Andrew Brown - Bermondsey Street

imho, a classic example of a BAD use of the internet.

Surely it's more efficient to phone someone up and ask these questions?

I think women would rather get a 'feel' for a place rather than just calling up and aasking a list of questions. Every hairdresser is aiming at a particular clientele and you can easily tell this from a website, not so easily over the phone.

If that's a bad use of the internet then so too are most small businesses' websites. Like many people i'd just rather find things out online, it's much easier.

Oh. I didn't realise that there was a gender side to this as well. Or that one could (or is it just women who can do this?) get a better feel for a place from their website (inanimate, set up on purpose to attract people, often hugely inaccurate and/or out of date) than from talking to someone who works there.

I stand corrected.

I just meant hairdressers, not everything in general, sorry - I was a bit vague. I do think that women are more particular about where they get their haircut than men are. for instance, do you care what kind of shampoo your salon uses? what sort of coffee they serve? I do ;)

You definitely have me there. But my barber only uses scissors, and never offers me a coffee, so I have lots less to worry about.

Does he offer you anything for the weekend?

No. I think he just cuts hair. He doesn't even have a website.

JaneS, surely the only way to get a feel for a hair dressers would be to go in. You cant tell from a web site if they play loud music ( a pet hate of mine) are friendly with the the right atmostphere for you. But you can tell a lot just by poping in to enquire about prices meanwhile you can quickly take in what products they sell/ use and if it is the place that you would feel comfortable in. The web site mearly gives a few parctical details such as costs and tells you how good their web designer is.

Indeed. And if it were just around the corner I would certainly do so!

I'd consider writing them a letter, perhaps enclosing a camera, portable recording device and thermos flask.

Then you could get them to submit a business plan, together with details of the services they offer, photos of the salon and stylists, recordings of the music that they play and the type of chatter they are likely to offer you (Will it be Holidays or Hello? We should be told.), and a sample of the coffee they serve (always a clincher when selecting a hairdresser, I'm sure).

In fact, I can't believe that no one markets such a package of things for exactly this purpose. Maybe there's a gap in the market.