Salon Rescue

After drying my hair this morning, I looked in the mirror and behold(!), I had a red(!) crown!!! The first two inches from the roots of my hair strands stood out in bright red while the rest of my hair length was just regular Lohan-red. Talk about a botched cello wrap! Besides the color, I'm wondering why my hair isn't shiny and silky. That's the main reason I went in for a gloss treatment. Grad pic is just two weeks away! Quelle horreur!

Okay, this is a little embarassing but, yes, I did cry over the neat little patch of red on my head. There are only two things I love about my body and one of them is my hair. So the first thing I did after my tutoring session was find a L'oreal Professionel certified salon that could fix up the mess. I stumbled upon one next to Joliibee on V. Luna St. corner Kalayaan Avenue. Metro Salon boasted cetificates, trained stylists and, best of all, they mixed the cellophane chemical in front of me so unless they tampered the L'oreal Glosse bottles, I was getting the real thing this time.

Ms. Mari, senior stylist, gently broke it to me that they couldn't give me back my natural hair color because it was impossible to do with the red tint still there but they could remedy the red patch and give me a more uniform color that was closer to my natural color. I didn't care about going back to my natural hair color. I just wanted the red out, out, out(!) and my hair replenished. So I was practically floating when I walked out of the salon with chocolate brown, soft, shiny and smooth hair:

My two cents on salons and hair treatments: If you feel like something is wrong, don't go ahead with the treatment. If you don't see L'Oreal or Schwarzkopf certificates, products and signs on display, be wary. Ask for their certificates. Ask about their training. Ask if you can see the bottle of the product they're going to use on you. If you smell ammonia in a chemical treatment that shouldn't have any, tell the stylist to stop. (Actually, I feel like I should have told the MIP stylist to go to hell, but, fine. Mabait daw ako) Have them mix the stuff where you can see it.

Actually, I've found that if you're in a good salon, they'll do all this without you even asking. They'll warn you about how a certain color is going to turn out when paired with your natural hair color. They'll talk to you about your skin tone and hair condition. They'll ask you about prior treatments (one of the best salons I've been to actually made me complete an extensive survey) so that they can figure out the best treatment suited to you. They'll describe the whole process to you so you know what to expect. When you ask questions, they give clear, confident and knowledgeable answers.

It is your right to question. Do so.

I should have heeded my intuition last Friday. Just because you're a regular at a certain salon and you trust them for manicures, pedicures and hot oil treatments, it doesn't mean you should immediately trust their other services. Salons have their strengths and weaknesses too.

Thanks to Metro Salon for the hair rescue. MIP, I hate you guys right now.