NEW YEAR, NEW YOU WITH FIBRE HAIRDRESSING

YOU MAY HAVE FAILED THE POST-CHRISTMAS DETOX, YOU MIGHT NEVER FULFIL YOUR RESOLUTIONS AND YOU PROBABLY WON’T BECOME A REGULAR AT THE GYM AFTER ALL, BUT ONE THING YOU MOST DEFINITELY CAN CHANGE FOR 2010 IS YOUR HAIR. IT DOESN’T BLOAT EVERY MONTH, IT DOESN’T PUT ON WEIGHT AND WHEN IT’S STYLED, IT WILL NEVER LET YOU DOWN. GIRLS. BOYS. IF IT’S AN IMAGE OVERHAUL YOU WANT THEN LOOK NO FURTHER.

The New Year is often a time of reflection. We start the year with great expectations, pinning hideous photos to the fridge as a means to motivate ourselves to avoid the chocolate cake inside and setting idealistic goals of extreme weight loss. But we all really know that by the time Christmas comes round again, you probably won’t look like Kate Moss and that picture will have just been thrown away – after all, who wants to eat chocolate cake feeling guilty?

But one image-defining element that we never think of changing is our hair. Looking back at photos, hair styles hold more significance than you think. It reflects good times in our lives, it reflects the bad. It reminds us of an era (the perm); it reminds us of a celebrity (only Posh can pull off ‘The Pob’) but there’s nothing more demoralising than a year of bad hair days.

Such a defining feature, it deserves precedence in our styling routine. So maybe 2010 should be the year that you use your hair to make a beautiful you?

And there’s no better place to start than Fibre Hairdressing, at Manchester’s Lowry Outlet Mall. The only outlet mall in the city, The Lowry Outlet Mall, set in the trendy Salford Quays, is a great place to start your New Year revamp. Housing famous brands such as Molton Brown and Marks & Spencer at 60 per cent off their high street price, The Lowry Outlet Mall, is a great weekend stop to avoid the crowded shops of The Arndale or Trafford Centre. But it’s its salon upstairs that holds all the cards at image reinvention.

Let me introduce you to Fibre Hairdressing. With a permanent eye on key trends and new celeb ‘dos’, Fibre Hairdressing is the place that’ll have you bouncing into 2010. It’s amazing what a new hair style can do.

My lovely stylist Yvonne explained to me that New Year is a busy time for the salon, with people wanting to refresh their image and rejuvenate their confidence. At this time of change, the way a style frames your face or a colour warms your skin could all have positive effects on a customer’s confidence and personality.

And unsurprisingly the most popular New Year requests from clients are…to look like celebs. Boys choose Beckham. Girls choose Cheryl. And I was no different. With a picture of our favourite Geordie in my hand I was asking Yvonne for the caramel highlights and tousled bob that she’s heard many times before – and Cheryl only changed her image on X Factor’s penultimate show in December. That’s how influential celebrity styles are on us mere mortals and how important it is for stylists like Yvonne to know exactly how to replicate our fave dos before Cheryl’s stylists finish slicing away her brunette locks.

Lucky for me, this is what Fibre Hairdressing is so good at – knowing what celebrity is going to affect hair trends and knowing how to replicate this for their style-hungry customers. Over the years there have been a multitude of famous cuts from Jennifer Anniston’s ‘Rachel Do’ in the 1990s, every one of Victoria Beckhams crops, chops and bobs to Mrs Cole herself. Changes in celeb cuts directly affect popular styles, and sensitive to customers’ demands, Fibre Hairdressing is the first place to find out how to create quiffs Rihanna would be proud of.

Tellingly, when Posh got rid of her extensions after the 2006 World Cup, requests for extensions took a sudden drop. And when Jennifer Aniston wore braids in her hair to the 2009 Oscars, Fibre Hairdressing were the first to realise this was a trend that would dominate our summer hair.

And if it’s a simple style – like JA’s braids – that you want then Fibre Hairdressing has engineered its own innovative Style Bar. This drop-in service allows girls to choose from a menu of suggested dos for a special occasion. No shampooing, blowdrying or cutting involved, this simple service can give you a ‘Chick Flick’, ‘Side Pony’ or ‘Party Curls’ in as little as 15 minutes, perfect for after-work dinners long after the party season comes to an end. Wanting to look like Angelina Jolie has never been easier.

Hair cuts, colours and styles have always had a huge influence on how we look and subsequently how we feel about ourselves. That’s why Fibre Hairdressing doesn’t just cut hair, but also offers pampering hair ‘Treatments’. These half hour sessions involve a shiatsu head massage, hand massage, consultation to choose the right products to revive your hair, conditioning treatment, blowdry and a take-home pack with Paul Mitchell products inside. The packs, with names such as ‘Thirst Quencher’ and ‘Bling on Blonde’, are specific to your hair needs, thickening, conditioning and hydrating your locks wherever necessary.

Whatever you choose to get done, you’re bound to have a great ‘feel-good’ time and come out looking like a million dollars (or like you have a million dollars). Using the best products, continual training, and following celebrity trends makes Fibre Hairdressing one of the best salons in this city – it’s not hard to see why it already has a few real celeb clients of its own.

But for me? I came in looking like The Adams Family’s Cousin Itt and came out like a member of Girls Aloud. Cheryl Cole, I might not be, but for today, and 2010, I, at least, have her hair.

Fibre Hairdressing
Lowry Outlet Mall
Salford Quays
M50 3AH
0161 877 4797

Open seven days a weeek

lowryoutletmall.com

Pampering Treatment At a snip from £12.50, this treatment includes shiatsu massage, hand massage, conditioning, consultation and treatment take-home kit.

Style Bar £10 per 15 minute appointment to create a dry-style of your dreams for that night out or special occasion.

Words Natasha Al-Atassi