A report in the New York Times notes that the recession has upped sales of DIY hair colour, as women cut back on salon spending. But results from off-the-shelf box colour never quite match up to a professional salon dye job, so what’s a girl to do? Inspired by the possibility that high-end salon quality, individualised colour and cost-effectiveness can be combined, a new online fashion and beauty business idea was born – E-Salon.

What is a E-Salon?

E-salon provides salon-quality, professional hair colour, custom formulated for clients and delivered to their doors. This mirrors the service provided by professional colourists at salons, but at much lower cost. E-Salon’s creative director is colourist-to-the-stars, Frenchwoman Estelle Baumhauer, whose celebrity clients include Hillary Clinton, Nicole Kidman and Princess Mathilde of Belgium.

How Does E-Salon Work?

Complete E-Salon’s online hair profile – a set of questions formulated by E-Salon’s colourists, designed to replicate the one-on-one consultation you’d have with a salon colourist – and your order is individually formulated to your unique profile, bottled and shipped from E-Salon’s colour laboratory within two business days of your order. Your industry-grade hair colour order comes complete with individualised instructions – no one-size-fits-all approach here. Says Baumhauer, her business idea brings celebrity-quality hair colour treatments in range of the ordinary woman.

The E-Salon website also provides helpful haircare video tutorials, such as How to colour your roots and How to colour your ends.

Seems we’re not the only ones who think E-Salon is a marvellous business idea. E-Salon was recently named in top US fashion mag, In Style Magazine’s Best of the Web 2011 feature.

For more inspiration…

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E-Salon At Home Hair Colour
Image courtesy of E-Salon