Frequently asked questions

FAQ

Booking & your visit

  • We require at least 24 hours notice should you wish to cancel. Cancellation within 24 hours notice may incur a 50% Service Fee.

  • Yes you need to confirm your appointment. We automatically send out a confirmation text 3 days prior to your appointment as a friendly reminder. Unfortunately if appointments are not confirmed within 24 hours of the appointment then we will have to cancel the appointment as we have a waiting list.

  • As a general rule for new clients we allow 3 and a half hours for a cut and colour, however this is for a basic colour. If you are having a colour correction or have long/thick hair then we will allow extra time. Please be mindful of this when you are booking and provide us with as much information as you can so that you we don’t have to turn you away once we see your hair.

  • Parking is limited to on-street. We recommend parking on Brunswick Street, anywhere near the corner of Johnston Street.

    Alternatively, Coles on Johnston Street has a small metered carpark with reasonable hourly rates.

Consultations

  • Yes, and for anything beyond a simple refresh we’d recommend it. A consultation lets your stylist look at your hair’s current condition and colour history, talk through what you’re picturing, and map out a realistic plan, including how many appointments it might take and what it’ll cost.

    We offer complimentary consultations throughout the week, so there’s no cost to figuring out the right approach before you commit to a booking.

  • You’ll sit down with your stylist before any service starts to talk through what you want, whether that’s a colour change, a cut, or both, and agree on a realistic plan covering how many appointments it might take, rough timing, and cost. It’s also the time to flag anything relevant: hair history, treatments you’ve used at home, or concerns you want addressed.

    Consultations are complimentary, so it’s worth booking one in ahead of any bigger change rather than deciding everything on the day.

  • Yes. When you book, you can choose the stylist you’d like to see, whether that’s someone you’ve been to before or someone whose work you’ve seen on Instagram. Our team is structured across Director, Principal, Senior and Emerging Stylist levels, which is reflected in pricing, so it’s worth knowing which tier you’re booking when you request someone by name.

    If you don’t have a preference, let us know what you’re after and we’ll match you with a stylist suited to it.

Haircuts

  • It mostly comes down to length and time in the chair. Jaw-length or longer is classed as a long cut, with more hair to cut, shape and finish. Short means you’re already wearing your hair short, which takes less time. A restyle is different again: a new shape or significant change of length, which needs more consultation and time to get right.

  • Most people get the best results visiting every 6–8 weeks, which keeps the shape sharp and stops split ends creeping further up the hair. If you’re growing your hair out, you can stretch a little longer between cuts, but a light trim every couple of months still helps keep the ends healthy and the shape intentional rather than just longer.

  • Face shape is one factor, but it works alongside your hair’s natural texture, density and growth pattern. A cut that’s great on paper for an oval face won’t necessarily suit your hair if it’s fine, curly, or grows in a particular direction. General guides can be a useful starting point, but the most reliable answer comes from a consultation, where your stylist can look at your actual hair and features together rather than going off face shape alone.

    If you’ve got photos of styles you like, bringing those along gives your stylist something concrete to work from and adapt to suit you.

Choosing a colour service

  • Highlights are created using foils: hair is sectioned and lightener applied within foil packets to give fine, even, consistent streaks throughout. Balayage is a different application technique, where colour is swept onto the surface of the hair in a way that graduates softly rather than creating uniform streaks, and at Cream we still foil those sections to help the lightener process evenly.

    So the real difference comes down to placement and finish: foiled highlights give a precise, uniform result, while balayage gives a softer, more graduated look that grows out naturally, even though both techniques use foil in the process.

  • Balayage is generally the most low-maintenance colour service, since it’s designed to grow out softly without a hard regrowth line, and most clients comfortably stretch 8–12 weeks between full appointments. Root Erase or a root-shadow approach can also work well if you want depth without frequent upkeep, blending a soft root colour into lightened ends so regrowth is far less obvious.

    Solid colour and full foils, by contrast, tend to show regrowth sooner and need more frequent visits to stay looking fresh.

  • Sometimes, but it depends on how dark your natural or current colour is and how healthy your hair is to begin with. Lifting dark hair to blonde means removing a lot of pigment, and pushing too far in one sitting risks compromising the hair’s condition, so for darker bases it’s often safer and healthier to get there over two or more appointments, lifting gradually and checking condition along the way.

    This is exactly what a consultation is for: your stylist can assess your starting point and tell you realistically whether blonde is achievable in one visit or whether a staged approach will give you a better (and healthier) result.

Colour upkeep

  • Most balayage clients return every 8–12 weeks for a full refresh. Because balayage graduates softly into your natural root, it grows out far more gracefully than full foils, so there’s no hard regrowth line to chase and you get more wear out of each visit.

    A few things shift that window: how much contrast you like to maintain, how fast your hair grows, and your hair’s condition. Many clients stretch the gap by booking a toner refresh every 4–6 weeks in between full appointments. It revives tone and shine without redoing the lightening, so the balayage itself lasts longer before it needs a proper top-up.

  • For solid colour or root regrowth, most clients come in every 4–6 weeks, which is roughly when new growth starts becoming visible against the rest of the colour. Balayage and other lightened styles can stretch much further between full appointments since there’s no hard regrowth line, with a toner refresh in between keeping things looking fresh.

    The right interval really depends on the service and how much contrast you’re comfortable seeing grow out, so it’s worth checking with your stylist what works for your specific colour.

  • Blonde hair has had its natural pigment lifted, which exposes the warm yellow and orange tones underneath, and those warm tones are what show through as the cool toner fades. Toner fades faster than the underlying colour because it sits on the surface of the hair, so the warmth becomes more visible over time, especially with UV exposure, hot tools, and mineral build-up from water and certain products.

    A purple or blue toning shampoo used at home between salon visits helps slow this down, and we can recommend the right one for your specific shade from our range.

Colour corrections

  • A colour correction is the process of fixing colour that hasn’t turned out as expected, whether that’s brassy or patchy tones, an uneven result from a previous appointment, a botched home dye job, or colour that’s simply grown out badly. It can involve removing unwanted tone, rebuilding colour that’s been over-processed, or blending multiple past services into one even result.

    Because every head of hair arrives in a different state, correction work is assessed case by case and quoted individually rather than priced as a standard service.

  • Yes. Colour correction is one of our listed services, priced on application since every correction is different. Fixing someone else’s colour means assessing what’s already on the hair (previous lightener, box dye, build-up) before working out a safe path to the result you actually want, so it’s quoted individually rather than at a flat rate.

    We offer complimentary consultations throughout the week, so it’s worth booking one in before your appointment. Bring photos of what you’re hoping to achieve and be upfront about your colour history, including anything done at home, so we can give you an accurate quote and timeframe.

Hair health & treatments

  • Colouring does change the hair’s structure, particularly when lightening, so some impact on condition is normal. How noticeable that is depends on your hair’s starting health, how much lift is involved, and how it’s cared for afterwards. We’ll always recommend using Olaplex during the service to help minimise damage and keep hair in the best condition possible.

    If your hair is already feeling dry or brittle from past colouring, that doesn’t mean you’re stuck. A treatment-focused approach, combined with the right take-home care, can rebuild condition over time even while you keep colouring.

  • For most damage, an Olaplex #1 and #2 treatment is the best starting point, as it works on rebuilding the internal bonds in the hair rather than just coating the surface, so it addresses the cause of damage rather than masking it.

    If your hair is frizzy or hard to manage on top of feeling damaged, a keratin treatment can also help by smoothing the hair’s structure, and your stylist can recommend the right combination at your consultation.

About Cream

  • Cream is accredited through Sustainable Salons (sustainablesalons.org), a program that diverts salon waste (hair, foils, colour tubes and more) away from landfill and into reuse, including donating hair for children’s wigs. Choosing an accredited salon means the waste from your appointment is actually being put to good use rather than thrown away, which isn’t the case at most salons.

    We add a small Green Service Fee to each visit to support this, so being a more sustainable choice is part of every appointment, not just a one-off initiative.

  • Cream has been on in Fitzroy since 2002, and that experience shows in consistent recognition. We’ve been voted among Melbourne’s best hair salons by Fashion Journal, TimeOut and Marie Claire, and hold a 4.9/5.0 Google rating. Beyond the results, we’re a Sustainable Salons accredited business, so the waste from your appointment is actually diverted from landfill rather than thrown away.

    The salon itself is also built to be a genuinely relaxing experience, with barista-style coffee or a spritz while you’re looked after.