GM/Madora experiences?

[birdiefu]

I know some members here have had GM treatments and wanted to know what they entailed and how they helped your hair (if they did). How much do they take off in a trim, and what treatments were done? Do they push their products a lot or look down own other care methods? I hear they do S&D, which is great, as with the new baby I don't have time to sit down and search through my hair much. I know the GM philosophy is for one-length hair, but will they do U-shape hemlines too?

Reason I'm asking is that I just found out that there is a GM salon right here in the town I moved to!! So I want to get a bit of information from those who have done it before I jump right in.

[Cinnamon Hair]

(Enables) I have never been to GM but have read lots about them on the boards..not all good, but enough so that I wouldn't dare pass up the experience if there was a salon in my town! If you have the means, then you must go at least once.

[Anlbe]

I used to go to the GM salon in London and intend to start going again when I move back there in a couple of months.

The fantastic - the trim was always amazing. I would generally have two people searching and destroying my split ends for about forty minutes (I had alot of split ends) then generally a quarter inch trim at the bottom. Except the first trim I'd walk out with hair that looked the same length but much healthier.

The hair wash is incredibly gentle and feels fantastic. Washed with their products and then dried on big rollers under a very gentle heat. If I could make my hair feel like that at home I'd be v happy to use their products. Another really good thing was that they are one of the very few places I know of in London which will dress your hair without washing or cutting it. If you go with clean hair and the accessories you want to use they'll put your hair up for you for a very reasonable charge.

The not quite perfect - yes they do stick to their own philosophy and prefer their own products but my experience was more like chatting to someone with a very established routine rather than feeling I anything was being pushed. When I stopped using their products they were surprised that other things seemed to work better for me but after that just interested in chatting about them.

I don't know how determined they are about the one length thing as that is how I wanted my hair and I originally went to them to escape hairdressers who would try and bully me into having chin length layers. However I colour my hair another thing they don't encourage and they just talked about how to look after it.

The only thing I've ever felt pressurized about was about accessories that caused breakage. They could see something was causing massive breakage from ears down and were determined to find out what it was. It turned out to be the scrunchi I used to put my hair up each morning in the shower, and the gentleman was quite insistent that I throw it out when I got home telling me that the top of a pop sock would do the same job and not damage my hair at all. I also know someone whose coat collar was causing her damage and again was quite insistent that she change they way she managed her hair (use scarf, hair up or different coat) but again she was mainly just very happy to discover what was systematically damaging her hair.

Overall for me it was a very good experience and I'm looking forward to going again.

[birdiefu]

Thanks for the input! I figure I will have to at least try it once since I have the chance :). I haven't been to an actual hairdresser/salon in...well probably since late 2003- eek! I already booked a consultation for this weekend at the GM salon to see what they say about my hair and their recommendations before I get an actual trim/treatment.