Pretty for pennies: Hair Edition

If you're reading this, you probably already know that that's me. What you don't know is that's my hair after visiting the Juut Salon in Uptown. 

I'm generally a pretty low-maintenance girl. I usually go to Great Clips to get my hair cut. Never again I tell you. Just like when I had my foundation brush epiphany, I now know why some people spend upwards of $100 on a haircut. It's the salon experience! 

After checking in for my appointment, I was served a cup of peace coffee, sat in a very nicely decorated reception area and read the latest issue of Nylon Magazine.  My stylist came to greet me (exactly at my appointment time!) and what followed was close to 2 hours of bliss. 

It started with a "consultation", which is basically the customer telling the stylist what they want, followed by a pressure point aromatherapy massage (10 minutes later, I was putty).

 After that it was time for a little suds. Juut uses hair washing beds, which means that instead of sitting in a chair and having them wash your hair while your neck is tilted back awkwardly, you lie on an angled cot. Much more comfortable. Then the cut. Since the Uptown salon is a training studio most of the stylists are new (to Juut) and therefore get guidance and consults by master stylists. Which basically means that stylists who charge $90-$120 per haircut are monitoring your cut every step of the way. 

Lastly, a blow out and style. My stylist used a roundbrush to dry and curl my hair. I can barely brush my hair with a roundbrush, and it takes about an hour for me to make my hair look like that with a curling iron (I have a lot of hair). Obviously, I was impressed. And the grand total? $30 including tip. Well worth it, I'd say. 

If you're looking for ways to keep a little more green in your wallet, I'd say going to a training salon is an excellent option. I spent about $5-7 more than what I would spend at a Great Clips or Supercuts, and got a much better cut and experience. But, if you go to a professional salon (where the average haircut is about $45) you could save about $130 over the course of a year! The only drawback is that you're not guaranteed to get the same stylist every time, but unless you have extremely unmanageable hair this probably won't pose a huge problem for you. Needless to say, I'll definitely be returning the next time I need a trim!

You're going where?

I work in the healthcare field and as a result I rarely get entire weekends off of work. A couple of weekends ago I ended up having Saturday AND Sunday off so the boy, his brother, and I decided that a trip was in order. We contemplated Chicago, but 12 hours round trip would give us little time to enjoy the city. Instead we decided on Des Moines, Iowa. Upon telling almost anyone where we were headed they promptly asked "You're going where? What's in Des Moines?" As it happens, it's quite a lovely midwestern city.

Every Saturday, they have an absolutely wonderful farmer's market. More than four blocks long, and 2 blocks wide, they have everything from fresh picked produce to hand made hats. I sipped on the most delicious mint iced tea as we browsed. There were plenty of things I would have purchased, but ended up walking away with only a bottle of wine from these guys. The wine has since been consumed and the bottle will make a splendid vase.
The rest of the weekend was spent casually strolling the sweet little shops, eating some fantastic food (if you find yourself in Des Moines, don't miss Dos Rios or Fong's crab rangoon pizza) swimming. It ended up being a great choice for such a short trip; with just enough to do to keep ourselves occupied and no feeling like we had to be running around every minute of those two days to fit it all in.