Advice: At the Hair Salon

I have had the most incredibly busy week here on France side- while I had my mid-terms in my CIEF classes (worth 50% of the grade), Baby-Speaking work to do and my 8 students, I barely had time to breathe, eat or rest.  Yesterday afternoon marked the end of the week and by 7pm I was ready to relax over a lovely dinner at Chabert et Fils. 

If you have ever been to any of the Chabert restaurants- this is the original.  As a fair warning the food is incredily heavy in quantity and fat... aka by the end of the night we all had horrible stomach aches... but the tartare of Salmon, the 'Lyonnais quenelle' and the finish of the 'Baba au Rhum' was a delight and definitely a nice way to top a long week.


I've been thinking seriously lately about getting my hair cut and I wanted to give a run down on some lingo for those, like myself, afraid to hop into a French hair salon.


First off, the basics:
-Une/un coiffeur: Hair stylist
-Salon ou chez le coiffure:  Hair salon


There are many great salons located in Lyon, price doesn't necessarily mean quality or rapport of happy clients... so the best thing to do is to surf a bit.  From my findings here's some good salons in Lyon Centre:

• Apartment 16:  16 rue des Archers, more expensive salon ($$$), gets an average of 4/5 stars on Yelp.
•  Orlando Coiffure/Barbier:  4 quai Fulchiron, less expensive than Apartment 16, and uses scissors to cut hair contrary to the typical use of a razor.
• Lounge Cut:  16 pl. du Mal Lyautey,  the thing I remarked about the rating was first off: 10% reduction with 'montrer d'un Petit Paumé'.  10% off of a hair cut is a pretty good deal... second it's about 39 bucks for a normal shampoo+cut+massage+style and only 50 bucks for a shampoo+cut+massage+oil treatment+style... not too shabby!

Now, time for some vocabulary first some basic terms to keep your eye open for:

Haircut: une coupe
Shampoo: le shampooing
Coloring: les couleurs
highlights: les mèches ou le bayalage (Weaving)
Set or styling: la mise en pli
Perm: la permanente
Haircare and treatments: les soins et traitements
A blow-dry or straightening: le brushing ou le lisse

Next, some more specific terminology you might here while in the chair:

your hair: vos cheveux (always masculine, plural)

Your type of hair:

fine: fins
thick: épais
oily: gras
dry: secs
mixed: mixtes
normal: normaux
curly: bouclés
frizzy: frisés
smooth: lisses
damaged: abîmés
dyed: colorés
permed: permanentés
dandruff: pellicules
cowlick: un épi

How you would like it, or you wear it: 
short or long: la coupe courte ou longue

layered: en dégradé crew cut: coupe en brosse 

blunt cut: au carré 

clean cut/well-defined: bien dégagée

asymmetrical: asymétrique
square tapered: style carré effilélayered on top: dégradé sur le dessus
short, layered look: une coupe courte tout en dégradéshort 'windblown' layered look: dégradé déstructuré
'just out of bed' look: indiscipliné

Some questions or comments to ask or tell the hair stylist:

• I cut this out of a magazine. Do you think it would suit me? J’ai découpé ça dans un magazine. Vous pensez que ça m’irait ?

• I’ve come to have the color touched up. Je viens pour me refaire ma couleur.

• I just want the roots redone. Je veux seulement une coloration des racines.

• I haven’t made up my mind about the color – a permanent or semi-permanent color. J’hésite pour la couleur – une couleur permanente ou une simple coloration.

• Can you give me highlights? Vous pouvez me faire des mèches?

• Is that possible with my hair type?  C’est possible avec mon type de cheveux ?

• Would you prefer it to dry naturally or shall I blow-dry it? Préférez-vous un séchage naturel ou un brushing ? 

• It’s too puffed up. Could you flatten it down a bit?  C’est trop gonflé, vous pouvez aplatir un peu ?

Just remember when getting your hair styled the following rules, and it won't end in tears, chopped up hair or you regretting ever moving to France.

1. Study the vocabulary before going, be prepared to use the words that you need or even print them up beforehand.
2. Bring several photos from magazines or internet from different angles to express even clearer.
3. Be patient and don't be afraid to say, 'je n'ai pas compris'.

Over-all, bonne chance!

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