vibes

The salon is at the heart of Hongdae, a 24-hour neighborhood bustling with shops, college students, tourists, and street performers. The salon provides an escape from the chaos outside with its serene ambiance provided by groovy Korean music and modern-minimal decor. Something about the pairing of millennial pink and teal, the gold accents, white marble flooring, and fluorescent strip/globe lighting made me scream inside like a little girl. It really created the perfect setting for a luxury hair salon experience.

The staff was amazing in terms of accommodating my needs and making me feel comfortable. They walked me through every step of the way and made sure that I understood what was going on and even threw in some small talk about recent movies, questions about America, etc. Dean is also very good at English, so if you're a foreigner you can easily communicate your hair needs. The amazing service and interior made the 6 hours I spent sitting in a chair a LOT more bearable #BeautyisPain.

consultation

In the first 15 minutes, Dean gave me a consultation based on a number of things including the requests that I gave and his expert knowledge. I told him that I wanted to bleach and dye my hair and showed him a series of photos. A lot of my inspiration involved bright blues, pinks, or purples. I wanted to dye it something bright and colorful, but was conflicted on the type of color. He told me that based on my complexion and the fade tendencies of different colors, I should go purple. Purple not only cancels out yellow tones really well, which brunettes have naturally, but also fades in a way that's more appealing than how blues and greens fade.

We began with bleaching my hair with the use of L'Oreal's Professional Smartbond Strengthening System, which works to maintain the elasticity and health of your hair while you lighten your hair. We did two rounds of bleach. This took about 2.5 hours. The yellow in my hair was apparently difficult to remove, so it took a bit longer than usual. At one point, I looked like some horrendous Naruto character but I clenched my first Arthur style and put my faith in the artist. Based on how my hair bleached (which was not well), Dean decided to do a mix of lavender and pink with darker roots. The entire dying process took about 2 hours. He was not satisfied with the first round, so he went back to re-dye my roots and the more yellow parts of my hair. After coloring to perfection, he put in some corn rows on the side of my head, and gave me beautiful waves.

check out Dean on Insta

my review

I've never experienced this much attention given to my hair and honestly, I wouldn't want it any other way. I was so thankful for how detail-oriented Dean was in making sure the results were perfect. Even though I didn't know what to expect for my hair, I was 1000% satisfied with the results. I also observed the other clients who got their hair dyed and cut and was blown away by the results they had. Even though he admitted that he was momentarily overwhelmed by the amount of clients he had in that time span, he handled everything with grace and delivered flawlessly. If I were to trust anyone again with my hair, I would without a doubt chose Dean.