Before You Book What To Expect At Sirens City Retreat
Booking With Confidence
Booking With Confidence At Sirens City Retreat, everything we do is built around delivering the right treatment, in the right way, for the right client. This page explains how we work, what to expect from your appointment, and what we need from you to ensure every treatment is carried out safely, professionally and to the highest standard.
Before Your Appointment To ensure we are fully prepared for your visit, we send consultation forms in advance of your appointment. These forms are an essential part of how we work. They allow us to understand your goals, your treatment history and anything that may impact your results. For certain treatments, a consultation or patch test is required at least 48 hours before your appointment. This is a strict requirement, and treatments will not go ahead without it.
Key information
Medical Information Your safety is always our priority. Please make us aware of any medical conditions, medications, allergies or recent treatments that may affect your appointment. This should be completed on your consultation form, but if anything changes, we ask that you let us know in advance. This allows us to adapt treatments where needed and ensure everything is carried out safely and appropriately.
Informed Consent Informed consent is a key part of how we work. Before your appointment, you will be sent consultation and consent forms to complete. These include important information about your treatment, including any potential risks, side effects or outcomes. We believe it is essential that you fully understand your treatment before going ahead, so you can make an informed decision with confidence. If anything is unclear, we will always take the time to talk this through with you before your treatment begins.
Accessibility
We want to be transparent so you can plan your visit with confidence. Sirens City Retreat is located above street level and access is via a number of stairs. Unfortunately, this means we are not a fully accessible salon and may not be suitable for anyone who is not fully mobile. If you are unsure, please contact us before booking and we will always be honest about whether we can accommodate your needs.
A Personalised Approach
No two clients are the same, and we don’t treat them that way. Every appointment is tailored to you. Whether you are booking a results-driven treatment or time to relax, we take the time to understand what you need and deliver a service that reflects that. We focus on quality, not speed, so your appointment will never feel rushed.
Inclusion & Client Care
We are committed to creating a space where every client feels comfortable, respected and welcome. Our approach is inclusive, considered and built around individual needs. We are always happy to make adjustments where possible. Our pricing is gender neutral and based on the treatment itself, not the individual. If you have specific needs or preferences, we encourage you to let us know in advance so we can accommodate you wherever possible.
Arriving At The Salon
We are located above NatWest in Durham marketplace. Access is via stairs, so please bear this in mind when planning your visit. Please arrive on time for your appointment. If you arrive early, you are welcome to wait and settle in. If you are running late, contact us as soon as possible. We will always do our best to accommodate you, but your treatment time may need to be adjusted.
Booking Fees & Cancellations
We require a booking fee to secure all appointments. This booking fee is deducted from the final cost of your treatment. We require a minimum of 48 hours’ notice for any cancellations or changes. If less than 48 hours’ notice is given, the booking fee will be lost. Cancellations within 24 hours, or missed appointments, will result in the full cost of the treatment being charged. These policies are in place to protect appointment time and ensure fairness to both clients and the business.
During Your Appointment
Your treatment will be carried out with care, precision and attention to detail. We will guide you through the process, explain anything you need to know, and ensure you feel comfortable throughout. If you prefer a quiet, relaxed appointment, just let us know. We are happy to adapt your experience to suit you.
Aftercare & Feedback
Aftercare is an important part of achieving the best results.
We will guide you on how to care for your treatment following your appointment, including any recommended products or follow-up treatments.
Following your visit, we also send a private feedback form. This gives you the opportunity to let us know how you felt about your experience in a way that is direct and confidential.
We use this feedback to maintain and improve the standards we are known for.
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Meet the People Behind Sirens
Celebrating Over 40 National Awards
Why we are a child free salon
I made the decision to become a child free salon many years ago, and I will be honest about why: it came down to a few negative experiences rather than a policy written in advance.
Safety, first
We had children left to run around, touching products that are not safe to touch, and not being told to stop. A salon is not a safe space for that. There are chemicals, hot wax, scissors and equipment within easy reach.
The difficulty is that during almost every treatment you are not free to parent. You are lying down, mid-service, often with your eyes closed. So the supervising falls to us, while we are working millimetres from someone's eye. And leaving a child alone in reception is not something our insurance covers, so it is not an option we can offer.
We are also not insured for children being in the salon and injuring themselves on something they have picked up. That is not a technicality we can wave through, if something happened, nobody would be covered.
Other clients, second
I have had to leave facials and massages halfway through to come out and ask for children to be quiet. We cannot have people paying to relax while children are running around and shouting in reception. That is not fair on anyone, including the parent, who ends up apologising through their own appointment.
Why it applies to everyone
We have had some wonderful children in over the years who were an absolute joy. The problem is that we have no way of knowing in advance which it will be, and a blanket policy is fairer than judging families at the door.
Underneath all of it is what we want your appointment to be: you arrive, you switch off, and the time is yours. That is difficult to deliver in a room where somebody is on alert. We know it makes booking harder for some people, and we would rather be clear about it now than turn anyone away on the day, if childcare is the obstacle, our earliest and latest appointments are usually the easiest to work around.
What a consultation involves
We say that every treatment starts with a consultation, so it is worth explaining what that actually means, because most of it happens before you arrive.
It starts at booking
Once you have booked, we send out a consultation form. It covers medical screening: conditions, medications, allergies, anything that affects whether a treatment is safe or needs adapting. It takes a few minutes and it is genuinely worth doing properly rather than skimming. This is where we find the things that change what we do.
Filling it in before you come also means your appointment time goes on the treatment rather than on paperwork.
Then the treatment specific forms
Specialist treatments have their own form on top of the medical one, because the useful questions are different for each. For massage, for example, we ask what you actually like: whether you want the heated blanket on, which areas you want worked, what pressure suits you, anywhere to avoid.
The point of asking in advance is that it is easier to answer honestly in your own time than face to face with someone waiting.
And the pre visit questions
We also ask about your visit rather than your treatment. Would you like a silent appointment. What would you like to drink. Small things, and they make the difference between an hour you endure politely and an hour you actually enjoy.
A silent treatment is a completely normal request and nobody will find it awkward. Plenty of people come here precisely because they do not want to talk for an hour.
We also ask your pronouns and what you would like to be called. It is a small question and it means nobody has to correct us mid appointment.
Anything you want us to know
There is a space on the form for exactly this, and people use it in both directions. Sometimes it is good news. You passed your exams that morning and would like someone to be pleased for you. Sometimes it is difficult news you do not want to discuss, but you would rather we knew than not.
Either is welcome, and neither obliges you to talk about it. Knowing in advance simply means we can read the room properly instead of guessing.
On the day
Because the groundwork is done, we recap it verbally rather than starting from scratch. It sounds like this: so I can see you would like the heated blanket on, and you have some tightness in your shoulders. Do you want me to work hard on that, or just a little and then let you relax?
Two sentences, and now we both know what the next hour is. We keep checking in as we go, too, none of this is a single conversation at the beginning.