New Hair! Courtesy of Groupon

Hi everyone! A couple of months ago I was contacted by Joanna who works with the Research Team at Groupon and she has asked me to review one of their latest deals. I felt privileged to be given this opportunity and was really excited to pick a coupon to review!


A voucher of $20AUD was offered for my use and I chose to get my hair professionally dyed, cut and blow-dried. For many reasons:

1. I never had my hair dyed by a professional before, so this was going to be a first!

2. Regrowth from my previous brown dye

3. Uneven hair colouring from previous home dye

4. I wanted a change! Something darker for winter

5. Still on the hunt for the best hairdresser for me (quality and quantity wise)

6. A Groupon review that would interest my readers (yes, I thought about you guys too ♥)

Since this was going to be my first time dyeing my hair professionally, I was really looking forward to my hair appointment that I even mentioned it in a few posts back and often tweeted about it! And on the day of the process I had some live tweets going on :)

I claimed the deal that Nadia's Hair Professionals had for Half Head of Foils or Full Head of Colour, Moroccan Oil Treatment, Style Cut, Blow-dry and more - $49 for one visit.

My appointment was at 10 am and it took me roughly 20-30 minutes to be driven there. I wasn't exactly looking my best (not really a morning person), therefore I have used random shapes to cover my face in some of my pictures.

My hair before my appointment

Was I happy with my previous hair? Well... it was okay. I was in definite need of a dye job, I had frizz/static hair yet I liked the length. Free of split ends but had knots. With this appointment, I was only really aiming for it to be coloured, trimmed (a chop was a big no-no! I value my long hair too much), frizz-free if possible and have my shorter side bangs back. I actually got used to having a longer side fringe but then I remembered how a shorter one suited me more and made me look younger, hehe.

I'll take you through my experience at Nadia's Hair Professionals...

I arrived about 5 minutes early and was warmly welcomed by a hairdresser who was working on a customer at the time. I was told to take a seat and I did so for about 5 minutes. Here I am waiting, with a large mirror beside me:

Bad angle, oh well. I will miss the way my hair looked golden brown when the sun shone onto it...

The seat at the window is where I sat and waited

The hairdresser introduced herself to me as Ashlee and she asked me what colour I was after while showing me a thick book of colour charts. I sort of knew what I wanted but seeing all of these different shades in front of me, it took me a while to decide! Before coming in, I had my mind set on a purple-brown with red/dark pink undertones. There are actually so many variations of shades under that description... I sat there looking for a few minutes trying to decide on what I wanted. What really helped me to narrow down the options was when Ashlee told me that the purple shades were really fashionable and that they're a popular choice this year. So right then and there I went for the purple with a hint of pink. I can't recall of the shade's name but it was something like cabaret? Red cabaret maybe? I'm not too sure, sorry!

Here is where Ashlee parted my hair in the middle and brushed the dye onto my roots. If you don't have bad regrowth like me (whole hair one colour), then this process would probably be skipped. I was a bit concerned about my hairline having dye on it... with home dyeing, I usually put vaseline on my hairline to prevent staining... hm. Well luckily my hairline didn't get stained *phew*

Dye on roots timed for 10 minutes before applying colour to strands

Coffee was offered but I went with water

All of the dye in, hair clipped up to a bun and waiting for the dye to settle

At this point the actual dyeing process was done! Did some more waiting and while this was happening, Ashlee had to work on another client. I didn't mind this as Ashlee had told me that the salon was short of staff and was the only one working that day.

When the time was up, I had my dye rinsed out, hair shampooed and had the Moroccan Oil Treatment put into my hair. I had only heard of this treatment; I did not know anything about how good it was etc. I had no real expectations of what this treatment could do to my hair - just the desire for my hair to be amazing ;D

After the wash a plastic bag was placed over my hair and I sat under this dryer/heater for roughly 10 minutes

I've never used one of these heating things before... what's the name of it?

This followed by a blow-dry which got interrupted 3 times by people wanting to make their appointments. They've been busy since having the Groupon deal and having one person working and picking up the phone isn't great.

Blow-dried hair!

Oh and Woman's Day magazine...

While Ashlee was blow-drying my hair, she said,

"I want your hair!"

I didn't know what to say after that so all I did was smile x)

No hairdresser has ever said that to me before... I feel very very flattered haha

I won't cover my face for the next picture but are you ready to see my new hair colour? Smiling lol...

Ta-da! Purple/pink/red/brown/black I don't even know what to call this exactly xD

I asked for a trim of about 3 cm and had my fringe cut and thinned-out. I didn't take anymore pictures while I was at the salon so the recount of my experience there is over now! 

Overall I spent about 3 hours there - the longest I had ever spent at a salon to do my hair. That's like doing one exam. I was very hungry! Anyway, I'm so glad Ashlee apologised for the time taken, which showed that she cared! I forgot to mention earlier that she was extremely friendly and made sure that I was content as she asked whether I was comfortable and satisfied with how she was cutting my hair. The service was wonderful :)

Now to see the finishing 'product':

I used flash so that the colour could show up better

And that rose is way prettier than my face :3

My fringe will look better once it grows a bit but I must say that I'm not overly happy with my ends being so straight :/ She used 'blunt scissors' to cut my ends however it looks as though she cut them straight across. The good thing is that she spent a decent amount of time cutting my ends and also made me stand up so that she could see whether it was even. This makes me miss my previous hairstyle's ends where they were cut using a razor to give a more feathered look :( I wanted to tell Ashlee this but the next client was in and I could tell that she was probably needing to speed up a bit for the next appointment.

Under lamp lighting, hair has a more red undertone

Good lighting gives it this colour - burgundy?

Bathroom lighting - pink/crimson undertone!

It looks like my hair can be seen as many different colours under different types of lighting but if anyone asks, I say that my hair is purple :)

Unfortunately the colouring is not as even as I had hoped because of my previous uneven colouring T__T It's okay... the black sort of blends in with the purple.

 I've found a way to make my ends look less straight...... curl them!

Side-by-side comparison! Which colour do you prefer???

Thank you so much Groupon for collaborating with me and for the awesome opportunity! A big part of my life has changed :) And also thank you Ashlee from Nadia's Hair Professionals for doing such a lovely job. Years ago I would not have dared to dye my hair an unnatural colour like purple but I am so glad I did now because I'm really happy with it!

My thoughts on Groupon:

It's a breeze to use! Go to Groupon.com.au > Choose your city > Browse the deals > Click 'Buy Now!' > Login or register > Select payment method and you're done. You pay for the coupon in advance and there is a set period of time of when it's valid. Unfortunately it will go to waste if you forget about it or don't make a booking. The voucher is then sent to your email after the deal promotion ends and all you do is print it out and take it with you to redeem :) I like how all of the deals that have been purchased are all one place so you can always check them if you need to:

(White space = other Groupon deal purchased omitted from picture)

Clean interface, simple to navigate and everything is clear!

Would I recommend Groupon?

I definitely would! I've used it 3 times and I have not had any issues whatsoever. Some of the deals are really fantastic as they can save you so much. I know it might seem a little concerning how you have to prepay but that is the policy and it's always best to read the terms and conditions before doing so for a deal. Like with the hair salon, I had no idea that the place even existed until I saw it on Groupon and I didn't know what to expect so before purchasing, I actually did a little bit of research. They don't have their own website but Google-searching the place helped and also using Google maps to find the exact location (because it's always best to be safe than sorry...). The amount of people buying a deal can be seen so you know how popular a deal is and I think it's good knowing that there are hundreds of Groupon users out there.

This post is getting way too long now.... I'll end it here! Thank you so much for reading ^_^

Questjen of the week:

Do you dye your hair to suit the season?

Darker for winter, lighter for summer? One colour all year round?

My answer: I do now

I used to want to dye it whatever colour I felt like but then I decided to go according to seasons to... I guess, match my outfits and the weather? Going darker for winter just seemed normal to me and since I previous had brown hair, I went for purple. I know that in summer I will definitely go lighter - light brown most likely, maybe not blonde!

♥ Jen xx