Find me a decent hair salon please

Hair Salons in Singapore will lose money having me as their patron. I have not had my hair cut professionally since just before Christmas of last year!

I did neaten my own edges somewhere in March but that’s about it. It’s not that I’m cheapskate but I’ve just NOT yet found a satisfactory hairdresser that can make me not feel bad when I leave the salon(for a reasonable price). I found one across the causeway but he's very expensive and I haven’t yet given up hope on finding one on our own shores.

As I’m trying to outgrow a disastrous cactus short hairstyle from last year, I’ve let it sort of grown out into a bob with the ends just barely touching my collar. It’s been low maintenance for me; purely wash and go, which actually suits my busy lifestyle. My hair has just been able to look acceptable for the past half year. The BEST part is, for the past 6 months, I’ve not had to contend with the sickening feeling in the pit of my stomach after a disastrous visit to a hair salon. In short, I’ve not had to feel unhappy about my hair. Besides, I’ve discovered that Pantene really does work wonders for your hair (and I’m not sponsored by them to say this!)

Back to my point. Since moving to our new place, our family discovered that a much talked about hair salon touting CHEAP haircuts (I mean below 4 bucks!) was a short walk away.

Mike was the first to try it. He thought the resulting hair cut was so-so but acceptable since it was cheap. Being the guy that he is and having had me as his hairdresser SINCE we met (right up till cheap $10 hair cuts sprouted up and I became too lazy to sweep up the cut hair), he thought it was value for money. I’ve never been trained but I’ve been cutting people’s hair since secondary school days. My secondary school classmates might recall our principal informing during weekly assembly that cut hair had been found in the classrooms and the school was offering to pay for anyone who couldn’t afford hair cuts! (Yes! That was me! That was me!) I continued getting requests from my Junior College friends because they had seen my self-cut hair and it wasn’t all that bad (even if I do say so myself)!

Sceptic that I am, I looked at Mike’s spiky haircut and could spot the bochap, random cutting with a tooth-edged scissors. To me, that’s a lazy hair cutting method. After all, it’s my personal opinion that real cutting skills is from wielding of a pair of NORMAL scissors and NOT using that tooth-edged thingy; even when you want to ‘thin’ or layer the hair.

Anyway, after Mike, my domestic helper tried it; she was happy with her haircut. So I thought, what the heck. I’ve been thinking about getting a light perm for my ends so they can outgrow the short length in a sort of camouflage fashion (you know, kinder to the eyes cos you can’t sport the unevenness etc).

I stepped into the salon last evening. There was a queue of about 6 people ahead of me. I had expected it. When they discovered I wanted a perm, I got bumped ahead to the front of the queue. (Wow, I didn’t see that coming). I sat down and that was when I was informed that I was considered ‘LONG HAIR’ (but it’s barely touching my collar!) so I’d have to pay the ‘long hair’ price. What!? What do you call a person whose hair is touching her waist then? Then they tell me, for their list price for a perm, it meant using ‘lousy’ perm lotion so I was advised to get better perm lotion by doing what else….paying more. What!?

In the end, I felt compelled to pay about $40 more than the list price. I picked a lotion brand I could recognize from a list of unrecogniseables. Then another surprise, the lotion I had picked was out-of-stock. Would I like to take the lotion that was $140 more than the listed price? That, of course was in stock.

I remained calm and hesitated too long. So the lady encouraged me to colour my hair instead. I looked at the list price (it was cheaper than a perm) and thought it was reasonable so why not. Ha ha. It was not to be. Surprise, surprise. The list price was for ‘lousy’ colour lotion. It would make my hair dry. Why not pay a bit more and use a better known brand’s colour tints. Sigh. Suffice to say, I didn’t go home with what I had come to get.

Oh and before I left, the hairdresser said, “Did you know, I didn’t use the colour you had chosen.”
(what!?)
“Isn’t this nicer?”
I asked her how I would know what colour to ask for in the future for a touch-up.
Her reply, ‘Eh, I don’t know’.

Well, you get what you pay for. If you just want a cheap cut; any style also can, then go for it. Their service sucks an their standard isn’t that great either. I discovered a whole chunk of unwashed hair dye in my ears when I went home!

All I ask for in a hair salon, is to make me feel good when I leave.
By the way, my bob is clearly lop-sided. It’s longer on the left than on the right.
I doubt if I'll be visiting another hair salon for another 6 months.