Monday, February 6, 2012

Damaged

When I was a year and five months natural I made one of the worst decisions in my natural hair journey: To go to a natural hair dresser and flat iron my hair. Two things went wrong:
1. Trusting someone that doesn't know the first thing about my hair
2. Giving her extra tip because I liked the outcome of my hair, lol

My experience was terrible. I will start with the girl that washed my hair. It felt like she was ripping my hair out by trying to "run her fingers" through my kinky curly hair. When they applied a deep conditioner to my hair and put me under the steamer, I am pretty sure the steamer wasn't working effectively. You might be saying to yourself, "Why didn't you speak up?" Well, there goes the trust part, me trusting in the professionals. 

Idiot.

Anyways, while the hair dresser was doing my hair, I asked her if she used a leave in because it seemed like she was struggling with my hair.  She "claimed" she put a lot of leave in and heat protectant. Once again, I trusted her and left it alone. I don't personally like to tell people how to do their jobs especially when they say they did something. The only thing I told her to do is to use the "tension method" while blow drying my hair because once again it seemed like she was struggling. She took my advice, my scalp thanked her. 

I forgot to mention that there were other clients in the salon, they all "claimed" she does a great job and that they haven't incurred any heat damage. So once again, *trust*. 
So let's just say, I was feeling good that I got my hair did...I felt like there should have been a runway and a big 'ol fan blowing in my face. I wouldn't lie, my hair look really good. I kept my hair "straight" for about 2 weeks. When I finally decided it was time to go back to my kinky curls, the worst happened. Portions of my hair was damaged....straight, despite all the washing, DC's (deep condition's), and protein treatments I did. I cried so much that night. 

The next day I thought I could contact the hair dresser I "trusted" and inform her about what happened. 
Let's just say she got on the defense, claimed that us "lay" people don't know what "heat damage" is, especially hair bloggers on Youtube (?). I was like wow. She said give my hair about a month to revert. (Um, it has been nearly 5 MONTHS!!!!). Something funnier happened about a month later when I contacted her again and told her my hair didn't revert. She didn't respond to my messages AND she blocked ME on facebook. WTH. Really? I'm sorry, did I mess up YOUR hair?
Long story short, I am transitioning ALL over again and I am pretty sure NO HEAT PROTECTANT was used that day at the salon. So I am hoping October of this year, my hair will be back to the length it was last year. So, I say to all of you considering flat ironing your hair by a professional, ASK questions and be as annoying as possible. Why? Because you are giving them YOUR money and YOUR hair is at stake. It will pay off in the end. Trust me.

2 comments:

  1. Congrats in your blog. I am so sorry that happened to you and it makes me even more leery about getting my hair straightened in May. I think I will have to pray and ask God for some guidance on this one. Thank you again for sharing your experience.

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