Hey Spiralli,
I've been going to Valdeh twice a year since my first post in this thread in September of '08. I've been very happy with my experiences with him. The first time I went, I had recently decided I wanted to try and grow to waist length. He was supportive, and encouraged me to grow out my layers since it was looking rather thin on the ends. I was at BSL with layers as short as APL.
What you might be interested to know is that he has recently begun to carry the Devacurl products in his salon, and he is working toward becoming a Deva-trained stylist. The last time I went to see him, around January, he did a Deva-style dry cut on my ends.
I'm posting three links:
- one is my hair just before I went to see Valdeh for the first time - note that this is a standard layered cut that was done by another stylist.
- an intermediate shot from about 6 months ago that shows the layers I was growing out
- and a recent pic (from yesterday actually) that shows how my length has progressed - no more layers and at my goal length.
Go ahead and make that appointment - you won't be disappointed!