Holiday coming up? When to book your colour before you fly

Book your colour seven to ten days before you fly. That gives the tone time to settle, leaves a window to fix anything that is not quite right, and means you are not sitting in my chair the night before a 6am flight with a suitcase still open on the bed.

The short version

Book your colour seven to ten days before you fly.

Full balayage takes two and a half to three hours. Plan the day.

Book your toner for the week you get back, not before.

Fresh blonde plus chlorine is the classic holiday mistake. Rinse before you swim.

Patch test 48 hours ahead if it is your first tint with us.

Why seven to ten days and not the day before

Colour keeps moving for about 48 hours after you leave. Toner especially. What looks a touch ashy under the salon lights settles into something softer by the weekend, and I would rather you saw that before you got on a plane.

The other reason is repair time. If your blonde has pulled warm at the ends, or the root smudge sits lower than you wanted, I need you back in the chair. Booking that in on a Tuesday before a Saturday flight is easy. Trying to sort it on the Friday evening is a different conversation.

Seven to ten days also covers the boring stuff. Stylists get ill, cars break down, and the odd appointment has to move. A bit of slack in the diary means a shifted booking does not turn into you flying with your roots showing.

How long your appointment actually takes

People book a holiday colour and assume it is an hour. It rarely is.

A full balayage is £70 to £85 and takes around two and a half to three hours once the toner and blow dry are in. Half balayage is £55 to £65 and closer to two hours. Full foils sit at the same £70 to £85, half foils £55 to £65. A full tint is £50 to £55 and runs about ninety minutes, and a root tint at £40 to £47 is quicker, usually an hour and a bit.

If you want a cut as well, say so when you book rather than asking on the day, because I have to set the extra chair time aside. Cut and finish is £42 to £55. The full list is on our pricing page if you want to work out the spend before you ring.

Sun, salt and chlorine: what your colour is up against

Chlorine is the one that catches people out. Fresh blonde is porous, and a week of pool water will pull it green or brassy faster than anything else you do out there. The fix is dull but it works. Soak your hair in clean water before you get in the pool, because hair that is already wet takes on far less of what is in the water.

Salt water is gentler but drying. Sun is the slow one, lifting tone over a fortnight rather than a day. If you are somewhere hot, a hat does more for your colour than any spray, and the NHS sun safety guidance is worth reading for the scalp side of it, which people forget about entirely until they are peeling.

I send clients off with a leave-in and instructions to actually use it. Plenty do not. The ones who do come back with colour I can top up in twenty minutes rather than rescue over two hours.

Book the toner for when you get back

This is the part worth planning. Toner is what makes blonde look expensive, and it is the first thing the sun and the pool strip off you.

Stacking a toner on right before you fly is money you will not see the benefit of. Book it for the week you land instead. A toner is £35 to £40 on its own, or £20 as an add-on if you are already in for a cut. That £20 add-on is the cheapest way I know to make a two week old holiday colour look freshly done.

If it is your first tint with us, we patch test 48 hours beforehand, no exceptions. Build that into your timeline, because it is what trips up anyone trying to squeeze in a colour at the last minute.

Booking in around us

We are at Shop 660, Jansel House, Hitchin Rd, Stopsley, Luton LU2 7XH. Tuesday and Wednesday we are open 10 to 8, Thursday 10 to 6, Friday 10 to 3, and Saturday 10 to 4:30. Closed Sunday and Monday.

Those late Tuesday and Wednesday finishes are the ones to grab if you are working right up to the day you fly, and they go first, so ring ahead. Sabrina and Sheree both take holiday colour bookings, and Klarna is there if you want to spread the cost of a full balayage across a month that has already cost you plenty.

Ring us on 01582 730381 or book online. Tell us your flight date when you book and we will work backwards from it.