Today the WSJ picks up on a trend that most Go-Getter Girls already knew all about: the blowout. Or as some like to call it, getting your “hair did.” This is one of the easiest, most effective ways to take your glam factor from zero to wow– and to avoid the stress of bad hair days. We saw GGGs designer Liz Lange and beauty entrepreneur Polly Blitzer “can’t live without” their blowouts. And you know that I’ve gotten my hair blown out in salons all over the world, enduring awkwardness and language barriers if need be, to avoid doing my hair myself.

Spending an hour in the salon a few times a week is actually both time and opportunity cost efficient: Unless you’ve got major skills, all the right products and tools (and a healthy dose of patience), chances are a professional blow dry will look way better than you can do yourself. Plus, you’ll have more time to focus on more important things, like what outfit you’re going to wear, what you’re actually going to say during that big presentation.

Every Go-Getter Girl  knows her “beauty priorities” — that is, the handful of grooming/primping procedures that are must-dos given our individual preferences, schedules, and budgets.  Since I have relaxed hair, tops on my priority list – as many of you know!– is getting my hair blown-out/flat-ironed. My aversion to rain/humidity/doing-my-hair-myself leads to some interesting experiences when traveling abroad– not the least of which is the international search for a decent hair blow-out (preferably at a salon that won’t give a lot of attitude). 

Well, today I can say mission accomplished– and for cheap! I made an impromptu stop at Luxe-recommended salon Ebil in the beautiful, hip little town of Bebek in Istanbul (scenes from Bebek at right). This gem of a salon is apparently a favorite of the “high-society” in Istanbul, but the staff was young, cool, and surprisingly laid-back.  Sure, I sense they may have been talking about me in Turkish, trying to figure out exactly what type of hair I had and how to attack the task at hand– but after lots of smiling, banter in broken English/Turkish, and of course Turkish tea,  it ended up being a very enjoyable visit.

As for the blow-out itself, they did the round brush, sans any product (I was skeptical, but it ended up fine). The weirdest thing was that there were two people doing the blow-dry: an assistant who held the sections of my hair (why not just use those little clips?) and sometimes wielded the blowdryer, while the main stylist manuevered the brush. Then, after some prompting from me (‘I promise, those cowlicks won’t be tamed without some heat!’), they brought out the flat iron and did a once-over.  And finally, a little bit of glossing paste on the ends.

The results are great– of course, not as fab as my place back home (miss you, Bianca!), but a quality blow-out nonetheless –  for only 30 Turkish Lira! That’s about 19 U.S. dollars. 

Bravo, Ebil!

Ebil Bebek Subesi, Cevdet Pasa Cad. No. 69, Bebek. / IST., Telephone: (212) 257 55 70, www.ebilacademy.com