What I ask you in the consultation, and why

There are fifteen minutes, at the start, in which I don't touch anything. You're sitting, my hands are still, and we talk. To some it seems like time taken away from the real work. It's actually the only moment in which I can still change my mind about everything without the hair paying the bill: afterwards, with the product in hand, going back is a lot harder.

On the website you'll find a questionnaire of six questions, to fill in before you come. It isn't a form for collecting data: they're exactly the things I would ask you in the chair. Whoever arrives having filled it in doesn't have to tell from scratch a story I've already read, and the consultation starts from the hair instead of from personal details. I'll explain one by one what I do with them.

One premise that applies to all of them. The product is chosen to measure after a consultation done on wet hair, in the salon. The answers tell me where to look; the wet hair tells me what I really have in front of me. Neither of the two is enough on its own.

What result you want

It's the first question and there's no wrong answer. It's there to know where you want to get to, before looking at where we start from.

If you tell me you want to leave the house without straighteners, we're in the family of smoothing treatments: keratin or Bixyplastia, which are the same treatment with different products, and which to use is decided on your fibre. If you want a mirror-smooth finish, or you have curly or very frizzy hair, the route is nanoplastia, which works deeper and rebuilds while it smooths.

If instead you tell me the frizz bothers you but you want to keep the natural wave, I change shelf: we go for the anti-frizz, a lighter product, which takes away frizz and puffiness and doesn't straighten. Straight hair can't be undone the next day because you've changed your mind, and this answer saves me from the most serious mistake I can make.

If the answer is "it's worn out, it breaks, it frays", then the first thing isn't the smoothing treatment. It's the restructuring treatment, which is not a smoothing treatment: it doesn't take away volume or frizz, it works from the inside to strengthen and regenerate the fibre. If the hair is very damaged it comes first, and it's the step that makes the smoothing treatment possible; if it's in good condition it can come after. In neither case is it an alternative to the smoothing treatment: it's another thing, for another purpose.

And if you don't know yet, that's fine: that's an expected answer, and it means we decide together.

How long it is now

It seems the most innocent question and it's the one that changes three things at once.

The first is the quantity of product. The dose is calculated on the length, on the mass of hair and on the type of fibre, and it isn't a single figure: it's a range, because no table can know the hair you have in front of you. Porosity, elasticity, the points where the fibre gives way: those are looked at, not calculated. Preparing too little means getting halfway across the head and having to stop; preparing too much means throwing it away.

The second is time. A nanoplastia is five hours, afro nanoplastia six, a keratin smoothing treatment three and a half hours. On afro nanoplastia the six hours are really needed: it's the longest treatment we do, and it can't be shortened without losing quality. I'd rather tell you beforehand than watch you take the wrong half-day off work.

The third is the price. It varies with the length and the amount of hair, and it's set in the consultation. That's why on the website you'll never find a single figure passed off as your quote.

What the last chemical treatment was, and how long ago

This is the awkward question, and I ask it anyway. It applies even if you had it done elsewhere, even if a lot of time has passed, even if you didn't like it. It isn't an exam and I'm not looking for anyone's fault: I'm looking for what's still on your hair.

The "what" without the "when" is no use, and the "when" without the "what" even less. That's why they're a single question. A colour from six months ago and one from two weeks ago aren't the same information.

The consequences are concrete. If on the lengths there's still a smoothing treatment or a nanoplastia, the fibre is already taken up and absorbs less: the dose goes down. And the regrowth treatment is done only with smoothing treatments, never with the anti-frizz, otherwise you see the line between the regrowth and the lengths that are already straight. A chemical straightening or a perm are yet another story, and that's why in the questionnaire they're on a separate line.

If the answer is colour or toner, know that we don't do colour here: it doesn't exist on our price list. But knowing it's there is useful to me, for two reasons. The first: colour you can have done where you usually do, but after the treatment and a few days later, because a strong smoothing treatment can lighten coloured hair by two or three shades. The second: nanoplastia, being a very strong smoothing treatment, can lighten coloured hair by two or three shades. It's something you need to know before sitting down, not in front of the mirror at the end.

And if you don't remember what they put on you, say so. "Something, but I don't remember what" is an admissible and useful answer. It makes me work more cautiously. An answer made up to look good, no.

Bleaching, including the kind you can hardly see any more

I ask it separately from the rest, and there's a reason. Highlights, sun-kissed streaks, lightening, blonde: they count even if they're old and only a part is left at the very ends.

On bleached hair we advise against nanoplastia. In its place we suggest a more concentrated smoothing treatment combined with a restructuring one: different product, different result. And after bleaching how long to wait we assess in the consultation, looking at the elasticity of the fibre.

I write it plainly because it's the question that most often gets played down: it was only two strands, it was a long time ago. I understand why, nobody wants to be told to wait. But on this answer depends whether we proceed or not, and I'd rather be told something awkward now than discover it with the product already in hand.

How your hair lives the rest of the time

The last two questions are the most underestimated, and they're the ones that decide whether the result lasts.

I ask you what happens with humidity: in the rain, at the gym, at the sea. Outside the salon your hair behaves in a way only you know. If you tell me ten minutes outside is enough for it to puff up, I know the real goal isn't the photo when we've just finished, it's day four. If you tell me the wave comes back out, I know how much margin I have between taking away the frizz and taking away the movement. If you tell me your blow-dry lasts, then perhaps the problem you have in mind is a different one, and it's worth looking at it properly before buying a treatment you don't need.

Then I ask you what you use at home, and I want to know everything, even what you use now and then. Supermarket shampoo, professional products, mask or conditioner, oil or serum on the lengths, straighteners, hairdryer almost every day. It isn't an exam: it's there to know what your hair lives with between one visit and the next.

Here too the consequence is immediate. After a smoothing treatment you need a sulphate-free and salt-free shampoo — they're the two ingredients that shorten the life of the treatment the most — lukewarm water and not boiling hot, hairdryer and straighteners on a low temperature. If I already know you use the straighteners every morning, the routine I write for you starts from there. And if you don't use the right shampoo, the treatment will last less: not because it was done badly, but because we're washing it away.

The opposite is also true, and it's the nice part. A smoothing treatment holds for three to six months; on damaged hair it lasts less, on healthy hair it lasts longer. Repeated it lasts longer still, because the product builds up and the film gets thicker: you get to six or seven months. Nanoplastia sits between six and eight.

One last thing this question tells me in advance. If after a smoothing treatment your hair feels greasy, it isn't the wrong product: it's the pH of the hair that hasn't been rebalanced, and it's fixed with a restructuring treatment after the smoothing one. Whoever tells me that already in the consultation lets me budget for that step before we've even started.

The strand that doesn't respond, and the no that is part of the service

After the six answers the last word isn't mine. It's the hair's. In the consultation we look at how it reacts, and if the test strand doesn't respond well we don't proceed. We suggest a course of restructuring treatments first and see each other again afterwards.

That no isn't a closed door and it isn't a lost sale. It's the service. A badly done smoothing treatment can break the hair: that's why we always start from a diagnosis and choose the product on your fibre, not on a standard protocol. I'd rather lose an appointment today than spend months rebuilding something that could have been avoided.

For the same reason we redo the assessment on the day of the treatment too, before starting: between the consultation and the appointment weeks can pass, and in the meantime something may have happened to the hair.

One thing the online questionnaire doesn't ask you, on purpose, because we aren't a clinic and certain answers shouldn't be collected by a form. If you're breastfeeding, though, tell me: at that stage we advise against chemical treatments, smoothing treatments included. It isn't formal caution, it's the position of the house.

And then there's everything that none of the six questions covers: a bad experience that has stayed with you, a wedding in two months, something you were told years ago and have carried around since. Tell me about it. It doesn't fit in any box, but it changes the way I work.

The consultation is free, it takes fifteen minutes and you book it from the website. Bring me your hair as it is, not as you'd like it to be on the day of the appointment: that's where I start from.