Hair care · Knowledge centre
Why professional hair diagnosis matters
Most guests arrive with the name of a treatment already decided. A diagnosis is what happens instead: the hair is looked at, handled, tested wet, and its history taken — and only after all of that does anything get named. This is what that examination consists of, and why the order is not negotiable.
What a diagnosis actually is
A diagnosis is a reading of one particular head of hair, taken in a fixed order, by someone who has to live with being wrong about it.
It has four parts and they always happen in the same sequence. The hair is looked at before it is touched. It is then handled — dry and wet, because wet hair tells you things dry hair conceals entirely. Its history is taken: what has been put on it in a salon, what is put on it at home, and what has been happening to the person it grows from. And where anything is coating it, that is washed off before a single conclusion is drawn.
Only at the end of that does a treatment get a name. Naming one earlier is the most common mistake in this trade — it is what an inexperienced stylist does, and it is why so many people have paid for something that was never going to work on their hair. A treatment proposed before the reading is finished is a guess wearing a price tag.
None of this takes long. It is a few minutes of looking and handling, a handful of questions, and occasionally a wash before anything is decided. What it buys is the difference between a result you keep and a result that disappoints you three weeks later.
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Always the same order
Looked at, handled, history taken, build-up removed — then, and only then, a name.
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Dry hair hides things
Several of the most important findings only appear once a strand is wet.
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The treatment is named last
Naming one first is the classic beginner error, and the usual root of a bad result.
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Minutes, not appointments
A few minutes of proper reading prevents months of paying for the wrong thing.
Why it comes before the treatment, not after
Because the treatment is the last decision in the chain, and every decision above it changes what the right answer is.
Consider what a single answer can do. Whether bleach or henna has ever touched the hair changes what may be used on it more than anything visible on inspection — and that is one question, asked in ten seconds, that can rule out an entire family of services. Whether hair is falling from the root or snapping along its length points at two completely different problems with two completely different solutions. Whether a scalp is flaking because it is dry or because of dandruff decides whether oil will help it or make it considerably worse. Get any of those the wrong way round and the treatment that follows is not merely useless; it is aimed at something that is not happening.
There is also the matter of what the hair is sitting under. Product and mineral build-up stops treatments working at all, because nothing can reach the shaft through it — so a treatment sold onto coated hair fails for a reason that has nothing to do with the treatment. This is why hair is sometimes washed and read again, and occasionally why a guest is asked to come back in a few weeks rather than being booked on the spot.
And sometimes the reading says the honest answer is nothing. Hair that is basically healthy, with a habit behind the complaint — a straightener run too hot, a rubber band pulled too tight, the wrong shampoo, hard water — does not need a treatment. It needs the habit changed, and saying so costs a booking. That answer is given here anyway, because the alternative is selling somebody a service that their own routine will undo before the month is out. The rule underneath it is short enough to say aloud: tell people the difficult thing at the start. That day's sale goes, and the guest stays for years.
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One answer can rule out a whole family
Bleach or henna in the history changes what is possible more than anything visible does.
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Confused problems get opposite treatments
Falling against breaking, dandruff against dry scalp — oil helps one and worsens the other.
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Coated hair defeats any treatment
Nothing reaches the shaft through build-up, so the service fails for reasons of its own.
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Sometimes the answer is no treatment
Healthy hair with a habit behind the complaint needs the habit changed, not a service.
Part one · Looking
What is read before the hair is touched
A surprising amount is settled by looking, provided you know what you are looking at and in which order.
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Type, length, damage, and whether chemicals have been here
The first pass establishes four things at once: what type of hair it is, how long it is, whether it is damaged, and whether it has had chemical work done to it. That last one is a read rather than a question — chemically treated hair looks different, and forming that impression before the history is taken means the history can be checked against it rather than simply believed.
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Damage that needs no touching at all
Frizz and split ends are visible from across the chair, and together they are the plainest signal that the hair needs professional attention rather than a better conditioner. Hair that looks rough and carries heavy visible damage is telling you the same thing louder. Healthy hair announces itself just as clearly — the giveaway is thickness.
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The ends are read first
Attention starts at the ends, because that is where damage overwhelmingly sits. They are the oldest hair on the head and have survived everything the last few years put them through, so they carry the record. Roots and mid-lengths are read afterwards, against what the ends have already shown.
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The scalp, in sections, before the lengths
The hair is parted into sections and the skin underneath is examined first. A scalp that is red, flaking or congested will keep producing weak hair no matter what is put on the lengths, so a finding there outranks anything found further down. Whether the scalp or the lengths get more attention depends on what has been asked for; both are always looked at.
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Which is why the hair has to come down
None of this is possible through a bun, and a guest who arrives with one is asked to take it out. Loose hair is the easiest of all to read. There is no special lamp involved either — the signs that matter are legible in ordinary light, and anyone claiming otherwise is performing rather than examining.
The limit of looking: it establishes what kind of problem this is. It cannot tell you how much strength is left in the fibre.
Part two · Handling and testing
What the hands find, and the tests that settle it
This is where a diagnosis is actually made, and it is why a photograph sent over a message can only ever get you a provisional answer.
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Thickness, roughness, and how much has to come off
The first three things the hand registers are how thick the hair is, how rough it has become, and how much of the length is beyond saving and needs cutting. Hair in good condition feels unmistakable: strong, thick, densely packed and shiny. That is the reference point everything else is measured against.
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Dry, bleached, heat-damaged and over-processed are four different feels
Dry hair feels rough and behaves unmanageably, and that is all it is. Bleach and heat are not read the same way, because they are not the same damage. Bleached hair turns soft and gummy the moment it is wet, almost dissolving between the fingers — the single most unmistakable finding in the whole examination. Heat leaves something else entirely: on curly or wavy hair, sections that have gone permanently straight and limp, usually at the crown and through the ends, with a curl that does not come back. Over-processed hair combines heavy damage with frizz and roughness together. Split ends and merely dry ends both feel rough, which is exactly why the ends are looked at as well as felt.
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The stretch test, on one wet strand
A single wet strand is taken and stretched gently. Healthy hair gives a little and springs back. Damaged hair either breaks immediately or stretches out and stays there, refusing to return. That second behaviour is the one that closes doors: hair that does not come back will not survive a treatment that puts heat through it, and it is refused rather than attempted. Where the answer is going to disappoint, the test is done in front of the guest rather than described afterwards — a strand of your own hair failing to return settles an argument that no amount of explaining will.
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Moisture loss and protein loss feel opposite
Hair short of moisture feels like straw, absorbs water instantly, dries far too fast, and snaps outright when pulled rather than stretching. Hair short of protein does the reverse: soft and gummy when wet, like chewing gum, stretching further and further without ever coming back, and limp with no body once it is dry. They are told apart deliberately, because the wrong one applied makes the problem worse.
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Porosity, decided with a spray of water
A little water is sprayed onto the hair. If it vanishes at once and the hair dries very quickly, the shaft is porous — which means it will take colour rapidly and let it go just as rapidly. That single behaviour explains why two people leave with the same shade and only one of them still has it a month later. It matters again the moment anything chemical is planned: a very open shaft takes a relaxing agent faster than its appearance suggests, so it over-processes while a resistant section is still waiting, and it surrenders the result as quickly as it accepted it.
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Shedding and breakage, told apart by the bulb
A fallen hair is picked up and inspected. A small white bulb on the end means it came away from the root, which is ordinary shedding. Short broken pieces of uneven lengths with no bulb on them mean the hair is snapping along its length. These are two different problems with two different answers, and they are the pair most often confused with each other.
The limit of the tests: they describe the fibre you have today. They cannot tell you how it got that way — which is what the history is for.
Part three · Two similar heads
Why hair that looks the same gets different answers
This is the question guests ask most often, usually about a friend who had a treatment they were declined for.
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Texture, and what you actually want from it
Two guests can present hair that looks near enough identical and leave with entirely different plans. The two variables are the texture of the hair itself and what each of them expects the result to do. Hair of one texture tolerates and holds what hair of another will not, and a plan built for somebody who wants their curl kept is not the plan for somebody who wants it gone.
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Problems arrive in groups, not singly
Certain findings almost always travel together. Bleach, heat and hard water is the usual trio — where one is present the other two are generally waiting. An oily scalp above dry ends is the next most common pairing, and it is handled as two problems on one head rather than as a single condition to be treated in one go. A diagnosis that stops at the first finding will miss the two behind it.
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The two pairs that get mistaken for each other
Falling and breaking is the first, and the answers have nothing in common. Dandruff and an ordinary dry scalp is the second, and this one is worse: oil improves the dry scalp and actively aggravates the dandruff. A guest treating the wrong one of those at home is not making slow progress — they are making it worse every week.
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And sometimes three small things are compounding
The hardest reading we have had to make was hair that looked completely fine but had been breaking for months. It turned out to be three unremarkable things stacking up: protein masks used far too often, hard water after a move to a new house, and a tight bun every night. No one of those would have done it. Together they did. That is why the questions keep going after the first plausible explanation appears.
The limit of comparison: another person's result on similar-looking hair is not evidence about yours, and it is not treated as any.
Part four · What has already been done
Why previous chemical work changes everything
The hair remembers what has been put on it, and that record decides what may safely be put on it next.
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The single question that changes the most
Has bleach or henna ever been on this hair. Of everything a guest can tell us, that one answer most changes what can and cannot be done next — and it is asked directly, because neither is reliably visible years later and neither behaves like ordinary colour.
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What bleach leaves, and how it announces itself
Wet the hair and heavily bleached lengths turn gummy, almost dissolving between the fingers. It is the most unmistakable finding in the whole examination and the hardest damage there is to put right. Heavily bleached hair also needs the most aftercare of anything we work on — an ongoing commitment rather than a single appointment — and that is said before somebody goes blonde, not afterwards.
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Colour writes its own record down the length
Previous colour is read off the hair directly: bands of different shades along the length, ends noticeably darker and duller than the roots, and a tone that walked out within a few weeks of being applied. Those three together describe how the shaft is currently taking colour, which is a more useful fact than the name of whatever was last used.
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Previous salon systems weigh heaviest
Of all prior salon work, an earlier smoothing or repair system changes the reading most. It is asked about specifically rather than left to a general question about treatments, because a guest often does not think of it as chemical work at all.
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Three findings that mean waiting
Colour or bleach done very recently, a scalp that is broken or infected, and any henna in the history that has to be strand-tested first — each of these moves the appointment rather than the standard. A strand test on your own hair is not a formality in the henna case; it is the only way to find out what will happen before it happens to your whole head.
The limit of a stated history: guests forget, and hair does not. Where the two disagree at the basin, the hair is believed and the plan changes on the spot.
Part five · What happens at home
Why the bathroom shelf is part of the diagnosis
Salon work occupies a few hours a year. Everything else that reaches the hair happens without us, which is why it is asked about in detail.
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What is actually being used
The shampoo is asked about by name and checked for two things: that it is free of sulphates and free of parabens. Alongside it, a hair mask free of parabens and a good serum are what a sound home routine is built from. It is the single most useful thing to know about what happens between appointments.
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How often it is washed, which cuts both ways
Washing too seldom leaves dirt sitting on the scalp and weakens the root. Washing too often thins the hair. Both are real, which is why the answer is never simply more or less — it is a number arrived at for your scalp and your routine.
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Oil, and what it is actually for
Oil is asked about, and it is asked about as a scalp question. Its job is nourishing the skin the hair grows from. Treated as a repair for damaged lengths it is being asked to do something else entirely.
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Tools, sun and swimming
Straighteners and curling tools are asked about specifically, because they explain damage that otherwise looks unaccountable. Sun exposure is always asked about — it fades colour and dries the ends, so a guest riding a scooty daily or swimming regularly is losing salon work quietly, week by week. Pool water is its own answer: the chlorine and bleach in it damage hair directly.
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Health, medicines and the point we hand over
Stress, illness and medicines are among the first things asked. Where hair is falling because of a thyroid problem, low iron, a recent fever or a delivery, no salon treatment will address it — that belongs with a doctor, and it is handed over rather than met with a course of appointments.
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When home care is the entire answer
Where the hair is fundamentally healthy and the problem is a habit — a straightener run far too hot, tight rubber bands, the wrong shampoo, hard water — the recommendation is the habit, and nothing is booked. No treatment survives those things for long anyway.
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And this is what lasts longest of anything
Of every result achievable here, the one that lasts longest is not a treatment at all — it is fixing the cause. Fitting a water filter and bringing the heat down outlive anything that can be applied in a chair, by a wide margin. It is an unglamorous answer and it is the true one, which is why it is given before the treatments are discussed rather than after.
The limit of home care: it decides how long salon work lasts, and it cannot rebuild a fibre that has already been broken.
Part six · Build-up
Why the hair is sometimes washed before anything is decided
This is the least glamorous part of the reading and, on a certain kind of head, the part that changes the most.
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What build-up feels like
Hair carrying build-up feels waxy and coated, and it hangs flat and heavier than it should. Its real consequence is not cosmetic: treatments stop working, because nothing can get through the coating to the hair inside. That is worth understanding before paying for one.
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Hard water, which produces a contradiction
Hard water leaves hair heavy and dry at the same time, stops shampoo lathering properly, and keeps the hair dull whatever is applied to it. One wash with a proper cleansing shampoo settles it — the difference is immediately visible, and that visibility is the diagnosis.
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Wash it off, then look again
Where a coating is present, the honest instruction is to remove it and read the hair afterwards, so what is being judged is the hair rather than what is sitting on it. That is also one of the two reasons a guest is asked to come back in a few weeks — the other is to see how hair is responding after a home routine has been corrected.
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The largest change we see, and it is a wash
Hard water and build-up on hair that is healthy underneath produces the single biggest transformation in this salon. One proper cleansing wash, and guests genuinely do not recognise their own hair. It is worth saying plainly, because it is the cheapest thing on this page and it is the answer more often than anybody expects.
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And then the order of work is set
With the reading complete, the sequence follows from it: clean the hair properly and address the real cause of the damage first; rebuild it over a few sessions; and only after that come the smoothing and shine treatments people arrive asking for by name. That order is the whole point of doing the diagnosis first.
The limit of cleansing: it reveals the hair's true condition and sometimes improves it dramatically. What it reveals may still be damage.
Where a diagnosis goes wrong
These are the errors that produce a wrong answer, and most of them are errors of sequence rather than of knowledge.
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Judging hair only in its dry state.
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Check it wet as well. Elasticity, sponginess and gumminess are invisible until a strand is wet.
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Reading the lengths and never looking at the scalp.
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Part the hair and read the scalp first. A congested scalp keeps producing weak hair whatever goes on below.
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Naming a treatment before the consultation has finished.
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Take the whole history first. A name offered early is a guess, and it is the classic mistake of an inexperienced stylist.
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Performing whatever the guest asked for, without testing a wet strand.
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Test first. What the hair can take decides the treatment, not the name the guest arrived with.
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Suggesting a treatment from the price list rather than from the hair.
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Read the condition and choose from that. Cost is not one of the findings a diagnosis produces.
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Carrying one formula and one temperature across every head.
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Decide both from the reading. Fine hair at a crown cannot take what coarse hair at a nape needs, and one setting for everybody is how hair gets burnt.
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Assessing — or treating — hair that is still coated.
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Wash the build-up off and look again. Nothing penetrates it, so both the reading and the treatment are wasted.
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Treating breakage as though it were hair fall.
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Look for the white bulb. Root shedding and mid-length snapping are different problems with different answers.
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Panicking at the amount of hair in the drain.
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Fifty to a hundred hairs a day is ordinary, and washing twice a week means seeing three days of it at once.
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Answering every problem with another protein mask.
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Establish whether the loss is protein or moisture first. Over-used protein is itself a cause of breakage.
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Washing very rarely in the belief it protects the hair.
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Find the frequency your scalp needs. Too seldom leaves dirt and weakens the root; too often thins the hair.
Questions about diagnosis
The service pages describe the treatments. These are about the examination that decides between them.
Why can't you just tell me which treatment I need?
Because the name of the treatment is the last decision, not the first. It depends on what the ends and the scalp show, how the fibre behaves when a wet strand is stretched, whether bleach or henna is in the history, what shampoo is being used at home, and whether anything is coating the hair. Any of those can change the answer completely. Naming a treatment before that is finished is the commonest mistake in this trade, and it is why so many people have paid for something that was never going to work on their hair.
I lose a lot of hair when I wash it. Is that normal?
Usually, yes. Fifty to a hundred hairs a day is ordinary, and most of the alarm comes from arithmetic rather than from hair loss — somebody washing twice a week is seeing three days of shedding at once. What is worth checking is whether it is shedding at all. Pick up a fallen hair and look at the end: a small white bulb means it came away from the root, which is normal. Short broken pieces of uneven length with no bulb mean the hair is snapping, and that is a different problem with a different answer.
Does it matter that I had henna years ago?
Yes, and it is one of the few answers that can change the plan on its own. Whether bleach or henna has ever been on the hair alters what may be used on it more than anything visible on inspection, and neither is reliably identifiable years later just by looking. Where henna is in the history, a strand test is done on your own hair before anything is committed to the whole head. It is the only way to find out what will happen before it has happened.
Why do I need to wash my hair before you can tell me anything?
Because product and mineral build-up makes hair feel waxy and coated, weighs it flat, and stops anything reaching the shaft underneath — which means both the reading and any treatment are working on the coating rather than on your hair. Cleansing it off is what makes the assessment honest. It is also, on hair that is sound underneath, the single biggest change we see: one proper cleansing wash on hard-water hair, and guests frequently do not recognise it.
My friend had this treatment on similar hair. Why not me?
Because two heads that look alike can be genuinely different, and the reading is what finds the difference. Texture varies, what each of you wants from the result varies, and the findings tend to arrive in groups — bleach, heat and hard water usually turn up together, so one of you may be carrying three things and the other one. There is also a straightforward stopping point: if a wet strand is stretched and does not come back, the hair will not tolerate the heat, and that treatment is refused. Losing the booking is preferred to breaking somebody's hair.
Do you ask before touching my hair and scalp?
Yes — both, and as two separate questions. Your hair is not handled until you have said it is all right, and the scalp is asked about again rather than treated as part of the first answer, because reading it means parting the hair into sections and looking at the skin underneath. Neither is assumed just because a consultation has started. Whether you are comfortable is asked throughout as well, and it is the one question never skipped here — nobody enjoys a service they were not comfortable during.
What should I actually be using at home?
A shampoo free of sulphates and free of parabens, a hair mask free of parabens, and a good serum. That is the shelf a sound routine is built on, and the shampoo is the item worth checking most carefully, because it is the one used most often. Frequency matters as much as the product: washing too seldom leaves dirt on the scalp and weakens the root, washing too often thins the hair, and the right number is arrived at for your scalp rather than borrowed from somebody else's.
Have the hair read before you choose
Describe what your hair is doing, what has been done to it, and what you use at home. You will get an honest reading — including the answer that nothing needs booking, which is a common one.