Last week have been a very blessed week for me. Beside having all the little little blessings are pouring from heaven, I have also received a media invite to get my glory of crown pampered at X’pect Studio. To be frank, as an ex hair stylist, I am rather apprehensive and fussy on how my hair is being treated.
Prior to the appointment, I have also done some google search on the company. There are a mixture of good and bad reviews online but hair services is something very subjective. One man’s meat might be another man’s poison. On top of that, I saw that they have won several many awards and represented Singapore in many hair seminars, hair shows and competitions. So I have decided to go for this media invite after all the googling. Afterall, how bad can X’pect be when even celebrities also have their hair done by them, right?
Located at Orchard International Building, getting to X’pect is a breeze. With a bus stop just stone throw away and Orchard MRT within 5 minutes walk, I was rather happy to travel there. Yes, other than travelling for food and for work purpose, I would prefer not to travel too far anything else!
X’pect adopted simple, modern salon renovation. The first impression I have about this place is people here are really friendly and immediately let you feel at ease. On top of that, I like the idea that there is a small cabinet to keep our bag just beside our seats.
As I entered the salon, I was warmly greeted by the peeps at X’pect. On top of that, beverage and magazines were served and placed swiftly after I have sat down. There is a choice of green tea and honey lemon. I chose the latter one as personally I feel that honey has more health benefits. lolz.
This is me before the hair service, monotone dark hair.
After consultation on my preferences, job nature, lifestyle and hair styling habits, Kazu ( the stylist who was assigned to do my hair) suggested that I go for 2 tones highlights that are subtle yet can actually bring out my features better. The picture above was the beautiful hair dyes chosen to give me that transformation.
Having my hair done here was relatively enjoyable as Kazu is a very friendly handsome stylist who will not hesitate to share about his hair styling knowledge, job experiences ( Hairshows, styling for photoshooting and hair styling experiences with Mediacorp) and also his humble start of his hairstyling career. One of the recent photoshoot styling that Kazu has done is for Xiaxue on Nylon Singapore September issue and you can even see Kazu on Xiaxue’s Instavideo. On top of that, I like the way he did the highlightings as all the foils were folded very nicely and neatly and all these required certain skills, patience and also pride of work.
After the highlights, Kazu applied a violet dark base to enhance the highlights and to bring out the colour contrast. I was really enjoying this process as the colour dye used was in pretty pastel pink! On top of that, there is no almost no ammonia smell. =D
After the colours were developed, I was brought to the wash area to have my hair washed. Gosh, that was one of the best hair wash at the basin ever! ZhiQiang who washed my hair was very precise. He removed the foils slowly one by one without hurting me, rinsed my hair with every foil removed and put on conditioners to the washed hair to prevent the colour from “running”. I think I must have stayed at the wash area for at least half an hour. After the removal of the foils, Zhiqiang washed my hair twice with massaging techniques that I actually fell ASLEEP during the process! -.-!
My hair was then being pampered with hair treatment under a micro mist “steamer”. For layman, it might seems to be just another high tech looking steamer. However as an ex hair stylist, I totally love this “steamer”! Not only does it pushes the hair treatment deeper into the cuticles of the hair with its particles of the mist ( which is smaller than those of the conventional steamer), it also has this cooling system that cool down the hair after the treatment and also sealed the treatment onto the hair. Result after using this micro mist is softer hair with a more long lasting effect of the treatment. If a treatment using normal steamer last you only 3 days, this micro mist steamer can at least last you a week! Perhaps you might think that “huh? a week only so wat?”, fyi we are suppose to do treatment at least once a week (depending on your hair length, long hair at least twice!) if you want to have really beautiful lustrous hair.
Kazu has also helped me to trim my hair a little bit after the treatment to at least maintain the shape. And I really appreciated that Kazu really trimmed my hair unlike some of the hair stylists whereby trim become cut. -.-!!
Haha. For peeps who dunno, I am actually trying very hard to keep my hair long now after going for hair for hope last year. Yup! I shaved bald last year.
Tadaaaaaaaaa… Not bad right my new look. Personally I like it really much. Although picture can’t really show the differences in the 3 tones, it is really well done. The colours complimented each other and gave a very natural yet distinguished look. Love the subtle modern look that Kazu has done for me.
Once again, thank you Kazu for doing such a great job to my hair and of cos Mistical from Absolute PR for inviting me to the media preview.
Btw do like X’pect on Facebook to get a service voucher worth $20 if you are going down to get a new look to welcome the festive season. =)
Btw I would like to highlight that the above is purely my personal opinions. Although this is a sponsorship, I do hope you understand that I am writing these based on what i experienced. =)
360 Orchard Road,
#01-09/10,
Singapore 238869
#01-09/10,
Singapore 238869
Tel: 6735 9932
Fax: 6735 7807
Fax: 6735 7807
Opening hours:
11am – 9pm Mondays to Fridays
1030am – 8pm Saturday
1030am – 630pm Sunday
11am – 9pm Mondays to Fridays
1030am – 8pm Saturday
1030am – 630pm Sunday
