‘£60?! For a haircut?!’
I stared at the website of a fancy Northern Quarter salon, sums running round my mind. With £60 I could feed myself (and then some) for two weeks. I could book a return train to London. I could have a pretty great night out. Really, one of the last things I wanted to do with that money was get my hair cut.
It’s not that I don’t appreciate the skill and craft of a really good hairdresser. When you’ve trained for years, it’s only right that you should get a decent paycheck for your work - something that is undoubtedly skilled.
But the cost of living is biting, and when you don’t have a lot of disposable income and could feed yourself for weeks on the cost of a cut and blow dry at a salon, it can feel difficult, if not impossible, to justify spending that much money on a trim.
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Enter Evolve Academy. I saw them recommended in a student Facebook group a while ago, and promptly forgot - until my hunt for a cheap haircut brought them back onto my radar.
Evolve is a training academy, meaning that whoever cuts your hair is not yet a fully qualified hairdresser. It may feel a bit risky, but the prices made it a risk I was prepared to take. £10 for a cut and blow dry? I’m sold. Worst case scenario, I leave holding back tears and head to the next cheapest salon I can find, begging them to fix it.
The academy is open on weekdays, and runs sessions at 10am and 1pm, meaning that you are more limited for appointments than in an ordinary salon. I picked a 1pm Monday slot, and found them tucked away on New George Street - coincidentally, just around the corner from where I’d last got my hair cut (over a year ago - oops), to the tune of £58. Gulp.
The studio is set up like a normal salon, with comfortable chairs and big mirrors. Considering you’re paying one sixth of what a haircut costs in some other city centre salons, you’d be forgiven for being wary of what you’ll be faced with, but the academy has a professional set-up and feels stylish and comfortable.
In fact, the only things that would make you realise that you are in fact in a training academy are some notes on the wall for students to consult, and the possibility that while you are having your hair cut, someone next to you might be chopping a wig off a plastic dummy. Small trade-off for a £50 saving, if you ask me.
Of course, the biggest trade-off for the price tag is the experience of the hairdressers - which is essentially just pot luck depending on who is available. Advisers are around at all times making sure the trainees know what they are doing, and I felt confident that I could trust any of them with my hair.
I had a short consultation with my stylist, who then took me to wash my hair before getting started. As we chatted, I learned that she had been at Evolve for almost three years, and was nearly ready to take her final exams. Not bad for £10.
She was communicative and engaged throughout the session, frequently checking in with me to make sure I was happy and tell me what she was doing. I had been warned on the phone that the session might take a little longer than you could usually expect - I ended up staying there for around 90 minutes, which included washing my hair, trimming it and cutting some layers and face framing into my long hair, blow drying it, and styling it at the end, which felt totally reasonable to me.
My experience with Evolve was wonderful. My haircut honestly feels as good as any I’ve ever had before (and paid much more money for) - and I left the salon only £10 down, and with a good feeling that I had helped a trainee hairdresser with their portfolio. Bargain.
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