When the lovely Cat from Absolutely PR invited me to try out some treatments at O’Sullivans Concept Salons at The Shard, I jumped for the chance. I was lucky enough to be treated to a conditioning treatment, blow dry and manicure*. Oh how I love a good pamper!
The salon itself is super easy to find – it’s located in The Arcade of The Shard, so it is just by where you exit the tube/train station, opposite the entrance to The View from The Shard. As soon as you enter the salon, you are greeted with the smily faces of the girls working there. I was lucky enough to have my hair done by the lovely Morgan, and my nails done by Egzona (who has amazing eyebrows, just saying!). Even though I had only just met these girls, it felt like we were old friends – chatting and gossiping away. They were so down to earth, funny and relatable and to my surprise – actually WANTED to chat with me! I don’t know about you, but I hate it when hairdressers have resting bitch face and don’t want to converse with you. They put me at ease straight away – an amazing skill to have.
The salon has a really clean interior – everything is mainly white, with accents of orange. It is really nice to have that sharp, clean, sanitary feel in a hairdressers – I’ve seen some grotty ones in my time! I even spoke to the girls about this who told me how they have medical strength cleaning products and procedures to ensure everything is kept to the maximum cleanliness possible. This was very reassuring to hear, as I always assumed hairdressers just washed their tools with normal soap and water! They also told me some horror stories of gross salons they used to work in with appalling hygiene routines – I was shocked!
To start off my treatments, after gulping down some water after my hot and stuffy tube journey, I sat down and had a chat with Morgan about my hair. Explaining how about 4 years ago I seriously damaged my hair with bleach and heat, we managed to come up with a conditioning treatment that would be nourishing and restorative to my hair. I was surprised to see that they made the mask personally for my hair needs, as opposed to just using something premade from a tub – you really can’t get much better than that for a treatment. They used all Keratase products, and even added in some caviar! The rinse out pre-shampoo they used on me had glitter in, too, which was amazingly cool and leaves your hair shining and glistening in the light. I am a real life fairy!
After my hair had been washed and conditioned to perfection, it was time for my blow dry. I explained how I always struggle with bouncy, volumous styles as my hair is so thin and doesn’t hold curls well. I showed her the photos from when I visited Rush and explained how even though this was set with curlers, I want to find a way that works with my hair to have even more curls and volume. I knew I was in safe hands with Morgan – she is an Essex girl after all! She blasted my hair dry with the hair drier, and then showed me a new technique using straighteners to curl my hair. After she had curled each strand, she would quickly put it in a roller to enhance the curl even more. When the rollers were taken out – wow. My hair was EXACTLY how I had wanted it! My hair was nicely lifted at the roots without having TOO much volume, and the curls were big and bouncy. Although they did drop during my travels home (one of the reasons I HATE the underground – getting caught in the tunnels as a tube goes by is practically as good as being in a tornado!), they didn’t drop as quickly as my Rush visit, and my hair still had volume, shine and no frizz the next day: Result! I reckon if I had blasted the look with hairspray and then gone out, it would definitely have lasted a whole night of dancing.
Whilst my hair was being done, Egzona did my nails. After a quick telling off for never using a base coat on my nails (oops!), she proceeded to give them some much needed TLC – shaping and filing them all to matching length, pushing my cuticles back and buffing. At O’Sullivan’s Concept Salons, they use Essie for their manicures – which is great as you can discover good quality new products that are actually affordable! I can’t stand getting my nails done, falling in love, and then discovering it would cost about £40 to buy all of the stuff to do it at home… let me buy that colour and let me buy it NOW! After a base coat, we opted for the colour ‘lilacism’ – it was such a cute summery colour! Two layers of colour and a top coat later, and my nails were beautifully painted! She whacked some oil onto my cuticles, too and BAM – perfect nails. They looked great and to my surprise – barely chipped for 2 weeks! I got a tiny chip on the tip of a few nails after 1 week, but they still looked pretty perfect. Plus, the chip was probably my fault anyway, I’m rather clumsy and hands-on!
Overall, I had an absolutely amazing time at O’Sullivans Concept Salons and would highly recommend it to anyone in London, whether you’re looking for a fabulous blow dry before a big night out or some pre-festival nails, this salon has it all for you!
Have you ever been to an O’Sullivans Concept Salons before? Which one did you visit? Let me know in the comments below!
You can follow me on – Instagram | Twitter | Pinterest | Bloglovin x
*This post contains PR samples/gifts. Please visit my disclaimer page for more information.