I have been getting my highlights done by Delos at Sabune Cabane* for ages now and as brilliant as she may be, I am sick of paying through the nose for my alarmingly regular visits. $250, or there abouts, every six weeks is, I have just realised, quite a lot of  money.

Sure, part of what you are paying for is her assistant who helps with all the foils and prep work which undoubtedly makes the whole process incredibly fast (in and out within an hour and a half sometimes, plus the fact that the colour is impressively right, I mean right, to the hairline) but still…I’m not sure my time is so valuable that I wouldn’t rather pay less (or spend it on something else if I’m going to be truthful) and let it take longer.

So I have been on the lookout for a replacement salon for while now. Let me set some parameters: I am careful with my hair. I have made all manner of colours boo boos in the past (red with purple underneath, black, auburn, the list goes on) so I am not planning on a re-run.

When I got wind of the really good value salon at the Tanglin Club I was skeptical mainly because of it’s decidedly granny image.  But then I saw the price list.  $80 for highlights.  As many as you need. None of this full/half head nonsense.

I had to try it…I mean, I could go daily at that price. In fact, two trips to Sunny, who is in charge of the salon there, and the saving you will make on not going to Sabune Cabane will practically pay for lifetime membership to the club (well, a slight exaggeration but you know what I mean).

I am very pleased to report that Sunny is a very competent colourist. I had to give him a bit of a steer on the colour mix I wanted on my first visit, which he noted down and has subsequently remembered, but his technique is excellent. I am sitting here now in fact, for visit #2.

The good news is that non-members can also use the salon at the Tanglin Club, provided they know a member who’d be happy to sign for their treatment.

Open 10am-7pm (except Sunday when it closes at 6pm).  Sunny is generally off on Sundays and Mondays.

A note to British readers: you are lucky and pay nothing like what us ang moh get charged over here to lighten our tresses; in SG you have to go somewhere experienced at dealing with Causacian hair, which is generally much thinner than Asian hair and so able to absorb colour far more quickly.  The scope for error, if you go somewhere where they don’t know what they are doing, is huge.

*Since writing this, Sabune Cabane has closed. Read about where Delos has gone – as well as other options for your tresses – in this (rather heavily edited) article I wrote for Sassy Mama here 

Image via Jeric. I have blogged about their cutter extraordinaire, Winnie, here