Damaged hair magic straightening instead of perm at 26do Hair Suseong

My magic-straightening season came around again, right on schedule haha. My last treatment was last December, so my roots had gotten pretty messy-looking. I was having a bit of a face-slump moment, but since I can't exactly get plastic surgery, I figured I'd start with my hair! So I visited '26do Hair Suseong Branch,' known for not adding length or adding volume.

26do Hair Suseong Branch location and hours

• 📍 Location: 65 Suseong-ro 69-gil, Sangga 7-dong 2F 203ho, Suseong-gu, Daegu, South Korea
• ⏰ Hours: Daily 10:00 – 20:00
• 🅿️ Parking: Shopping complex parking lot supported; Daegu Department Store parking lot available when full

Where do I park?

If you search 'Suseong-dong 1-ga-dong Community Service Center' on your navigation, there's a parking lot entrance right next to the community center (it looks just like an apartment complex entrance!). Since a lot of shops share the same lot, it was full even on a weekday afternoon. They said the Daegu Department Store lot is available as backup when it's full! I got lucky and waited a bit until a car pulled out.

Exterior

After parking, go up the stairs by the inner railing and you'll see the building — 2nd floor (Sangga 7-dong 2F 203ho). The sign says '26do Hair Gonggam House,' but yes, this is 26do Hair Suseong Branch!

First-visit event

There's a 30% discount event running for first-time visitors! And the referral event is huge too — I'll cover that below :)

Open 10am, close 8pm. '26do Hair Suseong Branch' has great scores in brand reputation too.

What's the interior like?

I arrived a bit early, so they showed me to the waiting seat right by the entrance.

They brought me the tea of the day and had me fill out a questionnaire first. It asked what treatments I'd had recently, my current hair damage level, my usual hair-care habits, and even the style I wanted — pretty thorough. They especially checked what design I wanted for today and if there was anything to keep in mind afterward, which made it feel like they really wanted to understand my hair's condition before starting. Since magic straightening results can vary a lot depending on hair condition, this pre-check process made me trust them more.

There's also a water purifier set up,

There were six chairs total, so it looked like six people could get treatments at once! Well, actually with five directors, five people could be treated simultaneously. From outside it looked kind of small, but the space was actually long and narrow, haha.

Various hair products for sale

They sell various hair products including Ayounche items. If a salon is selling it, it must be a verified product, right? I kind of wish they'd explain and recommend(?) these more actively lol. I'm curious what would be good for my hair..

Photo review event

There's a Naver photo review event that applies directly to same-day treatment fees. ₩1,000 off cuts, ₩3,000 off treatments. Can't skip that!

Checking hair condition before the treatment

My hair was tied up that day so the middle part looks a bit flattened. I'd let my hair grow out since the magic straightening last December, so the ends had gotten messy and unruly. It had gotten so damaged it even faded to a brownish color... I knew my hair was somewhat damaged, but director Taerim asked how it got THIS damaged, saying it looked like someone who dyes their whole head every month. ??? I had no idea it was that bad, and I barely get any hair treatments — maybe once a year — so why was this happening to me... sob.

I hadn't actually gone in just for magic straightening — I originally wanted a magic-setting S-curl perm. So they told me in advance the perm might not turn out well, and suggested applying a test product first to check, then checking again a second time. The result was...

. . .

They gave me the terrifying diagnosis that my hair was way too stiff, the perm absolutely would not take, and even if it came out weak it would look messier and I'd probably want to re-straighten it anyway.

Conclusion: repair magic straightening instead of a perm

No perm — let's go with magic straightening instead. But since the lower part was too damaged, it had to be a repair magic straightening rather than the regular kind. Straighten the top, keep the chemicals off the bottom, and just work on taming the frizz down there. That's how we decided to proceed... Getting such a precise diagnosis and being talked out of pushing things too far actually made me trust them even more!

Adding on the top-tier clinic

Normally with hair like this the clinic add-on is left up to the customer, but I realized there was no way I could skip it, so I went with the highest-tier clinic. Since 26do Hair Suseong Branch offers 30% off for first-timers, the price felt less painful. The top-tier clinic had way more steps — apply, let sit, rinse, apply something else, put hair through a machine, neutralize, apply again(?). They really seemed to pack in a lot of product. And honestly, after the clinic my hair didn't look damaged at all anymore!! I feel like getting just this clinic once a month alone would drastically improve hair condition.

Wetting my hair, applying product, letting it sit, putting it in the machine — by the time all that was done, about 2 hours had flown by. Right around when I started getting thirsty, they asked me to choose between ade and coffee, so I picked hallabong (Korean citrus) ade! It was genuinely delicious, café-worthy in my opinion. I gulped the whole thing down as soon as I got it... my blood sugar was dropping so I demolished the cookie too. The table attached to the chair felt sturdy, so it was easy to set things down and eat!

The result after the treatment

They fully straightened the top with the magic-straightening iron while specially protecting the lower part from the heat! The bottom turned out neat too, right? Since I'm currently in wedding prep and didn't want much length cut off, they only trimmed about 3cm off the ends. Director Taerim at 26do Hair Suseong Branch was so skilled and efficient. Even though 3cm felt like a lot when I saw it fall, looking at it now you can't even tell, lol. Now I get why people say 'I can't tell you got a haircut.' Yep, yep.

The long-awaited final wash. Even at this point they applied something and let it sit.

Ta-da~ Glossy, sleek otter hair achieved. This is exactly why I keep coming back for magic straightening. So neat!! All those annoying flyaways at my crown, fully eliminated. They gave my hair a nice bouncy flip to finish //w// Check out the video too! See how flawlessly the repair magic straightening turned out?

Big thanks to director Taerim for all the hard work.

Prescription bag and discount coupons after the treatment

After the treatment they cutely handed over the products like a pharmacy prescription bag. Inside the syringe was a hair pack, and there was also a referral coupon with a huge discount rate!

• Referral coupon: ₩5,000 cut / 50% off treatment
• Self-use coupon: ₩5,000 off cut, ₩29,000 off clinic, 10% off perm, 10% off basic color, 20% off signature color, 50% off scalp program

Highly recommend 26do Hair Suseong Branch, the Daegu salon with no added length or added volume charges!