Blow-dry in Lisbon

A blow-dry is the most useful hour in a trip. You have a dinner in Chiado, a rooftop at eight, a wedding you are attending rather than hosting, or a shoot the following morning, and the difference between looking as you want to look and not is one appointment.

The awkward part in Lisbon is usually the logistics rather than the styling. Salon slots run on Portuguese hours, the booking happens in a second language, and you finish in a different part of the city from the one you are staying in. So this works the other way round. One senior English-speaking stylist comes to your hotel room, apartment or villa with a full kit, dries and styles your hair where you are, and leaves. You go from finished to out of the door in the time it takes to put your shoes on.

A blow-dry runs about 45 minutes from the moment the stylist is set up. Add time for very long or very thick hair, and add about 15 minutes if you want a defined wave or curl set with irons rather than a smooth finish. Setting up takes a few minutes at the start and packing down a few at the end, so a one-hour window covers the whole visit comfortably.

Arrive with hair that is clean and dry, or clean and towel-dried, and say which when you book. We work backwards from the hour you need to be ready rather than forwards from an arrival time, which is the only way a schedule survives contact with a city that has hills and trams in it.

If you also want makeup, book both in one appointment. Hair goes first and makeup second, and the two together run about 90 minutes to two hours for one person. That is set out on the hair and makeup at home page.

Lisbon sits on an estuary a few kilometres from the Atlantic, and the air carries moisture most of the year. A blow-dry that would hold all evening inland softens here, particularly after dark when the temperature drops and the humidity climbs. Anyone who has walked from the Bairro Alto down to Cais do Sodré on a summer night knows the effect.

Two things change the outcome. The first is the finish: a blow-dry with a little movement built in holds its shape as it relaxes, where a poker-straight finish only has one direction to go. The second is the product weight, chosen for the hair rather than for the photograph taken immediately afterwards. Fine hair goes limp under a heavy cream and thick hair frizzes without one.

If your evening ends outdoors, near the water, or in Cascais where the wind comes straight off the ocean, say so when you book. The style is chosen for where it has to survive, not just for the room it is created in.

Anywhere in Lisbon, plus Cascais, Estoril and Sintra. Hotel rooms, rented apartments, short lets, private flats and villas. The room needs a plug, an upright chair and a little space near a window or a lamp, and nothing else.

Cascais and Estoril are about 30 to 40 minutes from central Lisbon and Sintra about 45, longer on a summer weekend. Tell us the address when you enquire and we confirm the travel time and any supplement before you book. Nothing is added afterwards.