Seeing life from the other end.: THE HAIR CUT and six things you should do before you get yours too.

I've been wanting to chop my hair for the longest time ever but haven't got the guts to do so because I did it once when I was 12 and it was horrid.

(Or maybe I just didn't quite like myself back then so a new haircut didn't work out. )

I decided that maybe it is finally time to do something about my hair since all I had been doing was throwing it all into a bun or letting it hang long with layers.

I read somewhere that one of the things a woman should splurge on would be a really good haircut.

After all a good hairdo can make you put put together in seconds.

Anyway I was kinda lost at the beginning when I was figuring out what I want/which salon to go to and all the jazz. Thank goodness I got it figured out eventually but I thought that maybe there are some of you out there with the same queries as I did have before it, and hopefully I can help some of you out.

THINGS TO DO BEFORE GETTING A MAJOR HAIR CUT:

1. KNOW WHAT YOU WANT.

Or at least a rough idea of it. Do you want to go full out and get a really bold hair cut or just a trim to look more polished? Yes to pink hair or hell no let me stay true to my asian roots?

Personally, I wanted to go shorter and for a hair cut that looked more lively and carefree. That being said, I wasn't prepared to go anywhere near a pixie cut again. Also, as much as I've been transitioning towards a cleaner/edgier look (monochromatic phase now) I'm still pretty darn feminine on the whole so I knew that my haircut had to match that or I wouldn't be okay with it.

My dilemma however came when I couldn't quite decide if I wanted bangs or not. I tried it once and it looked baaaaaaaad but I heard that it can work for my face shape so I was puzzled.

2. FIND OUT WHAT YOUR FACE SHAPE IS.

This one saves you a lot of trouble, I swear.

Go google how to determine what your face shape is if you can't, but what I did was that I basically tied all my hair out of my face, stared into a mirror and traced the outline of my face with a lipstick.

It's that easy really.

Even a child can do it.

And if you don't have a lipstick to use, just get moisturiser or something on your finger and get tracing.

After you know what your face shape is, you can Google for all the hairstyles/glasses/makeup that are suitable for you and stuff like that.

3. GOOGLE FOR PUBLIC REVIEWS FOR A SALON YOU CAN TRUST.

Google is your best friend for reviews. Also, please do not trust sponsored bloggers reviews when it comes to your hair. I was first set on going to Salon Vim after reading Andrea Chong's reviews on getting her hair done there and just so you know it LOOKED AMAZING. I then went on to Google for more reviews on Salon Vim and found out that it is really the mother of insta-worthy hair on bloggers.

However right before I called to make an appointment, I decided to Google again and after filtering through the blog posts, I came across a forum where I discovered that what the public was paying for was actually far from the "bedazzled" experience that the bloggers get. Apparently it can get really pricey and basically you're not gonna get "blogger treatment" aka treated like a princess.

This discovery sucks to be frankly honest cause I really wanted Drea Chong's hair hahahahaa.

But okay anyway I went to Google for public reviews and found Plan B by Vast Hair .

The reviews were largely positive so I went ahead to text Ricky (the director) for a price quote for his services.

4. KNOW YOUR BUDGET AND HOW MUCH IT WILL COST.

You don't want to go to the salon planning to pay 30 bucks but end up draining your bank account because oh hey, turns out it's 300 sgd for that premium high end hair treatment you were indulging in an hour ago.

ASK FOR THE NETT COST OF EVERYTHING.

My hair cut was a flat charge of 50 sgd, including a really good wash, massage, cut and styling.

5. BRING PICTURES AND TALK TO YOUR STYLIST.

Be shameless and flood your photo album with screenshots of hairstyles that you adore from celebs/bloggers/instagram/tumblr, and then show all of them to your hair stylist.

And then ask him if any of it suits you.

Then again, do be logical and select photos from people who have similar hair type/color to yours.

You can't expect to walk out with natural long blonde curls if you have an afro you know what I mean? (other than a wig... but that's another thing)

And then Ricky played around with my hair for a bit as I told him what I wanted and he told me what suited my face, hair texture and all that.

After we settled on the hair length (I opted for shoulder length since my hair grows out pretty fast and it's go big or go home right?? ) and the style, it was time for a hair wash.

The only other person who washed my hair was Nise Ho at her mini home hair salon.

Ricky got his assistant to wash my hair and ohmygoodness I am afraid that I'm spoiled for life.

The head massage was so gooood T_T

Plus I had a lot of hair and washing long thick hair can be suchhhhhh a chore.

Okay after that came the hair cut, and for the first time in my life I actually had someone analysing my hair from different angles and just tending to my hair scrupulously.

And then half way through he had his assistant blow dry my hair.

While doing so, my fringe was just flat out covering my eyes Sia style

Yeahp, and usually we just leave it y'know? As in it's part of the blow drying process.

But this guy was so sweet and went like "i'm so sorry about that, just bear with it okay?"

Do people actually scold these hairstylists for getting hair into their faces??

Anyway he did a marvellous job at blowing my hair, which I still do not know how to, but it's okay I will learn how to one day.

I didn't say anything though and left it to him to see what else he was going to do.

He then told me that he was going on to give some texture/layers and cut some more of my bangs and went out with his thing. 15 minutes later when he made the final adjustments, rubbed serum in to the ends of my hair and removed the towel off my shoulders, I was blown away.

It was different, but still feminine since it frames my face well and it was lighter and made me look more lively on the whole.

Plus, the new hair cut kinda shaved a bit off my face or something and made me look slimmer.

And know that I am pretty frugal when it comes to my haircuts, the 30 bucks hair cuts and 6 bucks one at the neighbourhood salon never made much of a difference to me before.

Alright, this was a long entry but hopefully it didn't bore too many of you out and was informative to any of you who wants to chop some hair off!

Oh oh and Ricky specialises in Men's haircuts too so you can check him out if you want to!