Vegan root dye for a sensitive scalp at ONLY FOR YOU, Hannam salon

Hi, this is Pureundongong. I was due for a root touch-up and went looking for a salon that does the Villa Rodola vegan dye, which is how I found this Hannam-dong hair salon. My scalp is sensitive and I usually end up itchy after coloring, but the last time I used Villa Rodola — a premium vegan dye line from Milbon — I had almost no itching. So even though it meant a hour-and-a-half trip each way, I went back to ONLY FOR YOU in Hannam for another vegan dye session. Here's how it went.

Where ONLY FOR YOU Hannam Main Branch is and when it opens

ONLY FOR YOU Hannam Main Branch is a Hannam-dong hair salon open every day of the year, 11:00 to 22:00. It's on the 3rd floor of Hyundai Liberty House at 70 Dokseodang-ro, Yongsan-gu, Seoul, right by Hannam-ogeori.

It's about a 10-minute walk from Exit 1 of Hannam Station on the Gyeongui-Jungang Line. I got off at Gongdeok Station on Line 5, transferred to Line 6, got off at Hangangjin Station, then switched to a bus. The whole route was long and involved a lot of transfers, so it was pretty tiring, but I was relieved to find the building was right in front of a bus stop once I arrived. It's three stops away — just get off at Hannam-dong. Walking from Hangangjin Station to the bus stop only takes 2-3 minutes, and getting off at Hannam-dong stop puts you right in front, which honestly turned out to be a much better route than taking the Gyeongui-Jungang Line to Hannam Station.

This Hannam-dong hair salon, ONLY FOR YOU HAIR (OFY), is on the 3rd floor of Hyundai Liberty House. Free parking is available too — this Yongsan salon has room for 250 cars at Hannam-ogeori.

Inside the salon and the shampoo room

ONLY FOR YOU Hannam Main Branch has two separate entrances, apparently split by designer.

Here's roughly what the interior looks like. There's a waiting area near the entrance, and the shampoo room further inside was comfortable.

The place had a lively atmosphere with lots of customers.

How the Villa Lodola vegan root dye was done

This time at ONLY FOR YOU Hannam Main Branch, I got a Villa Rodola vegan dye root touch-up. It had been about 6-7 weeks since my last Villa Rodola color.

I told them I disliked the reddish tone near my crown and wanted to go darker. It kept getting lighter over time, though.

I'll add what OFY's Naver Place info page says about coloring: scalp protector is always included, and different brands are used depending on the color — L'Oréal for reds, Milbon for pastels, Wella for primary colors — each carefully selected for its brand strengths and applied to match the customer.

After putting on a face cover and ear caps, the staff applied scalp protector and also brushed cream along my hairline to prevent staining.

How long the root dye took: about two hours

I'd booked 4:30pm with my designer, but the place was incredibly busy. There was a customer still being worked on, and another customer needed a haircut squeezed in, so everything ran a bit behind — by the time my root dye was finished, two hours had already passed. I'd assumed it would take around an hour and a half like at other salons, so I'd made a dinner appointment for 6:30, then had to push it to 7, and even then I finished just before 7. Given all the possible delays, I've decided I should always budget a full two hours from now on.

The sun was strong and it was hot that day, so I kept feeling thirsty — they brought me an iced tea with an extra shot, which was cool, sweet, and helped with the heat.

Why I asked the designer, not an intern, to do the whole service

They were going to have an intern handle one side of the coloring, so I asked my designer to do the whole thing herself. My skin and scalp are sensitive, and given how far I'd traveled — over an hour and a half — I just couldn't bring myself to let an intern handle it. I worked up the courage to ask, and my designer carefully did the entire thing herself.

Did the vegan dye suit a sensitive scalp?

To cut to the conclusion: this round of Villa Rodola vegan root dye didn't entirely agree with my scalp. They applied it more thickly than I expected, and it stung continuously while it was being put on.

From past experience, what I understood about Villa Rodola vegan dye is that the chemicals that irritate the scalp evaporate quickly, so it stings during application and processing time but settles down afterward. I expected that again, but sadly the scalp itchiness continued this time. I'd thought I'd found a pretty solid dye in Villa Rodola, even if not a holy-grail product, but this experience taught me that vegan dye isn't automatically a perfect match for me.

Shampoo room and the finishing curls

In the shampoo room, the staff member who'd applied the scalp protector did a light first pass, then a more thorough second pass all the way to the back of my head. How the shampooing is done really matters — I wished they'd done the back thoroughly from the first pass, but that moment had already passed, so I figured I'd just shampoo again at home that night. They said shampooing dries out the scalp so it's better not to do it again the same day, but I couldn't stand the itchiness, so I ended up shampooing again in the early hours of the morning.

After everything was done, they asked about my plans for the rest of the day, and when I mentioned my dinner appointment, they added curls for me too. I was thirsty, so near the end I asked if I could get a drink to take out, and they happily obliged — I really appreciated that. That wraps up my review of ONLY FOR YOU, a Hannam-dong hair salon with parking, for their vegan dye.