Tessa clare

This is soooo useful!
Lisa of Inception on Hollywood Road is also great (but more pricey). She knows how to deal with CURLY hair especially well, plus colour, so it was money well spent (I paid $2,000 for half head highlights, cut and blow dry for long hair).

I may try Edmund some time then

Andhika

Is it mesti by apoitment

Leah

Appalling salon. Don’t believe the hype, Edmund isn’t worth the money.

On this recommendation, I went to Edmund in July 2016 for half-head highlights. I’d had unsatisfactory highlights at Toni & Guy, so I was looking for a new stylist to fix the orange in my hair. Edmund did a satisfactory job at improving the colour at the roots but said I would have to do a couple more sessions to eliminate the orange streaks that ran the length of my (very long) hair.

I returned at the end of August to redo the roots and highlight the remaining orange streaks, but despite discussing this, Edmund only highlighted the roots and then walked away to another client.

I asked the girl if I could speak to him again but she said no as he was busy with another client. I persisted and he eventually returned. When I reminded him of the orange streaks, he became annoyed. He snapped that it would cost me more and that my hair would be dry. I explained that I understood but wished for him to colour it anyway. He reluctantly did the majority of the remaining orange sections, but after the wash, he returned to tell me that he would not do that again and he would only highlight my roots next time.

I returned again in November to have the roots redone. Previously, we’d discussed going lighter at each visit as I wanted platinum blonde, not ash blonde. At my first visit we went lighter, but my second visit was the same tone. This time he said he would just put in more ash. This time he started in a different section and put in less highlights than before. He finished in half the time he had previously taken, and then walked away.

After the wash, I could see large sections where there was no colour at the roots. He had put in less highlights and they were chunkier. I asked him why the highlights didn’t go to the roots this time and he replied, “I don’t do highlights like that, very bad for the skin.” Then I asked if next time he could go closer to the scalp and he said, “No. Please pay, goodbye.” He removed my cape, gestured to the front desk, and walked away.

In the 15 years I’ve been getting blonde highlights, this is the furthest from the root that anyone had gone.

So I emailed Ivy Sung from The Upper Room and sent her photos. She kindly fit me in a few days later and fixed my hair.

Ivy fixed the roots, treated the hair, and achieved the platinum blonde I wanted in one session. She is the best stylist I’ve ever been to. I regret listening to the recommendation and not going to her in July instead. She is meticulous, dedicated, and honest. I relayed my experience with Edmund and she was appalled. She also assured me that my hair wasn’t damaged, that despite having been bleached twice in less than a week, my hair was strong and healthy. She showed me the obvious demarcation at the back of my head where Edmund hadn’t done the highlights down to the roots, nor had he done half-head highlights. Instead, he had stopped only a inch from the crown when he should’ve continued highlights down to the ear line.

I contacted Tommy Hair to request a partial refund. They refused and said they would only fix it or give me a 50% discount the next time I visited; I will never let Edmund nor any other stylist at that salon touch my hair again.

*At my last visit with Edmund, another client (pretty Aussie lady) was there having her colour redone. She wasn’t happy with their work and said the colour they had put in the previous day was too grey and yellow in parts. You could see large sections of grey mixed with an unattractive yellow (She did not have naturally grey hair). When they were finished there was little change in the colour and she did not appear happy with the result.

Photo: Edmund (left), Ivy Sung (right). I paid $940 for half-head highlights with Edmund, $1090 with Ivy. Edmund spent 1.5 hours. Ivy spent 3+ hours.