Got a Balayage - but then I cut it off!

I had my hair bleached - for the first time - few years ago. And im here to talk about it. Professional hair dyes services are not cheap. In brunei, maybe its between the range of $90 - $400? I have long hair and it is expected to be expensive. As usual, the typical Bruneian me went to cross the border to get my hair dyed. I've been eyeing on this salon in KK, not too cheap and not too expensive.

I was interested in getting a balayage as i dont want an awkward root growth? My hair grows pretty fast, so i want something that will blend beautifully if my black hair starts to grow. We head into the saloon and gave him inspiration picture.

I wanted it to be like this.

I cant remember how long we were there, probably around 2-3 hours? But here's the result!

Honestly speaking, I did not like it - a lot. I feel like it is too 'golden' for me. it looks more golden in person. Not blaming them, I understand to get the color i wanted, i needed to do more sessions to get it toned. But my hair was already damaged from the bleach 🥺

I only kept the hair for a month maybe. Because i hated how damaged my hair turned out, i cut my hair short. The color still can be seen, but at least i felt more comfortable. From then one, I promise to not do it again. at least professionally. because i think my hair prefers box dye. i've box dyed before and i still do now, and my hair was never as damaged. i'll share more on this sometime! :)

btw a lot of masked pictures because it was during the covid area!

Dupe of Revlon One Step Hair dryer & Volumizer Brush

For this post, i want to share with you my all time favorite hair tool. The Brush Dryer Styler?

OK, its a dupe of Revlon One Step Hair Dryer & Volumizer. Why i got a dupe?

1. I got the Revlon one already. I have it shipped here from US (we didnt have it here back then, not sure now) and maybe because of the country voltage... but it suddenly stopped working after few uses 💸
2. Its cheaper
3. It works exactly the same
4. Lasts longer

I purchased this years ago from Lazada and it still works. However, i did not use it as much as i did before. Mainly due to time, laziness and my hairstyle currently. But i promise you will LOVEEEE this if you have layers! When my hair has layers, it looks horrible not styled. So this hair tool definitely level up my hair look.

you can check my video below on how easy it is to use. it does take practice tho, and kind of tiring. but i love how soft and fluffy it makes my hair looks. I would only keep it at 'low' heat to avoid my hair further damaged or to even keep it from being overheated. and do it on around 90% damp hair. btw put it on mute. i filmed this with tiktok and it added the song quite loud haha. 

for those based in Brunei/Malaysia, you can purchase here: https://shopee.com.my/3-in-1-Hair-Dryer-Brush-%E2%80%93-Negative-Ion-Hot-Air-Styler-for-Drying-Straightening-Curling-i.1206023866.43357112931?sp_atk=7c5963c5-610a-49e4-910d-a07ef35e1965&xptdk=7c5963c5-610a-49e4-910d-a07ef35e1965

However if you can find the Revlon one. just get it. they have amazing reviews on Tik Tok. unless you can afford Dyson 😳

My First Concert - Taylor Swift Era's Tour Singapore

How old were you when you went to your first concert? I was 32. Last year. Yeah it took me that long because it was never on my bucket list! To be fair, there's not a lot of people I know who went to concerts before. It is not a common thing here as we do not have any locally (i meant like from famous celebrities fyi). Those famous people do NOT go here to sing so, usually we concert goers just book a flight to whatever cheap and near and just attend the concert there (btw i used Scoot from Miri to SG - so much cheaper).  i understand that its not something thats easy for us to just YOLO. you gotta have money for the concert tickets, flight tickets, hotel, food, transportation, etc. and lets not forget to discuss on who's gonna take care of the kids?! oh and work leave too. we gotta make sure we have any left

Money ✅ (credit card 🤫) Kids ✅ (thanks to my family) Work ✅ (go on a Saturday concert so I can only apply a one day leave since FRI and SUN is offday 😂)

So today I am going to write about all the amazing concerts i've been to.

1. Taylor Swift

THIS. This is a "fuck it i'm gonna watch her concert no matter what" moment. My first concert. I was inexperienced so the ticket booking was messed up for me. I MEAN, ITS TAYLOR SWIFT. My tiktoks was flooding over her amazing tour performances and she's KNOWN for being a great performer! I lost all the early ticket battles. I only scored the ticket battle by KLOOK - a third party. So yep, it was more expensive than what it was originally sold for. I paid USD1318.39 for two tickets. OK its a VIP 3 seat - comes with merch and such - and includes a "4 star" one night hotel stay.

BUT i was so disappointed with the hotel. They could've list a real 4 star hotel. But in my opinion, the hotel room was not even close to 4 star. It was insanely small and the service couldn't have been worse. Upon arriving, there was such a longgggg que to check in. Im sure everyone was there because of the concert ticket. But they could've at least managed the que better. So in result, the lift was also awful because TOO MANY PEOPLE at the same time :( it took hours to check in and out. I was glad it was only for one night. But the price paid definitely hurt. I was at Hotel G, Singapore.

Anyway, queuing into the concert was smooth. No long waits, probably because of the VIP tickets. Upon arriving the hall, i can honestly say that all seats are good seats haha. Well, except my seat (talk about that later)

Before Taylor Swift enter the concert, her special guest Sabrina Carpenter performed a few songs. At that time, she was not very popular. It was during her 'Nonsense' era. So only during this song people are loudly singing along. But other songs, people are just busy with selfies etc. But now, she's taking over the pop world. She can definitely have her own asia tour now. I'd go 100%. Its sad that she didnt do the short and sweet tour in asia. I know all the songs :(

Anyway, so Taylor Swift entered and everyone was screaming. Everything was so beautiful, the crowds, the lights, everything.

Here's my seat. I can barely see her. My expensive ticket betrayed me 🥹 But its ok, it was worth it. Im glad that I attended the Era's tour. This tour was special because she sings songs from her old albums too cause I am more of a fan of her old songs hehe. So i was pretty quiet during her newer songs performance. It was pretty nostalgic and i got teary eyes from "Enchanted" performance. Ahhhhh i'd go again in a heartbeat (with better seats)

Everyone was dressing up. I wished i did too but nope, i just did a Taylor Swift tshirt and jeans 💀 i didnt know about the dressing up concert thing!

ANDDDD GUESS WHAT, LISA BLACKPINK WAS ALSO THERE. she was just around behind our seat area and i cant believe i went back and forth to take pics and did not notice her!! i DID NOT know there was a VIP tent 🫠

taken from google. 

For the VIP Merch, it's so boring for a SGD6XX ticket. All we got was some pins, lanyards, postcards and a tote bag. Idk, i feel like they can definitely do better than that.

Our transport back to the hotel after the concert was something we did not expect. It was extremely hard to get grab. And everyone just marked up the price so crazy. At that time, we didn't know how to use the MRT 😂 so much money wasted on grab.

CONCERT TIPS:

1. get good seats, no floor seats unless you can score the front one
2. dress up
3. learn the MRT 
4. eat well first, the food inside EXPENSIVE
5. check the song setlist, so you can learn the songs that you didnt know haha. it was so boring not to sing along. especially if you are on floor seats, you cant see taylor, so you're just quietly sitting down while everyone else stands up and sing. cant even see the TV
6. check the VIP tents for other celebrities haha

Anyways, it looks like this post is long already without me talking about the other concerts i attended yet haha. So i'll end here and i'll talk about the other concerts on next posts!