Salons we love: GA Hair Salon

With the desire for natural beauty products skyrocketing over the last few years, the GA Salons in Notting Hill, Wimbledon and London Bridge are right on the pulse with their aim of putting an end to synthetic chemical colouring and treatments.

Sarah visited Gennaro dell’Aquila’s GA salon in Notting Hill to find out more:

‘The small unassuming entrance on the main road nearly opposite the entrance to Kensington Gardens leads into what’s effectively a herbal pharmacy fused with a first class hair salon. Neapolitan-born Gennaro and his specially trained team are passionate about ‘creating beauty through nature’. So the dyes and treatments are 100% based on herbs and fresh natural ingredients. The products do not contain synthetic chemicals, parabens, suspected carcinogens, synthetic fragrances or nanoparticles.

‘It’s a charming, friendly and very pretty environment. Young stylist Luca bounded up to inspect my hair and scalp carefully before planning the blend he would apply. He identified hydration as the top concern, plus body and shine. What I wasn't prepared for was the gorgeous bowl of coloured powders he showed me before he added water to mix into a mud-like consistency - for all the world like a Renaissance artist mixing up paints.

‘Luca explained that, from a choice of 91 herbs, he had chosen Althaea officinalis, also known as the marshmallow plant, for its ability to absorb water and rehydrate hair. The leaves of the desert plant Ziziphus spina christi were powdered and used to cleanse hair before shampoo. Sometimes touted as a colourless alternative to henna, it adds shine and body as well as leaving a moisture-retentive film. Luca told me that it also contains nutrients that are good for hair growth. He finished off his herbal cocktail with damask rose, for more shine and body, and hibiscus to make my highlights luminous.

‘The painstaking process of applying the mix involved stroking and smoothing it on to tresses of my long thick hair then winding them into what he called a “vertical chignon”, which made me look a bit of a Cleopatra-clone. Half an hour under light and it was time for washing and the sort of wonderful head massage that leaves me as relaxed as a rag doll.

‘Then the question of how I would like it dried… Luca suggested that I might possibly feel like trying their signature approach designed to reflect the hair’s natural movement – but, of course, he added sweetly, if I didn't like it at the end he would redo it all.

’Of course, I agreed – which signalled a positive symphony of blow-drying and twirling my now super-glossy, super-bouncy tresses round and round as if I was about to audition as a Pre-Raphaelite model. When it was shaken out with my head upside down, it looked gorgeous.

‘The condition was truly wonderful, the body fulsome, and the shine enough to bedazzle onlookers. I loved Luca’s styling: although the waves really only lasted that day and evening – but definitely worth it for a special event. But my hair went on looking fab for another three or four days, the usual time before I would wash it again.

‘I have a mane of coloured hair, which dries out easily, and I would certainly book in for a treatment every few months as it’s definitely improved the condition, particularly in terms of hydration, body and gloss. I specially notice that I am almost frizz-free even in damp weather, which is a small miracle.

‘Gennaro is evangelical about his “pioneering vision” of putting an end to synthetic chemical colouring, instead using herbs and natural ingredients that include henna, walnut, turmeric, chamomile, hibiscus, rhubarb and indigo. The salons offer a range of colour services, using ingredients that have been extensively researched in a laboratory at the Sapienza University of Rome.

‘I gather that there are, understandably, limitations on the range of possibilities but it’s definitely an option to explore for all those many people who prefer natural cosmetics and especially for anyone recovering from illness, in pregnancy and breast-feeding, going through chemotherapy or the increasing number who have sensitivity reactions to conventional hair dyes.’