I fell in love with Korea after visiting for a friend's wedding. To fund my trips, I started selling Korean skincare as well as hair and beauty products online. And, of course, as part of my "job", I would try all the different hair salons (and facials!) in Seoul. Here's my review of the best hair salons in Seoul, that I've personally tried and tested.
Korea is famous for its beauty industry: besides affordable, high quality skincare and cosmetics, it also has SO MANY spas and hair salons where you can try the various latest beauty treatments.
I make it a point to do a few treatments whenever I am in Korea, so have tried spas everywhere from Seoul to Busan and Jeju. (Here's my review of the various facials I've tried in Seoul.) We're only going to look at the hair salons in Seoul in this post: Most of the ones I've tried are located near Myeong Dong but I'll venture out and try some other ones in Gangnam soon. (The best, according to my taxi driver.)
My best haircut was from a hair salon near Edae, but the area has gone downhill over the year, so I recommend hair salons near Hongdae now.
Note: In Korean hair salons, the stylists are divided into levels, so the cut you get by a top stylist and a beginner stylist will be very different. (Both in skill and price.)
Olso a lot of the stylists will not speak English. If you have a specific style you want, try to get instructions written in Korean!
MyeongDong
Juno
Juno is a HUGE hair salon chain in Korea.
It's been around since 1982, so older than me, and they have 157 outlets in tons of places (including Busan) and they're visited by lots of locals and tourists. There are several in MyeongDong itself! I've had my hair done at several of them, both by the top as well as the beginner stylists.
Fun fact: When I told the (Korean) taxi driver I was going to Juno in Myeong Dong, he scoffed and said the one at Gangnam is So much better! (They have a flagship at Cheongdam-dong.)
The cuts have always been technically competent- well cut hair. But not always done in styles that suit my face!
For example, the last cut and style they did on me (in 2023, Juno Hair MyeongDong2) looked right out of a Korean drama but sadly did not suit my face shape. (I wasn't even asked to remove my mask before they suggested a cut- surely you would need to know my face shape to know what styles work for me?) Click here to see my full review of Juno Hair Salon Seoul + pictures of the style they gave me a few hours after the treatment.
In addition, the perm only lasted like 2 days. (I did not wet my hair.) However, they have a 4.9 rating on Google, so I guess other people are quite happy with them!
Last but not least, the service isn't great either. I think they get so many tourists, they're not really hungry anymore. For example, when I visited Juno Hair MyeongDong2 in April 2023 with 3 travelers in their 70s/80s, some of us weren't even offered a cup of tea, which I find terrible for a hair salon. (In total we spent a few thousand there!)
So I wouldn't really recommend Juno to friends and family visiting Korea. (I go there when I have no time to go elsewhere!)
In addition, personally, I didn't find much difference between the cut by the Juno higher-level stylist and the Juno beginner stylist (besides the price) so I don't think it's worth paying for a more high-level stylist at Juno.
On the plus side, the English speaking ability at Juno tends to be higher than at some of the other hair salons. (Also when I left my negative review on Google, they immediately replied with an apology and an offer to re-do it IF it was really not well done. So I would suggest getting your haircut at the beginning of your trip, so there is time for them to rectify if necessary.)
Note: there is more than 1 Juno salon in MyeongDong, so copy the address exactly into Kakao Maps/ Naver Maps (and don't just put "Juno".)
Don't forget to print out the Korean name and address to show the cab driver or in case you need to ask for directions!
JUNG SAEM MOOL 좋아요
Supposed to be some sort of celebrity make-up artist (that does hair too) and located at Lotte but overall not an experience I care to repeat.
My Mom did here hair there and her conclusion was: it's the most expensive haircut she's had in Korea, but the worst!
If you really want a celebrity hair cut, you could try Jenny House- I've not tried them yet. Apparently they style Park Shinhye, Song Jihyo, Han JiMin, PENTAGON- however, do not expect to be treated like a celeb!
Edae & Hongdae
My best hair cut was at a hair salon near Edae- the prices are good and the stylists are talented. (Lots of competition since it's near the women's Uni although the district has been going downhill a bit. (Lots of shops closings.))
I didn't note down the names of the salons I visited in Edae but I've always been very happy with the cuts I've gotten there. (Lots of compliments too.)
Since the salons target students, I usually get a director-level stylist at an Edae salon, as I want someone with more experience.(Waaaaaay past student age now.)
However, do note that the stylists in the Edae salons generally don't speak as good English as at Juno, so you'll have to be willing to be more adventurous.
These days, I usually get my hair done at Hongdae.
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