Report No. 1: Restorative Digital Perm Seminar, Seoul, 24 March 2026

In short. On 24 March 2026 I spent a day at a restorative digital perm seminar at MASSTIGE HAIR Academy in Gangnam, Seoul, taught by Hong Jihoon, the academy's creative technical director. The trip ran from 21 to 26 March; the return flight via Tashkent cost 116,000 ₽. I came home with certificate No. 344, a digital perm on my own hair and a batch of Korean solutions. A month later, in April 2026, I did the first perms in my studio in Moscow.

How it was

I flew out of Moscow on 21 March and landed at Incheon on the morning of 22 March, after a night change in Tashkent. The return ticket with two suitcases cost 116,000 ₽. I learned about the K-ETA travel permit only two days before departure; it was approved within a day, and my passport and permit were checked three times on the way: at passport control in Moscow, in transit and in Seoul.

The seminar was on 24 March. The title on the screen read 환원 열펌 세미나, a restorative heat perm seminar. The morning was a lecture with slides for a hall of Korean stylists, with mannequin heads on tripods along the walls. From about one o'clock the work moved to a live Korean model with long dark hair: diagnosis, the solution weighed on scales, winding, the Wave Master machine, rinsing and the result, long soft waves. Dozens of stylists stood around the chair filming on their phones. My own videos from that afternoon run for hours, and I still use them.

What struck me most was the speed of the Korean stylists, the fact that every procedure was done in at least four hands, the number of extra devices, such as vaporisers for restoration, and how much of the procedure was about restoring the hair so that the client leaves with healthy, shiny hair. I brought a bar of Russian «Alyonka» chocolate for the team; it turned into conversation, and the stylists showed me how they order their own tools and supplies.

I had my own interpreter, whom I found and brought myself. That was the hardest part of the trip. Teaching is in Korean.

In the evening, from about 17:12 to 20:11, I had a digital perm on my own hair in the same salon. That is Report No. 2.

What I got

• Certificate No. 344 from MASSTIGE HAIR Academy, signed by Hong Jihoon, stating that I «conscientiously completed the training».
• The technique. One technique, from diagnosis to styling, shown in full on a live head. To be honest about my level: in March I could not yet hold perm rods properly. That came with practice in Moscow and with the second training in August (Report No. 4).
• Solutions. I took home a batch of Beati solutions, the digital perm line the seminar was built on.
• A studio. After the seminar I opened my studio in Moscow. The first perms were done there in April 2026, and six months later clients came back for a second perm.

Who it suits and who it doesn't

It suits a stylist who already cuts and colours and wants one Korean technique in depth, from a teacher who does it every day. It does not suit someone who wants a general course: Korean academies teach one technique per seminar and assume basic skills. It also does not suit someone without an interpreter. Nothing at the seminar was in English.

Verdict

8/10. One technique in depth from a teacher who does it every day; nothing in English, bring your own interpreter.