Let me first give you the deeds before sharing my experience.
Name of salon: CCA Hair Salon (까헤어)
Location: Seoul, Mapo-gu, Seogyo-dong, 334 1 2nd floor, Hongdae
Directions on getting there: Nearest subway station is Hongik Univ. Station then take exit 6 or 7. I would recommend exit 7. Pluck the address from above and paste into whatever map application you use. The salon is not that far from the station. Perhaps, a 5 minutes walk? Or 7 minutes, if you have radish legs like mine. I use Naver Map here in South Korea, so if you do too, you can either type Kka Hair or 까헤어 as an alternative to the address and the application will direct you to the salon.
Now time for the tea. I'm spilling it, I'm spilling it. Okay actually there isn't tea, just me and my experience. Hahaha.
So the greatest reason in choosing this salon over the many other salons in South Korea is because of my friend's budget. Not that my wallet is bottomless, but I usually don't mind spending a little bit more on my hair since I don't do my hair often. So I make sure to do everything (cut - dye - treatment) all at once and then it will last me at least 6 months. Usually in most salons, they charge extra depending on the length of your hair. So prices are always a range but not this salon! This salon does not charge extra even if your hair is sweeping the floor. My friend has long hair so the price of a single dye (69,500 krw) is definitely worth for her length.
Full price list here: https://m.blog.naver.com/cca_hongdae/221236281704
For my hair length, I suppose it is still considered cheap. In my case, I did a two tone hair dye so the price is 89,500 krw but my stylist asked his boss if it was okay to charge me at the price for single dye and the boss kindly agreed. On account that my hair is not long and also since I am bleaching my hair plus doing a hair treatment there. So take it as goodwill discount. Honestly, I feel that the service in general is quite good but I have had better service in other salons in South Korea.
The assistant, as I heard has only been working there for a month when we visited. She is really very cute and nice. What I couldn't really stand was that the two stylists who were working on my friend's hair and mine, doesn't seem to be very friendly towards her. At one point when she was applying the bleach on my hair, the lady stylist working on my friend's hair told her to grab more hair dye. The poor assistant had to drop what she was doing on my hair, apologised to me, and ran off to get whatever that stylist needed. That female stylist even told her to hurry up. Like seriously? I couldn't stand the sight of it. She was working on my hair, not like she was slacking away in a corner.
No matter how skilled a stylist is, if he or she comes with such a personality, I wouldn't want them to be working on my hair.
As for my stylist, initially I thought he was better than the female stylist. But it feels like his words to the assistant carried a lot of sarcasm. When he was cutting my hair, I think, there were a couple of times that he stretched in the midst of it. I didn't think that was professional at all. Yes, I understand that being a hair stylist is a very tiring occupation but this is the first time I am encountering this in South Korea, even when I do my hair back in Singapore or even Malaysia (before covid), I have not encountered this. And note that I am making a comparison to my experiences before covid happened, where salons were way busier than that late afternoon - evening when we visited.
Another surprise I got was when towards the end of the process, the boss came to say that if we pay by foreign credit/debit card, there is an 8% surcharge. No surcharge if we pay using a Korean card or cash. Well, I would have appreciated that he told me this earlier in our Instagram chat when I was arranging the appointment for my friend and I. It was obvious that we were foreigners? There is an ATM nearby of the salon if we want to withdraw cash. Gentle reminder that drawing cash in a foreign country subjects your cash to be converted at a bank rate and depending on your bank, there may be a withdrawal fee, which in my case, there is.
By the time I was done, I think it was close to 7pm or past 7pm? My math brain wasn't exactly working anymore so I just decided to pay that 8% surcharge, after calculating how much that surcharge would be, of course, to ensure it wasn't ridiculously high. My total bill came up to 314,000 krw, 339,120 krw including the 8% surcharge. I don't even remember exactly how was the breakdown anymore, but the 314,000 krw consists of haircut, hair dye, bleach and treatment. Which I feel that in my case, if I were to pay this price at the end of the day, I would have went to this other salon also in Hongdae that I have frequented I think twice or thrice before covid, when I came to South Korea on a holiday. But as mentioned earlier, the price is very much worth it for my friend.
In summary, I think that this salon is very worth it if you have long hair, price wise. But for me, sometimes it is more than just the price, the attitude and personality of the stylists matters as well. It kinda reflects on the salon, I feel, since they work there after all, they are part of the salon's image. Then again, these are only two stylists out of like maybe four or five of them there? I am not saying that their service is bad, just saying that it could be better! If I were to do a single hair dye then I might just return, but if otherwise, probably not. Things that irk me may be things that you can overlook so...to each their own!
P.S. I really want to tell the lady assistant to hang in there! She said that being a stylist is her dream.
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