The blurb:
MEMORY FORME® is the latest technological advance to re-boot your style and sleekness, every time you wash your hair. Helping to eliminate frizz and curl, their Keratin infusion treatments offer immediate results to restore and restructure hair, making it more manageable, easier to style and noticeably softer, smoother, shinier and sleeker.
Whilst Richard Ward offer several variants of the Memory Forme treatment, all with different pros and cons for different hair types and results, I opted for the longest lasting, strongest non-organic treatment.
The salon’s reputation precedes it, and whilst I don’t have space here to list its prohibitively long list of celebrity clientele, one gets the impression that for the hundreds of high-profile clients willing to be listed on their site, they probably have at least as many that they’re too professional and discreet to mention. But, if I must name-drop one, let’s go with hair icon extraordinaire, HRH Kate Middleton.
The Process:
Generally I love keratin treatments. In the past I’ve been torn. Whilst the result on the remaining* hair (*more on this later) is often amazing, there’s a huge propensity for my hair to be destroyed in the process.
I have inherently crazy-weak hair and whilst this probably wouldn’t be a concern for most clients, my hair is difficult. The normal protocol is to begin by double or triple–washing with a cleansing shampoo in order to allow the keratin product to properly penetrate the shaft. But this part of the procedure can totally screw my hair.
And however amicable, most stylists, from the most celebrated to the most junior, fail to heed my warning/ take my advice. At best, they brush it off as a client that doesn’t know what she’s talking about, and at worst, take it as an affront to their training and experience. Luckily my stylist Lou was not afflicted with such arrogance. Whilst extremely knowledgeable, she willingly listened to my hard-earned experience of my own hair, without making me feel stupid or belittled.
The only civilised way to get a comb through my hair after triple-washing without conditioner is to rough dry it with a hairdryer first, which may be unorthodox, but takes it from a knotted mess, to a malleable, albeit dried-out mass of co-operative wire. And Lou understood and appreciated my difficult, fragile hair type implicitly. At inferior salons, this part of the process can cause so much breakage I sometimes question whether the amazing end result on the hair remaining is even worth it.
I must also point out, that on top of amazing stylists, the beautiful Richard Ward salon has the only totally horizontal ‘flat-bed’ washstands I’ve ever seen. Neck-ache is a thing of the past in this Duke of York Square emporium – think BA Business reclining beds for your wash/rinse/process
The results:
Where I’m all too familiar with being made to feel demanding just to protect my super-fragile hair, Lou actually welcomed my input not to rub it with a towel or brush it wet, and even thanked me for the advice, seeing how much difference it made. At every part of the process she was chatty, interesting, and most of all mindful of how inherently fragile my hair is (beginning to see a theme here?). Even at the final stage where straighteners are used, Lou and another stylist Edna changed straighteners several times to find the least ‘sticky’ to avoid catching and breaking the super-fine strands. Which to be honest, is all I could ever want in a stylist.
I left with almost zero breakage and amazingly smooth hair. For pretty much the first time, I experienced all of the pros of the treatment without any damage from the process itself. The salon was beautiful, my stylist was lovely, and my hair looks and feels sleek. And it should continue to for the next three or so months.
The details:
