What Happened To My Hair?

"When an opportunity comes knocking, answer the door."

Answer the door, I did.

The opportunity was to be a hair model for Matrix, a professional hair products brand under L'Oréal.

I was approached about a month ago to be their hair model for a new hair colouring technique - Strobing.

For makeup enthusiasts, you’d know 'strobing' is just another term for 'highlighting'. So, strobing for the hair is to highlight certain features of the face. Mine was done to highlight my cheeks cz apparently I have nice cheeks hahahaha

(Source: VLASY A UCESY)

Not gonna lie, I was flattered as I’ve never been asked to be a model of any kind...and this was hair model! Which means I have nice hair for them to make use of hahaha My hair has come a long way to be this nice, mind you.

Despite the nervousness of bleaching process to achieve grey locks, I took serious consideration of this chance as it could easily cost me at least RM400 if I were to get it done at a salon. The maintenance worried me too, since hair treatments and touch-ups would be a pain in the butt...and wallet.

Consulted Shaun (my go-to hair stylist) for his opinion and if you ever met Shaun, you’d know he’s very calm, relaxed and neutral in giving responses. His response to my nervous texts was to go for it, just make sure they did treatment for me. When I told him to please fix it if my hair is ruined, he calmly said okay. Overreacting on my part, much? Hahaha

And so, I gave the Matrix guy a go-ahead.

hair done at the Academy

last look at my lovely brown hair

bleaching in progress

HOLY GUACAMOLE!

Gotta give me credit for being a good sport. Bleached once not enough? Go ahead and bleach another time. Can’t achieve the desired look in 3 hours? Okay, I’ll stay till as late as you’ll take to do my hair. It took approximately 8 hours of sitting down and holding in my pee to be done with the hair.

My concern was with the cut. I freaked when I found out my hair will be cut. Although just a little, only Shaun cuts my hair the way I want it. Worst part was having my hair cut using blade *faints*. Blade-cut hair tends to be frizzy! Okay okay, breatheeeeeee...Shaun will fix it.

My hair was partially grey for a week! Partially because it wasn't fully grey, just the mid section of the outer layer, and highlights for the inner layer.

It took me awhile to get used to the look cz the grey section was too stark – no gradual change in colour. It looks much better when my hair is curled, that’s for sure.

For this sudden change in hairstyle, I received mixed feedback. Some hated it, others liked it. My dad's reaction was unexpected - he didn't freak out when he saw my hair and was pretty cool about it.

Thumbs up from my sisters and friends, thumbs down from my mom and Tim (as expected haha). Taha was the first person I revealed my hair to, since we met right after getting my hair done. I think he might've loved my hair more than I liked it hahaha

I think it's because it's a rather wild look, it takes some getting used to. Totally unlike me, but I had my fair share of fun while I had it. In order to not look off or sickly, I had to wear grey or black clothes only, with heavy grungy makeup. Since I love wearing black and grungy makeup, anyway, no complains.

But it's only human nature when you put a restriction to something, you start feeling restless. That's what happened.

I dread having to wear other colours when I ran out of clean black outfits, and when I wanna do a simple and quick makeup (which is most of my work days).

After around three washes (I used dry shampoo in between washes to preserve the colour) in a span of a week and a half, it turned brassy with hints of green. I saw this coming and was major annoyed by it.

Colleagues thought it was ash green, and they liked it. I, however hate brassy hair and ash green hair with a passion, but I couldn’t fix it just yet as I didn’t want my hair to be processed too frequently within such a short duration.

Waited two weeks before consulting Shaun and made an appointment just in time to get my hair fixed before a major corporate event! Excitinggggg!

yellow blonde

For someone who’s usually calm, composed and neutral, Shaun’s huge reaction as he saw me walk towards his salon made me LOL in my head. His jaw might as well be dropped to the floor hahaha

He mentioned that I looked very different, like a second version of Naomi (for reference, photo above was taken after consulting him.) he couldn't recognize haha Out came his hair colour bible after his customer left, to see what he can do for my hair.

Patchy blonde, on the way to my hair appointment

I don't know the technicalities of hair-dyeing...I just let Shaun work his magic on my hair, that's how much I trust him.

Of course he told me what colours he'll do for me, but I was partially blur lol I think it was caramel brown for the whole head, and dark ash for the bleached parts. He also told me about adding in blue to the mixture to remove the brassiness.

before.

look at how choppy my hair looked!

after.

cut & colour done!

My hair was at the longest it has ever been, then it got cut two inches. When Shaun showed me how much he had to cut - another two inches or so - I happily agreed! Anything to get my signature-Shaun-cut back! hahaha

I don't feel sad about my long hair cz it was about time I had a cut. I wanted to trim it before I started my internship, but Shaun said it still looked good. This time, a cut was inevitable.

Generally, my hair looks brown. But under sunlight, the different tones become visible. I thought it would look weird as the bleached part would obviously look different than the non-bleached parts.

You can definitely see the difference, but Shaun concealed stark transition very well. I'm happy with my hair again!

freshly dyed dark hair!

under natural light

I must say, the dark ash looks so pretty! I've always wanted ash brown hair, but don't wanna bleach. Now that I have some ash in my hair, maybe one day I'll bleach my entire head to get an even-toned ash brown hair heheheh But till then, I want my healthy hair back.

Huge credit to Shaun for fixing my hair! Ever since I found him, I no longer have the phobia of getting my hair cut. Price may be a little steep, and location a bit of a hassle for me to go to...totally worth it, man. If he ever moves away or retires, I think I’d have a panic attack and cry hahaha

Oh by the way, Shaun Hair Studio is running a promotion in October - colour at RM188 for all lengths (normal price between RM188-RM268). Make your appointment now!

Shaun Hair Studio

Level G3, Solaris Dutamas, Publika

(a few doors away from The Red Beanbag)

Tue-Sun, 10.30-20.00

(Closed on Mondays)

Website | 03-6412 9886