Your First Visit
First color appointments shouldn’t feel like a leap of faith. Here’s exactly how a first visit to Maison Blond works - the consultation, the color-match process, what to arrive with, and how pricing is agreed before we mix a single bowl.
The Process
Step 1 · Before you book
Every new color client starts with a complimentary 20-minute consultation - in person at our South Congress studio or over a quick video call. We look at your hair’s history (box dye counts, be honest - it changes the chemistry), your texture, and photos of what you’re after. Then we tell you what’s achievable in one session and what needs a slower plan.
Step 2 · At the consultation
We don’t match color from a phone screen. Your stylist holds physical swatches against your skin tone in natural light, checks your hair’s underlying pigment, and - for big lightening jobs - takes a test strand from underneath so we know exactly how your hair lifts before committing your whole head to it.
Step 3 · Before we start
You leave the consultation with a written price range: service, estimated hours, and any add-ons like Olaplex or a toner refresh. Nothing gets added in the chair without asking you first. If your hair needs more sessions than you budgeted for, we say so up front - not at the register.
Step 4 · Appointment day
Color appointments run 2.5–4 hours - bring a laptop or a book, we have Wi-Fi, coffee, and honest conversation. You’ll leave with a styled finish, a maintenance timeline (usually 12–16 weeks for balayage), and the exact toner formula noted in your file so your refresh is a 45-minute visit, not a do-over.
Come Prepared
A little preparation makes your consultation dramatically more useful - and your result closer to the photo in your head.
Two or three is plenty - ideally on hair with a similar starting color to yours. They give us a shared vocabulary; ‘honey blonde’ means five different things to five people.
Every color, keratin, or relaxer from the past two years - including the box dye from a random Tuesday. Old pigment lives in the hair even when you can’t see it, and it decides what’s safe to do.
Come with day-two hair, styled the way you normally wear it. We cut and color for your actual life, not for a salon-perfect blowout you do twice a year.
If you’ll realistically come in twice a year, say so - we’ll steer you toward lived-in color that grows out gracefully instead of a high-maintenance look that needs a visit every six weeks.
A color appointment is a few hours in the chair. Wear a top you don’t mind a cape over, and skip the high turtleneck - it fights the shampoo bowl every time.
Ask about damage, timelines, budget, whether a photo is realistic for your hair. The consultation exists so you can interrogate the plan before you commit to it.
First-Visit FAQ
Yes - 20 minutes, no charge, no obligation to book. It protects both of us: you get an honest read on what your hair can do, and we never start a color service on a stranger’s hair without knowing its history. Book it online or text (512) 555-0163.
Sometimes. If your hair is virgin or lightly colored and our schedule has room, we can often consult at the start of your appointment. For color corrections or major lightening we prefer a separate consultation first, because we may need to order product or block a longer appointment than a standard slot.
Our menu is public: balayage and gloss runs $195–265, full highlights $165–215, and single process color $95–135, with variation for length and thickness. At your consultation you get a written range for your specific hair - and that’s the number we honor in the chair.
We tell you at the consultation, not halfway through the appointment. Dark boxed dye to bright blonde, for example, is usually a two-to-three session plan spaced weeks apart to protect the hair. We map the sessions and price each one before you commit to any of them.
Day-two hair is ideal - clean enough to assess, with enough natural oil to protect your scalp during lightening. Skip heavy dry shampoo or styling product buildup if you can, and come with your hair styled the way you normally wear it.
Call us within 7 days and we’ll bring you back in at no charge to adjust it. That policy exists because we hold ourselves to what we agreed on in your consultation - if the result doesn’t match the plan, fixing it is on us.
Book your free 20-minute consultation online, or text (512) 555-0163 and we’ll find a time this week. New clients get 20% off their first color service with code NEWBLOND.
