Experiencing Shinjuku Premium Salon

I was given a chance to try some services at Shinjuku Premium salon. About time. My hair could use another smoothing session as the roots had grown too long already. So there I was, with Nisa, getting a hair makeover.

Shinjuku Premium is located in Kuningan City Mall and just recently opened in Jakarta. Nevertheless, if you happen to live in Surabaya the name must be familiar to you. The salon is sponsored by L'oreal therefore they use L'oreal pro products, a brand I can always count on for haircare. My first encounter with the salon impressed me. I love the ambiance as it feels comfortable. Afterall, salon is a place for me-time. Comfort is key.

I was getting hair makeover together with Nisa. Before decided about what to do, we consulted with Audid, the owner of the salon. Besides smoothing, he suggested an idea to highlight my hair. But being a faint-hearted that I am, I backed out (although I am considering it now). So he decided to cut my bangs straight as it would go together with my medium-length straight hair. The image of Nicole Scherzinger came to mind, so I agreed. On top of all, I just wanted a low-maintainance hair as I spend too much time doing my makeup (or, you know, sleep), I usually have just a very short time to do hair.

Smoothing session, like always, was long and boring. Thank God I had some of my friends there so I spent a lot of my time chitchating. Nisa, Franky and Stella were there as we came straight to the salon right after blogger gathering. Franky was so funny, waiting for me and Nisa, constantly telling us that our hair look good. I wasn't sure if he was being honest or just telling us sweet-nothing, but hey, even false compliments feel good! LOL. The smoothing solution applied not too close to the root to avoid the final result from being too flat. And the good news? I don't have to wait three days to wash my hair. Oh that means a lot! The first three days after smoothing are the days that I hate the most. My hair look flat, oily and these are the times that I usually avoid meeting friends. Just to be sure, I waited a day before I washed my hair. And it says in shape up until now.

After the smoothing session, I got my bangs cut. It was a straight bangs with curve on both ends to shape my face also hid my chubby cheeks. Works well especially when I put my hair into ponytail. I love the final result. If you think a simple thing like get a hair bangs won't make a difference, think again. 

Here's how my hair looked like before the whole process started. To be fair, I straightened my hair before I visited the salon because I was attending blogger gathering first.

 

Here's how the hair looked like, right after makeover. The roots still too flat and stiff as I just finished smoothing session.

And here's basically how the bangs looked like

After the makeover, Audid blowed dry my hair loosely. He said, the concept is, the way my hair looks like as I left the salon is how my hair is gonna look like on daily basis. And I must say I love the result. I received compliments from my friends, told me I look younger, which is my aim from the beginning.

That was a pleasant experience at Shinjuku Premium and I am one happy customer. Highly recommended. If you're thinking about doing hair makeover, feel free to consult with Audid first. He has good taste in hairstyle.

Shinjuku Premium

Kuningan City Mall Lt.1 #58

(021) 3048.0775

www.shinjukuhairmake.com

My Experience: Sunsilk Hair Studio

Two weeks ago Fashionesedaily held a giveaway to try Sunsilk Hair Studio and I was one of the lucky winners. I received two vouchers so I asked my sis to come. Sunsilk Hair Studio is a pop-up salon that opened at Grand Indonesia for a month, if I'm not mistaken. I'm not gonna go through about the salon. This post is just going to be about my experience while visiting.

The "Menu"

The before shot.
Me and my sis decided to do creambath. We arrived very late at Grand Indonesia so I expected that it will be crowded and we will have to wait. After fifteen minutes, our turn finally came. I was called to have my hair washed first. I experienced an unpleasant first impression. The woman who wash my hair asked me,

• her: what service do you want?
• me: creambath.
• her: ooh.. creambath. okay. you look so pretty
• me: oh.. haha..
• her: are you a celebrity? *huh? what?!*
• me: *grin* *awkward silent*
• her: are you? are you celebrity? *okay, stop pushing!*
• me: ... no
  

Okay, at this point I wasn't sure whether she was being nice or trying to kiss someone's back or just plain mocking me. And her tone didn't help either. Seriously, is it an appropriate way to talk to customer? And honestly I was annoyed. Nobody asked if anyone's a celebrity! If I was, you'll see me on TV already! Let's just leave it at that. Geez! The next thing she was busy chitchatting with her friend. Thankfully there was no follow through from that stupid conversation.

I decided to do a creambath that day because honestly I need a massage. I really don't care about my scalp as I didn't think I have any problem in that area. I asked the guy who did my hair, what cream that he use and he said he didn't know because there was only one cream that they use for creambath in that salon. They just use what's already provided. Okay. Apparently I'm using a hair product with questionable benefits... in a salon.

And the massage? Don't even ask. The guy is very nice but I really think that he needs to be trained on how to do a scalp massage without making the customer thinking that he was gonna crush someone's head. Yes I asked him to lessen the pressure a little bit. But still, not only it's forceful it's also not relaxing. I've been a loyal customer of massage parlors, I know how a massage should feel.

And then blow drying came afterwards. I was pretty skeptical when the guy separated my hair into sections, blowdrying and then place the already dried hair together with the wet hair section. No one ever blowdry like that whenever I'm in a salon. But the result came out nicely and it lasted until the next day so that was a relief.

But to sum up, it wasn't a pleasant experience for me.

And since I came with my sister, I think it's only fair to hear her review as well.

"When I heard about Sunsilk Hair Studio from twitter, I was kinda curious. I mean i heard about pop up café, but pop up salon seemed new to me. So when I came there with my sister at first I was surprised that it didn't look so pop-up-ish, the space was prepared quite nicely which made the salon seemed to have been there all the time.

Well, first thing first, since it's named after the hair care brand, I was expecting something more. I used Sunsilk long time ago back in junior high if I'm not mistaken. And I used to love their yellow colored line, it smelled so nice. This time in the hair studio, I mentioned to the "shampoo-ing" lady what my hair problem was, but I didn't see her picking anything special according to my problem. I think she just used the same product for everyone. I thought "what's the point on asking question?" The shampoo-ing process went so-so, I kinda like that she's polite but not too chatty, I hate when people try to talk too much during treatment. She mentioned that everyone kept coming all day, so everyone's so busy. This one didn't leave any special impression to me.

Then off to the creambath session. Once again I noticed the guy didn't ask again what my hair problem was. I don't know, I assume he had the shampoo girl informing him about it? And again, he didn't ask me to pick between their various treatments, he just went ahead and start putting things on my hair. I am quite sensitive about putting hair mask on my scalp, I believe they're supposed to be applied on the hair strands, and putting it on the scalp will most probably result in dandruff or dryness, so it made me uneasy when he just started putting products everywhere on my head. And to put it shortly, I could do better without the so-called massage. Usually people in hair salons ask whether you just want a warm towel or steamer, and I tend to go for warm towel because my hair is dry. This guy just put the steamer right away so I just rolled my eyes *really!*

Then after rinsing, came the drying process. THIS is the one that left very special impression to me. Please be aware that I really hate this drying process. In fact, if I knew they'd do this to my hair, I'd rather came home with drenched hair. Yes, it's that bad. Here's why. I go to work everyday and I use hair iron each and every day at least to fix the tip of my hair, to make it shape nicer. Even by doing that every morning, I've never seen my hair looked so suffering. Usually when you want to use heat products so close to your hair, you have to make sure your hair is COMPLETELY dry. When you're still drying with hair dryer, you gotta maintain the distance so you won't sizzle your hair. Even more when you're using hair iron or curler. But this guy just dry my hair from safe distance for like less than a minute, then reached out for a brush, started to style my hair (it's not even HALF wet, it's still soooo wet) and put the hairdryer's end soooo close to my hair. Yes it's shaped nicely afterwards, but I was really concerned at how frizzy my hair ended up. Every strands' ends was making unhealthy little curls. Sorry, I got emotional every time I have to reminisce about this. All in all I got so disappointed with the result, cuz going to a hair studio, you expected your hair to be treated better than you do at home, but this….???

I appreciated the free product and photoshoot, but they didn't even pick the product especially for each and every one. It's just there, I got the curly something shampoo which I gave away. I think based on this review you'd understand that I won't go there for creambath treatment anymore (HA!), I'm kinda curious about the QiQi Franky make up, but as for hair (even if it has Sunsilk on the marquee), the moral of the story is: better to do it by myself at home."

After the treatment.

All the treatments were given for free, thanks to the vouchers. We received one Sunsilk shampoo as complimentary and a chance to take picture.


It was supposed to be the last day of the salon but from what I heard they are extending it. According to the staff, it was because of the high demand. Well, okay... Good for them. Although I do wish there's an improvement on the service.