“The greatest sounds cannot be heard, and the greatest image has no form.”  — This is a famous quote from Laozi’s “Tao Te Ching”, meaning that silence can be deafening and that the most all-encompassing and informative image may not have shape or structure. This philosophy lies at the core of SHHH Salon on Hollywood Road in Sheung Wan and is where the store’s Chinese name 「希聲」was taken from. “Our starting point can be summarised in this quote: ‘It is better to teach a man to fish than to give a man a fish’”, explained founder Marvin Lin. Her salon not only offers haircuts, but also shares the importance of scalp care. Thus, it is no surprise that the launch of her OMG hair care series changed the public’s perception of hair care.

When you walk into a hair salon, you’re probably expecting a fresh new cut and style. SHHH Salon takes this one step further. Paying close attention to the integrity and quality of each customer’s hair, SHHH Salon launched its OMG care series, which bottles up precious ingredients into a salon quality product offering results you can achieve at home. “You could say that we’re sharing our secret recipe to the public”, Marvin laughs.

Why is it that a hair salon would dedicate such extensive resources to hair care instead of styling? It all began when Marvin first ventured into the hair industry over 20 years ago. Working with royal families, celebrity clientele, and in fashion shows, Marvin created unique hairstyles to match different looks. Many performers were concerned with the state of their hair after performances or events – something which became especially clear to Marvin after her work at a hair styling exhibition.

“Although I won the best image and hair design award, after the show drew to a close one of the models said to me: ‘Oh my God, my hair is so dry! Why does your styling look so good, but my hair is a wreck off stage?” This model’s look required a lot of hairspray and since her hair was already damaged, when I took apart her hairstyle her hair kept breaking, which she was very upset about. Models don’t have a choice with the products used in their hair, and after that experience I spent a lot of time thinking about how I could improve hair care.”

“No one paid attention to or advocated for scalp care back then – they just used standard shampoo and conditioner. At first I wondered if I could solve the problem of hair loss with a treatment or a haircut, but of course models didn’t want to cut their hair short and even wanted to continue bleaching and dyeing their hair. My job is not only to create a stunning hairstyle, but also to take care of the model’s hair needs before and after the show, to ensure the long term health and comfort of their hair. The truth is that people from all walks of life need to take care of their hair, regardless of if they are a celebrity, on stage, behind the scenes, at the office, etc. And the sooner you take action, the sooner you’ll be able to enjoy the results. Just like how makeup can cover up blemishes but won’t fix the inherent problem, hairstyling is one in the same. I want to teach people how to take care of their hair before they need to style it to look beautiful”, says Marvin.

While most people already know about the importance of skincare, hair care is still very much a foreign concept. If you’re trying out a new hairstyle, it’s incredibly important to have healthy hair – and healthy hair starts with a healthy scalp. When your scalp is healthy, you can have more flexibility to experiment with daring styles.

 “I believe everyone knows what hair care is, but why should you need to care about your scalp? Your hair follicles are planted deep within your scalp. Using our understanding of the cells in the scalp, we have formulated products with ingredients that can enhance skin cells and their ability to metabolise, making the hair follicles less prone to damage while thickening the hair. Only then can we discuss the thickness, density and gloss of the hair, as well as the styling of the haircut.” Marvin has been involved in scalp research for more than ten years and graduated from Harvard Medical School with first class honours in a Foundation of Chemistry. With her foundation in biochem and years of practical experience, she knows how to “save” everyone’s hair. Among the solutions, scalp care is very important, but is seldom mentioned in the industry, where people often only advocate for cutting and dyeing or using additional hair styling equipment to solve the problem. “That’s why I want to start with my customers’ knowledge and teach them basic scalp and hair care, which they can then share with others around them. These are no longer industry secrets, and everyone can take care of their hair at home with just a few simple steps. The OMG care series is aimed at different hair problems, so that everyone can use higher quality products to repair damage and improve hair quality from the comfort of their own home.”

Good skin makes for a flawless makeup base, and the same goes for hair. A hairstyle can make or break an entire look. Even if you’re wearing stylish clothes and gorgeous makeup, flat and lifeless hair will ruin your look.

“Without good hair quality, your hairstyle won’t last long. Although my work can feature a lot of trendy styling, in order to keep up with current styles you need to have a solid foundation of strong, healthy hair to begin with. If your hair is well maintained and with adequate density and thickness, your hairstyle can last a long time after electro-dyeing. However, a hair stylist will only do the “make-up” (through hair perming or hair colouring) for you, but they won’t focus on the condition of the scalp nor hair. So I would like to share this recipe with you, hoping that you will know when and where your hair is damaged and know how to treat the symptoms. 

After colouring or perming their hair, more people are concerned about hair damage and have begun to pay more attention to hair care. But this does not mean that you shouldn’t care about your hair on a daily basis. You wouldn’t apply skin care products only when you have pimples, right? Instead, we should take a more preventative approach to solve potential problems. Marvin also shared a simple self-examination method to determine your hair’s unique needs.

“Pay attention to whether your scalp is more oily, dry or prone to dandruff. The best time to check your scalp is when shampooing, and you can check the health of your head and scalp by applying pressure from the front, middle and back of your head to the Fengchi acupoint. The state of your scalp is closely related to whether or not you get acne, headaches, shoulder and neck pain. Hair grows best in spring and summer, while growth is slowed during autumn and winter. Early and adequate care in autumn is needed to prevent dryness and hair loss in winter. Hair accounts for 40% of the face, and the condition of your hair often reflects your skin complexion. When your hair is more shiny, the skin often looks more lively and energised. But if the hair is dry, even moisturised, awake skin can look dull and yellow. When I offer visual direction to help create movie characters of different ages and personalities, I also need to consider how different hair styles and hair colours make the audience feel. However, in everyday life, when people wear masks, hair is so important to appearance and image, and hairstyle is an essential component to both life and fashion. Therefore, we need to embrace and face our own scalp and hair problems in order to improve them quickly.”

Marvin has been researching, refining and promoting the importance of scalp care since 2012, when she started building a team to develop scalp care and related formulas. “I have worked as a consultant for different brands on their formulations and asked if it was possible to add different ingredients to scalp care. At the time it was not possible because of cost. But I don’t think it’s a matter of price, it’s a matter of public demand. Once I built up my team and got the support of clients from all over the world, the Middle East and foreign royalty, I started to contact different experts for consultation and research. At first it was really for a small number of people and some of the ingredients in the treatments were quite rare. But as more and more people started to experience hair problems, and media coverage made more people aware of OMG products, the new OMG+ series was launched to quickly solve most people’s hair problems and improve hair quality with valuable and precious ingredients.

OMG Hair Care offers three collections to target different problems. The three collections, Scalp, Airy and Glossy, feature argan stem cells, collagen and hyaluronic acid, and can be used alone or in conjunction with each other depending on the day’s needs or an individual’s hair concerns. Scalp is a basic scalp care line with Ginseng Root Extract and Japanese Dang Yak (Senjin) to solve scalp related problems such as itching, acne and oil production, and to reduce grey hair while preventing hair loss. For flat hair, Airy is infused with more than 15 kinds of plant extracts and essential oils to give a voluminous effect. Glossy, with honey protein and water-soluble keratin, penetrates deep into the hair to tackle frizzy, dry and brittle hair, and contains ingredients that boost and lock in moisture 1,000 times faster than hyaluronic acid. This is an  effective repair treatment for those who bleach and dye or use heated tools such as hair dryers and curlers.