Its that time of the year again! Magic is in the air and Durga puga is just around the bend. The whole atmosphere thrums with excitement and the whirlwind preparations begin. From pujo shopping to planning out salon visits so the divalicious Bengali babe can strut her stuff during those all important 5 days of festivities. You really need to experience Kolkata during this time. The city takes off its laid back cover and you can see the vibrant and charged layer inside. Air carries a different kind of fragrance (literally) and there are bright blinking lights in rainbow hues scattered all over the city. To celebrate this all important time Green Trends salon came out with some services that help you nail your signature look this pujo. A group of us bloggers were invited to experience the services on offer by the PR of the company. 

 

    Green Trends is a Chennai based chain with branches all over India (Kolkata alone has three of em – Salt lake, Golpark and Bangur avenue). We were invited to the Salt lake one which is right next to Talwalker’s gym in Sector 1. Mr.Saddique Alam the Brand Trainer met with us and explained the various services that they have introduced. On offer are 5 types of facials termed as the Fantastic Five 😀 – Fair Bloom, Platinum, Bright & Shine, White Sparkle and Glowing Radiance. They use in-house products for them and pricing is decent. For nails they have water marbling nail art and for the more daring miss color block coloring for the hair. 

The ladies deciding what service they will opt for as Mr. Alam looks on

 

     Mr. Alam even spoke about enhancing the curl this season ie he said that Bengali women have naturally wavy/curly hair and their focus was to bring out its beauty with the proper cut and use of styling products. I was game to try out the coloring technique. He suggested my all time favorite shade – red! Honestly I cant even count how many times I have gotten all shades of red done to my hair in all possible techniques – streaks, global, blocks, feather, etc. You name it and I have done it! Since my hair thinning issue began I completely went off it and stuck to coloring my grey with black as and when needed. I was so excited to embrace the color again. 

Info card about the facials on offer. Click to enlarge.

 

     He chose 3 areas or blocks – one on top and two on each side at different levels. They picked a ruby shade for me which I was scared wont show up in my hair as it does not take color easily. I usually end up sitting twice just to get some color and at times even after I specifically tell the stylist about my issue 😛 I spoke of the issue with Mr. Alam too and he assured me that it will work out. Honestly I was quite skeptical…But what the heck! Like I said I was game for it 🙂 So after spending around 30 minutes or so on the chair I was taken for my wash and then was given a cut by Mr. Alam himself. He had a celeb status in the place and all the junior stylists gathered around to see him work 🙂 My hair was then blow dried and set…

Waiting to get “processed” 😀                                                  Priyanka putting in the color

 

     Ok when the wash was done I was a little upset…I’m being honest now. I could clearly see the block on the top but the ones on the side where not visible to me. Plus coz of the dark shade I was apprehensive that they couldn’t be made out. They were placed inside layers of my black hair. I’m not a subtle hair color (or a subtle anything kinda girl) so I was felling disappointed with it all. But let me tell you…once my hair was done it was a whole different ball game. The entire look came out so well! My eyes were literally sparkling 🙂 The blocks were done in such a way that they gave the illusion of covering a large area and also looked so great peeking through my dark hair. 

 

     Mr. Alam is damn good and I can see why the team there was all “starry eyed” 😛 But jokes apart I really like their work and would love to get my cut done by him again if I manage to find him. I forgot to mention that Priyanka did my color for me under Mr. Alam’s guidance. Poorna (Presented by P) got a facial done and I could see the difference on her skin straight off. Imagine how it must look like a day later (if you didn’t know usually the proper effect of a facial can be seen the next day. The real awesome ones look great the same day and get better the next). Dolon (Pout Pretty) got her lovely locks curled and she looked super. Debiparna (Fly Songbird) got this awesome shade of blue done to her hair. In retrospect, I should have asked them to add a block of blue to the red shades…hmm….food for thought?!? 

Photo credit – Poorna Banerjee

 

     All in all a great day filled with food, chatter and salon treatments. Nothing boosts one’s confidence better than a good salon day 🙂 Well for me it works. If I’m felling down in the dumps I head down to my favorite place and get the works done – mani, pedi, facial, cut. End up feeling like a million bucks! So happy with my new look…the red has brought back a side of me that I had forgotten (sounds silly I know but that is what it is). Well my pretties that’s all the ramblings from me for now. I will do a separate post for the facials on offer ie a press release. Do let me know what you thought of this post and especially my new look. I will catch you guys soon! Ciao!