Curly Hair Specialists: Meet Serena, Gusto’s In-House Curl Authority

Curly hair has been getting the wrong end of the comb for years. Walk into most salons and curls get washed, brushed, blow-dried straight, then cut as if they were straight hair all along. The result is the same story every time — flat on top, triangular at the bottom, frizzy by Tuesday.

Gusto has gone the other way. Our Covent Garden and Oxford Street salons are now home to a dedicated curly hair specialism, led by Serena — one of our most senior stylists and the in-house authority on textured hair. If your curls have spent years being misunderstood, this is the chair they've been looking for.

Why Curls Need a Specialist (Not Just a Stylist)

Around 60 to 70% of women have some degree of wave, curl or afro texture. And yet the overwhelming majority of London salons still treat textured hair as an afterthought — a curly client gets the same approach as someone with pin-straight hair, with predictable, frustrating results.

Curls are a completely different fabric. They behave differently wet versus dry, they shrink as they dry, every curl pattern has its own bend and bounce, and porosity changes everything from product choice to colour timing. Cutting curls without understanding all of that is how you end up with the wrong shape and a head full of frizz.

A specialist doesn't just do curly hair occasionally. They build their entire approach around it — and that's what Serena has done.

Meet Serena — Gusto's In-House Curl Authority

Serena has been styling hair since 2010, but for the last five years she has focused almost exclusively on curls, training and working inside the Curly's Way ecosystem — a respected, specialist-led approach to textured hair that is quietly transforming how curly clients are looked after across Europe.

In that time she has built a loyal following of clients who used to bounce from salon to salon hoping someone would "get" their hair. They tend to stop bouncing once they find Serena. She cuts curl by curl, dry where appropriate, takes the time to read each section of the head, and treats every consultation as a conversation rather than a checklist.

If you've ever left a salon thinking they didn't really listen to my hair — Serena is the antidote.

The Curly's Way R.I.F. Method, Explained

Serena's work at Gusto is built around the R.I.F. method — three steps that respect how curls actually behave.

R — Restore Balance. It starts with Active Curl Water, a styling water that opens the hair cuticles so everything that follows can actually get in. Most curls aren't dry because they lack product — they're dry because product has been sitting on top of the cuticle for years.

I — (I)drate. A purpose-built leave-in conditioner is worked through soaking-wet hair to deeply hydrate the curl from the inside. This is the step that brings curls back to life, restores elasticity and tames the kind of frizz that no amount of serum can mask.

F — Fix. Finally, a curl gel locks the hydration in and gives the curl its shape, hold and shine. Not the crunchy, cast-y gel hold of the early 2000s — a soft, touchable finish that lasts for days.

It's a system, not a shopping list. Every step is designed to do something the next step depends on. Do it right once and you'll see what your hair has been trying to do for years.

Services Curly Clients Actually Need

Curl-friendly hair is more than a haircut, so Serena's clients tend to book around a full menu of curl-specialist services rather than a single visit.

Curly Cut — sculpted to your real curl pattern, with shape, length and weight removal that honours how the hair falls when it's left alone.

Curly Colour — colouring textured hair is its own discipline; porosity, density and curl pattern all change how colour lifts and tones. Done properly, colour can lift the entire shape.

Curly Treatments — deep masks, conditioning rituals and bond-care work designed for thirsty curls.

Curly Styling and Shape (Perm) — for clients who want to add or refine texture, or restore curl pattern that's been beaten out of the hair over time.

Walk in once for a Curly Cut and you'll quickly see why most of Serena's clients also leave with the products to keep the look going at home — the average curl-client retail basket sits around £75, and that's because the products genuinely do the job.

Bringing It All Together — Curly's Way at Gusto

For curly clients in central London the offer is now very simple: an award-winning Gusto salon, a senior stylist with five years of dedicated curl specialism, the full Curly's Way product range stocked in-salon, and a method that has been tested on thousands of heads of hair across the Curly's Way network.

If you've been blow-drying your curls into submission because no one ever showed you the alternative — book in. Serena is taking new curly clients at both Covent Garden and Oxford Street, and a Curly Consultation is the easiest way to start.

Book at Oxford Street | Book at Covent Garden