London’s best hairdressers

Best for
Indie cool

Transport
Dalston Kingsland Overground

A few minutes walk from Dalston Kingsland station, you’ll find Blue Tit: a boutique hair salon with a proudy maximalist interior. Dozens of miniature antique photographs decorate one wall, while exposed bricks, vintage decor, and tiny fake bluebirds join forces to create a homey, laid-back feel as soon as you step foot through the door. There’s a high chance that the staff, with their shag haircuts and nose piercings, might be cooler than you – but they’re also incredibly skilled professionals. You’ll be able to relax knowing you’re in safe hands as they talk you through the upkeep of a fringe or help you decide how light to go with your balayage. My stylist, Chris, listened carefully to my daring request of bangs and a bob – chopping off my long locks with a decent amount of chat and adding texture and shaping to suit my face shape. To make it even better, the salon is also sustainably conscious. The Dalston branch, along with their nine other hairdressers elsewhere in London, use biodegradable hair towels and Oway hair products: which are biodynamic, fair trade, cruelty-free, sustainable packed and smell amazing. What more could you want?

Best for
A date with yourself

Transport 
Tottenham Court Road

Charlotte’s Place, Fitzrovia is one of those parts of London that somehow rewires your brain to convince you you’re on holiday and therefore deserve treats. The small, charming street is lined with Italian restaurants, an upmarket spa, a cute bakery and the endearingly-minimal Saco Hair Salon. If you want to commit to the holiday fantasy, a trip to Charlotte’s Place should begin with a visit to Saco Hair. Its salon-brand products are high quality and organic, the stylists are friendly without ever being overbearing (not a mid-trim talker? Not a problem) and a hair wash comes with a tension-easing head massage. Prices are as expected for central London (around £60 for a cut and blow-dry for women, £50 for men), but the staff really know what they’re doing: they actually listen to what you want, and give cuts that are made to last. When you’re done, take your blow-dry out for charcuterie and cheese at In Parma just a few steps away, and while you’re at it, grab a cinnamon bun for the road at Fabrique Bakery. Your rewired brain is right. You do deserve treats.

Best for
Super-shiny locks

Transport
Sloane Square underground

As soon as you walk into Gennaro Dell’Aquila’s Chelsea salon, your nostrils will be confronted with a barrage of soothing aromas. The whole ethos of this salon – along with their two other London spots in Notting Hill and Wimbledon – is to create beauty with nature. Sounds gimmicky, right? I was skeptical, but left with uber-glossy locks that stayed shiny for weeks. The chic industrial interiors are decorated with colourful jars of their 20 natural and organic powders, all lined up on a wall like a sweet shop. These are used for their bespoke herbal hair treatments, carefully curated and mixed together after your own hair consultation. Then, they’re applied and left to sit, before a wash, head massage, bouncy blow-dry and styling (hands down to my stylist who somehow managed to get my awkward growing-out fringe to sit very nicely). GA also offer all of your usual cuts, colour, Olaplex and other spa treatments – and boast incredible Italian coffee, so it’s a bit of a win-win.

Best for
Natural goodness

Transport
Holborn

For those who care about what is going into and on to their bodies, the Aveda Institute on High Holborn is hard to beat. One of the original purveyors of natural hair and skin products, the brand continues to deliver quality treatments at this vast, airy hair and beauty spa. Time Out has long been a fan of the salon, not only for its fabulous non-aggressive colour and great cuts, but the serene manicure and pedicure booths, tucked away at the back. What makes this salon appealing is it’s refreshingly un-sceney: no air-kissing, fuss or celebrity gossip.

Best for
Own-brand products

Transport
Covent Garden

This buzzy Covent Garden salon has a reputation for styling the uber-gorgeous, as the glossy mag pages on the walls featuring the locks of Kate Moss, Drew Barrymore and Gwyneth Paltrow demonstrate. But don’t be intimidated by the A-lister clientele – the salon has a friendly and down-to-earth vibe. Even the minimalist decor is offset by a huge table in the reception piled with retro board games, tastefully placed art books, and erm, ‘The Complete Guide to Ferrets’.

Best for
Cool wearable cuts

Transport
Oxford Circus

Bloomsbury is well-served by swish salons, and this spot from hairdresser to the (fashion) stars Sam Burnett is no exception. Sleek, smart and with lovely stylists who’ll offer you a glass of fizz while you get your tresses trimmed, it really is five-star service. Happily, despite a large number of awards under this salon’s perfectly-groomed belt, it’s a down-to-earth, friendly place that you won’t walk out of with a ‘directional’ (read: ridiculous) new hairdo. 

Best for
Hair and scalp specialists

Transport
Marble Arch

Whether you’re desperately trying to rectify the disaster of a home perm, minimising the damage from a sloppy salon, or you’re a model victim of a photoshoot involving super glue and a blast furnace, the experts at Philip Kingsley are the people to see. The London Clinic, set in the Edwardian splendour of Mayfair, specialises in trichology – the study of hair and the scalp. The team of trichologists here are pros at dealing with issues such as hair thinning and hair loss and have even collaborated with cancer charities and patients who have had their hair or scalp affected by various treatments, so you can be sure your barnet is in very capable hands.

Best for 
Down-to-earth vibes 

Closest tube
Holloway Road 

If you, like me, often emerge from a hairdressers feeling like someone has Mr Potato Head-ed the overly-coiffed locks of a Kardashian onto your normal person face, then Bebop might be a more down-to-earth fit. An independent salon located a handy stone's throw from Holloway Road station, it earns planet-saving points by prioritising vegan and cruelty-free products, but also has a more relaxed vibe than most. If you want to be tonged and preened then they can do that; if you just want to feel like yourself, but a bit shinier, then they'll style you more naturally. I went for a colour top-up and a conditioning mask. Though it's a fairly uncomplicated touch-up, Chloe, my stylist (and the salon's hands-on co-founder), tells me how doing simple things well is often just as satisfying as concocting a rainbow dip-dye mohican. With a tea in hand (wines and beers are also on the menu) and deeply relaxed by a top-level head massage, it's an approach that shows. Bebop is the kind of place that focuses on quality – in its ingredients, its customer service and beyond – rather than just giving you a glossy surface. I've even kept up the easy hair drying tips I learnt in my day-to-day routine. Unheard of. Lisa Wright 

Best for
Relaxed vibe

Transport
Clapton overground

Sean Fordham, owner and regular stylist to Graham Norton, FYI, established himself on the Soho hairdressing scene for 13 years before opening this hip east London salon. With its distressed wooden floors, bare-brick walls and lush green tiles, the interior at this unisex salon is very much as stylish as the hairstyles it creates. Excellent aftercare advice and attentive stylists ensure a regular stream of loyal clients. Plus, this place even produces its own pale ale. Who needs pubs when you’ve got hairdressers like this? 

Best for
Tailored treatments

Transport
Angel

No, it isn’t located in a chapel but a former Victorian pub (that would be the first branch – located in a former nineteenth-century Baptist church in Tunbridge Wells) even so it’s hard to miss this green and orange-tiled salon on the corner of Owen Street and St John Street. The colourful, spacious salon has a unique pricing strategy, charging by time rather than by cut. Prices range from £50-£100 (depending on which stylist you go for) and complimentary drinks are served, including seasonal extras, like scrummy hot-chocolate shots. Set over two floors, each zone has a different artistic theme. We reckon you’ll fall in love with the chic modern interior as much as your new hairdo.

Best for
Cruelty-free colour

Nearest tube
Haggerston Overground

This vegan-friendly Dalston salon was a trailblazer of the dip-dye trend, as seen on the famous barnets of Lady Gaga and Alexa Chung. Founded by colourist-of-the-moment Alex Brownsell, and her agent and friend Sam Teasdale, Bleach has a client list that reads more like a who’s-who of London party people, including Pixie Geldof, Daisy Lowe and Alice Dellal. You'll also find salons in Brixton and Soho.

Best for
An airy aesthetic

Nearest tube
Shoreditch High St Overground

Occupying renovated premises on the corner of Swanfield Street, Radio is a stylish, light and spacious environment where you can relinquish tonsorial control to a team of premier league stylists and colourists. Cool often comes with attitude (this is east London, after all), but Radio is hip, highly professional and friendly, offering everything from dip dyes to Brazilian blow-drys. Saturdays are super-busy, but the blonde wood floors, pale paintwork and high ceilings make relaxing a doddle.

Best for
Boutique glamour

Nearest tube
Shoreditch High St Overground

Complete with a bar, cupcakes, pretty vintage china and a liberal dose of quirky charm, this Parisian-style salon is so good they named it twice. The staff are friendly and knowledgeable, and offer a full range of hair services. Other equally pretty salons can be found in Portobello and Liberty’s in Soho.

Best for 
Chic cuts 

Nearest tube 
South Kensington

Just a few minutes' walk away from South Kensington tube is Larry King's gorgeous hair emporium. If you've had a bad cut in the past that needs fixing, this is where you should head. Stylists will listen carefully to what you want and come up with a solution that's realistic yet effective. Expect to be so delighted with your trim that you will exit the place with a sassy hair flick worthy of a 90s beauty advert. Rosie Akenhead

Best for
Eco-friendly outlook

Transport
Hoxton

Hackney Road’s hair scene just got a whole lot hipper, and eco-friendly. Butchers (the joint project of Susannah Jones – a former director at Aveda – and art school-trained editorial stylist Katie Knox) offers fashion-forward cuts in a minimalist, industrial-chic setting; think concrete walls and massive windows. As well as cutting-edge snips (from £55), great colour jobs are a speciality here (full-head colour tint starts at £70). Shampoos, conditioners and styling products come from natural haircare specialists Aveda.

Best for
Easy luxury 

Closest tube
Covent Garden 

It's one of life's more costly pills to swallow that, in a lot of cases, you do get what you pay for. And so, while Charles Worthington's Covent Garden 'House of CW' – one of a handful of London outposts of the well-known hair brand – doesn't come in at a snip of a price (a women's cut ranges from £50 to £125 for a principle stylist), it does make for the kind of easy luxury that treat-worthy hair experiences are made of. From the townhouse-style location to the glasses of bubbly on offer, everything here comes inbuilt with a quiet sense of class; there's no pumping music (a strange quirk of a lot of salons) or ostentatious décor, the rooms are small with only a few clientele at a time and the service impeccable. I opt for a root touch-up and a restyle; I'm getting a fringe cut back in and I'm a little unsure whether that's a terrible decision. But Gorka, my stylist, is exactly the right level of confident – able to guide you into being a little brave, whilst assuring you that you're in safe hands. I've done my time getting value dye-jobs in training academies, so the fact that I'm in and out with a new do and a fresh colour in around 90 minutes seems something akin to witchcraft, but that's all part of their sleek, slick package. Savvy modern women with shit to do don't have time to spend five hours in a hairdressing chair; they do, however, have time for a swish new wig that makes them strut down the street like Beyonce. And by 'they', I mean 'me'. Obviously. Lisa Wright 

Best for
Unapologetic luxury

Transport
South Kensington

For a glimpse at how the other half have their hair done, head to the unapologetically luxurious Paul Edmonds salon. Located in a Georgian-style townhouse near Harrods, it’s decorated with opulent black lacquer and design classics. Edmonds has worked his magic on the locks of many a celeb, from Emma Thompson to Penelope Cruz, and is universally considered one of the best in the business. It’s a jaw-dropping £300 for a cut and finish with the man himself, but considering he trained Errol Douglas and Richard Ward, you can expect something truly special. Graduate stylists are more of a snip, at £40 for men and £65 for women. Edmonds trained for three years at the College of Psychic Studies as a healer (stay with us!), and the holistic approach used by all members of the 40-strong team ensures a calm atmosphere and individually tailored service.

Best for
A safe pair of hands

Transport
Sloane Square

For the original Toni & Guy experience, visit the Sloane Square salon. The light and airy salon has been here for 35 years and harks back to the family roots of this global super brand, boasting a fiercely loyal clientele. A ladies’ cut and blow dry starts at £57 and will set you back £80 if you opt for one of the art directors.

Best for 
Structural integrity 

Transport 
Old Street (for Shoreditch branch)

Beauty might only be surface-deep but at ESHK they’ll give you the scaffolding to support it. With salons in Shoreditch, Barbican, Clerkenwell and Berlin, ESHK are bang on the money when it comes to trend-focused, cool girl cuts. But what makes them really great is how they combine style with technical wizardry. Like the always lusted-after ‘French Girl’ hair, the focus here is on a seriously good quality cut that can then be worn in a deliberately messy fashion without, umm, looking a mess. They also offer a genuinely warm welcome and relaxed atmosphere – there’s nothing intimidating about this salon, despite its location in the ‘creative industries’ heartland. All products used are from the eco-sustainable, organic O Way brand, which looks after the environment while also smelling very subtly of Christmastime. Yum. Rosemary Waugh