Many moons ago I spent lots of time sitting in my friends’ salon chairs, letting every manner of cool and crazy thing happen to my mop.

See the end of this post for photo evidence.

Today I was in the fabulous Stacey Staley’s capable hands. Owner of Blonde Salon, she has made her way up in the world of hair thanks to her serious talent and hard work.

Her staff were doing training and I was lucky enough to get some TLC for my own hair: highly processed ends and two years of grow out.

Here is the journey!

Before.   And next: Our inspiration cut is Dakota Johnson.

Midway, once a gloss was put on the entire length to create a dark base.

Then comes the balayage. Scroll down for pictures of the super suped-up bob, with great blunt edges and glossy colour. The balayage technique made the texture look really amazing; subtle but high definition and anything but flat.

So, all in all, I just adored my experience at Blonde Salon. The environment is clean and modern. The staff are friendly and constantly updating their techniques and training. I was lucky enough to be in on a day when they were working on Balayage – just one of the ways that they invest in professional development to make sure they bring the best methods and products to their clients.

They really listened to what I wanted (in terms of low maintenance and not wanting visible re growth) and the colour I got is just stunning. They paid attention to my skin tone and eye colour – with absolutely gorgeous results. Definitely a five stars out of five.

Last but not least, on my way to my dance rehearsal, post salon, I popped in to Lavish and Squalor- a great clothing and lifestyle store – and the first thing the staff said was ” your hair is goooorgeous!!” And I promptly told them where they could get some.

As for the flashback: when you trust someone to do this… You know you are in capable hands

This hair was the love child of Stacey and anothe fab stylist, Derek at Studio 237.

Check out Blonde online, or visit them at 82 Power Street in Toronto.

And if you’re in their neck of the woods, visit Studio 237 in Belleville.