El's Hair Update

Hello lovely people!

It's already Sunday. I can't believe it'll be Monday again so soon.

Here's the post about my hair that I promised way back in December. Sorry it took so long, because there were so many events in between that I wanted to write about first. Also, this post is quite long since I put in a slight review of the salon I went to. It was a good salon, hence I'm writing it in. If you're just interested in how my hair looks like, just scroll all the way down to the section titled 'Living with Curls'.

If you haven't noticed or realised, I've had my hair permed and coloured! This wonderful hairstyle of mine is thanks to Fion from 99 Percent Hair Studio@Haji Lane. I'm in my salon hopping phase still, so I visit different salons in search of THE salon for me. If you have read my previous hair post, I had  mentioned that I went to I*CON Shunji Matsuo by Lily Xu@ FEP to cut my hair short. The experience there was pretty good, but I'm always trying to find a better one(aka cheap and good). It's like my constant search for the holy grail of all foundation/skincare. If you're interested in 99 Percent Hair Studio, you can check out their Facebook page here.

99 Percent HS is not cheap in my opinion, but at least I'm really happy with my experience there. I spent around 6 hours there. 6 HOURS. That's like one of the longest time I've ever spent in a salon. Thus it was lucky that I had a good experience there. It was also nice that my friend came along as she wanted to get her hair coloured. Thus we had each other for entertainment, even though it did get boring at times.

Why a perm?
My hair is naturally wavy/frizzy. I go for rebonding every now and then to get my hair tamed. My mum prefers the silky straight hair look, so I've never really gone for a perm. However, I had this sudden epiphany one day. 'Won't a perm be better since my hair roots grow out curly/wavy?" I was also sick of flat, black hair. I became convinced that a perm will be better. It took some effort to convince my mum before she gave me the green light to go ahead.

I booked an appointment at 1pm (11 Dec) with the salon, but ended up reaching later. The salon was pretty busy. It's a small but cosy salon. It's located in Haji Lane itself, so if you're waiting for your hair colour to set in, you can always go out and shop for a while. Haha. I booked Fion since her skills are highly reviewed!

 Anyway, I told Fion that I wanted to perm my hair and maybe even colour it if possible. Usually, it is advised that people don't get colouring and perming/rebonding done in one sitting because that can seriously damage the hair. I was able to perm and colour at one go though, because Fion said my hair was strong enough. I told her how I wish for my hair to look like and she gave me a couple suggestions. We discussed for a while and she also showed me pictures of what to expect. Cool fact: she told me that if I coloured my hair and then perm, the perm solution will lighten up some parts of my hair, resulting in slight highlights! I thought this was pretty ingenious. After that, she gave me the colour book to pick a colour and left me. It was almost an hour till she got back to me (she had so many customers' hair to do!). It was such a long wait that me and my friend got bored talking to each other. Haha.  Thankfully, Fion returned! I was stuck between 2 shades of brown (yep. brown has more than one shade) but managed to pick one quickly.

This is kind of how my hair looked like before cutting. Black hair. Flat. Help.

We finally got down to the wash and cut phase. Whew. That was a long wait. The washing part was ok. It didn't hurt or anything. On a side note, the shampoo smells really gooooood. So with my hair washed, Fion got down to cutting my hair. The first thing she did impressed me. She didn't ask me where my parting was and got it right at first go! This might be insignificant to you, but a huge relief for me. Usually, I would get stressed when hairstylists ask me where's my parting, because I don't know it exactly myself. (I just figure it out somehow while drying my hair) As a result, I would end up with weird strands poking out when I do not get back to the same parting after the haircut. Thus imagine my relief that she got my parting right without asking me. It shows that she actually noticed where's my parting before she washed my hair. Or maybe she decided it on her own. Or maybe she just got lucky.

Moving on, this is how my hair looked like after it got cut:

a tiny picture of me from my chair. Hair's not looking that great yet.

After that, I got my hair coloured. I had to sit and wait for almost an hour for the colour to sink in.

My new hair colour! If you're wondering about the book, it's James Joyce's Dubliners, which is a good read:)

Next, the perm solution was applied to my hair and left to sit. I had to do digital perm, because of my rebonded hair. According to Fion, the cream that is used in rebonding can only be 'overwritten' by the solution used in digital perm because they're the same cream. Worst still, my hair is resistant to chemical treatments, so she had to leave the solution in a little longer.

Waiting for the perm solution to sink in... Here's a super unglam photo.

Next, she used a curling wand to curl my hair. I was surprised since I expected those rollers that you see in dramas. I had a slight shock seeing how tight the curls were initially. After Fion loosened the curls, they looked much better. A bit of styling cream and some fussing later, a beautiful head of curls is born.

And now I'm done! Yay!

So that's how my hair looked right after the salon visit. Honestly, I wasn't totally wowed by my hair initially. I really like the colour, but wasn't too sure about the curls.

The whole trip cost me around $289, after paying for membership and using the discounts that comes with it. Fion charged me lower than the listed price for colouring and perm as my hair was short. Anyway, I paid more than this when I went to get my rebonding done at Jean Yip with my long hair, so I saw it as paying for my yearly rebonding.(Jean Yip's silk rebonding is the only rebonding treatment that looked good and didn't dry the hair up like crazy).
However, the curls looked alot better loosened out a few washes later. My love for my hair grows each day. Plus, I've received many compliments for my hair (Yay!).

My hair a few washes later~ Can you tell that the curls have nicely loosened to look slightly more natural now?

Living with Curls
2 months later, I'm still in love with my hair. My roots has grown out somewhat, but I really like the curls. My hair has that nice swishy feeling when I shake my head. Having colour and perm done haven't seriously damaged my hair. My hair doesn't get tangled much and my ends are not dry(despite how it might look). I got the volume and lightweight look that I wanted. The bonus is that I wake up with pretty much amazing hair on most days. Who knew curls are so fuss free(for me at least)? To maintain my hair, I just do my usual routine of shampoo and deep conditioning every other day. I make sure to blow dry my scalp and the hair near the scalp, leaving the ends to air dry. The curls spring back after the hair's dry. On days when I really want to enhance the curls, I add a bit of mousse.

My hair after adding in some mousse. My curls are still not fully dry so it's not poofy yet. My hair gets curlier the next day.Bedhead+mousse=Curls galore
(Btw, this is me barefaced, aka no foundation. I love how clear my skin is right now. HAHA)

Caring Hair Expert Contour  Styling Mousse, It contains hair conditioner which helps keep my ends soft. I got this from a Watsons in Bangkok for 64baht (I think). I think this mousse is not bad. It doesn't give that 'crispy' feel that some brands do.

Thanks for staying with me till the end of the post. I know it has been a very long post(but it's a detailed post about my 6 hours long trip that has been condensed into a 5 minute read). I hope my story has contributed to your own research on hairsalons and hairstyles that you might want to try out in the future. For those looking to try out 99 Percent Hair Studio, I highly recommend Fion ^^(but do book an appointment before you go, since they can be really busy). So what do you think about my hair? Do you like curls or straight hair? Feel free to comment or tweet me (@yangel0130)!

Till next time,
Love,
El   xoxo