The promise
To tailor a colour to suit every clients needs, in this case a refreshing fun blonde.
The experience
The Artistic Hair Salon is tucked at the back of the Dusit Thani hotel, run by Mansour and Nicolas Baaklini. This busy salon offers a comprehensive set of hair services – colours are their speciality, and Mansour worked as a hair stylist for Etihad staff previous to branching into his own salon so he and his highly-trained staff are more than comfortable handling even the fussiest of blondes.
The salon is a cool venue, with television screens playing fashion shows and a largely white and elegantly understated colour-scheme.
To start with, we say we want something fresh and bright but honestly, we aren’t too fussy and we want to see what Nicolas can do, so we keep an open mind. He brainstorms with us and we come to an agreement of a creamier blonde with highlights, and some low-lights to balance and break it up.
To begin, a mild dye is painted onto our roots to lift the colour. This is to make the colour more even for the highlights Nicolas explains, as we have a rather distinct re-growth. This is a quick process, and we enjoy the head massage while it is being washed out.
Next is the long part – Nicolas and his assistant begin painting highlights into our hair, alternating weaves to give it a streaky look. He explains each step as he does it – telling us he wants to bring some creamy colour into the hair, alternating with an ash colour to get rid of the nasty brassy tinge that seems so prevalent in Abu Dhabi’s blondes. To give our colour depth, he decides we need a chocolate brown nape.
While the two stylists are working on our hair, we decide that a mani-pedi couldn’t hurt too. We are time-poor so love that we can do it all in one salon visit. We recline in our chair and enjoy a pampering session.
After about half an hour, we get the foils washed out to see what has happened. We are relaxed and comfortable and Nicolas makes sure the dye has taken the colour we want it.
To finish we get a blow-dry and some curls for style – and flounce out, feeling on top of the world.
Results
We love the creamy blonde finish, Nicolas spends a bit more time curling our hair to finish, which really showcase the glossy and rich highlights that we love.
The pros
Glossy blonde is easy to maintain here, it’s fun, the stylists are creative and we love the mani-pedi pampering on the side. Nicolas makes us feel oh-so-glamourous.
The cons
There’s no rushing perfection, so don’t expect to be in and out quickly. It’s worth the wait though!
5/5
Open daily 9.30am-9pm, Dusit Thani Abu Dhabi, artistic.team@hotmail.com (02 444 6876).
