Digital Protein Treatment at Eleven Hair

A while ago I was invited to try a very exciting hair experience called the Digital Protein Treatment.  Beauty fanatics will no-doubt already be familiar with Digital Perming, but just in case you're not, it's a new type of perming that works with your specific hair type ensuring your hair fully takes to the perm without overheating it and therefore damaging your hair.  Digital Perming involves being plugged in to a rather sci-fi style machine, which then heats the rollers to your hair limit, ensuring the treatment is tailor-made and removing the 'one size fits all' approach to hair perming.

The Digital Protein Treatment is an extension of Digital Perming, as it's a way of building the protein in your hair whilst making full use of the capabilities of the Digital Perming machine.  So hair is heated to a level its comfortable with, resulting in the protein treatment being forced to absorb as effectively as possible.  The treatment involves firstly a clarifying shampoo, then the protein treatment is applied.  The protein treatment consists of silk, collagen, keratin and amino acids which are mixed together to form a protein that is then applied to the hair and left to absorb under a warm towel.  After around 15 minutes, the treatment is washed out and a conditioner is applied, before that's rinsed out and then you have the choice of how you'd like your hair set.

You can choose to have hair straightened or set into curls.  To make full use of the Digital Perming machine, I went for curls which involved having hair rods applied, before being plugged into the machine.  Cotton wool was stuffed under each roller to make sure the rollers didn't burn my head.  It didn't feel particularly hot, although when I felt the actual rollers they were very warm.  It wasn't an uncomfortable experience and other than looking a bit odd - all hooked up to the sci-fi machine - it was a pleasant enough experience involving mostly drinking coffee and reading my Kindle.  I'm not too sure how long the rollers were left on as obviously everyone is going to have different needs depending on their hair type, but I'd say it was probably around 25 minutes.

Eleven Hair is a Mayfair based salon and the person who did my hair is called Christian B. Toth who is the man in the know for all things "Digital Perm".  The salon itself is small and an interesting blend of trendy, whilst being a little, charmingly kitsch.  All staff are very friendly and most of them look like models, but it would be wrong to write this review without giving a special mention to their hair wash chairs.  I absolutely hate hair wash chairs, I've been to so many different salons, ranging for super-luxury to bargain-basement and not once have I found having my hair wash a truly comfortable experience.  These chairs are nothing to look at (I approached them with my usual sigh of resignation) but they were so incredibly comfortable and there was no neck-strain whatsoever!  Therefore, if you hate having your hair washed but can't live without a weekly blow-dry, I strongly recommend visiting Eleven Hair where blow dry prices start at a very reasonable £32.

Slight deviation, but now back to the review.  Once the rollers were taken out, I was left with incredibly tight and shiny curls and my hair had halved in length which was definitely novel.  Christian used a straightener on my roots to get rid of that 'roller kink' you tend to get when rollers have been applied.  He then shook the hair out a little and I was good to go.

I absolutely loved, loved, LOVED having curly hair, especially as my hair is so stubbornly straight that it's virtually impossible to give it any kind of curl, so rather disgustingly I didn't wash my hair for 5 days before I had to give in and wash the curl out :( <sad face.  After washing my hair the first time there wasn't too much difference and to be honest, my hair felt a little dry but after the second wash my hair felt unbelievable.  It looked astonishingly shiny (something that is quite hard to achieve on bleached hair) and is still holding it's shine today.  My hair feels thicker, fuller and because of this it hangs really well and doesn't seem as prone to flatness as it usually is.  Therefore this is a treatment I highly recommend and is something I would definitely have again; especially pre-night out as I haven't a hope in hell of achieving the curls that Christian managed.  I didn't know the price of this treatment until a couple of days ago when I found out it's £60.  Considering what's involved, I had it in my head it would be a lot more expensive than this (if you consider you're having a full treatment, plus a set) so I rate this as a highly affordable and effective treatment that's definitely worth considering if your hair is in need of some pampering indulgence.

Eleven Hair is in Blenheim Street, W1 and the nearest station is Bond Street.

Disclosure:  treatment provided for the purpose of this review.