Wow what a lot of of responses! That's brilliant . There must be at least one hairdresser there who can work some magic on me!

I'm really looking forward to trying them out actually, thanks everyone. Mind you I only tend to get my hair done about 3 times a year, so if I try all of them that'll do me for the next 3 years!

I used to go to Idol hair too when living in East London..Christina was my hairdresser for 3+ years....she is fab, without doubt best colourist I ever had.

nina is really good...she does Kylie! I have known her for about 15 years now. she's not just funky, does normal stuff too...but very good at telling you what will look good.

Idol Hair in Victoria Park Villiage is great. I usually see Greta, although lots of my friends use Christina and their hair always looks fab too. I think they're £35 for cut and style. www.idolhair.com

Helen at Kontakt is BRILL on Stoke Newington Church St. 020 7275 9082. Get wine of an evening there too, open late Thursdays. Used to be my special treat going there until I had to move!

She will chat loads to you about what you want, what she thinks will work. I have pretty difficult curly/ wavy hair and she made it look brilliant

I go to Beaucatcher in Stoke Newington, and use Karen. She is French so not much small talk (good for me, I just take a book/daydream). I just waved at her 'do whatever, make it look nice' and yes, she certainly does! She also manages to take into account my lifestyle (ie she can see I don't do anything with it!!) and like others have said, remembers. Have used others there and always been happy but really like Karen. And I am a bit hairdresser phobic...

Think it's £38 for cut and blowdry.

Alix works from his home in Stoke Newington and is fabulous - he was also the stylist for the muscial 'Chicago'. 07968 434 955 - he's Toni & Guy trained but a total artist.

or

Louise in 'Cuts Too' at the Highbury end of Upper St. Fabulous and listens and remembers.

Both very reasonable for London (both about £40).

Ruby Blue on Newington Green are good and reasonably priced, Tony and Guy in Angel aren't bad either, use them both intermittently.

jo at charlotte murray in muswell hill is brilliant. charlotte is utterly bonkers though, so don't book her. its about £50 i think and well worth it.

I had a massive change in September. Had an idea in my head about what I wanted and the guy sat me down with magazines, told me to pick out photos I liked and then we discussed each one. He said "Noooooo" to my first one as it wouldn't suit me (I found that reassuring) and I've ended up with a cut that a lot of people have commented on in a good way. (I went from long, scraggly and usually pulled back to short and I have very curly hair.) He did the colour, too, which is fantastic.

Oops, nearly forgot to say who it was - a local guy, Barry at Mr Russo. It's not a posh salon but is Aveda, so the stuff's nice. They do good facials, too and if you need your eyebrows done, you can get them threaded a few doors down at Sensational Nails.