'I think I got scammed': Singaporean who paid $430 at Kuala Lumpur salon

After an online post raving about a Kuala Lumpur salon caught her eye, Andrea Loh's sister asked if they could pay it a visit. 

However, her sister's recommendation turned out to be a bad idea as it ended up being more expensive than anticipated — some RM1,400 (S$431) to be exact. 

In a TikTok video uploaded on Wednesday (Dec 14), the 20-year-old Singaporean said her sister found the salon, which is located around the Setapak area in Kuala Lumpur, on social media platform Xiaohongshu. 

Her sister had already paid a RM300 deposit when she asked Loh to join her, and the pair agreed to go there during their next Kuala Lumpur trip. 

Loh also shared that she would be the one paying for her sister's new hairdo. 

Fast forward to the day itself, the salon owner asked Loh's sister how she wanted her hair done. 

But when Loh saw the prices at the end of the session, she thought she "was seeing double". 

Loh told AsiaOne that her sister's session added up to about RM1,400, with two rounds of bleach and a haircut costing RM760 and RM120 respectively. 

She did not remember the exact price of the other components but said the hair colour treatment was about RM400. 

Loh also noted that the salon was not situated in a prime location such as Singapore's Orchard Road, but was instead a "hole-in-the-wall" shop in the middle of nowhere. 

"I was in shock," she recounted. 

[embed]https://www.tiktok.com/@smackytackywackyflacky/video/7176613288313179394?is_copy_url=1&is_from_webapp=v1&item_id=717661328831317[/embed]

Loh said she then decided to call her parents to ask for advice. 

"I think if I'm getting scammed, the people I can look to are my parents," she reasoned. 

However, by the time she managed to speak to them, the salon owner had already started work on her sister's hair. 

"What was I supposed to do, I can't unbleach her hair," said Loh in exasperation. 

So, she said she "sucked it up" and forked out the RM1,400.  

In the end, Loh's sister was the only one who got her hair done. 

In the comments, several netizens agreed that the salon had charged too much, whether it was in Ringgit or Singapore dollars. 

However, there were a few who felt that the charges were reasonable with one netizen explaining that in general, things in Kuala Lumpur are more expensive compared to those in Johor Bahru. 

Some also pointed fingers at the sister for not waiting for Loh to talk to their parents first.

However, Loh jumped to her defence and called it "a moment of naivety". 

In September, another woman visited a salon in Singapore after it reached out to her to offer "hair services" in exchange for a social media post. 

The salon told her they would give her a one-time hair treatment and a trim, but instead gave her "curtain bangs" and trimmed some dry ends. 

She didn't expect this to be too expensive but ended up forking out $88. 

The woman chose to keep mum at the time as her hair looked "not bad" after the blow-dry. 

However, she didn't feel the same way later on and her co-workers even said her cut was "uneven and choppy". 

melissateo@asiaone.com

No part of this story or photos can be reproduced without permission from AsiaOne.