3 Things We Learnt About Salons From Legally Blonde

Whether you’re a fan of the flick or not, every beauty therapist gets a kick out of watching those infamous salon scenes in Legally Blonde.

Oh Elle, you beautiful genius, you.
Oh Elle, you beautiful genius, you.

When sorority queen and legal-gun-in-the-making Elle (played by Reese Witherspoon) first stepped into Neptune’s Beauty Nook, no one knew it would make film history.

Besides introducing us to a whole new move for picking up guys, fun-loving manicurist Paulette (Jennifer Coolidge) and her ever-loyal client, Elle taught us a few things about the institution of the salon. Here are our top three faves:

1. Salon girls have more fun The hilarious and iconic ‘Bend and Snap’ scene in which Elle teaches everyone in the salon her fail-safe man-attracting trick, may not have completely captured reality (spontaneous group choreography isn’t exactly a regular thing when your clients aren’t professional dancers), but it did highlight the fact that working in a salon is often a lot of fun. We mean, who hasn’t pumped up some Calvin Harris in their waiting area on a Friday afternoon?

2. What happens in the salon, stays in the salon Some serious dirt was dished over nail polish in Elle’s favourite salon. Be it Paulette spilling that she was crushing hard on the mail boy (Hubba, hubba, did you check out those khaki shorts?) or Elle confessing she was doubting her career choices (To be cute…or to have an actual job…that is the question), it revealed the very real confessional code of the beauty parlour: what’s said in the salon, stays in the salon. Unless it’s a real gossip gem, then it’s up for grabs.

3. You never know when salon expertise might come in handy Proving an intricate knowledge of beauty procedures needn’t be reserved exclusively for the salon – who can forget the infamous court scene where Elle triumphantly combined her legal and salon expertise to bring a murderer to justice?

“Isn’t the first cardinal rule of perm maintenance that you’re forbidden to wet your hair for at least 24 hours after getting a perm at the risk of deactivating the immonium thygocolate? …And if in fact you weren’t washing your hair, wouldn’t you have heard the gunshot?”

Sheer brilliance, Elle. Sheer brilliance.

Okay, okay so your pedicure skills may not get you out of jury duty any time soon, but in the meantime, this move might help you out of a few parking tickets…

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