Tone-down color for three-tone hair at H Place, a Gangnam hair salon

You should get your dye job done somewhere that's actually good at it.

Looking for a Gaepo-dong hair salon that's good at color

I finally went to get my hair done after a long while! My hair's pretty damaged so I can't do perms, I always dress it up with color instead haha (already fried so I just gave up on that, lol). I kept going to cheap places and wasn't happy with the results, so I started looking for somewhere good ~

There are quite a few hair salons around Gaepo-dong and Ilwon-dong, but out of all of them, this one really stood out — H Place Gaepo Xi Square! It's on the 2nd floor of a shopping complex, so it felt pretty clean and neat.

Inside H Place Gaepo Xi Square: waiting area and atmosphere

I went with a reservation, and there was a separate space set up for waiting customers or companions haha. It was a weekday afternoon and there were still so many people. I didn't realize it was this popular~

The overall interior is wood-toned, and it has that dark, calm style I like, so it honestly felt like a café lol. There were also a lot of designers on staff, and the salon itself was pretty spacious ~ Now I'm even paying attention to interior design at hair salons^^..

Scalp massage and treatment at the shampoo station

There was a separate space for shampooing too! My designer did the shampoo herself, and gave me a full scalp massage plus treatment, so it felt like a little healing session ☘️ It always gets a bit chilly during shampoo for some reason, but she covered me with a blanket, which was nice haha.

Why tone-down color was the fix for three-tone hair

The reason I went looking for a salon was none other than... this seriously messy hair color of mine ㅠ_ㅠ I'd done a full dye in a bright khaki-ish brown, then did root touch-ups, but the two colors didn't quite match and the roots grew out fast and looked messy. I came in to get this three-tone hair cleaned up with a tone-down dye (❁´◡`❁)

First I put on a gown and sat down — apparently there was someone before me or the schedule overlapped, so they had to do a cut first, and I waited a little while.

They gave me snacks and a drink like this, so I waited sipping something cold haha. It was so hot that day too, needed an iced drink transfusion 🍸

How the color was applied without stinging the scalp

I asked for a color close to my natural hair color, and since summer makes darker hair look hot, I picked one shade lighter than the darkest option ✅ She applied it carefully and thoroughly and had me wait. Her hands were really fast and precise haha. Last time I dyed my hair somewhere else, either the product wasn't great or it was applied wrong, and my scalp stung ㅠ Here, she asked me first and applied it while keeping it slightly lifted off my scalp, so it didn't hurt at all and I loved that (●'◡'●)

The result: even color, trim and a C-curl blow-dry

All the patchy spots got covered evenly and I loved it,, ended up with a nice calm look >< Still, since there was already some previous color underneath, it looked a bit lighter in sunlight as time passed. I think it would've looked weird if it suddenly went too dark, so this was actually good ✨ I'm warm-toned so I was hoping it wouldn't come out looking cool-toned, and it didn't haha.

I think I got a cut about a month ago, so I kept the existing layers and just got a simple trim and face-line cut ㅎ_ㅎ I wanted a design cut too, but my hair turned out shorter than I expected, so I decided to keep the mid-length as is ~~ With the C-curl blow-dry finish, my style was complete 💓 Did I pull off that cool office-worker look,,

Putting the before and after side by side really shows the difference lol. Now that the color's darker, my hair even looks healthier!

Designer Yewon at H Place Gaepo Xi Square was so kind and clearly skilled, the kind of place I could trust and stick with 💖 I'm planning to go back for a clinic treatment and magic straightening too ❗️