I’ve just had one the best hair salon experiences to date in Holland – which is saying a lot considering my last few haircolouring appointments ended with me nearly in tears. This time around, I tried a salon using products from Scruples – a family-owned American company that has launched in NL.
The company is based on creating products to help hairdressers to do their jobs more efficiently with better solutions, while delivering top quality results to the client. Win-win!
I was nervous to make myself the guinea pig, but apprehensively went ‘under the knife foil’ on Saturday for an adventure in hair dyeing. As you see in the photos, I have dirty blond hair with platinum blond highlights (something I’ve been getting regularly since I was 16 years old). My hair is generally dry and damaged from bleach, sun and chlorine exposure.
My prescription included a mix of lowlights and highlight, plus Illusionist Brilliant Crème Highlights (which softens the contrast between natural and highlighted hair when roots start to grow). Ingredients in the dye like acai berry, acacia flower extract and avocado oil have left my hair feeling silky and smooth. To boot, all Scruples’ products contain Protective Barrier Complex (PBX) – a special formula that replenishes moisture and protein to strengthen hair.
Much to my surprise, the Scruples formulas have low ammonia and don’t include bleach. This means the dye is less drying for hair (and safer for my brain cells?) It’s so gentle there’s no time limit on how long the foils can sit in my hair; the hairdresser doesn’t need to rush to apply the foils, since my hair won’t break off from being over-bleached.
The result? I love my re-touched roots, and overall my hair is much softer and healthier-feeling than before. The colour looks natural and blends amazingly with the rest of my hair. I’m one happy camper. Keen to try Scruples? Here are five salons that sell their products and services:
Hair Generation, Rotterdam Hillegersberg
Haar Wens, Ridderkerk
Singel Haar, Amsterdam
Scruples by Emma, Assen
Maike’s hairconcept, ‘s Hertogenbosh
Find more info in here www.scrupleshaircare.com.
Text: Lydia Parafianowicz