Christmas, New Year and even Chinese New Year are coming in just a few weeks!
You may not be the type to go for vibrant hair colours but you should definitely consider some hair services to texturize your hair and help it regain your hair health…
BEFORE the CNY surcharges kick in in 2016!
This week, we have Agent AG taming her wavy frizzy curls with the latest C-Curl MUCOTA Omega Therapy treatment at one of our trusted salons Focus Hairdressing!
Check out how Focus managed to transform her hair from unpresentable to commercial worthy in a single hair visit!
November 2015
A little introduction about me for folks at Beauty Undercover: I’m Agent AG and I have a day job working as a Business Development Manager.
In my free time, I like to blog about my honest opinion on hair and beauty products and occasionally services with my sister at our blog here!
My last hair service was Keratin Treatment which helped to control my hair services for about 3-6 months.
It looks okay from the front but just look at my hair from the back!
BEFORE: See how wavy and frizzy my natural hair is.
It is way too long as well!
After more than 6 months of neglect, my hair has started to go back to its natural “kinky” state!
It was time to give my hair a well-deserved makeover. I read about Volume Rebonding on Beauty Undercover and that got me interested in some alternative forms of rebonding.
Instead of just straight hair, could I possibly perm the ends as well?
I got in touch with Agent G who recommended me to try out Focus Hairdressing. Focus Hairdressing is located in the Cuppage area, close to Somerset. The salon is quite hidden away and located somewhere behind Orchard Point.
If I wasn’t looking for it, I would definitely not have seen a salon here!
The salon itself is rather spacious. Due to the floor plan, it has an elongated sitting area. I like it that the chairs are not put too close to each other.
The large mirror in front of the seating area also allows you to fully see what is going on.
Consultation
The hairstylist assigned to me was Yahnie. She has 8 years of experience in the industry, so I felt reassured that she would be doing my hair.
When I arrived, she was actually still doing another customer’s hair… this is how busy Focus Hairdressing was!
I waited for some time before she came over for a consultation.
She assessed my hair and said that my hair is quite “stubborn”. The traditional definition of volume rebonding (ie. rebonding and perming all at one go) will not work as well for me as volume rebonding will not be able to control my frizz and waves well enough.
Instead, she recommended doing a C Curve Rebonding in a two step process: Rebonding the top part of my hair and perming the ends for the C Curls.
The chemical chosen was MUCOTA Omega Therapy, which happens to be MUCOTA’s latest range of hair chemicals. This is a type of rebonding treatment that also includes moisturizing treatments to ensure that the hair is well protected during the rebonding!
Focus Hairdressing actually offers three types of Mucota treatments:
1) Mucota Rebonding,
2) Mucota Dyna Argan Oil Straightening, and
3) Mucota Omega Therapy.
For my hair type and desired hair look, the Mucota Omega Therapy was recommended. The MUCOTA Omega Therapy is the most advanced hair treatment from Mucota to date as the chemicals are stronger than DYNA in controlling frizz and waves and yet has the most treatment chemicals to ensure that the hair is not damaged. Read more about MUCOTA vs other chemicals here if you want to find out more!
Other than C Curve Rebonding, Yahnie also suggested that I cut some inches off so that the C-curls would be more obvious.
I was more than happy to chop off my hair, since the ends have been quite dry!
Starting the Rebonding Process
STEP 1: Shampooing of the hair
Yahnie assessed my natural hair before hair washing.
I felt that the hair wash here is rather normal. Probably can’t compare to the other Orchard salons but is rather alright.
STEP 2: Hair cut
Yahnie cut quite a few inches off and gave my hair a U-shape so that the C-curls would be more prominent.
STEP 3: Apply CS+1 Pre-Treatment
Next, she applied CS+1 treatment all over my hair. The first of many to come…
STEP 4: Straightening Cream
Yahnie applied the straightening cream section by section. What this cream does is that it breaks the bonds of your natural hair structure, so that it will be ready for “restructuring”.
To protect my exposed skin such as ears and neck, aluminium foils were used!
For other people, the straightening cream requires just about 20-30 minutes for the bonds to break. However, my hair was so stubborn that it wouldn’t budge! To make sure that the hair is properly treated, Yahnie had to apply more straightening cream to those problematic areas.
I am glad that she knew what she was doing and took steps to make sure that my hair will turn out well.
Yahnie paid attention to the nature of my hair, and noticed that my hair required more straightening cream.
In the end, this particular step took almost an hour.
I also note that the straightening cream does have the usual chemical smell. But it was not too overwhelming.
STEP 5: Rinse the hair
STEP 6: Applying Treatment No. 2
The MUCOTA CS+2 treatment was sprayed on to further nourish and protect the hair before the next step.
This spray treatment did not have any scent.
STEP 7: Blow-drying of hair
The next step is to mould the hair into the desired shape but before that can happen, my wet hair needs to be blow dried!
Yahnie used a round brush to blow dry my hair. She was gentle and took time to dry my hair completely.
STEP 8: Flat iron
Section by section, Yahnie began to straighten my hair.
FYI, the flat iron was set at around 200 degrees Celsius. I was glad to hear this, because this temperature would not damage my hair too much.
Because of her skills and techniques, Yahnie was able to straighten my thick and wavy hair, to make it look silky straight!
For those who think that this is too straight for me, don’t worry!
She will be adding some curls at the next step…
STEP 9: Digital perm of the ends
She used rollers to curl the ends of my hair. The rollers she used was the medium-sized ones to create nice C-curls.
Then it was set for about 25 minutes.
The meticulous her did not forget about my bangs!
As she did not want the bangs to be too curly, the bangs were merely curled and not heated up to a higher temperature.
This was what it looked like after her meticulous curling!
Doesn’t it look good?
* thumbs up *
STEP 10: Applying the Cream and Liquid Neutralizers
Now that the curls are all set, it is time to set the hairstyle with neutralizers.
First the initial rollers are removed.
New rollers are then fixed before neutralizers are applied.
Interestingly, Focus Hairdressing uses two different types of neutralizers. One, a cream neutralizer and second, a liquid neutralizer. The cream neutralizer is more effective for stubborn sections of hair like mine whereas liquid neutralizer is used for sections with more damaged hair as it is not as strong.
This special technique could be the reason why so many customers are happy with the rebonding and perming at Focus Hairdressing (since they are good at dealing with all types of hair!)
Yahnie allowed the neutralizers to work on my hair for about 10 minutes.
STEP 11: Rinse off the neutraliser
STEP 12: Post-Treatment
Yahnie applied the MUCOTA CS+3 treatment at the sink.
It was left on for 2-3 minutes and had a peachy scent.
STEP 13: Blow dried hair and styling
In this step, Yahnie taught me the proper way to dry my hair. She imparted her know-hows to best style my fringe and c-curls.
To create a more voluminous look, she also shared with me a secret of hers that she shares only with her customers… blow dry my hair ends with a round brush like this to create beautiful C curls!
Just a reminder of my hair before the process.
How it looked like AFTER
Conclusion
The whole rebonding and treatment process took more than FOUR HOURS.
Yes, it was a long time but it was SO worth it! Do note that my natural hair is very unruly, and rather dense, thus the longer than expected treatment time.
My hair feels SO soft and shiny afterwards… that it actually looks commercial-worthy for the first time!
My sister, MG, who is usually unimpressed by my hair, said my new hair-do looks nice!
I like the C-curls that Yahnie created for me. It makes my hair look less boring than the usual pin-straight rebonded hair. The curls are so pretty, not too tight and not too loose.
Somehow, I feel that my whole image looks more polished now. The shoulder-length hair also made me look younger and fresher! According to Yahnie, this look should last for a minimum of 3-4 months, making this treatment really worth it!
Another thing that I like about Mucota Omega Therapy is that my hair did not smell awful afterwards. There was one time after I did soft rebonding, a guy friend commented that my hair smelled like Chlorine in swimming pools. It made me really self-conscious then. With Mucota Omega Therapy, the people around me did not mention of the chemical smell. Yay!
I would definitely recommend C-Curls and Mucota Omega Therapy at Focus Hairdressing.
Personally, I felt that Yahnie did such a great job with my hair!
I LOVE my soft and silky hair!
My hair is so soft, I cannot help but touch it
With Yahnie’s C Curl Rebonding, I now take a shorter time to get ready in the morning and I really appreciate that!
By the way, the MUCOTA Omega Rebonding cost $288 at Focus Hairdressing regardless of hair length, which is possibly the cheapest you can find in Singapore! Given that it really helped me manage my unruly curls, I think its a great service that is more than worth it!
The only thing to note is that Focus Hairdressing can get really busy especially during weekends and after work so be prepared to wait even if you have an appointment! (and try not to walk in because there may not be able to slot you in!)