Navigating a Salon as an Allergy Kid (Survival Guide)

If you ask anyone gluten free about dining out at a particular restaurant, chances are the first part of their recommendation will be if there was any illness/reaction to the food.  Sorry folks, but that issue actually rates as high as if the food was amazing.  Sad but true..

So why do I mention this...going to a salon can be just like a restaurant...Why?

In a salon you can be in contact with gluten from the first shampoo to the final hairspray.  There can be hidden gluten in many of the color and product lines.  My purpose is not to make anyone run from the salon, on the contrary I hope we all can be more informed and prepared.

The unfortunate truth however almost 99% of salons and hairstylists are not prepared to handle us allergy kids.  Sorry I don't have the ability to hop all over the country!

My Guide to Survival:

Consultation - Schedule a consultation with the stylist (although most stylists do not charge for a consultation, please tip them hint hint).  During the consultation, please explain you have allergies and therefore cannot be put at risk of a reaction.  Feel free to discuss color and product lines the salon carries.  Be prepared to take notes and look up the color and product lines yourself. 

Good news - a lot of product lines are now offering gluten free.  Bad news - a lot of hairstylists are not gluten free and do not know that the products they use are or are not safe.  Have you ever been asked if potatoes are gluten free?  Yep, people just do not understand!

Scheduling an Appointment - Please, please, please heed this advice.  Do not make an appointment for a Saturday morning at 10 am and expect a hairstylist (remember non-gluten free) to be able to accommodate the client (gluten free).  I would suggest kindly, make an appointment on a Tuesday or a Wednesday.  Make the appointment during the day and ask the nice phone person to make a note that you are the allergy client.  When there are more things to juggle, it's hard to concentrate on the actual job of coloring hair, or giving the blow dry we are trying flawlessly to finish.  Make sense?

Day of Appointment - Show up a few minutes early, ask the hairstylist if there were any complications with accommodating your allergies.  If they tell you up front the only color that they are able to offer you is Redken (most of Redken is NOT gluten free) then suggest only getting a haircut, or worse case only a blowout.  That way you can see the skills of the stylist and maybe score the best haircut of your life.  There is nothing wrong with having a hair cut hairstylist and a colorist. 


A few more words of advice, to all allergy clients... 

I have to address this...There is a major reason why we will not allow color or products to be brought into the salon.  No color from Whole Foods, no shampoos from your favorite organic line!  Why?  We as professional shampoo triers...(yep, it's a thing) we know how much over the counter products and color are not professional quality. 

We simply do not have the ability to stand behind the work we would be doing and we get very nervous using products that we have not tested.  I am a hair nerd, I test everything, I research, I double check.  Please do not tell me that a box is safe, please trust us, it's not!

Keep researching, researching, researching for yourself....