What to Bring to Your First Bokaos Appointment in Pasadena

A client walked into Bokaos last month for her first appointment holding a printed spreadsheet, three drugstore shampoo bottles in a tote bag, and a photo album from her sister's wedding in 2019. She apologized for the bag before she even sat down. We told her the spreadsheet was actually the most useful thing she brought, and that most of what was in the tote could go back in the car.

This is the conversation we have with almost every new client who walks into our salon at 52 Hugus Alley in Old Town Pasadena. First appointments come with a lot of nervous energy, and clients tend to over-pack because they think we need physical evidence of every product they own. We do not. What we actually need is different, and knowing the difference before you park in One Colorado Square will make the whole consultation move faster and give you a better result.

The one thing you should always bring to a first appointment

Bring reference photos. Real ones, on your phone, from your camera roll or from Pinterest or from Instagram saves. This is the single most useful thing a new client can hand a stylist, and it is the thing people leave out most often. Words like "a little lighter" and "kind of blonde but not too blonde" mean different things to different people, and thirty years of consultations in Pasadena has taught us that the gap between what a client is picturing and what a stylist is picturing without a photo is enormous.

Bring three to five photos. Not thirty. Three that show what you want and two that show what you absolutely do not want. Include photos taken in natural light if you can, because salon lighting and bathroom lighting flatten color in ways that make it hard to read. If you have old photos of your own hair at a length or color you loved, bring those too. We would rather see your actual hair at its best moment than a celebrity photo where the lighting has been color-graded within an inch of its life.

What to bring for a color consultation specifically

If you are coming in for balayage, corrective color, or any kind of lightening service, bring your color history. Not written down, just in your head, but be ready to answer honestly. When was the last time you colored your hair. Was it box color or salon color. Have you ever used henna. Have you had a Brazilian Blowout or a keratin treatment in the last six months. Are you on any medications that affect hair, and have you had a baby in the last year.

These are not nosy questions. They change the chemistry of what we can safely do in one appointment. Box color from three years ago still lives in your midlengths and ends. Henna binds to the hair shaft in a way that reacts unpredictably with lightener. A postpartum shed changes how much hair we have to work with and where the density is. We are not judging any of the answers. We are just trying to avoid a chemistry problem in the middle of a four-hour appointment.

If you have a bottle of something at home you have been using that you love or hate, you do not need to bring the bottle. A photo of the label is enough. We can read an ingredient list from a phone screen.

What to leave in the car (or at home)

Leave the tote bag of old products. We know they were expensive. We are still going to recommend what we recommend based on your hair, not based on what is already in your bathroom. If something in that bag is causing a specific problem you want to solve, mention it, but you do not need to physically produce it.

Leave the expectation that we will do everything in one appointment. This is the hardest one for new clients. A first-visit balayage on hair that has old box color or a previous keratin treatment often needs to be spaced across two visits to protect the integrity of the hair. We would rather send you home with slightly less dramatic results and hair that is still healthy than push everything into one session and hand you back damage. If a stylist tells you a color goal is going to take more than one appointment, that is not a sales tactic. That is chemistry.

Leave a rigid script. Come in with a direction, not a locked-in decision. The best consultations at Bokaos are the ones where a client says "I want to go lighter and I want less maintenance than I have now," and then lets us look at the hair, feel the texture, and suggest the technique that gets there. Sometimes that is balayage, sometimes it is a foil pattern, sometimes it is a gloss with a couple of face-framing pieces. If you walk in demanding one specific service by name, you might be closing the door on the option that actually suits your hair best.

What to do the day of

Come with your hair how you normally wear it. Not freshly washed and blown out to look presentable for us. If you air-dry, air-dry. If you use a curling iron every morning, use the curling iron. If you have not brushed it since yesterday, that is fine. We need to see how your hair actually behaves in your real life, because that is the hair we are cutting and coloring for. A perfectly styled head of hair hides cowlicks, hides how the natural texture falls, and hides which pieces are breaking.

Eat something before you come. A three-hour color appointment on an empty stomach is miserable, and we have watched clients get lightheaded in the chair more times than we want to admit. Bring water. Bring a phone charger if you plan to be on your phone. Wear a shirt with a wide neckline you do not mind getting slightly damp during the shampoo.

Show up ten minutes early if it is your first time, not because we are strict about it, but because parking in Old Town Pasadena around One Colorado Square can be genuinely slow depending on the day, and rushing in stressed is a bad way to start a four-hour appointment.

Frequently Asked Questions

Should I wash my hair before a salon appointment? No, come with day-two or day-three hair. Freshly washed hair is too slippery for certain color techniques and it hides your natural oil pattern, which tells us how your scalp actually behaves. Clean hair is only required for specific services like a Brazilian Blowout, and we will tell you in advance if that applies.

How long does a first appointment usually take at Bokaos? A first-visit haircut runs about an hour to ninety minutes with the consultation built in. A first-visit color appointment, especially balayage or a corrective service, can run three to four hours. We block extra time for new clients on purpose so the consultation is not rushed.

What should I do if I have had box color or henna in my hair? Tell us before we book, not after you are in the chair. Send a note when you book online or mention it during your consultation call. Box color and henna both affect what we can safely do with lightener, and knowing in advance lets us plan the right service and the right amount of chair time.

Can I bring my kids to my appointment? We love our clients' kids, but a color appointment is not a great environment for a small child to sit through. If you are coming in for a quick cut or a blowdry, it is usually fine. For anything longer than ninety minutes, we recommend finding a sitter or booking a time when someone else can watch them.

Do I need to bring anything for a first haircut consultation? Just reference photos and honest answers about how you style your hair at home, how much time you actually want to spend on it in the morning, and what has and has not worked in past cuts. That gives your stylist enough to design a cut that fits your real life, not a Pinterest life.

Ready to Book Your First Visit

If you have been thinking about coming in, the best next step is to book your first appointment with one of our stylists. Pick a service, pick a level that fits your budget, and we will handle the rest from there. Bring the photos. Leave the tote bag in the car.