Kivivi Blog

There's no guarantee against a bad-hair day, but you can hedge your bets.

For those seeking a style change, most salons offer hair consultations -- essentially a meet-and-greet with a stylist. While some hairdressers charge for the service, in this limp economy, many are offering free or lower-cost advice.

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We took our unruly mop of long hair to four different consultants, both in-person and online, to evaluate the quality of advice on offer. Since we've had the same dull 'do for several years, we were seeking a change and some tips on how to deal with our thick, curly mane in the humid city this summer.

First stop, the Sassoon salon chain, which offers free hair consultations at all locations nationwide. Appointments are available, but we walked into a New York City location near Union Square on a Saturday afternoon and saw a stylist within five minutes.

The stylist asked detailed and practical questions about how much time we wanted to spend doing our hair each morning, (less than 10 minutes a day) and how often we straightened our hair. When discussing length, she cautioned that summer humidity might be perilous for a shorter cut. She also gave us feedback about how specific haircuts might not be complimentary to our face shape.

Though her consult was short, she patiently answered our questions and didn't pressure us to buy hair products or adopt a particular style. The stylist advised against coloring, but said she would be happy to arrange a meeting with a colorist if we were still interested. A business card was provided, and we were in and out in less than 20 minutes.

High-end salons typically charge for these kinds of consults, but these days some may be willing to bend on pricing. That's what happened to us uptown at the high-end Christo Fifth Avenue salon. We scheduled a week in advance for a one-hour consultation advertised on the salon's site for $100. After we inquired about the hefty price, the salon agreed to waive it. Lesson learned: It doesn't hurt to haggle with the haircutter.

When we arrived at Christo, we were given Starburst candies, a robe and a questionnaire asking for basic information about hair type and how we felt about our hair. Questions included, "What do you like most about your hair?" and "What would you change about your hair?"

A stylist who specialized in curly hair explained how our curl direction (the way a curl spins) would impact different cuts, what kind of bangs would work and how healthy hair can make pricier cuts last longer. She used a lot of jargon like "cortex" and "treatment," but was patient and practical when explaining. (The salon is known for working with curly hair, but welcomes all types.)

At times, it felt like we were talking to a therapist, as questions about feelings and hair philosophies came up more than logistics of day-to-day hair care.

The stylist also asked if we were job hunting and said she provided discounts to clients who were between gigs. Should we decide to schedule a haircut, our stylist told us that she would charge us $135, but added that she "was sensitive to budget concerns." It's worth noting that pricing among stylists can vary at some salons.

The stylist suggested some pricey products, but also offered advice about how we should position our head when sleeping, (curls billowing above the head, not matted against a pillow) and how often to wash hair and blow-dry. Some of her advice seemed impractical; for example she suggested a hair treatment that needs to be left in for an hour before being rinsed out. But as she told us, "You get out of your hair what you put into it."

There are also hair consultation options for those who don't want to leave home. TheHairStyler.com offers free of charge a simple questionnaire that asks about skin tone, face shape, eye color, age and any hair conditions like dandruff or oily hair.

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Pictures accompanying the questions were helpful, but some of the jargon was confusing. For example, we didn't know what specifically was meant by "hair elasticity." The site even asked if we had glasses, "protruding ears" or a "large nose." After answering the questions, we received an email with suggestions.

The advice fell flat. We had told the site that our hair color was naturally blond and our skin fair. In our analysis, we were informed that our hair color was "incorrect." We learned that blond hair could make our "complexion appear washed out, pale, or even ill." The Australia-based company didn't respond to a request for comment.

One of the hair-dye suggestions was "violet," which didn't elicit much enthusiasm.

The Web site uses pictures of celebrities as suggestions for looks that might work well. Our 18 celebrity results were extremely varied and seemed inconsistent. They included actress Rosario Dawson's dark brown bangs, Tipper Gore's layers from the early '90s and musician Gwen Stefani's platinum coif. We passed on all options.

Also online, but for $9.99, is HairStyleTools.com's Hair Styler Editor Tool. Of the four, this was the least helpful.

Users upload a photograph of themselves and can swap different hairstyles. The idea is to get a sense of what you would look like with different 'dos, but the technology of the Web site was lacking. It was difficult to tell the difference between advertisements and links to other parts of the site. The payment process and the layout were also unclear, leaving us spending more time navigating the site than learning about hairstyles.

Many of the hairstyles looked cartoonish. Though tinkering with the tool was fun, it wasn't very realistic when it came to offering practical suggestions for haircuts. Some of the styles were dated and would have been impossible to maintain.

Little attention was paid to natural hair color and texture. The Hair Styler Editor allowed us to save favorite looks created, which could then be printed out and taken to a stylist.

We liked the gallery feature, offering nearly 4,000 different photos of hair styles. But most salons have flip books in their waiting areas and most of these photos could be accessed free elsewhere on the Internet.

Overall, we were pleased with the results from the in-person services. But in the end we ended up just getting a simple trim.

Write to Mary Pilon at mary.pilon@wsj.com