My Hair Salon Experience (after about 3 years)

Picture got from Keller Williams on KWSA

Hallo!

Wie gehts?
Been working on my German lately. I love that language :)

Anyways! So, I went to a hair salon! O.M.Geeez!
I also got a weave for the first time in years! O.M.MAJOR. GEEEEZ!

Here's my experience:

Once upon a time (yesterday, actually), in a city known as 'Southampton' lived a girl named, 'Samantha.' Due to it being difficult for her aunt to help her reinstall her crochet braids this time, she went in search of a hair salon that could help her get her hair done before returning to her school in Somerset. Samantha was being very brave by doing this as she had not been to a hair salon in years.
She searched for and wide, in and near the city centre (mostly on foot) looking for a particular salon her mum had found online, but had changed address without updating their website. Eventually, she found the place, but only one person worked there and that person had a client who was possibly on their way and therefore referred her to another salon which was about 5 minutes away, but gave her the wrong street name. So, Samantha, walked over to the wrong street and walked down it and thought to herself, "this street is starting to look pretty dodgy," so she turned around and headed back up the street and to a store known as 'Afro City' where she asked where the salon was and was pointed in the right direction. Sam quickly found the salon walked in and....

Okay! So, extension were picked out and I was placed in a chair with a giant bib-like thing placed round my neck (you know those things put over guys when they get their hair cut?). My scarf was taken off my hair and the stylist/owner of the salon was like, "WOW! Your hair is big and long!" and went on to say, "I've been trying to grow out my hair. How did you do it?" That should have been a red flag for me. It made me feel a little iffy.

Soooo the lady used a product on my hair that contained petrolatum and all sorts of other chemicals that I do not use on my hair and are definitely not CG friendly and I was like, "Sam, it's just once, your hair will be fine." Next I knew, the blow drier was out with a comb attachment on it and she went through my hair, but only made one or so passes of the the hair drier on it (unless she felt she had to comb from the ends up) and I said to myself, "Sam, you haven't used heat on your hair in 4 years, but this is just once. Your hair will be fine." I kinda liked seeing my hair stretched out like that, but mainly because it hanged longer and I could be like, "giiirrrrrrl, APL hair! You did it!"

A lady walked into the salon and the first thing she said was, "look at all that hair! Your hair is huge! It's long too!" and once again, I was asked what the secret was. In case you are wondering, I just told them that I use all-natural products on my hair  and mentioned a few brands before they went on to talk about the products that were in the store (not CG friendly) and other stuff, partially in a different language.

So, the stylist started cornrowing my hair in preparation for the weave and the cornrowing was fine, didn't hurt and I was like, "okay, this is good. Not so bad, not so bad," but then....BUT THEN....OH! HONEY BOO-BOO CHILD! BUT THEN! She started sewing in the weave and I was like, "OUCH!" Why the heck did no one tell me that weaves hurt like crazy?! I don't know if it's that the weave is pulling two cornrows closer together or whatever, but it hurts and when she got to the front, it was like the weave started pulling at my edges and stuff and like pretty much, I am praying that my hairline doesn't recede. This girl does not want to lose her edges after growing them out.

Okay! So, the weave was done and honey, it was not big. My hair is naturally big, as you must have been able to tell from the name of this blog and from the comment made about my hair that I mentioned above. My crochet braids have always been big. Honey, this thing was not big. It looked okay and better from the back, but I didn't like how thin it looked because I am not used to thin-looking hair. The stylist said that I could separate the curls in order to achieve a bigger look and I have done a bit of this, but it's still not as big as I want it to be. I am not used to this.

Final verdict:
This salon experience was not a total disaster. The people who worked in the salon (both black African) were really nice and friendly people. They offered me a cup of tea, gave me advice on life as they found out that I am just finishing college and we had nice conversations. You will have a nice salon experience if you go there (as long as you do not get a weave). People have been commenting since yesterday on how they love my hair even though I am not really feeling it 'cause of how thin it looks (and my brain may just be over-reacting, I don't know).


ANYWAYS, if you would like me to upload a list of natural hair salons in Southampton and in London, let me know. Also, if you would like me to do some research to find some natural hair salons in your area or country, let me know too and I would love to help you find them.

Mini Twisted My Hair

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Hi everyone,

Happy wear your hair curly day! Unfortunately, though my hair stayed in it's natural state, it wasn't "out" all day.

Anyways, as you read above, I got my hair mini twisted today, It took just about an hour - an hour and a half, I guess that's 'cause they lady twisting it up for me today at the hair salon was shuffling between sewing in someone's weave and twisting up my hair.

I detangled, deep conditioned, cleansed (with amla), conditioned, did another deep condition (2 days after wash day, but not a DC that necessarily needed to be washed out), stretched, ensured my hair was tangle free, kept it in a style to keep it stretched and tangle-free and headed to the salon (best thing to do before having someone twist you hair or style it any ways for you) and guess what happened once I got to the salon, lady landed with a spray bottle and before I knew it, half of my head of hair was damp (wasn't looking when she came) and of course, it reverted. I was like, "Sam, stay calm, half has reverted, let her just make everything revert so the twists look the same and then you can stretch. She went through my hair with a comb after getting it damp and only very little hair got on the comb (really little shed hair). I guess she remembered that the last time I was there (quite a long time ago), I asked her not to comb my hair dry if she wanted the comb to easily get through. I brought latest hair product along (if you've been following my tweets, you'll know that I made a new product on Monday) and I was glad when she thought of sealing in the moisture with that. Afterwards, she started talking in an African language and sometimes switching to English (not talking to me) about how soft the product made my hair and that the lady twisting my mum's hair (with extensions) should use it on my mum's hair to soften it up (also, the owner of the salon's sister liked the product, I gave her to take a look at it). The lady began mini twisting my hair and didn't touch that comb again (oh! and she used my wide tooth shower comb when she went through my hair earlier with a comb (while, after telling not to by my mum, the lady working on her own hair combed her hair with the teeth of a really tightly spaced rat tail comb and yes, my mum lost some hair (and she detangled this morning - comb pulled out her hair))). She finished it up and then I held my hear in something like a low bun with some parts bobby pinned backwards (to stretch a bit). I

I got home and after supper, I got my homemade aloe vera gel out of the fridge, got some out and rubbed it between my palms, flipped my hair over, raked and smoothed the gel over my hair, got some more out and repeated this process with my hair not flipped over anymore then I scrunched some more gel in. I held my hair in something like a bun around the crown area of my head (like a pineapple without the ends sticking out) and bobby pinned the flat parts of my twists down and hand stretched the few that didn't stay up with the rest holding them in place with bobby pins. 

I'm going to keep my hair in this stretching state for some days, maybe even during my flight to England this weekend (I don't really like having to do anything to my hair in planes and I'm going via Qatar Airways (so, I leave sometime in the afternoon on one day and arrive during the evening of the next day 'cause of the stop in Doha). Max., I'll refresh my twists when I wake up or before I leave the plane, but I'm not taking them down. I'll keep them up as much as possible to not have to manipulate. Somedays, I might take it down and work on the versatility of my twists (style it in a new way), but I'm going to manipulate them as little as possible so they can last till mid-September at least (I might get them redone in October (when I can get down to my aunt's place and she's free) just as a low-manipulation protective style).

My twists look good, I'm really happy with them. The last twists I did, while I was transitioning didn't look good and my dad asked me to head back to the hair salon the day after I got it done (once I got home) and get it all taken down and done up in something else (which ended up being cornrows/flat-braids). He's seen my hair today and he doesn't hate it like he hated the twists I had in back then (back in the days..... :) ).

Oh! and yes! I whipped my hair back and forth! ♫ I whip my twists back and forth, I whip my twists back and forth.....♫ 

♫ Just whip it, whip it real good.♫ 

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I'm Back (UpDaTe)

Hi,

So, I've been away for some time. I actually just got back on Saturday (but I was just away from the 18th till then to be honest. Before then, I just kept forgetting to put on here what I wanted to).
Okay! So, right now, I'm in school and well, okay! so I don't care what some of the people on here think about me having a natural hair blog so I'll just continue typing right now.
First, please, please pray for one of my natural hair role models. She's WAY younger than me, but still one of my hair role models and she needs all your prayers. Here's an article to let you know what I want you to pray about: http://beadsbraidsbeyond.blogspot.com/2012/03/half-up-half-down-banded-natural-hair.html

Now....what have I done with my hair so far...
I couldn't redo my minitwists and because my mum put off going to the salon for a while, she got my hair done for me (she did it). There's something about a certain hairstyle or braiding style that my hair and scalp doesn't like. Whenever I have it in for 2 weeks or a week, then redo it during the second week, I get some crazy sharp pain on my scalp. I mean, I've never felt pain like that before. It's terrible. So, on he 18th, I finally went to a hair salon again just to find out that the one person who was good with my hair there left and I hadn't gotten her number yet so I can't even call her to find out where she works now or whatever.Okay! So, I got my hair braided to a certain extent then twisted and I had two-strand twists everywhere else at the back. I held it up to protect the ends (as usual :)). I had that in all through bootcamp (yup! that's the reason I was away for a while :) ).
Bootcamp:
Bootcamp was stressful, I got sand in my hair during the activities and drills, I was sweating like crazy, it was SO SO humid and hot. Gaaah! Okay, so the day I was packing, I slipped my jar of shea butter into my bag (hehe :) ) On the first day whene I got my hair sanded-out, I rinsed it out thoroughly in the shower then rubbed some shea butter between my palms then applied it to my hair. Also, I took my satin hair wrap stuff with me (I am so into this!). People wear like, "what is that?" "you sleep with that on every night?" and I didn't care. Luckily, my roommates got used to seeing it quickly. So, I had the shea butter on my hair that day and till my Friday, I never really had the time to get shea butter on my hair again (even after showering).  However, my hair did get sanded-out everyday and I was always sweating so much from all the work so I always rinsed my hair thoroughly when I showered and I always let it air dry (in my room! Outside was WAY too dusty and I didn't want dust clinging to my hair). Okay! SOoooo, on Friday, I took my hair down and finger detangled it out then I got wet hands into my hair, got some shea butter with a lil water and rubbed it in between my palms then got them into my hair and thoroughly detangled (fingers only! :)). I had my hair all out and big and I left it like that till I had to get some sleep. The thing is, some girls had an issue with their room door and I didn't feel comfortable going to bed knowing that they were locked out of their room. I walked down the hallway and all with BIG hair and people were just staring at it, it shrunk, not so much, but it was obvious and when I held my hair a bit and pulled it down at some point, my roommate was like, "yeah, your hair shrunk." Okay! So, one of the girls (room, locked out) looked at my hair and was like, "you're so crazy," I was like, "what do you mean?" and she was like, "have you seen your hair?" I wasn't sure how exactly my hair looked then, but I didn't really care. Later on, I went to my room (when their door had been broken down and they could get their stuff and get some sleep) and yeah, I looked in the mirror and my  hair was perfectly fine. Well, I guess it was just that "image of beauty" that was going through her mind when she thought I was crazy because of my hair (she's got a relaxer).
Okay! so, this girl couldn't sleep with her hair out like that. I started puffy twisting (big twists) my hair, but I had a bit of a problem at the back of my hair (couldn't do it). Luckily, my last roommate walked into the room just then and she helped me twist up the untwisted bits at the back. I then got a bit more shea butter on my hair (with a bit of water in the sheaB) and then put a shower cap on and tied a scarf over my hair. By the next morning, wait! rewind! Okay! so when I took my hair down and detangled it did I tell you that it felt SO gorgeous!! Gaaah! okay! fastforward! When I took of the shower cap and did whatever I needed to do, my hair felt GOR-GE-OUS! It also had a soft wave to it that didn't go even after my hair got wet. I loved it. Someone touched part of my hair, I'm guessing because he asked, "why do you have such cotton-y extensions in your hair," while we were on the bus ride back to civilisation.
One more thing! I drank more water, craved more water than I ever have/had at the bootcamp. AND the only thing I used on my hair while I was there was water and shea butter. Worked wonders for me, I guess.

Okay! So, now, yeah, I didn't have the time to make a quickie conditioner and quickly condition my hair when I got home so I just tried rinsing it out thoroughly before my mum braided my hair in 10 cornrows (which I'm rocking right now :) )

I'm going to make a pet peeve post after this (I need to mention something having to do with cornrows and school)

I think I might try mini braiding my hair some time soon. I know I have been against braids for some time now, but well, I'll go get this done at a salon (even though I don't like the only lady that would agree to touch my hair there. She always brings out her rat tail combs to comb my hair with and she always argues with my when I say my hair's fully detangled and slide my finger through it and they come out easily and well, she's like, "nothing would happen to your hair!" and tries combing it from the roots TO THE ENDS!!!! GAAH! Next time she argues with me, I'll go find someone else to get my hair done. I know I'm just a teen, but my hair means so much to me and I don't joke around with how my hair's managed and taken care of).

Okay! So here's what I'm going to do with my hair when I get my mini/box braids done:

Gotten from BeadsBraidsandBeyond (pic from someone named Aisha). I do not in any way own this picture.

So, what do you think?

Sorry, for the really long post, it's just been too too long and well, I'm in school, FUN, right?

Talk to you guys later.

~Sam :)

One of my worst hair salon experiences. What's yours?

Okay! so some of us have had terrible salon experiences. Here's one of mine:

Okay! so ever since I cut my hair 5 years ago, I haven't been able to grow it longer than shoulder length (I made terrible choices that's why). So, when my hair was finally growing out and it was at my back, I went to the hairdressers. I was flipping through a mag then I heard a snipping sound, I looked up and this guy that worked there had snipped off quite a lot of my hair!! I was like, "whaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaat?!?!?!?!?!?!" Turns out he thought he was to cut my hair, it was terrible. I felt like crying. This happened on Sept. 7th 2010 (I remember..oh! and I had relaxed hair then). From then, till around summer of 2011, I hadn't been able to grow my hair out longer than a cm past the bottom of my neck. It was sooo upsetting.

Yeeeaaah, I'll tell you another one that happened at that same hair salon: 

Okay! so, I had extensions in and they were braided (with my hair) as...err....box braids, I think. So, I didn't have time to take them out at home, but I needed to take them all out before the next day. So...I went to the hair dressers and a lady there who was new (first day seeing her) offered to help me out. At first she tugged (that's a nice word for 'pulled') at my hair a bit while taking them out. She apparently picked up a pair of scissors and the owner of the hair salon noticed and told her not to cut my extensions because she didn't know my actual hair length (plus, I believe I was already transitioning then). Anyways, I started watching a movie (I believe it was an episode of Vampire Diaries Season 2) on my laptop and after a while, I heard a snippy sound and my hair felt lighter, I looked up and voila! she had cut my extensions! Aaand....my hair :| *sigh* I was like, "ohmigosh! what did you do!" and she was like, "I didn't cut your hair!" Already defensive before I accused her (sign of being guilty). Her boss overheard when I exclaimed, turned, saw my hair and started yelling at the lady she was like, "I told you not to cut her extensions because you don't know her hair length!" and the lady was like, "I didn't cut her hair!" So, her boss/salon owner picked up on of the cut pieces of extension/hair that had fallen, undid it a bit and yup! my hair was in it! *sigh*So, at the end of the day, I had lost over an inch of her (so, my hair was about midneck length again *sigh*) and the lady got fired.

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My bad salon experiences always ended up with me loosing hair (and me watching a movie, reading a mag, a novel or working on my laptop, I so need to pay more attention to what people do to my hair)


Wanna share? What's your bad hair salon experience? 


~Sam


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