Many women in Lille with coily hair book their appointments elsewhere: a weekend in Paris, a cousin in Brussels, or at home on Sunday morning. Why does the local range of options remain so limited?
Three addresses in Lille stand out, including one partner studio, and they are not all suited to the same hair texture. For maintenance between appointments, our step-by-step tutorial details the six steps of the Rituel Texture®. Outside Lille, our directory of coily hair stylists lists our partner salons.
Salon 1La Belle Boucle Studio, rue Bartholomé Masurel
21 rue Bartholomé Masurel, 59000 Lille, Monday to Saturday
This is the most comprehensive address in the city, and it is our partner studio in Lille: our products are sold there, which allows us to know their way of working from the inside. It is a long-term partnership, not a seasonal listing. The venue combines two things rarely found together: a consultation shop where you can walk in without an appointment and try products on your own hair, and an adjoining salon that takes bookings, located a ten-minute walk from the train station.
The studio is also the only one of the three to offer services specifically dedicated to coily hair, distinct from those designed for curly hair, with a detox treatment option. It is a detail that matters: a salon that allocates specific time and pricing for tight textures is a salon that knows what that texture requires. The appointment begins with time to assess the hair as it is, and the cut is done on dry hair when the texture requires it. It is therefore the address we recommend first in Lille, especially if you do not yet know how to describe what your hair needs. See our profile of La Belle Boucle studios, which details the course of a visit.
One useful caveat for coily hair: the drying process ends with a diffuser, a finishing technique that is well suited to wavy and curly textures. At our salon, the fifth step of the Rituel Texture® is done differently, with a hairdryer, working in small sections and keeping the hair in constant motion after applying La Crème Coiffante. On coily hair, a diffuser is only justified in rare cases.
Salon 2Bouclette, rue Saint-Génois
10 rue Saint-Génois, 59800 Lille, Monday to Saturday
Two minutes from Lille Flandres, Bouclette says it works with all four textures, from wavy to coily, and its approach to appointments is very similar to ours. Each visit begins with a consultation: the client's actual routine, their hair history, and the sensitivity of the hair fiber are reviewed before any tools are used.
The cut is done section by section on dry hair, then continued on damp hair, which is the right way to go about it when you want to see the length actually worn before cutting. The salon asks you to wear your hair naturally for the two days before the appointment, a guideline that must be followed, because that is exactly what allows the hair's behavior to be observed. This is the address we recommend to those who wear their hair down and want a shape that holds, with a method that can be replicated at home. Our article on defining curls covers the same principles at home.
Salon 3Numéro Neuf by Julia, Vieux-Lille
9 rue de Gand, 59800 Lille, Tuesday to Saturday
Located in the heart of Vieux-Lille, Julia's salon built its reputation on color and balayage, then assembled a team dedicated to textured hair, advertised for wavy, curly, coily, and coily hair, for both adults and children. On Thursdays and Fridays, the time slots extend into the evening, which is valuable when you work and a full appointment takes hours.
This is the address we recommend if you want to color your hair without damaging it, because mastery of color precedes texture specialization there. Color makes the coily hair fiber more porous and changes the way it retains water: a salon that colors without anticipating this will deliver a beautiful color on lengths that will break off a few months later. Specify your texture when booking: the textured services there cover the full range of curls, and it is better to say from the outset that yours are tight. Also see how porosity changes a colored hair.
Which one to choose, depending on what you are looking for
Three addresses, three needs, and the choice is made quickly. If you want a salon that works with us, where our products are sold and where coily hair services are distinct from curly hair services, it is La Belle Boucle on rue Bartholomé Masurel. If you wear your hair down and are looking for a cut that holds its shape, Bouclette. If it is color that brings you here, Numéro Neuf by Julia, provided you state your texture when booking.
And if you want the full Rituel Texture®, with the hair consultation followed by the six steps, it is not yet available in the Hauts-de-France region: the Les Ateliers Crépus Salon Experience is reserved for the Les Ateliers Crépus location in Paris, in the 11th arrondissement. For many women in Lille, a one-hour train ride is enough, and it can be scheduled around a day already planned in the capital.
Questions to ask before booking
With only three addresses, there is little room for error: it is best that the first appointment is the right one. Four questions, asked by phone or message, are enough to know where you are going, and a salon that answers them precisely rarely disappoints on the day.
Four questions before booking a time slot
- Do very dense coily hairstyles go through your chairs every week, or rather soft curly hair?
- Is the cut done on dry hair, and at what point in the appointment?
- Is the consultation planned before the sink, and is it included in the quoted price?
- How long do you reserve for a first appointment, including treatment and styling?
Before looking at the hair, I look at the client's posture. Many clients arrive tense because a salon has already pulled too hard or made them feel that their texture was a problem. So I sit at their level and ask them to tell me their hair story. A salon that takes this time rarely gets the rest wrong.
Ghana Elin, founderBe particularly wary of two suggestions, regardless of the salon. The first, straightening with a flat iron "to make the cut easier": it indicates that the texture is not mastered, and it takes a toll on the hair fiber. The second, cutting wet hair with a comb: coily hair stretches when wet and bounces back as it dries, and the length removed is never the length you had agreed upon. Our article on cutting coily hair dry explains the technique in detail.
If none of the addresses are suitable
Three addresses for a metropolitan area of one million inhabitants is few, and it is better to say so than to lengthen the list with salons we know nothing about. There are other businesses in Lille focused on textured hair, but we have not been able to establish that they regularly work with the tightest textures, and we prefer to only list what we have verified.
If no time slots are available, or if none of these addresses are near you, the most important part still happens at home. A complete routine every 7 to 10 days keeps the hair in good condition from one appointment to the next: detangling with a Chadian comb on dry hair, a gentle clarifying cleanse, then Le Shampoing Réparateur, Le Masque Réparateur left on for 10 minutes under a shower cap if you have one, detangling with the Peigne de Man Dol' on hair coated with mask, then protective drying after applying La Crème Coiffante.
An online consultation allows you to start with your hair rather than a general rule, and to know what to ask for the day a time slot becomes available. We also train professionals who want to incorporate the Rituel Texture® into their services: the Hauts-de-France region is one of the areas where the range of options is most limited.
