Tried and Tested: WhiP is the vegan East London salon worth a visit
There’s an old adage which says that there’s nothing more confronting than looking at your face in the hot seat at the hairdressers.
With my usually feral mane tightly tucked in a towel, perching on the top of my head, my face looks wider than usual, slightly less angular than I'd like to believe and much less dazzling than my Instagram would fool you into thinking.
"Jesus my face looks horrendous," I jokingly tell Lou, my hairdresser.
"Ohmigod! Don't be stupid! You've got a lovely face, actually - I love ya eyebrows!" she reassures me in a strong Essex accent.
I'm at WhiP, a vegan and eco-friendly hair salon-cum-event-space, tucked just off Hackney's Mare Street, and so far, so good. Any hairdresser that affirms the face shape I’ve spent so many years hating (heart-shaped hons, you get me) is a sure-fire win in my eyes.
Despite not-so-cleverly scheduling my trip to WhiP for the hottest day of 2020, Lou was a delight from the moment I walked in. If I was melting having to get a blow dry in 35 degree heat whilst wearing a mask, she must have been bubbling away, nearing boiling point, as she wore a mask and a shield. But, alas, welcome to 2020.
After four months of relegating any and all forms of grooming to the bottom of the to-do list, my hair is in dire need of a good taming and Lou very much seems like the person to do it. I'm given a carbonated Rhubarb drink in a recycled glass bottle (uber Hackney) which I sip throughout my cut and under my mask.
Half-way through my cut, the salon’s co-owner James bounds up to me as I sit stewing mid-blow dry under my mask and greets me, chatting me through the premise of the business. He's a DJ and in life BC, WhiP would host events in the evening (I found out about the salon by walking past late one night and noting how much fun it looked.)
You get the feeling that after a frisson with a pair of WhiP scissors, you’ve been initiated into the WhiP family (there are currently two in London, one in Hackney and the other in Homerton.) James tells me they're planning to take WhiP international, they're thinking Lisbon at the moment, and I can't help but think how gaping the hole is in the hairdressing arena for a cool, eco-friendly and vegan salon like his.
Him and his fellow founder Lulu also have a penchant for antiques, nodding to WhiP's achingly cool interior, which is peppered with vintage collectibles.
I leave looking a little more like myself and a lot less like lockdown Naomi (see: an aesthetically sorry excuse for a human) and I know I've been fully embraced into the WhiP family when I receive an e-mail the following week, wondering if I fancied popping in for some highlights.
I swing by, on what is thankfully a decidedly cooler day, for an Olaplex treatment and a full set and leave with a Brigette Bardot barnet, several beers in my belly, a new-found friend in Lou. A salon like no other.
