Taking Your Hair History With You: What to Collect Before You Leave Saigon

2026.08.10Hair care

Most people arrive in Ho Chi Minh City with no hair history at all — the records sit in a salon in another country, in another language. What gets talked about less is the other end of the posting. Somewhere between the first and the fourth year, you find a stylist who finally understands your hair, and then you move again.

The colour you spent three appointments getting right, the cut that finally works with your hairline: none of that travels by itself. But most of it can be written down. Most of it can be written down, though. What to collect before you go, and how to hand it over on the other side:

Collect it at your last appointment, not after

The single most useful moment is while you are still in the chair. Once you have flown, the details live only in someone else’s notes, in a time zone you are no longer in.

Four things are worth asking about before you leave:

What was actually done, and where. Not just “highlights” — roots only, mid-lengths and ends, face-framing pieces? The area matters as much as the service.
How many times the hair has been lightened. If you have been going lighter over several visits, the count is the part a new stylist most needs and is least likely to guess.
Whether anything was put over the top. A colour laid over lightened hair behaves differently from the same colour on untouched hair.
The date. A service with no date is much harder to use than one that has one.

You are not asking for a formula, and you may not get one — that’s normal, and it isn’t what you need anyway. What travels well is a plain description of what happened, in your own notes.

Photos are the part you will actually use

Written notes tell a stylist what was done. Photos tell them what it looked like. Take both.

Natural light, near a window, no filter. Salon lighting and phone processing both flatter colour, and a flattered photo sets a target nobody can hit.
Front and back, hair down and dry. The back is where length and weight actually live, and it’s the view you never have of yourself.
Not only on the day. Take one more a few days later, and one just before your next colour would have been due. The version you live with is more useful than the version you walked out with.

Keep them in one album with the notes. It sounds fussy for about a minute, and then it’s the thing you open in a new chair in a new city.

Record what was done, not what it was called

Colour names don’t survive borders. The same word can mean different depths in different markets, and a shade name from one brand means nothing at the next salon.

What does survive is the sequence. “Lightened twice over two visits, then a soft brown put over the top, roots done every six weeks or so” gives a new stylist somewhere real to start. “Ash beige” doesn’t, on its own.

The same goes for cuts. “Layers” covers a wide range. “Length kept at the collarbone, weight taken out underneath, nothing above the cheekbone” describes a shape someone can picture.

Expect it to behave differently in the next city

Hair responds to where it lives. Water isn’t the same everywhere, humidity isn’t either, and a place with air conditioning running all day is a different environment from one without it.

So carry the record as history, not as a guarantee. The same steps in a drier, cooler city can look different, dry differently, and last a different length of time. Saying that out loud at the new salon (“this is what was done here, but the climate was very different”) is more useful than presenting it as a recipe that ought to give the same result.

What not to do in the last few weeks

A big change immediately before a move puts you in a new country with hair you have not learned yet, and no one nearby who knows how it got that way.

A first-time colour right before the flight leaves no room to adjust it, and adjusting is usually what a first attempt needs.
A large cut in the final week means the awkward settling-in happens during the move, when you have the least attention to spare.
Additional lightening is the one that follows you longest. It stays in the hair until it is cut off, and it becomes the starting point for whoever you sit in front of next.

Routine upkeep is a different matter. Tidying what already works, before a stretch of travel, tends to make the move easier rather than harder.

The first appointment on the other side

Resist the urge to hand over the album and ask for all of it at once. A first appointment with a new stylist is worth spending on something small.

Book a cut before you book anything chemical. It’s the cheapest way to find out how someone works, and how well the two of you understand each other.
Bring the notes and photos, and say which parts you want to keep — not just what you had.
Say what your mornings look like now. A routine that worked in a humid city may not be the routine you keep in a cold one.

If it goes well, you have found the person who will hold your hair history for the next few years. Then you start the album again, and next time you move, you will already have it.

At emo.

emo. Hair Salon is on Raymondienne in the Starhill area of District 7, near Crescent Mall and Phú Mỹ Hưng. Japanese and Vietnamese stylists both work here, and you can request a stylist by name. The four Japanese stylists each have at least nineteen years behind the chair.On the price list, JP and VN indicate which stylist you have booked. They have nothing to do with your own nationality.

If a move is coming up, it’s worth mentioning at your appointment: the notes and photos in this article are easier to put together while you are still here. You can talk it through in English, Japanese, Vietnamese, Chinese and Korean.

To book, call, message us on Zalo, or use the online booking page. Please note that the online booking page is in Japanese only.

Phone: 0707 177 290
Zalo: Message emo. on Zalo
Online booking (Japanese only): Reservation page

emo. Hair Salon
14 Raymondienne, khu Starhill, phường Tân Mỹ, Quận 7, Ho Chi Minh City (near Crescent Mall, in Phú Mỹ Hưng)
Tue–Fri 9:00–19:00 (last cut 18:00) / Sat–Sun 9:00–18:30 (last cut 17:30) / Closed Mondays