Salon : NK Hairworks @ Nex
Location : B2-56, Nex
Tel : 6634 4866
Stylist : Jim Koh
I thought I would just try a new salon this time round and chose NK Hairworks at Nex, since its near my residence and its always crowded at the Anchorpoint outlet. I suppose it should be good, since its that popular. At the Anchorpoint outlet, there are usually several expatriates customers which I put it down to being near their place.
In this outlet, I have only seen 1 expatriate during the 4.5hours I was there. I would put this salon alongside my "to avoid" list together with
The Scene at Raffles City ( pushy tactics) and Jayun at Pacific Plaza ( exorbitant prices ). Note that Jayun have since changed its name to Purity Salon.
If you want honest people, good service and reasonable rates, try Actpoint, Hair Inn, Kimage and Supercuts. Supercuts is priced slightly higher, please note.
Please do your homework before you stepped into this salon. Their staff are totally clueless about promotions. I have to say that their package deal is quite worth it, at $600 without any expiry date, you get to choose among a slew of chemical services. For exact details, please check with their staff.
Finally I understand why its crowded, because the customers are tied to the salon due to their packages.
The customer service on the phone was short and curt, when I tried to make an appointment as well as asking if there were any on-going promotions. I blamed it on language barrier for his short answers.
He quoted $208 for hair perm with length till bra-length, in fact, he says its regardless of hair length. The perm consists of haircut and treatment as well.
Subsequently, I went ahead to check online and came up with the promotions stated
here and their own
website ( with a poor spelling of Christmas ).
I felt cheated after 10 minutes in the salon. Dishonest people. Its totally different from what I was quoted on the phone and what I read from the website.
The moment I sat down, 2 persons asked me what I wanted. Gee, I thought I have already made an appointment for hair perm? The stylist who served me, is in fact the guy who pickd up my call. Jim. A humourous guy, with his so-called magic hands, or so he claimed. He served me biscuits and drinks promptly, with 2 magazines as well.
He started to check my hair and almost wanted to proceed with the cut, but I stopped him and told him I wanted to know the prices. He quoted $248 with haircut and perm. When I asked about the treatment, he says, he can give me a free pre-treatment vial which is usually $20+. Hello, I thought the treatment was stated on the website as free?
Again, I asked him if there were any credit card promotions and he insisted NO. So I told him, I saw the Maybank promotion on their website. He went to check with another guy, whom I presumed to be the manager. The manager, who initially claimed that there's no promotions that he's aware of, decided to check the website, and later claimed that, "oh yes, I remembered, that there is this Maybank promotion".
That aside, I told him about the promotion which starts from $128 for a perm. He looked puzzled and passed the notebook to me, and asked me to check and show him the site where I found the deal. Thereafter I showed
it to Jim because the manager was busy, Jim told me that was a very old promotion, when they just set up the salon at Nex. Great, the promotion is forever on the webpage?
Actually, I hardly argued about prices in salons, because I respect their professionalism and I mainly had my hair done in town without any major issues. However when I saw that they kept insisting that there were no promotions, I got abit disappointed with their dishonesty.
On a positive note, I am happy that Jim is the one who did 85% of the work, from shampoo-ing, right down to blowing the hair. Its not something I can get in most salons and he did not let me wait for too long, inbetween his customers. He is humourous, approachable and is full of confidence of his ability. He made it sound like a joke, which diffuses the impression of being boastful.
And because he is not a shampoo guy, the hair massage during shampoo-ing is pretty mediocre.
However, I do think that as a stylist, his hair was abit unkempt. He did confess that he came into the salon without doing anything to his hair, because its not his usual shift. I came in at 11am, because I like to start and end early, instead of spending the whole afternoon in the salon.
The curls turned out to be better than expected. I always looked like a poodle during the first week of perm but this time round, the curls were larger and looser. I hoped it can last for a year, as what my past few perms did. He wanted me colour the hair to make it look better, since black hair with perm usually produces a dated look, but I refused because I want to reduce the damage on the hair. This time round, the ammonium from the Loreal products was abit choking, which is surprising because I have been doing hair perms for years and I never had any issue with it. Could it be because I have been using more natural products this year and my senses has become less tolerant of chemical induced scents?
Total damage : $248 less 10% + GST = $238.80
During my payment at the cashier, Jim and his colleague are still trying to push the package deal to me, but in a friendly way. He also forget to input the 10% discount to me and after my gentle reminder, he asked a colleague for help in trying to void the receipt.
The colleague told him that there is no promotional price but stopped after Jim told him that he had checked with the manager. How clueless are all these staff? Jeez.
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