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| - Kamiya does it again!
Here's a quick TL;DR of my last review: Spoke to Mai, hair stylist, who confidently broke down the steps she would need to take to help my hair, which literally had a black - platinum blonde ombre, to achieve an instagram worthy hair transformation.
The entire experience was fantastic, I honestly can't think of anything negative worth mentioning, Mai did a great job beginning to end.
She regards each client and their hair with the utmost respect, and as a reflection of her creativity. Unlike most hair stylists who try to completely deter you from your hair goal, or try to meet you half way, Mai will extend her services to tilt in your preference. During my entire stay, around 4 hours, I never felt rushed or neglected; she also did a great job of accommodating and balancing her other appointments. (Not to mention she has a great personality, and has the best stories! 10/10 cried out of laughter. She's so much fun!) Mai really is a great example of what a lot of imagine to be the perfect hair stylist, and it's with great excitement [and reluctance because I know how much harder it will be to snag an appointment with her] that I implore any one thinking about Kamiya to seek her out.
I was in the Salon from 10AM until a bit after 2PM for my big hair day:
1) trim
I had spent the day before mentally preparing myself for the possibility that I would have to take off more than 2 inches. That amount may be peanuts to some... but every centimetre counts when you're trying to grow and maintain long hair!
Once I sat in that chair, I immediately pledged that she could even cut my hair to my shoulders if she felt it was needed. [Having previously coloured hair immediately jeopardizes any future colouring processes, specifically in terms of even application.]
Maybe it was the hesitation in my voice, or the fact that I was doing everything to hide my clammy hands, but Mai assured me that she wouldn't need to take off more than 1/2 an inch.
She spent at least a good 20 minutes shaping my hair into a blunter style; combing though, trimming, and always going back to double check her work.
2) lower base colour to match my roots
A pervious hair modelling experience left me with a base colour that was on a medium brown level. (Not cute against my dark brown roots.) Because the original hair stylist was aiming more for a balayage look, the base colour did not ease into my lighter ends like a traditional ombre. Instead, certain sections of my hair were significantly lighter. [pre-lightened with bleach with the base colour over, and just bleached highlights.]
Mai dealt the dark brown dye like a pro, and erased those highlights into yesterday. It's insane how perfectly the base colour now matches my roots - I can't even tell where my regrowth was!
3) raise ombre
This part made me extremely nervous; would the newly bleached section of my hair transition well into the existing? I have to say that it may be another week and a half before I can truly confirm this one as the dark toner still hasn't washed out. However, based on how my hair looked like prior to toner, I am certain that Mai did a lovely job blending everything in.
For those interested, she did not use Olaplex. A professional hair stylist is more than capable of maintaining the health of your hair without such a product with proper monitoring, and knowledge.
She applied a 25 level developer on the medium blonde of my hair, and a 35 developer on the section we were trying to raise; happy to report that my hair has only suffered very minor damage - nothing a few coconut oil treatments can't improve.
4) apply dark [ash black to dark purple] toner (circa MaryCake)
In an attempt to please my traditional Asian parents, I asked Mai to tone my hair to a dark colour. We agreed that a dark ash brown / black would suit my roots, and a dark purple with blue and brown undertones would help the ombre portion.
The toner was applied at the hair washing station. Can't pin point time lines, but I couldn't have been there longer than 40 minutes. This was also around the time where Mai's other appointment came in. She instructed a hair assistant to look over the process, and explained the specific shampoo and conditioner that needed to be applied.
Neck pains were experience, but that's expected with anyone who has a thick set of long hair. What really helped was the piping hot neck towel that was regularly replaced in between washes. [If you have sensitive skin, I would let them know before wash.]
The assistant was very gentle and through in rinsing, shampooing and conditioning my hair, but did apply a good amount of pressure during the head massage; bliss.
Other than blow dry and styling, that concludes my hair adventure at Kamiya! I'm counting down the days until the toner fades from my hair to book again with Mai. There's nothing like leaving a salon with fabulous hair, and finding a talented stylist to go back to.
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