Pride month has arrived and we kicked it off in style this year by getting our hair done at London’s most inclusive salon. Walking through the door to Not Another‘s flamboyantly decorated space feels like walking into a world where everything is right, rainbow-coded decor is the norm, stylists work on wigs destined for the heads of drag queens, pronoun pins have a permanent place on the reception desk and everyone expresses themself authentically from customers to the team, which we’re calling the friendliest in London, the whole space is based on love, acceptance and sending you home with a sick hairdo to take on the outside world. Here’s everything you need to know from our first-hand experience…
Lorna:
I’ve spent years tracking down a salon that I vibe with to no avail but after seven years of searching, I can safely say this will be the only place I go from now on. Attempting to go red for months (and one failed round of box dye later) when the opportunity to take part in Not Another Salon’s ‘Flavour Parlour’ collaboration landed in Broke’s inbox I snatched their hand off and headed down to the salon (following a patch test) for a transformation. Greeted at the door by the Founder Sophia, she led me downstairs into the designated space decked with faux-fur-covered seats, colourful mirrors, glossy cherries and even a disco-ball mushroom where I’d be spending the next few hours.
We got to chatting as she offered her expert guidance (which made me feel comfortable enough to hand over full control of the final result to her stylists), the first question being how she’d managed to curate such an incredible crew and atmosphere (that had us wanting to hang around and chat with them all afterwards) “I was quite the outcast at school and in college and when I got to London I thought I’d be able to find my people, I thought well if there’s somewhere all the weirdos are it’s gonna be here and when I got here, to be honest, it was still quite hard to find my crew, I constantly felt like the outsider, so when I created this place it was like creating a bubble where all the other weirdos like me were allowed to be together and anyone who didn’t feel like they fitted they’d be happy here”. At this point, Izzy joined the party…
Izzy:
After a hectic day of PR nightmares I was soul searching for some good vibes! Luckily I didn’t flake on the appointment due to my bad day because it changed my mood like the flick of a switch. Walking in I was a bit on the fence as I didn’t actually know what I was gonna get done. The wonderful team welcomed me in and I felt like I was walking into my mates house, the salon had that much warmth and tenderness.
The bubbly Italian stylist Debee was straight to work, she came over and radiated energy into my solum mood with ideas and colours that she thought would work. Anybody who knows me knows I always have a sharp cut bob and I like the bold bleach blonde look. I have done bleaching at home and it always makes it so yellow – so I was totally ready for some salon style treatment. After greeting Lorna and sitting down Debee and Sophia walked me through the process and we decided on extending my blonde money -piece and making it more ashy… yes yes yes! I was ready I was pumped. I found that Debee was from Sardinia, somewhere that means quite a lot to me as I spend a few childhood holidays there. We chatted over the blissful sun of Sardinia, fresh seas food and I found out she was a funky soul house lover. My new BFF.
Lorna:
I can’t continue without showing some love to the stylist who turned me from a bodged, box-dyed b*tch (which I repped with my full chest but there’s nothing better than having an actual hair stylist who knows what they’re doing) into a fiery feminine redhead, so big up Daniel for being an absolute vibe and working with me to create a finished look that aligned with me.
After a round of light bleach to lift the combination of colours I’ve collected over the years, I asked Sophia where the inclusive nature of ‘Not Another’ originated from “I don’t think I truly knew what inclusivity was when I first opened the salon, all I knew was I wanted it to be a place where everyone was welcome and my education had to build over the years, I’m bi-sexual myself, I’ve always been in the gay community so it was natural that I’d attract a lot of people of different sexualities and genders. It’s part of who I am as well, I’ve always had trans friends and interesting people who have come from different journeys in life, I think it’s something that’s developed because of the humans who have been in here.” Following a glaze to even out my roots I headed back to the basins as Iz began her bleaching process…
Izzy:
Foil upon foil, the front of my head looked like the inside of the Tardis hahah! Bless Debee doing her boss bitch bleaching process on her birthday, the girl was a champ and smashed through layer after layer. As we waited, chatted and smoked we discovered our shared love for Star Lane pizza bar, an intimate London venue that is total vibes. During the whole experience I just kept thinking how welcomed and at home I felt.
As a ‘weird’ child who never really got along with the cool kids, much like Sophia, I really resonated with the salon, the staff and the morals behind what they do there. I was curious to see what the future meant for the salon and Sophia quite rightly pointed out that they don’t have plans to expand, they are what they need to be and don’t want to become a commercial chain. That really sat with me, in all my experience when I ask about peoples future its to expand so hearing this opposing answer was so refreshing and made me love her and what she had created even more.
Lorna:
Finally it was time for the red dye to go on (shout out to Sarah, another incredible stylist who helped with this process). The vivid shade started to shine through and after fifteen minutes and one last rinse in the basin (which looked like an absolute blood bath), Daniel and Sarah got to work pulling my hair (gently of course) in all different directions with blow dryers and brushes to achieve the final result, a polished, perfectly flicked, luscious cherry red that felt like it was meant for me. Before departing the salon with a new lease of life I slipped in one last question for Sophia, where did the name come from?
“Everyone kept saying to me maybe you should have a salon and I was like I don’t want one, I don’t want one – well, if I had a hair salon it couldn’t just be another salon you know, not another salon and my husband was like well there’s your name, and it’s really funny because the moment I had a name, everything else slipped into place because I knew what it was gonna be then, it was gonna be the anti-salon and different from any salon I’d ever been in.”