With Chinese flute and CNY music bombarding Orchard Road and many other shopping centres around Singapore, it’s hard to miss the arrival of Chinese New Year. The many days of warm (or dreaded) family visits catching up, showing off new clothes, new shoes and new everything… are you ready?
New clothes. Check.
New shoes. Check.
New Red Underwear. Check (OK… TMI)
Hair… Hmmm… I almost forgot! The mahogany brown I did many months before have faded to my hair ends… eeks! I need a colour correction to make sure that I have a consistent hair colour for CNY!
Just when I was contemplating about which salon to go to, Mom interrupted my thoughts.
Mom: “Girl ah, Chinese New Year coming and I have SO MANY WHITE HAIR! Since you do this Beauty Undercover website, can you recommend me a good hair salon?”
Since I need to do my hair anyway, it looks like a mother-daughter date is in order! But which salon should I go?
Mom interrupted again, “My grey hair is very stubborn so the stylist and the hair product must be very good. I tried so many salons already and none of them could help me cover properly. If possible, I want organic hair colour because I don’t like chemical smells. So which one is good?”
OK so I need a salon with good stylists, organic hair colouring good at covering grey/white hair and a salon big enough to make both of us feel comfortable… the first salon that came to my mind was… Koinonia with its Color Herbe organic hair colour range!
Mom went first. As you can see, my mom had huge patches of white hair near her fringe! Her hair is so coarse that it was difficult to properly cover her grey hair; she tried many salons but she lost confidence after SO MANY… FAILED.
She was assigned to Cynthia, a highly experienced local hairstylist fluent in Mandarin. After taking a look at her hair, Cynthia inquired about her hair history and inspected her hair texture.
After explaining to my mom about the stubbornness of her grey hair colour, Cynthia recommended a jet black hair colour for better coverage.
As the hair colour was to be applied close to my mom’s scalp, Gino, the hair assistant, massaged a scalp serum to protect and strengthen her scalp before application of hair colour. Gino was detailed and friendly, explaining about what he was doing each step of the way and striking up conversational topics with my mom. My mom was just so happy talking to Gino :X
While Gino was applying the serum and later hair colour for my mom, I began my consultation with Nik.
EEKS DRY AND FRIZZY HAIR!
OK I admit I haven’t been that hardworking at putting on hair masks and making sure that my hair was sufficiently moisturized… in fact, my hair was still tangled at several places…
SO embarrassing! Haha… Truth was, I had MANY more tangles a week before but I forcefully untangled some major ones, causing my hair to be SUPER FRIZZY.
I would definitely advise anyone against doing that and go to a proper hair salon like Koinonia to defrizz and untangle! (My excuse: I was overseas when my hair got tangled!)
Anyway, it took him some time before untangling all my curls.
In fact, Shua even came by with a protein spray to help with the untangling!
Once he was satisfied, Nik mixed the colours and meticulously applied the hair colour in 3 sections – normal black hair (near my roots), slightly damaged hair and brown hair ends to ensure a uniform colour throughout.
I’m happy with his colouring technique but what I was really impressed by was the thoughtfulness of the Koinonia staff. One of the hair assistants came by to help me wrap my glasses while Nik put cotton wool behind my ear to avoid unnecessary colour stains. Nik also helped apply vaseline on my ear to prevent stains!
Once hair colour is fully applied, a transparent film covers the newly coloured hair. My natural body heat, kept warmer by the transparent film, helps to accelerate the absorption of Color Herbe into the hair cuticle.
In order to lift up the hair colour, low amounts of heat was also applied. Interestingly, organic / herbal hair colouring differs from typical hair colouring as hydrogen peroxide level in organic hair colouring is MUCH MUCH MUCH lower (5% for grey coverage). Hence, the hair cuticles does not open as big as during typical hair colouring, resulting in less damage to the hair shaft while at the same time nourishing and protecting your hair and scalp!
Did I also mention about the Yuzu tea? Wah.. it was so good we asked Shua where we could buy it! Unfortunately, Shua said that this brand of Yuzu tea is not available in Singapore although it is very popular in Korea! Still, do ask Shua to give you a try if you’re in Koinonia!
While Nik was busy with me, Cynthia and Gino worked hard at applying a thick layer of Color Herbe to make sure that my mom’s grey coverage was complete.
As her hair had the tendency to “stand” or “qiao”, multiple layers of application was required! See how thick her hair was… now you know who I inherited my thick hair from!
Once applied, her hair was left to stand for about 45 minutes. Cotton wool was placed near her scalp to exert additional weight to accelerate colour absorption.
45 minutes passed really fast as mom chatted and chatted with me. About CNY, about sisters, about having children… zzz
Soon, it was time for her to go for a hair wash!
Gino checked the water temperature and rinsed my mom’s hair carefully without getting her ears and shirt wet. Next, he applied a hair ampoule, which protects and moisturizes her hair for longer lasting jet black hair.
My turn for a hair wash!
Nik gave a nice thorough rinse and hair massage that just had me closing my eyes in relaxation.
Nik began blowing my hair dry…
Almost done… just added curls!
Ta dah and I’m done with the colour correction!
Back to Mom… just a few moments more for blowdry!
Do you see how beautifully her hair has been blown dry?
NO MORE WHITE HAIR! No wonder she’s smiling so happily 
Seeing her so delighted about her new hair colour makes me feel good as well
Many thanks to Cynthia, Gino, Nik and other staff from Koinonia Salon at Pacific Plaza for making us feel more beautiful for Chinese New Year!
Here’s a picture of my mom and me
Update: We were told to expect some loss of hair colour over the next few days because of the dark colours we chose… surprisingly, it didn’t happen! No loss of hair colour or any sort of staining. Maybe its because we waited for about 24 hours before washing our hair?
On another note, my permed hair loosened a little more after the hair colouring. This is not surprising as organic hair colouring will still alter the hair structure slightly. All it means is that I need to go for another perm maybe in a month’s time?
For a clearer comparison, here are our before and after photos!
In person, the difference was HUGE! From many white hairs to jet black, my mom couldn’t stop smiling!
I was so engrossed in taking photos for my mom that I forgot to take a proper “Before” photo for myself. Anyhow, you can see how well my colour was corrected with organic hair colour here!
If you are tempted to try, do check out prices and reviews at the Koinonia page here!
Note that Color Herbe is MOST SUITABLE for people who require grey hair coverage! The colours tend to be darker so we would recommend typical ammonia-based hair colour if you are looking for bright highlights (also offered by Koinonia).