With the Lunar New Year coming up, many Singaporeans will be going to salons to get a new hairstyle, much like one Rachele Tan, who went to get this fresh new hair colour.

While the end product was good by her standards, the process taken to get there, according to her, was "not worth it".

Bleach left for 3 hours

Speaking to Mothership, Tan said she visited Hairtag Salon & Make Up Studio at Redhill Close on Thursday, Jan. 11, after coming across the salon's Facebook advertisements.

She had opted for a package worth S$299, which includes three rounds of bleaching, three colours and a type of treatment.

Tan ended up paying S$468 for an additional round of bleach, treatment and a haircut.

In order to achieve a bright silver and blue ombre colour, Tan had to have her hair bleached a total of four times.

Now, the number of times she had to bleach her hair is normal, especially if one has dark hair.

However, the method her stylist used to do this was a little unconventional — according to Tan, the bleach was left on her scalp without being washed off for about three hours.

And instead of previous experience Tan has had bleaching her hair of having each round of bleach washed off after 40 minutes, not only was it not removed throughout the period, more bleach was applied at various intervals.

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Recommended only for 30-45 minutes each time

By the way, prevailing practice, we understand, is for bleach to be left in for between 30 and 45 minutes, before being removed and reapplied as needed.

Contrary to what one might think, leaving bleach on for longer doesn't make your hair any lighter — it only damages your hair and scalp.

According to a page on German hair brand Schwarzkopf:

"Then you must adhere to the prescribed leave-in times (30 to 45 minutes) to prevent coloring your hair blonde with a reddish or yellow tinge because the bleaching process was interrupted prematurely.

Leaving the bleaching agent in your hair too long is not going to lighten your hair to any significant extent but it will damage the hair, leaving it straw-like and porous."

However, her stylist claimed she was using a "different method".

Scalp was red, oozing pus

When the bleach was washed off, Tan said she felt a burning sensation.

She voiced her concern to her stylist, who just brushed off her irritation as "normal" because of the chemicals.

After she left the salon and got home, however, she noticed that her scalp was moist and realised that it was not only red, but was also oozing pus, symptoms of what she suspects are chemical burns.

As the irritation became too much for her to handle, Tan said she went to a doctor who prescribed her with antibiotics and medication to ease the itching.

Blocked on Facebook

Tan reached out to them privately through Facebook Messenger to inform them about what had happened.

After two days of no response, however, she decided to ping them again but realised she was blocked by the salon's Facebook page.

Tan then commented on an Instagram post of her hair, but the entire post was later taken down:

Less than 15 minutes later, Tan found herself unable to see their Instagram profile.

She was blocked from their Instagram account too.

Change of social media handles

It also seems that after Tan's persistent effort to reach out to them, the salon changed its Instagram handle from @hairtagsalon_makeupstudio to @hairtagsalon_:

Their Facebook page has also been renamed to just "Hairtag":

Nice try.

She wasn't the only one, it seems

Unfortunately, Tan's doesn't appear to be an isolated incident — in comments on her post, others shared similar experiences they had at the same salon.

One of them mentioned that her hair was burned off while bleaching and had to "cut a few inches off". They also reassured her that it was "normal" to be burned when bleaching one's hair:

Another commenter shared that it took her "so many days" to recover.

An "agency" manages salon's social media

On the evening of Sunday, Jan. 14, Tan received a WhatsApp message from a representative for the salon, who apologised and requested that she take down her Facebook post.

Hairtag's representative, Tan said, claimed their social media accounts are managed by an agency, proceeding to offer free scalp treatments and a full refund.

The rep even admitted to Tan that other customers faced similar problems and were compensated with free treatments.

Blocked. Again.

However, when Tan sent over images of her receipts for the promised refund, she discovered, surprise surprise — once again she was blocked.

Seeking lawyer's help

Interestingly, though, the salon's icon appeared two days later, and Tan heard from the representative again — this time with what looks like a legal threat:

The rep did, however, transfer a total of $526 to Tan — S$468 for the refund of what she spent at the salon, S$29 for her medical treatment and an additional S$29 for her "next doctor visit".

Tsk tsk.

Mothership has reached out to Hairtag Salon & Make Up Studio for comment.

Top image via Rachele Tan's Facebook page