Last year around April / May, it was those days when I would pick up freelance jobs to get additional income. Needless to say, I got pretty excited when I stumble across job opportunities with fair pay. It was a day / 2 day hair show model job I found out about through a friend.
To be honest, the haircut does look a little bizarre and hard to blend in with the current normality. That's where the pay comes in I guess. After enquiry at the salon (located at Damansara Perdana), I was shown the hairstyle which I will get, informed about hair dye, requirement to be engaged for 2 days and of course the pay.
I was ready albeit a little reluctant about the change of hairstyle. I persuaded myself that I can always get a change or hairstyle later on if I want to. Proceed with it I did, and this is the outcome. Yes, it's the style of a punk rocker back to your momma's era. Looks fine.. but only on appearance.
It was the most horrific experience I ever had in all my experience of having a hair makeover in a salon. Something I did not expect at all to experience in this salon where they are distributors of big names of hair products.
Firstly, there was no communication between the team. My hair was bleached once, to strip off my current hair colour. The bleaching was a long process and it actually hurts because they applied it up to my roots and scalp. It was then dyed some super saiyan pink. Yes, pink like the cardigan on me in the above picture. Trust me, it definitely looks attention seeking, Nevermind this colour, I'll probably dye it off with a darker colour after the show.
However, to my horror, the hairstylist in charge of the show came over and told the head of the salon that this colour is not the one he wanted and this pink won't do. It was really mind boggling! After a short conversation, they compromise on the decision to give me another bleach tomorrow for a change of colour.
You have no idea how bad it was to have to hear this decision. Bleaching round two. Definitely gonna hurt like hell when the first one already hurts.
My hair is already wet (chinese proverb), the show has to go on. I brave my self towards the next day of bleaching. Horrible enough, again, they painted the bleach on my scalp. It feel exactly like adding salt to the wound, except that this is some freakin' chemical bleach! (sorry about my language but I still feel upset as I am writing this) Even when I told them it is hurting, they choose to tell me; this is not suppose to hurt, perhaps your scalp is sensitive. So it means I have to bear with it?
Deep down, I feel really disappointed, mad and stupid. Yes, stupid that I actually trusted this place to be professional and know what they are doing. If they are really experience and knowledgeable, I really don't know what to comment on their reaction towards me informing them of the burning sensation their bleach is causing me.
Even after the first bleach, I could feel a thick patch of dry skin on my scalp, their bleaching probably scalded my scalp. Which leads to why it was like sitting on a hell's chair during the second day of bleaching.
After the event, my scalp condition deteriorated even more. The condition of scalp on my sideburn keep drying up. Patches of dry scalp would peel off, just to be replaced with another layer of dry scalp. It was not like a wound healing over time. The picture itself also shows that the dye has even got into my flesh. That's how scalded my scalp is.
I contacted the person whom I liaise with and informed her about the condition this job left me with. She asked me to go over so that she could examine the problem and told me to come for treatment every week but I don't think that's feasible, considering that my home is so far away. Imagine going over there everyday takes more than 1 hour drive.. The petrol and time I have to sacrifice, and it all sums up to doing a job which instead of earning, will cause me to fork out money instead.
I went for the hair and scalp treatment which she told me can also be done at home as no machinery were used, instead just application of chemical, leave it for a period of time and wash off. Hair condition might have felt better but there was no improvement on the scalp.
2 months later, condition of scalp is still in the state of fluctuation. It gets a little bit better and then worse off again. Once a while, the condition got so bad that I get acne growing on my scalp as well. Honestly, it feels dreadful everyday.
Since they do not have the utensils to give proper professional treatment for my condition which I would deem serious and worrying, I asked if they do provide compensations so that I can go for proper treatment at a skin clinic. Instead, she told me to drop by for another round of examination and treatment. This time around, I was given a set of products to use at home;
1. La Biosthetique Shampooing Lipokerine - The shampoo does help to improve healing on the wound but it was still drying and hair feels coarse and dry too. I always dreaded when it was time to wash my hair because the experience was stressful. Imagine washing a head of coarse and tangles hair. I was told that no conditioning was needed but it left my hair in a mess.
2. La Biosthetique Lotion Ergines E - This lotion was cooling but once it dries off, the condition comes back exactly the same. It was good for soothing but do not really promote any improvement.
My scalp condition got better but it didn't heal completely. It healed to the stage where scalp on my sideburn was still dry with fine white flakes, and definitely itching all the time. When the itchiness was unbearable, I would lightly rub it with my finger and that will cause the fine dried skins (kinda like powder) to drop off and my scalp would sting again.
I am not gonna lie but since this incident at the salon, my confidence drop drastically and I became very self conscious. I would care about how I look even more and looking at my hair and scalp condition, I do get upset and it affects my mood for the day. It does make me feel stressful.
I would try to smile, style it off but most of the days, but deep down inside, it didn't feel good at all. It was bad hair day most of the time.
I didn't tell anyone about it and would brush it off when some one told me that my hair condition is horrible, just to not worry them and lie to myself that everything is fine, just to feel better.
On December 2015, I paid a visit to A Cut Above for a scalp treatment and the stylist told me that if this still doesn't help, I should definitely pay a visit to the doctor instead. Verdict, I paid a few hundred for the treatment and it didn't help. Stress.
In 2016, I stop using the shampoo they provided and changed to
Moist, Diane . Unknowingly, my condition started to improve. No more dry flakes and dandruff.
Finally, about 1 year later, the wound was pretty much healed. Every salon I went to, they told me my hair and scalp condition is not in a good shape. Only time can heal it overtime.
I have learnt my lesson not to trust even a salon who is a distributor of well-known brand products or a well-known salon. Never going to leave my hair and scalp in their hands anymore until I get a full detail of what they will be doing.
Glad that everything's finally returning to normal except for an inch of damaged hair.
I'm a happy girl now and my confidence is back. (:
Most importantly, learnt my lesson.
