If you live around Bintaro, especially around the sector 9, I don’t think you can miss Anita salon as it is perhaps he biggest salon in the area. It also seems to be around forever and I thought it was a “no-brainer” choice because they offer an extensive service from head to toe, from cutting, styling, makeup, creambath, manicure, pedicure, waxing, lulur, massage, totok wajah (they’re famous for this service), some weight-loss treatment, and many more. But even though I’ve lived in the area for almost 2 years now, I actually just came to try Anita salon a few weeks ago.
I came desperately in need of a good head and back massage but I also needed some manicure and pedicure. I wanted to try the totok wajah but decided for creambath instead because I didn’t really have much time to spend there. The salon houses a huge 3-story building with a clean and modern interior. The first floor is for cutting, styling, creambath and the usual services, second floor is for totok, lulur, massage, and all those stuff that require more privacy while the third floor is for their weight-loss clinic.
I was actually quite surprised to find that Anita is not a women-only salon as I was seated next to a man in the washing station. Not only that, it seems like some of their employers are also men, so there were quite a few who walk around while I was getting my treatment. It actually made me feel a bit uncomfortable. I prefer to be in a salon where I don’t have to worry about sitting properly or if my bra straps are showing when the creambath lady was massaging my shoulders.
As soon as I sat in the washing station, the lady who was in charge in washing my hair started giving me endless offers of their additional service and products. Do I want regular creambath or hairspa? How about hair mask? Do I want to use hair oil? Hair tonic? Don’t you want to try our lulur? I cut her off and told her I’ve been having problems with hair loss and I asked her to give me a recommendation. She told me I should get a hair mask and purchase a bottle of their hair tonic. I said yes to both but by this time she was already massaging my head, so I would’ve said yes to anything she offered.
Interestingly enough, all products that they use for manicure and pedicure (lotion, cuticle cream, scrub, spray) were their own creations. The hand and foot products are great. They lotion and cream were hydrating and not sticky, the scrub was gritty enough to slough away dead skin cells (and caused considerable pain in the process :D) and everything smells minty fresh. Anita salon also make its own concoction of hair products including the tonic I purchased (more on this later).
Too bad, I can’t sing the same praise for the service. I thought it was only okay and bordering on bad. The manicurist and pedicurist did a decent job but towards the end, the creambath lady seemed to be rushing me. While washing my hair for the last time, she answered her mobile phone a few times. When she was drying my hair, she did it halfheartedly and suddenly stopped and told me “Okay, we’re done” while my hair was still wet! When I walked in I told her I didn’t need to style my hair (because I was going to do it again the next day for a wedding) but of course I expected her to dry my hair completely before she stopped the hairdryer! I told her that and she continued drying my hair but with an apparent scowl on her face.
I paid Rp. 265.000 in total for the whole thing: hair mask, manicure, pedicure and a bottle of hair tonic. I suppose it was not expensive but I have had better service for the same price or even less.
The hair tonic is something else. The lady told me it contained ginseng among other ingredients, which she didn’t name. As we know, ginseng has been widely-used to treat hair loss and promote hair growth. In my case, I saw result as soon as the first time I used it. My hair loss decreased significantly. So I’m going to keep using it and see if it will also make my hair thicker in the long run. I just wish there’s some information on the bottle as it only showed a logo, name of product and BPPOM registration number.
So anyway, even though it is strategically located and offers pretty much everything I need for my beauty needs, based on the experience above, I would think twice, even thrice, to come back to Anita Salon.
Have you been to the salon and what do you think of it?
