Review: 41743 Hair Salon
Posted by MeganL,
Heartlake City has had two hair salons in its ten year history. I suppose, with the new generation, that a hair salon was on the must list. 41743 Hair Salon is the most expensive and largest of the three salons. Surprisingly, I don't have either of the previous salons, so this is my first build experience for a Heartlake City coiffeur.
Summary
41743 Hair Salon, 401 pieces.
£39.99 / $39.99 / €44.99 | 10.0p/10.0c/11.2c per piece.
Buy at LEGO.com »
The latest rendition of a Heartlake hair salon with another standard build
- Great architectural details
- Alternate expression for Paisley
- Unclear purpose for the auxiliary builds
The set was provided for review by LEGO. All opinions expressed are those of the author.
Inside the box there are four bags, one 8x16 plate, an instruction book, and a sticker sheet. Based on the stickers, it appears the target clientele is more than teenage girls.
There's a map included that shows the location of the hair salon. It looks like Olly and Paisley are neighbours!
Minidolls
The three minidolls in this set are Olly, Nadia, and Paisley. Olly has a different outfit on than we've seen before; he has on a white shirt with teal sleeves, and the shirt also has a large paisley pattern. He has grey pants and two toned shoes. His most stylish accessory is the lavender crossbody bag, which matches well with his purple glasses. How did I not notice his glasses were purple before? Nadia continues the trend of Friends characters having terrific hair with her bright pink coif. She's clearly the salon owner, as she has a comb and scissors tucked into the belt of her outfit; a white shirt topped with a yellow and blue cardigan. Like Olly, she's wearing a delicate necklace. I love that her shoes match her hair!
Paisley has on a fuchsia short sleeved shirt with a horseshoe pattern paired with her bell bottom jeans. I really like her hairstyle that falls over one eye. The back of the minidolls features some nice printing - I particularly like the details of Olly's crossbody bag.
Each minidoll comes with some extra accessories - Olly has an electric scooter and helmet, and Nadia has yet another pair of scissors. This set tells the story of Paisley's visit to the salon - so she's provided an extra expression and a new hairstyle! Based on her expression, I'm not sure if she likes it or not.
The completed model
There are three smaller builds included in the model - a parking spot for the scooter, a sign showing the hours of operation for the salon, and a park bench with a distinctive lamp. I suspect we might see this style lamp post on other sets in this neighbourhood. With the exception of the sign, though, I'm not sure why we have a scooter, parking area, and a bench included with a hair salon set.
The front of the salon is dominated by a large pair of brick built scissors - something that's been included in every Heartlake hair salon so far. The most distinctive part of the build are the clear ceilings, and the flower atrium in the centre. I like how the designers include really inventive architectural touches in smaller Friends sets this year. I'm not sure why there is a gumball machine on the sidewalk outside the hair salon, but I like the touch of whimsy.
The back of the building shows the business end of the operation.
The styling station has a very fancy chair with a hair processing attachment overhead. A nearby whiteboard shows the styles on offer.
The clientele can vary widely!
(Note: sloths not included in this set. But now we know how they got so colourful!)
Another angle of the styling station shows a bottle of product on the floor, and a mirror, provided by a sticker. Alas, it's not a reflective sticker.
The centre reception area features a cash register and some cash (which can be the cost of getting your hair styled in some higher cost of living areas), some styling products, and a sticker showing different styles available at the shop.
The other side of the salon is a wash station, with the same nice upholstery but a lower back. A nearby broom is handy for cleanup.
A removable stand shows some of the hair options available, including Paisley's alternative hairstyle.
The brick built scissors are quite impressive, which is fixed above the plant-filled atrium.
There are a number of plants which make for a nice decorative touch to the salon.
Overall thoughts
Getting your hair done is a classic play scenario for many girls, so it's logical that the Friends line would want to recreate this moment. I like that this set continues the story telling we're seeing - this time Paisley going to the salon to try a new hairstyle.
This salon is more robust than the previous Heartlake Salons, with more interior space and a washing station as well as a styling station. There are some nice new coloured parts - notably the spring green window frames, among others, so it could be a nice parts pack. A parts list can be found here.
Having a salon every few years seems to be a staple in the Friends world, and this set ticks that box. It's a decent set, and will undoubtedly please some Friends fans, but I think there are better offerings in the Friends line in this first wave.
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23 comments on this article
Well, the hairstyles are good, but how exactly do you cut plastic hair with plastic dull scissors and then comb it?
I absolutely love the fact that those quarter-dome panels are available in trans-clear again.
The Friends designers have truly mastered colors. There are so many colors in just the building, and none of them feel out of place at all. It’s all just so fun to look at.
Paisley's extra expression is delightfully ambiguous and adds a whole new level to the set's play experience. The designers must have had fun with that.
My daughters were not interested in this build. There were others that caught their eyes, especially the individual rooms. Any chance of doing a review for those, maybe an all in one review?
They do already have one of the hair salons, which worked perfectly with the Everyone Is Awesome set with multiple colored hair elements.
I would like to see this Friends range expand beyond some of the more generic themes of beauty parlors and pet clinics. The last range of Friends theme were great for that! But is understandable for the first wave of the new Friends theme.
Still waiting for the FRIENDS set where all the characters are replaced by sloths, in honor of our resident Brickset FRIENDS expert.
Nice review! One correction — not EVERY hair salon has had brick-built scissors on its sign. The exception is 3187, which didn't have "Salon" in its name, but can be identified as one from both its contents and the product description.
The salon interior hosts a great assortment of important features, though kind of wish the hair dryer chair's hood used a more dome-shaped piece like https://brickset.com/parts/design-35322 for added authenticity. Also, as I've stated in some of the other reviews, it's a real shame none of this year's Friends sets use foil-backed stickers for their mirrors, especially this one! Having an actual reflective surface would add a lot to the impact of Paisley seeing her new hairstyle!
The exterior is where this set really shines compared to past salons. The domed skylights are not only gorgeous, but also a real blast from the past for those of us who grew up with the older version of these clear quarter-dome window panels in sets like 6416! The Dark Azur, Spring Yellowish Green, Bright Purple, and Flame Yellowish Orange color palette also feels really fresh and energetic.
While the street furniture like the scooter parking space, bench, gumball machine, and lamppost are kind of tangential to the salon setting, they are very nicely constructed, and the gorgeous Medium Nougat cobblestones help to tie the scene together. I hope we see more of this cobblestone pattern in future Heartlake City locales!
The the clothing of the two main mini-doll characters suits their personalities very nicely, and I particularly love the new mold for Paisley's bell bottoms! Nadia is also looking just as creative and fashionable as I'd expect a hairdresser to be. That said, it is surprising that neither Nadia's hair nor the two alternate hairstyles provided in the salon include accessory holes for hair decs — especially since in the past, those sorts of hair accessories were such a common feature for both the Friends theme in general and hair salon sets in particular.
All in all, this is one of the less exciting new sets to me in terms of subject matter, since there have been so many hair salon sets in the past with an equal or greater range of hair salon features. But despite that, its unique design language does a great job setting it apart visually from past salons, while remaining a perfect fit for Heartlake City's fun and colorful aesthetics.
Moreover, as with the diner, the set really contributes to this entire wave's "new beginning" vibes by depicting a very traditional sort of LEGO Friends subject matter in a new and creative way! It makes me very eager to see what other familiar subjects and settings from the theme's past might get a new lease on life in the years to come!
Quite the advancement from 230
This is what I ment another great set with builds that will be lost because kid will not use them as they are not conected...
I guess this is located in a Park, based on the map and the terrain seeminly bordered by "Dirt" path , and LEGO wanted to have the park setting instead of a street by adding those seperate side builds.
Sort of like how the tree and bench builds in 30412 : Park Picnic are seperated as well.
As a set it doesn't seem to add that much more hair salon features compared to the much cheaper 41391 : Heartlake City Hair Salon so most of the budget here seems to go to the large structure with big windows, and detailed side terrain/greenhouse.
Still, I can appreciate that the blue pillars are built out of seperate 1x2 bricks and not just 1x2x5 bricks and the small windows being built up from multiples. Often, Friends and City sets can be dominated by pillars and panels but that has changed a litle bit lately outside of specific 4+ sets, there seem to be more regular bricks.
I think the side builds could easily have been part it's own Park set however, but the terrain here at least is better then the purple floor exterior from the Diner.
@ItisNoe said:
"Well, the hairstyles are good, but how exactly do you cut plastic hair with plastic dull scissors and then comb it?"
Yeah, something like a blowtorch would have made more sense, just melt it in shape!
(maybe not the best idea for a toy though....)
OT: seems like a decent set, though €45 seems a bit much to me. But my main issue is that it feels like they done this style of building a bit too often, it feels like the same thing with another sign on top.
@WizardOfOss said:
"
OT: seems like a decent set, though €45 seems a bit much to me. But my main issue is that it feels like they done this style of building a bit too often, it feels like the same thing with another sign on top."
Agreed the price is a bit steep, same for this year's Supermarket ( 41729 : Organic Grocery Store ).
But aside from the Cat Hotel (an exclusive), it seems this theme gets regular discounts.
@TeriXeri said:
"Agreed the price is a bit steep, same for this year's Supermarket ( 41729 : Organic Grocery Store ).
But aside from the Cat Hotel (an exclusive), it seems this theme gets regular discounts."
True, but most Friends sets used to be great value to start with AND then still got a nice discount on top of that ;-)
This new wave is as if for each section of a build they literally spin a roulette with all available colors and get no take-backs when a color clashes terribly.
That said, can't wait to Bricklink those quarter-dome trans-clear panels.
@shedjed said:
"I would like to see this Friends range expand beyond some of the more generic themes of beauty parlors and pet clinics. The last range of Friends theme were great for that! But is understandable for the first wave of the new Friends theme."
The skate park, school, grocery store, diner, bubble tea stand, flower and design stores and the bedrooms (among others) aren't enough variety in subject matter?
This is one of my least favourite sets of this wave and it kind of feels a bit 'pre-reboot' in its colour scheme (the amount of pink, especially on street furniture, does that for me).
@shedjed said:
"My daughters were not interested in this build. There were others that caught their eyes, especially the individual rooms. Any chance of doing a review for those, maybe an all in one review?"
I have all four of the rooms. I've been saving doing them, partly because I can't decide whether to do the reviews separately or all together.
@MeganL said:
" @shedjed said:
"My daughters were not interested in this build. There were others that caught their eyes, especially the individual rooms. Any chance of doing a review for those, maybe an all in one review?"
I have all four of the rooms. I've been saving doing them, partly because I can't decide whether to do the reviews separately or all together."
I would be more interested in together. But your are the expert! Thanks for the response. I, and my daughters, are excited for it either way.
I like the exterior, but the interior is a little lacking for me - the roof looks unfinished with just the domes, and the greenery in that space is a little odd!
The side builds are nice though, especially that lamp.
I think this is only the second time the pink Hermione hair has appeared, since 40516.
Not too many hair pieces :-/.
I already have 41093 (which I bought because of the '90s color scheme and to get the Wyldstyle hair in a new color,) so I don't have a huge amount of interest in actually obtaining this set, but it does look good. Also, I am interpreting the paisley pattern on Olly's shirt as an indication that he he has a crush, or maybe that the two are fully an item.
C'mon! The teal sloth has to be in the chair.
Let it all blend in...
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