Lake Como, Italy has all the ingredients to make for the perfect holiday.

One of the things that you will notice in Italy, is that around every corner you can always find a parrucchiera (hairdresser)! The italians are known for their immaculate dress sense and style and it goes without saying that the look is not complete unless the hair is right. Most italian women go on a weekly basis to the hairdresser (usually a Friday) to have their hair done for the weekend. Therefore if you want to have your hair done on a Friday it is advisable to make the appointment earlier in the week or even the week before.

My own experience of italian hairdressers has not been good (although there was one exception), partly down to the language barrier and also down to some of them being scissor happy as they are too busy talking and looking the other way whilst cutting your hair. Be sure to have your italian pocket phrase book with you or know exactly what you want and have it translated into italian (which you can do via the internet), otherwise you may end up having to fork out more money for a wig!

It is normal to tip up to 15% at the hairdressers, however if you have been unfortunate enough to get a haircut by the italian equivalent of "Edward Scissor Hands" then you should ask them to pay you for having to walk around in public like that!

Famous Italian Hairdressers

Aldo Coppola was born in Milan on February 14th 1940, he started working with Womens magazines in 1960 and by 1961 he was asked to to models hairstyles by Biki. By 1965 he was opening his first hairdressing salon on via Manzoni 16, Milan. Over the following years he opened more salons in Milan and one in Parma. He then began creating shows for L'Oreal in 1983. Since then he has opened various salons/hair academies in Rome, Montecarlo, Moscow andTokyo and in 2007 he looked after Giorgio Armani's private fashion shows in Los Angeles, Tokyo and Dallas.