My very dear friend decided to join the Brown Aveda Institute, and I was more than happy to be the beneficiary of it. I don't know if you've ever been to either of the two Brown Aveda Institutes in Ohio (Rocky River and Mentor), but if you haven't and you can, you should go! But let me give you some advice:

1) Don't forget that these are students! Now these students are brilliant (I've been twice now and I've never seen anyone walk away with a bad hair cut or style), but here's something about students - they're nervous. When people are nervous, they tend to work more slowly. I love my stylist friend, but it took her four hours to cut my hair and three hours to dye it. Bless her heart, it looks phenomenal, but these kids aren't fast. Don't forget that! But the time is worth it. Plus, they'll bring you water, tea, coffee, magazines, and all sorts of other goodies.

2) Because the kids are students, and they don't know what kind of salon they will end up with, you will get treated to a lot of great services. Hair cut, style, shampoo, conditioner, hand and arm massages, facials, make up (if you're a woman, and I guess if you ask, for a guy) and purifying skin treatments. That's all if you go for a hair cut. JUST a hair cut! I mean, good land! When I went for a hair dye, I got all that too, plus a scalp massage! And all of these are by the book. So your makeup isn't just whatever you or your stylist think looks good - oh, no. They calculate your skin tone, eye color, what you're planning on doing, your hair color and what kind of skin you even have that day. Now, granted, you have to listen to your stylist tell you about what kind of products they've put on your head.

3) Brown Aveda does not accept tips. They just don't. I asked my friend and her explanation (which she was repeating from her classes, but since they're all Brown Aveda, I'm going with it) was that it changes the valuation of the stylist's work. Which makes sense, when you think about it - what if one week you have $10, so you tip $10. But next week, you only have a $20, and you feel too embarrassed to ask for change, so you don't tip at all. It's a nice point, and one which I think is true. Who would want to go having their value changed every time they do their job?

Now I know you want to see a picture of my fabulous new hair, but that's just not really going to happen. Ok. Fine. But because I'm putting up a photo of my new hair, I think you should go to the Brown Aveda people. They're quite lovely. You'll be lovely too.