Boston Bloggers gather at Drybar: A “premier” blow-dry bar

Last night I had the wonderful opportunity to gather amidst blogger friends at the new Drybar location in Chestnut Hill. A fellow CNH employee, I’ve driven past this shop full of hair styling mavens frequently enough. It’s constantly abuzz with the 40+ females of the area who just left the gym and are prepping for their next soiree. Boy do I wish I had the time! I take every single extra minute of sleep I can get during the week before I absolutely must roll out of bed in order to make it to work on time. This often results in many days with my hair quickly thrown up into a bun and I’m satisfied and good to go.

I consider this service quite a luxury and reserved for special occasions only, so, when the opportunity presented itself- you betcha I was in! Someone else styling my hair while I get to sit back and relax?!  What a great concept!

In all honestly, I have gotten my hair styled before at BeStyled, just cross the street. The concept of the Drybar is a tad different though in that they pride themselves on their simple concept: Just blowouts! No makeup, no hair cutting, simply blowouts to perfection. For $40 you pick your style, such as Mai tai, the Cosmo, and then your stylist gets to work!

In contrast BeStyled is a tad cheaper, around $35. I don’t think however that BeStyled offers products, whereas the Drybar had this gorgeous display of their products, which is a wonderful thing if you like the product that the stylist used on your hair. Drybar also offers a membership so that if you are a regular it makes scheduling and paying for services easy. An example of this would be the “Barfly:”

The Barfly:

• 4 Blowouts + 2 free Floater (head/neck massage)
• 10% off all products (in-shop only)
• $140 per month (save $20)

Anyways, upon arrival I was greeted by an attentive staff who were so sweet and offered me my choice of wine, champagne, coffee, or tea! Hmm..wine please! I was then seated in their plush waiting area..everything about the place was adorable! They had petite snacks for you to munch on, and while I was getting my hair styled someone came around and served us these adorable pretzel appetizers. We were also served flat bread and mini desserts from Seasons 52. Needless to say I was quite impressed with how much they went out of their way to make this a fun event for us. This would be such a fun and cute idea for a birthday party or girl’s night out.

So what look did I go with? I went with the Mai Tai- which is supposed to be sexy, beachy, waves. Let’s just put it this way- the sex part of sexy wouldn’t be a lie as I look like I got pummeled during the act or I just walked out of a nightclub with a fro on top of my head. #fail. Seriously disappointed in these so-called “mavens.” I get it- my hair is extremely difficult to work with- but no one should ever walk out of there with hair that looks like this: 

Somehow this translates into sexy beach waves?? Perhaps we need a new definition then. I pretty much ran straight to the bathroom and almost cried (not really) I just pulled my hair back up. I attempted to grab the curling iron out of my stylist’s hands before she could do more damage but was unsuccessful so I let her and the assistant manager attempt to remedy her god-awful mistakes. Let’s just say I won’t be going back.

So if I were to compare BeStyled to DryBar this is how they match up

Price: BeStyled- $35 DryBar- $40

Overall Style: BeStyled wins on this one

Decor and Design: DryBar definitely was more chic and pleasant. I also liked how they had mirrors in front of you.

Staff: Drybar was way friendlier and attentive.

Overall experience: Meh- It was neat and fun to do but honestly was difficult to interact with the other bloggers while we were all getting our hair done. Obviously that was the focus, and point of the event was to relax and be spoiled a little, but I left feeling like a lion with a mane yet to be tamed. Hey- at least the food was enjoyable, a lot of thought clearly went into this event, and good conversation was had by all in between the blowouts.

Thanks Drybar! Better luck next time with my hair!