Room Escape Artist

The Hairdressing is one of the best escape rooms in Valencia, Spain. Here are our recommendations for other great escape rooms in Spain.

A cut above

Location:  Valencia, Spain

Date Played: April 24, 2024

Team size: 2-6; we recommend 3-4

Duration: 90 minutes

Price: from €90 per team for teams of 2 to €132 per team for teams of 6

Ticketing: Private

Accessibility Consideration:  This game includes crawling, climbing, stairs, shaking, and agility.

Mess Meter:  🧹 (out of 5)

Emergency Exit Rating: We cannot recall.

Physical Restraints: Some players are restrained at the wrist for a brief time.

For more on our trip to Spain, here’s our field report.

REA Reaction

The Hairdressing was a comedy adventure.

It offered tons of opportunities to play. It created moments of tension, but always with a wink and a smile.

Every time we thought the game was coming to an end, it just kept going and it just got stranger. Moreover, it never got boring.

Furthermore, The Hairdressing was exceptionally well-written. It paid off every plot point, even the stupidest little things turned out to be meaningful. This was some of the tightest writing we’ve seen in escape rooms.

The character of Remigio was the star of the show, even though he wasn’t present for most of the game. He was there just enough to set the tone, and be an ever-present influence on the gameplay.

We loved the variety and ingenuity of the puzzles. One of these fell flat, mainly because it seemed serious, and as international travelers, we couldn’t really lean in. While the execution probably works well with local teams, it was a downer for us, even though there was a bypass. Luckily, this was the adventure that didn’t end, and we got back into playing pretty quickly.

There isn’t enough comedy in escape rooms because it’s really challenging to get comedy right. The X-Door not only pulled it off, but did so spectacularly, and in two languages. It was brilliant. We left The Hairdressing all smiles.

Who is this for?

• Adventure seekers
• Story seekers
• Puzzle lovers
• Scenery snobs
• Any experience level
• David Hasselhoff fans

Why play?

• Because David Hasselhoff
• Silliness
• Variety of unusual puzzle types

Story

We were visiting the celebrity hairdresser, Remigio, for a regular haircut. He had an unusual obsession with David Hasselhoff, sure, but that wouldn’t lead to anything out of the originary.

Setting

We entered a brightly colored barber shop through the front door. The bright set had a lot of character, felt through the props, wall decor, and the character who led us in.

Gameplay

The X-Door’s The Hairdressing was a standard escape room with a moderate level of difficulty.

Core gameplay revolved around observing, making connections, solving puzzles, and maneuvering through different spaces. The puzzles ranged from classic escape room pattern recognition to more physical challenges, a memory puzzle, and even social engineering.

Analysis

➕ Remigio, the hairdresser, was amazing. He had a few scenes within the experience, but wasn’t present the entire time. The character was ridiculous, which elevated the whole experience. Remigio was entertaining, over the top, and fun to engage with.

➕ The plot of The Hairdressing was just as ridiculous as the character. It was the perfect set up for an adventure. Everything was silly.

➕ Despite the set up, from the looks of the opening set, we were playing an escape room set in a salon. However, everything wasn’t as it appeared. The game transitioned from this opening scene into a story we couldn’t have made up, and took us to the most unexpected places. There was always something more!

➕ Where The X-Door focused on sets, they were outstanding. The opening set in the salon, in particular, was playful and detailed. Similarly the final set was just as immersive, although the tone had changed.

➖In between the opening act and the conclusion, the sets were hit or miss, with some spaces barely decorated and underdeveloped. One narratively important set, in particular, just felt like a closet, and didn’t sell the fiction.

➖ We also experienced some wear on the set and props.

➕ The puzzles that stood out most had us think outside the box. In one, the game engineered us a new vantage point, in another we social engineered our way to critical information.

 ➕The puzzles were well clued and the game flowed well. Because the premise of the experience was so silly, escape room puzzles seemed perfectly logical in this strange world.

➖ In one instance we need to complete an over the top, super silly, and highly involved puzzle before we could progress with anything else in the space. We wish this gate had been more clear, so that we could have focused on this one interaction and more fully enjoyed it.

➕ The set transitions were surprising, and they were justified in this bizarre universe.

➕/➖ The Hairdressing dialed up the intensity with a late-game sequence that blurred the game world with the real world. We loved the concept, but the seemingly serious implementation left a bad taste, even if all was not as it appeared. We expect this sequence works better for Spanish players than international travelers.

➕ The Hairdressing had one of the best implementations of Chekhov’s gun that we’ve ever experienced. It shook things up.

Tips For Visiting

• There is street parking nearby, but leave time to find a spot.
• This game is available in English.
• The gamemaster plays a character who has a few scenes in the room with the players. However, the team plays most the game without an actor in the room.

Book your session with The X-Door’s The Hairdressing, and tell them that the Room Escape Artist sent you.