Kim Robinson is the first person to tell me that my face shape is rectangular. I cannot believe I have stumbled through life without knowing this vital, face-saving bit of information.
What's in a Kim Robinson experience?
At the new kimrobinson hair salon at 02-12 Ngee Ann City, where prices start from $158 for a consultation, wash and cut, you get to enjoy:
- Kim Robinson's signature dry cut that all stylists are trained in
- A free review and trim one week after every haircut
- Complete privacy when you book one of the four VIP suites at an extra $280, where you sit on a US$5,000 (S$7,200) leather-bound ergonomic chair from Japan
- Semi-privacy in the other nine parlours that seat between two and four each
- Hair spa treatments in one of two hair spa rooms, each with a US$10,000 spa bed that reclines fully at 180 degrees, also from Japan
- State-of-the-art equipment, such as 'super ionic' hairdryers from Italy which dry hair faster without causing heat damage
- Over 30 paintings done by Robinson himself
- Fabulous interiors, like the walkway, including mid-century chandeliers and a bronze flower sculpture from Paris.
All the artwork pieces are valued at hundreds of thousands of dollars.
Indeed, a wash-and-cut session with the Hong Kong-based Australian celebrity hairstylist - best known to have coiffed regional A-listers like Sandy Lam, Gong Li and Maggie Cheung - offers a quick walk-through in the basics of hairstyle theory.
Like how, as he suavely details, the face is divided into three sections - forehead to eyebrows, eyebrows to tip of nose, tip of nose to chin.
Since my forehead is the longest section, it is good to have a fringe to cover it up, coos the maestro who famously charges $1,580 for a haircut.
The lifeless bob I was wearing as I sat in his uber-luxe, chandeliered salon in Hong Kong is 'nice' but 'a little flat', he says kindly.
'What I suggest is to create more volume around the top of your head and cut off these bits at the neck so the hair looks lighter, with a bit more movement,' he says.
Le Salon Bis, his 13-year-old hair salon in Ngee Ann City, reopened at a larger unit on the second level earlier this month under the new name, kimrobinson.
Urban was invited to his salon in Hong Kong for a taste of the fabled Kim Robinson experience.
He proceeds to chop off my hair in a flurry of snips. He does not wet the hair, preferring to cut it dry - a technique he developed in the 1980s and for which he is famous.
'How would you know which way is the natural flow of the hair if it's wet?' he reasons.
He does not section off the hair and hold them back with clips either. Like an improvisational artist, he cuts free-hand, running his fingers through the hair often to make sure the ends are 'seamless'.
In just 15 minutes, he is done, bestowing upon me a short shag that is a cross between that of Sandy Lam's and Katie Holmes'.
Unfortunately, not all Singapore women can get a Robinson makeover even if they have the money to spare.
While he continues to fly to Singapore every month to train his staff and attend to a very exclusive set of about 20 regulars, he says he will not have time to take on new customers.
He assures, however, that his team of 75 stylists, technicians, assistants and manicurists are all trained by him, including four despatched from his Hong Kong studio to work here full-time.
Refurbished at a staggering $3million, the 5,000sqft hair studio here is now the flagship of his chain, which has a branch in Hong Kong and with one each to open later this year in Beijing and New Delhi. A basic wash-and-cut starts from $158.
Every inch of the Singapore salon, styled like a chi-chi boutique hotel, is engineered to wow. The first word that comes to mind is luxury, but Robinson says in a conspiratorial whisper: 'I hate that word.'
He says of his salons' monied interiors: 'Yes, we have the nice furniture and the nice paintings but at the end of the day, we're about giving good haircuts that last.'
Every one of his stylists is trained to give his signature dry cut. As a matter of shop policy, all customers are asked to return a week after each haircut for a complimentary review and trim.
Born and raised in Perth to parents who were dairy farmers, Paris-trained Robinson based his budding career in Hong Kong in the 1970s because the French style of hairstyling was new and much in demand then.
His innovative techniques spread quickly by word-of-mouth among celebrities and soon earned him a star-studded clientele.
Now, at 52, he is immaculately groomed (right), his own blond locks coaxed into an effortless nest of feathery outward flicks. He is chatty too, eager to wax fanatical about Oprah Winfrey and the homeware section of upmarket department store Lane Crawford.
Breaking away from his reputation as hairstylist to the stars, he says his target customer at the Singapore salon is the professional working woman. Celebrities, he says, make up 'oh, only 0.1 per cent' of his clientele.
By positioning his flagship in Singapore, he is eyeing a more regional pool of customers.
In the same manner he wears all his shirts unbuttoned halfway down his chest, he confidently fends off the suggestion that his expansion here is ill-timed given the current economic climate.
'Singaporean women are always in search of value for money. They know that value is much more satisfying than settling for something that may cost less but is of poorer quality,' he says.
Indeed, while his chocolate-hued interiors and US$5,000 (S$7,200) chairs are impressive, I am more won over by this: the haircut he gave me is the first short crop I have ever had which the stylist saw no need to touch up with gel or cream.
