’s 100% certified organic, a soothing herbal infusion, and naturally sweetened with licorice and peppermint.  I never realized a tea could be so many things.  And still, I don’t like it.  It’s too sweet. 

Around 1:10 I’m introduced to Sara.  Robyn has warned me, “You want a stylist who works in the front; they are closest to graduating.  The ones in the back are more junior.  Book more than one service and you are guaranteed a stylist in the front, because the ones in the back can’t handle multiple services.”   Sara leads me to the back.

Now what?  She is very nice, and I don’t want to offend her, but I also don’t want to leave with purple hair in a mohawk.  So I ask Sara when she’s graduating.  “April,” she says, “Just a couple of weeks behind the stylists in the front.”  I wonder if she can read minds too.

Sara is very conscientious.  Even if she weren’t talented (which, as it turns out, she is), I’d forgive her anything, as she is so nice.  She colors with care, washes with detail, and cuts methodically.  At the end, I am more than pleased.  My hair looks great.

The only downside is the time.  It takes three and a half hours.  But double the time for half the price is definitely worth it.  Especially when you have much of the former and little of the latter.