Recently I was invited to review Blo Blow Dry Bar in Covent Garden. I couldn’t wait to get there and hopefully find a blow dry bar that I loved which was convenient for me to get to. As this was straight down the Northern Line and in one of my favourite parts of London, I had high hopes.
Blo Blow Dry Bar is new to the UK. Their original salon is in North America and has been around since 2007. Their whole concept is ‘no cut, no colour, just WASH BLOW GO’. Blo is actually the largest blow dry bar franchise in the world and their salon’s partners are Gwyneth Paltrow (who always has fab hair) and David Babbii, so you know that they know what they are doing. You can read more them at www.blomedry.com
The salon is in the Apple Market right in the centre of Covent Garden. It did take me a while to find it, wandering around all the rows of the market, but that is because it is actually on the downstairs level for any of you who go looking for it without googlemaps, like me.
Once I found it and stepped in, it was love at first sight. It is a small salon and it is underground with no windows, but it still feels beautifully light and spacious, plus the front door lets in a lot of natural light. It also has this fabulous white and pink theme.
I was there very early on a Sunday morning so I had the place to myself, but I’m sure the atmosphere is great when it is busy with people gossiping, music playing and the sounds of Covent Garden’s buskers and shoppers.
I was introduced to Michaela who would be doing my hair. She was so great – we chatted the entire time about everything and anything, as you do when you have a friendly hairdresser – even though it was too early on a Sunday morning to normally be chatty.
She talked me through the different hair styles they offer from their Blo menu, (you can also bring in pictures of what you want your hair to look like and they will do that for you too) and we decided on what look I was going to go for.
All their blow drys looks so gorgeous and I love the illustrations. The ‘red carpet’ look is so unbelievably classic and, well, so ‘red carpet’. I was so close to choosing that look – but I thought I would try something different and went for a braid.
This is what I chose – the ‘go fish’. I love big braids but I have never taught myself how to do them so I jumped at the chance to have one and look like all the cool kids on Tumblr.
Another thing that makes Blo my new favourite place – they do a Breakfast Club, weekdays 7am-10am. Yes, you heard me – you can now multitask your lives even more, by getting your hair done whilst you have breakfast. So it is probably quicker to have your hair done professionally than at home, where you have to make your own breakfast. Very A-list of you.
So back to the important subject of hair. My hair was clean when I arrived, and as I wasn’t being blow dried, just braided, I didn’t have it washed. So it was straight onto the curling irons to give my braid a lot of volume and make it as big as possible.
Once curled, it was swept over to one side, backcombed and braided.
Let me introduce you to Expanda Dust – I don’t even understand what is in this but is massively increases the volume of your hair. My roots went from pretty flat to full on POW with a few sprinkles. It is like something a fairy godmother would use to transform Cinderella’s hair. However, as magic as it, it does make your hair feel pretty gross after a few hours – but visually, it made my hair look amazing and twice as big. Magic dust.
And here it is – my finished ‘go fish’ braid. I loved it. Especially because my hair is blonde on the bottom, so I really liked the colour change down the braid. Once the braid was done, Michaela pulled it around a bit to make it look ‘messy’ for more of a natural look, which I really liked.
My only critque was that I could see the bobby pin at the top of the braid, but other than that – would absolutely have this braid again.
After my hair was finished I had a quick wander around the beautiful little salon.
I loved all the details all over the place
Prices start at £28 for a ‘blo out’ and can go up with whatever extras you add on such as condtioning treatments or extensions etc. They also do bridal hair and call outs to your home.
Plus they do gift cards – such a good idea and present – especially if you have a friend who works in Central London and you want a unique gift.
I loved my experience at Blo Blow Dry Bar. My hair was exactly what I wanted, breakfast was such a bonus, gorgeous salon and a really good choice of hair styles. I would highly recommend it, especially for a Friday after work before going out or before an important meeting on a Monday morning. Or when you want some breakfast and can’t be bothered to wash your own hair.
Outfit of the day – my very standard/favourite rainy London day look of Topshop jeans, Helmut Lang jumper & Kurt Geiger boots.
Hope you enjoyed this post and let me know if you go to Blo – I would love to hear what you thought! My experience was complimentary, but my review is all my own opinion & I will 100% happily become paying customer.
Lots of Love
Cocoa Chelsea x