Afro and textured hair, without having to explain it first.
Cuts, colour and treatments for Afro-Caribbean, mixed-race, curly and coily hair, from a hairdresser who has worked with it for twenty years. In the home salon in Yelling, or at home across Cambridgeshire and Bedfordshire.
You should not have to drive to London to get your hair cut.
One of the first things clients with Afro-Caribbean hair tell me is a story about another salon. The stylist who looked nervous. The one who suggested relaxing it before asking what the client actually wanted. The one who said "we don't really do that hair here." In a county as spread out as Cambridgeshire, finding a hairdresser who is confident with textured hair can mean an hour's drive to London or Peterborough, or giving up and doing it yourself.
It is rarely malice. It is training. A lot of UK hairdressing education has treated textured hair as a specialism rather than as hair, so a stylist can qualify, work for a decade and never once cut a coil. Faced with hair that behaves nothing like what they practised on, they hedge, suggest something safer, or say no.
I trained at Vidal Sassoon and I have worked with Afro-Caribbean, mixed and Asian hair for the whole of my twenty years, first in salons and now from my home salon in Yelling and on home visits across Cambridgeshire and Bedfordshire. This page is so you know exactly what you are booking before you sit down, including the things I do not do.
The consultation is longer, on purpose.
- 01
We talk first
How you wear it, whether you are natural, relaxed or transitioning, what is in your routine, and what you want more of.
- 02
Dry, then wet
Dry shows me the shape, the shrinkage and the density. Wet shows me the true length, the porosity and how much the pattern varies.
- 03
Cut in your pattern
Curly and coily hair is cut dry, in the shape you wear it, so it is right when you leave rather than only while it is stretched.
- 04
A routine you will keep
A wash day you can do in one sitting, with products you can buy locally or online. Nobody goes home with eight steps.
Textured hair is not one thing. Curl pattern, density, porosity and the history of what has been done to it all change what will work, and two people whose hair looks identical in a photo can need entirely different appointments. So the first ten minutes are spent listening rather than selling. If what you want and what your hair will do are different things, I will say so kindly and tell you what gets you closest.
Cut dry, in the shape you actually wear it.
I cut curly and coily hair dry, in its natural pattern, so the shape is right when you leave rather than only while it is stretched and wet. Cutting textured hair wet and hoping for the best is how people end up with a shape that looks nothing like it did in the mirror at the basin.
Layers go where they encourage the curl rather than fight it. I work with the shrinkage instead of pretending it is not there, so if you expect three inches to come off and only see one, that is the shrinkage doing what it does, and I will show you before I cut.
I take my time. A good curly cut should make wash day easier rather than harder. You should be able to wash it, apply your products and let it dry without needing to fix anything afterwards.
Moisture and strength are not the same thing.
Textured hair is dry by nature. The oils your scalp produces cannot travel down a coil the way they slide down a straight strand, so the ends are always furthest from help. Most of the damage I see does not come from the hair itself. It comes from heat, from tension and from dryness. Tight styles worn too long thin the hairline, and heat used to stretch hair every week quietly wears down the curl pattern, often years before anybody notices it has stopped coming back.
In the chair that means gentle detangling from the ends up with plenty of slip, and deep conditioning that goes on with heat and time rather than being rushed. Dryness wants moisture. Damage wants protein and bond repair. Give hair the wrong one and it feels worse, not better, so I check which is which before I open anything. When the bonds genuinely need rebuilding after colour or heat, that is an Olaplex treatment, not a default upsell.
The routine I send you home with is one you will still be doing in three months. Usually that is a wash day you can do in one sitting: a cleanser that does not strip, a conditioner you detangle in rather than after, a leave-in and a sealing product, and one deep treatment a week or a fortnight depending on how much you are asking of your hair. Satin or silk at night, always, because cotton takes the moisture straight back out. I only recommend products you can buy locally or online without a special trip.
Honey, caramel and copper on dark coils.
Colour on textured hair is some of my favourite work in twenty years of colouring. The technique changes, though. A highlight placed in straight-hair sections disappears on a curl, so I place colour with the pattern in mind and plan where the light will actually show when your hair is dry and in its own shape.
I also lift textured hair more conservatively in a single sitting. Coils are more fragile at the bend, which is where breakage starts, and keeping your curl pattern healthy matters more to me than getting a shade lighter in one afternoon. A big change happens across two or three sessions and your hair survives the journey.
Every colour service is on the hair colour and balayage page, and the same rule about a skin test 48 hours before your first colour applies to everybody.
Your hair, your choice, and no push either way.
If you are relaxed and happy, I will look after relaxed hair and watch the line of demarcation, where the relaxed lengths meet the new growth, because that is where breakage happens.
If you are transitioning, the two textures on one strand are the hard part. The answer is a plan rather than a single appointment: regular small cuts, a lot of moisture and low-manipulation styles while the new growth catches up. It takes a year or two, and I would rather be honest about that than sell you a shortcut.
If you are natural and just want somebody to cut it properly, that is one of my favourite appointments.
If you are weighing smoothing against going natural, both are reasonable. A keratin treatment is a valid choice and I will do it properly, but it should be a choice rather than something a salon defaulted you into. The difference between keratin and permanent straightening is worth reading first.
Braids, locs, weaves and extensions.
If you found this page looking for a mobile braider, I want to be straight with you. Braiding, locs, weaves and extensions are not on my services list, so I am not the person to put them in. I would much rather say that here than have you book, explain what you want, and find out in my chair.
What I am good for is everything around them. Braids, twists, cornrows and wigs all give your hair a rest, which is genuinely valuable. The trouble comes from two things: how tight they go in and how long they stay in. Too tight and you are trading length for edges, and traction damage at the hairline is the one kind of hair loss I cannot fix with a treatment. Left in too long, the hair that would normally shed in the shower stays trapped and matts at the root, which is why take-down day is when breakage happens.
So if you protective style regularly, book something in between: a wash, a proper deep treatment and a trim of any ends that have gone. It is the appointment that protects the length you are working so hard to grow.
For the parents who ask me quietly.
A fair number of my textured-hair appointments are for children, often booked by a parent whose own hair is a different texture and who has been fighting a losing battle with detangling. Nobody needs to apologise for not knowing. I would far rather show you than have you keep guessing.
Those appointments are mostly teaching. How to section before you start rather than after it has gone wrong. Detangling with conditioner in and fingers first. Which brush to throw away. A style that lasts the school week without being pulled tight enough to hurt. Children's cuts are on the services list, and I keep them short and calm, because a child who has had one bad haircut remembers it for years. A home visit helps here too: a child in their own front room is usually far calmer than one in a salon.
Listened to, and told the truth.
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I absolutely love Biba! After years of avoiding getting my hair cut after so many experiences of leaving and just hating it, I found Biba! She's so wonderful to chat to as she works, and I always leave absolutely loving how my hair looks, so much so I'm now finally (at 36!) having regular hair cuts!
Nikki Feller · Cut & Style · Google, November 2025
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I've been a client of Biba for a number of years. She always listens to what you would like and gives great advice on what can be achieved, she has such a cheerful personality, I feel very at ease with her, I consider her a friend & trust that my hair will look great - she's never let me down!
Lesley · Google, November 2025
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Biba is amazing. She brought my hair to life, she blow dried it and styled it so well. Really happy with her and she gives honest advice. Can't wait to go back to her for a blow dry and style
Jas Lali · Blow dry & style · Google, March 2026
My reviews are not tagged by hair type, so I am not going to pretend these are textured-hair clients. They are about what every appointment should feel like: being listened to and told honestly what is realistic. The rest are on the reviews page.
A quiet room in Yelling, or your own bathroom.
The home salon is at 10 High Street, Yelling, PE19 6SD, just off the A428. There is time and space to do textured hair properly, and you are the only person in the room. It is about ten minutes from St Neots, around 16 minutes from St Ives, around 17 from Huntingdon and around 19 from Cambourne, with somewhere to park.
Or I come to you, anywhere within roughly a 30 to 40 minute drive from Yelling, across Cambridgeshire and Bedfordshire. Several textured-hair clients prefer that, because their products and their bathroom are already there. Choose the Home Visit version of the service on Fresha, which adds the £10 call-out charge. How home visits work is on the mobile hairdressing page.
What a good appointment should feel like is simple. You should not have to explain your own hair to your hairdresser. Nobody should ask whether you have "considered relaxing it" when you did not raise it, or look surprised when you take your headwrap off. You should be listened to, told the truth about what is realistic, given a plan rather than a product list, and leave able to recreate roughly what you see in the mirror on your own, on a Tuesday morning.
If you have been let down before, book a consultation first. It costs nothing to talk, you will know within ten minutes whether I am right for your hair, and there is no pressure to book anything on the day. Or send me a photo and a question. The longer version of all this is in how I approach Afro and textured hair.
What people ask before they book.
Do you do Afro and Afro-Caribbean hair?
Yes. I have worked with Afro-Caribbean, mixed and Asian hair for the whole of my twenty-year career, in salons and now from my home salon in Yelling and on home visits. Cuts, colour and treatments on natural, relaxed and transitioning hair are all part of what I do.
Do you do braids, locs, weaves or extensions?
Those are not on my services list, so if you are looking for a braider or somebody to install locs, a weave or extensions, I am honestly not the right booking for that, and I would rather tell you now than waste your afternoon. What I can do is the appointment in between protective styles: a wash, a proper deep treatment and a trim of any ends that have gone, which is the one that keeps the length you are working to grow.
Do you cut curly hair wet or dry?
Dry, in its natural pattern. That way the shape is right when you leave, rather than only while it is wet and stretched. I work with the shrinkage too, so if you expect three inches to come off and only see one, that is the shrinkage, and I will show you before I cut.
Can you colour Afro or textured hair?
Yes, and beautifully. Warm honey, caramel and copper on dark coils are some of my favourite work. Colour is placed with the curl pattern in mind, and I lift textured hair more gently than straight hair in one sitting, because coils are more fragile at the bend. A big change happens across two or three sessions. You will need a skin test 48 hours before your first colour with me.
Will you try to talk me into relaxing my hair?
No. I do not push anyone either way. If you are relaxed and happy, I will look after it and watch the line where the relaxed and new hair meet, which is where breakage happens. If you are transitioning, we make a plan. If you are natural and just want somebody to cut it properly, that is one of my favourite appointments.
Can you help with my child's curly hair?
Yes, and a fair number of my textured-hair appointments are for children, often booked by a parent whose own hair is a different texture. Those appointments are mostly teaching: sectioning first, detangling with conditioner in and fingers first, which brush to throw away, and a style that lasts the school week without being pulled tight enough to hurt. Nobody needs to apologise for not knowing.
Can you come to my house?
Yes. Book the Home Visit version of the service on Fresha, which adds the £10 call-out charge, and I will come to you anywhere within roughly a 30 to 40 minute drive from Yelling. Several textured-hair clients prefer it, because their own products and their own bathroom are already there. I rinse at your sink or in your shower.
What if I have been let down by a salon before?
Then book a consultation first. It costs nothing to talk, you will know within ten minutes whether I am the right person for your hair, and there is no pressure to book anything on the day. You can also send me a photo and a question before you book anything at all.
Book a cut, colour or consultation.
In the home salon in Yelling or as a home visit. If you have been let down before, start with a consultation, or send me a photo and a question first.