I wanted to spruce up my balayage / highlights in preparation for my recent South Africa safari trip, and decided to browse Instagram for hair salon inspiration. I came upon Hair Duo’s account, and loved the photos that I saw people posting of their hair. I made an appointment via IG and visited them around a month and a half ago, and I’m still happy with the way the highlights have developed since then.
I usually get my hair colour done in GlowSpa Hong Kong (pricey at over HK$3,500 per visit) or London’s Tomoyuki & Co salon, but since my visits to London have been less frequent this year, I decided to try something new. With the summer promotion at Hair Duo, the total cost came to HK$2,130 including cut, wash and a HK$250 add-on Olaplex treatment. Read more about my experience below!
When I arrived to Hair Duo in Causeway Bay on a Sunday morning, I was expecting the treatment to take the 2-3 hours that I was used to in the past. They told me it would take 7 hours for balayage - reason being that Hair Duo uses the whole-head bleaching technique before adding colour, which takes longer. I asked for a quicker way, so they switched it to ‘babylights’ (still 5 hours, but only 1 round of bleach instead of 2), which actually ended up looking just like a balayage to me anyway.
By itself, the promotion price for babylights is the same as Balayage at HK$1,880. My hair stylist was Alec Lam (@alec_lam_hair), who I highly recommend here. He has a great eye, and gave me the glossy, holiday-ready 3-D balayage effect that I was looking for.
We started with bleaching my hair in sections. I decided to go for the optional Olaplex treatment (HK$250) which is formulated to protect hair from chemical damage, and it’s applied during the hair wash. I’m glad I decided to add it on, because I think if I hadn’t, the bleach really would have done a number on my already dry and damaged hair.
Alec used his custom-made ashy blonde-brown colour on my hair after the bleach, completing the Balayage effect with the last step of toner. After a cut, wash and dry, my hair was silkiest I’d ever felt it, (I think) owing to the Olaplex.
The shimmery ashy colour will fade to a more prominent yellow if you don’t use purple shampoo, but I didn’t mind so opted for regular shampoo. A few weeks on, my hair became noticeably more damaged (especially in the arid heat of the South African bush), but was and continues to look great.
You’ll notice the colour shifts a lot under different lights, and looks more warm and chestnut-coloured under the sun.
DM me on Instagram at @furellie if you have any questions, or if you want to check out how my hair looks now two months on from my colouring session at Hair Duo!
Hair Duo Hong Kong
Tel: +852-2177-7369 Address: 3/F 11 Lan Fong Road, Causeway Bay, Hong Kong Instagram: @hairduo_hk @alec_lam_hair
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