Category Archives: General

Well like it or not Christmas is on the horizion and this year we have some great offers for you all!

Starting with a great gift packed Redken box consisting of a shampoo and conditioner and a free mini hairspray at a discounted price.

We also have some great Redken sleep in rollers, wake up with beautiful hair on Christmas day and everyday! Free when you buy just two Redken styling products.

One for the men or that man in your life is the Mens nail grooming kit, what man doesnt want nice hands!! free again with only two mens products.

And finally one for all the family is the Pureology Aromatherapy Lavender candle, it infuses the air with calming lavender scents to create a soothing atmosphere, one for Boxing day  think!

All available while stocks last.

Well September was quite a month! we had the refit of the reception area making it much more ‘user friendly’ so glad everyone has been so enthusaistic about it!

We have tied in several influences from our favourite parts of the world, India and Thailand and the influence of the tranquility of these places shines through.

After the reception area came the basin area, this ment closure for two days as there were the two backwash areas to completely strip out and refit, as is usual for these type of things ‘murphys law’ of what can go wrong will go wrong came into play!

The night before the work was to start the basins had not arrived, 6pm a lorry pulled up and the driver informed us that he had a bad back and that unless we had some muscle here they couldnt be unloaded, I ask you, muscle in a hairdressers?!!! Pllleeeeaaaseee!

After a lot of arguing the basins got dumped outside the salon, with a lot of help we got them unpacked and off the pallets and inside for the night, this was when we found that the basins themselves were black rather than white and the company were closed until Monday.

Ok nothing else can go wrong can it? yes it can! The floor on the original side was completely rotten from many years of dripping water under the basins, a whole section had to be cut out, but luckily the joists were dry as a bone!so it was only the top layer that needed the replacing.

By Monday morning things were coming together, or so we thought, this was when we had a call to tell us that they had run out of the tiles for behind the basins!

Quick drive up to the tile place only to find they didnt have any and delivery wasnt until Friday! phoning round all the tile places and eventually found a place in Poole that had some, so we were able to get that finished, how a builder can get the measurements out by 20 square feet I dont know!

We opened on the Wednesday with only one basin working and a garden full of rubbish, by the evening we had all six basins working but still a garden full of rubbish!!! apparently not in the quote!  and even that ended up 20% more than the original quote! but they done a good job, still a bit of finishing here and there but we are all really enjoying the new salon, next week the white basins arrive, so upside down again, but hopefully only for a day!

Come in and have a look, we love it and we are sure you will too.

Pastel colours once again seem to be having a surge in popularity and are fast becoming a very popular service, from an all over (as shown in the picture, where we went from a very pale baby blue through to a deeper blue through the ends) or just a flash of colour within your normal colour.

Or we even have the option of  temporary flashes of colour in very vivid colours or the more subtle pastel colours using Flip In Hair extensions.

These ingenious wefts of hair are on a very fine wire and can be placed in the hair in seconds and removed in seconds, ideal if its a weekend look and you need something a bit more conservative for work or school.

Give us a call today or pop in and see us to discuss your options.

Coloring gray hair is a real art, too much and it looks fake, too little and it seems like its grey with a hint of something, or too much tone and its more like a blue rinse (popular if you’re younger! but step away from the bottle if you are that certain age!)

Gray hair is often dry, coarse and wirey, these issues need to be combated before any color touches your hair, a moisturising range such as Redken All Soft or Pureology Hydrate are ideal and will also help to maintain that color once its on your hair.

An oil such as Redken Diamond oil or Pureology oil is ideal as a daily moisturiser on the hair, apply a little into your hands first thing in the morning and work through the hair, these oils are notr the oil slicks we use to have available but they are much lighter and easy to use on coarse hair on a daily basis without a build up.

Gray hair is also more vulnerable to the harmful effects of the sun and water, especially chlorinated water or salt water, in both cases rinse the hair immediatly you come out of the water, use cool water as this will help keep the color in the hair.

Try not to wash your hair every day, there are some excellent dry shampoos now, one of the best and easiest to use is the Redken Powder Refresh.

And if spending any time outside, put on some protection from the heat in the way of a sunblock or a hat, you wouldnt sit in the sun with no lotion on your skin and its the same for your hair, with gray hair being particularly vulnerable to the suns rays and after no time you could be walking back into the salon with a head of straw!!

Enjoy the sunshine, sensibly!

Babys seem to be bang on trend at present and so many celebrities seem to be able to pop them out and be back in a size 6 pair of jeans before they leave the hospital! or is it a bit of clever photoshop?!

Here at David Antony we are mum and baby/toddler friendly, we have a team that are mostly mothers, so have that knack to make your child feel comfortable and relaxed having there hair cut (not to mention the large toy box and lollies!)

We also have a relaxation room if mothers would prefer a little privacy to breastfeed or we are totally relaxed if mums want to breastfeed in salon.

We have found many new mums are tempted to have their hair cut short to make life easier, but this isnt always the case, often a longer style is easier to tie up out of the way .

After around about three months after the baby is born or breastfeeding stops, this is when the hair will shed, throughout the pregnancy the hair will grow and not fall so often when it starts falling its a time of worry, but it is a natural process and will normally have settled down within 10 – 12 weeks.

For the mums who dont want to lose that lovely thickness we do Flip in Hair, these are extensions on a very fine wire and can be fitted in literally a  couple of minutes, so no problem for busy mums.

We also do some deep hair treatments for reviving that tired hair or if you really wan to give that hair  a boost you could try the Redken Intra Force range, this range has Zinc PCA Arginine and vitamin E to make your hair thicker and fuller in 30 days or your money back! so well worth a try.

Our team are always happy to talk about what we can offer for your hair, don’t be afraid to ask.

What a great offer we have for July with 25% off of any mix of Redken shampoo and conditioner, come and grab this offer before its gone!

We also have a great flip in hair offer this month too, it is, order any 12″ flip in hair and upgrade to a 16″ for only another £9.99.

Our own Dr Dev Patel also has some offers on his new Lipo firm plus of A course of 8 Lipofirm Plus treatments on either the face or body Normal Price £860 Special offer price ONLY £600! 

so come and snap up some great deals in salon this July!

Well once again Salon of the Year arrived, this time the venue was at The Guildhall in Portsmouth, as always seems to be with these awards it was rather disorganised!

We had a great evening, all meeting up for pre dinner drinks and then catching the Limo bus for a tour of Portsmouth and then onto the event.

After queueing for quarter of an hour to get in we then found the arrival drinks had all but gone (other than Orange Juice)

Then into dinner, the Guildhall had been really jazzed up and looked great, tables were a little overcrowded and it wasnt long before the rather sad menu arrived, I think most people probably went home hungry! but we came for the awards not the food (thank goodness!)

Amy Childs from Towie was one of the presenters, sadly the sound system was a huge let down and you could hardly hear anything of all the proceedings, after a short introduction we were treated to a troop of dancers, with very expressive dancing! and some singing.

The awards went through at a slow pace but we were thrilled to pick up a Highly Commended for our talented junior Maddie Yates.

A superb win for our own Cosmetic Therapist Dr Dev Patel, Dev had a great night hooked up with any celebrity going!

And finally the salon went Runner up Salon of the Year after having won it two years running!

This is an award that was judged by the votes from clients but this year The News changed it to be votes from clients and the judges make the final decision, so the salon with the most votes doesnt necessarily win!!

If you can’t stop them winning, move the goal posts!

But three years running would have been too much!!

There were some great salons nominated, maybe next years should be judged by unbiased judges!

The night rolled on into the early hours, and there were some very sore heads the next morning I am sure! it is always nice to meet up with our industry on nights out but it was a shame it was such a shambles this year, but the twitter feeds made amusing reading the next morning, maybe some were still under the influence to be saying  what they did! losers!!!

After a brisk early morning walk along the Thames (not all the team I might hasten to add!) it was off to the Thames room again for a cooked breakfast to set us up till mid morning coffee! (do they think us hairdressers are always taking breaks!)

Once again the morning was opened by a suitably refreshed Catherine followed by Nicholas Wood (President of Goldwell and KMS) and an interesting talk on business building marketing, he was followed by the effervescent Sharleen Hunter founder of the PR company Unleashed Potential.

Sharleen came up with some great ideas and made you realise just how important PR is to most salons, one thing that really stuck in mind was ‘once you woo, you have to WOW!’ and keep in touch with your customers because ‘out of sight = out of mind”

Sharleen was a tough act to follow but on came the group head of Urban Retreat salon in Harrods, Marcus Allen.

Marcus talked us through his last week and some of his issues he had to deal with including 8 pregnancies (none attributed to Marcus!)  stock control, perfumes worth ridiculous amounts going missing etc etc, this is from a 250 strong team! Marcus was moct entertaining and made you realise we are all on the same journey but not all turning over millions of pounds a year.

After Marcus we had the first of two halves of planning and executing a photo shoot, this was with the legendary photographer John Rawson and the PR Sharleen, Creative Head editor Lauren Margrave and hairdressers Darren Webster and Lisa Whiteman all adding their own views as to how to go about a succesful photo shoot.

I think a lot of people walked away with a completely different view on photoshoots.

Now it was time for coffee, it was 11oclock after all!

Back in now for director of education for 365, Ken West

Ken shared his analysis of price cutting and discounting in these challenging times and produced quite a bleak picture for the salons who take on this slippery slope.

Ken was followed by John Carne, his brand manager Emma Chadwick and his art director Andy Smith.

They all spoke about the revamped John Carne salons and gave us quite a unique insight into their planning and how they broke down the business to rebuild it, food for thought.

It was now time for a working lunch, yes lunch time must be coming up I hear you say!

Interesting time looking at the different businesses and what they had to offer, once suitable revived it was time for the ‘Think Tank’ session this time flew by with many lively discussions on a variety of topics followed by the second half of the photoshoot.

Once again it was time for refreshments and this time it was freshly baked cookies that flew off the tables like there was no tomorrow!

We then settled down to enjoy “The story of our life’ with the legendary northern duo Gary Hooker and Michael Young being interviewed by Catherine Handcock

As always these two are hugely likeable and you have to admire their sheer determination to build such a prestigious brand away from London.

Insights into their business were wonderful and you really felt honoured to be sat listening in like an old friend, sadly it ended all too soon and it was quick goodbyes to friends old and new and then on our way back suitable topped up with some inspirational thoughts to start our new week with and all looking forward to more of the same next year

What a great weekend was had!

The day started off on Sunday afternoon with the welcome by the ever glamorous Creative Head editor Catherine Hancock, this led straight into last years winners of Most Wanted business thinkers Tommy and Esther Van der Veken, their message was clear ‘stay true to your goals and core beliefs, and never compromise on quality’

They were followed by Richard Phillipart ‘The boy wonder!’ Richard has really grasped the social media platform and used it all across his business, it certainly had everyone talking as they left and drifted to the bar!

The evening started with a meet and mix session in the Thames room with huge swaithes of glass overlooking the said river with some real hairdressing legends in Andrew Barton, Dylan Bradshaw, Errol Douglas, Carolyn Newman and Ken West

there was a real buzz in the room as people waited patiently to unleash their questions on the willing legends, from here it was down to dinner. A lovely dinner was had and washed down with copious amounts of wine and then the finale of the day which was the legendary Trevor Sorbie introducing his award winning art team.

Trevor was brandishing a broken ankle from some sort of bedroom activities involving a wardrobe (later we found out it wasnt anything half as exciting!) The art team really brought a hush over the diners as they worked their magic on stage and after people retired to the bar (once again) to enthuse over the amazing work and catch up with old friends and make some new.

Day two began at 7am breakfast followed by the opening at 9am, there were a few bleary eyes due to ‘some’ people still at the bar at 4am! shocking!

more to come!

Welcome to the David Antony blog!

This is our first posting and we hope you like it, the idea of our blog is to keep you up to date with all the latest trends, celebrity styles and the latest products.

Look in soon for news on our exciting weekend at Salon Smart 2013 in London