In this edition of our Beauty Undercover Holiday Lookbook, we invited Agent F, a beautiful mother of two, over to Art-Noise Hair Salon to see how she too can add a little glamour to her hair.
November 2014
Hello I’m Agent F!
I’m a piano teacher and a proud mother of two. As the festive season was coming soon, I was thinking of doing something to my hair. Although it’s straight and neat, I was hoping to sass it up a little… though I wasn’t sure how.
Therefore, when the opportunity to try out Art-Noise came up, I was super excited! Art-Noise is one of Tokyo’s top salons and I really wanted to know what they can do with my hair!
The moment I arrived, I was invited to sit down at their hugely comfortable plush leather seat and invited to fill up a questionnaire.
Yukie san was my stylist and she was very gentle and polite throughout. During the consultation, she showed me two albums of hairstyles and inquired for my preference ie. longer or shorter fringe, kawaii vs matured, straight vs curls and preferred length of hair. As her command of English is not that strong yet, Yukie-san sought the help of the receptionist, a Singaporean lady who can speak very fluent Japanese! I find it commendable that the stylists in Art-Noise have also been taking English lessons to help improve their English!
During the consultation, we settled on a more mature yet womanly perm that I felt would better complement my role as an active working mom!
Once the consultation was complete, she helped me put on the protective cover and started trimming off my dry ends.
She then proceeded to create some texture in my hair through the cuts so that the curls during the perm can come out more strongly.
Not everyone knows this but the haircut is actually one of the most important parts of the perm. It determines how and where the curl starts and ends and the eventual style so Yukie-san took some time to ensure that the haircut was done to her satisfaction.
Once the haircut was complete, I was whisked off for a hair wash.
I’m partcularly excited about the hair wash as Art-Noise uses its own formulated range of shampoo – SHA shampoo and treatment!
From what I know, the shampoo contains Polyquaternium-61, a newly innovated chemical that retains 3.5x water than hyaluronic acid. This supposedly keeps the hair moisturized for longer periods of time.
The hair wash was one of the most comfortable I’ve ever experienced thus far.
Yukie-san actually helepd rest my legs on a stand so I was in an fully horizontal position. This is unlike other hair salons where most of the time, you have to rest your feet on the ground.
There was also a soft tissue placed over my face so that the water would not come into contact with my face… what a thoughtful act! However, I requested for the tissue paper to be removed in the end as I feel more at east without 
During the hair wash, Yukie-san gently kneaded my scalp and gave me a nice hair massage.
Although it was comfortable, I would have preferred her to exert greater pressure It was difficult to ask for the translator at that point in time so I didn’t manage to give her that feedback on the spot.
Finally the real works began!
Yukie first applied treatment lotion to my hair to protect the hair before the perm began.
The perm lotion is then applied at different times to ensure that different hair sections are not excessively damaged!
The application of treatment simultaneously with the perm lotion ensures that the hair is minimally damaged so the texture and flow of the hair is better than usual perms.
Finally, the lotion is rinsed off and the curling began.
Daisuke san was available at that time so he came over to help! What a close-knitted group of stylists!
To prevent the hair from being excessively heated, the white spongy material was wrapped around the curler!
The curlers are then connected to the machine which looks like this:
So this is why the perm is called Digital Creep Perm.
By using this machine and going through a few more steps, this perm creates 3 Dimensional curls that last 1.5 times to 2 times longer while ensuring that the hair is minimally damaged! In fact, Digital creep perms is proven to be 2/3 less damaging than regular perms!
Once the hair is sufficiently heated, the curlers are disconnected from the machine and a neutralizer is then applied to fix the curls in their position!
After leaving the neutralizer on for about 10-20 minutes, I was brought over for another hair wash.
This time I am treated to their special soda hair spa.
Other than using the normal carbonated for the hair wash, they even used a machine that vaporizes the carbonated water to ensure that all the residual chemicals are washed out, the hair pH brought back to normal and help the treatment better penetrate the hair cuticle! (See the mist?)
The mist itself emitted a very nice smell as well!
The spa experience does not end there.
After she brought me back to the seat, Yukie-san gave me another superb head massage!
*See how much I’m enjoying it*
Still I couldn’t actually see the results of the perm yet.
Yukie-san began blowdrying the hair…
10-20 minutes later…
TA DAH
A softer, more womanly me!
Really like how I look!
A quick comparison of how I look before and after!
BEFORE
AFTER
Overall Thoughts
The entire perm took about 2 hours. For someone like me who hates sitting still for long hours, this was a very enjoyable and comfortable experience. Yukie-san was very detailed throughout and I was offered a choice of chamomile tea, green tea, coffee or water as well as an unique Japanese snack from Kyoto!
It felt as if I was having afternoon tea together with a hair spa and best of all, I get a new look I really adore.
I particularly like the fact that there is no hardselling of any products. Nor is there any criticism of my hair quality, much unlike the many other hair salons I’ve been to!
The only problem I experienced was the language barrier that may be an issue when the translator is not around.
On the whole however, this was a very pleasant afternoon at Art-Noise… a place I’ll definitely patronize again!
THANK YOU Yukie-san and Art-Noise for making me so beautiful this Christmas season!