My Natural Hair Salon Experience

My Natural Hair Salon Experience

Let me tell y’all about my shampoo and deep conditioning experience at my local beauty college.

I had mini braids in so I would at least look decent during the delivery of my child. I finally took those braids out after 6 long weeks…boy were they raggedy.

Since it is still a little cold outside, our hot water doesn’t stay hot long enough for me to wash my hair; so I had this great idea to go to the beauty college.

First, I called shortly after they opened and asked what time they closed. Why the people I talked to weren’t sure of their hours is beyond me.

I called 4 times over the course of 15 minutes and got put on hold each time. The fourth time, someone different answered and I tried not to sound too rude, but I said, “Hi, I’ve called 3 times to see what time you all close tonight and that doesn’t take 15 minutes.” She got kinda feisty and replied, “Yeah, you’re right. It doesn’t take 15 minutes, but other people called and they’re still on the line, so you can either be put back on hold or call back in about 10 minutes.” Well excuse me! I didn’t feel like I should have been put on hold for a question that takes 2 seconds to answer.

When I called back to make my appointment, I honestly wanted to ask that the person who would be shampooing me knew how to work with natural hair, but I decided not to. I know everyone needs practice, but I wasn’t tryin’ to be someone’s guinea pig and end up leaving with my head looking worse than when I went in.

So, my appointment time comes around and I’m walking in the door right on time. I sign in and I waited about 20 minutes before my cosmetology student came to get me, she was a black lady, but I’ll get to why that is even relevant.

So we head to her station and before I sit down, I ask her if she knows how to work with natural hair. She says, “Yeah, yeah, mmhmm.” So I say okay. Just because she was black doesn’t mean she knows how to work with black hair. The whole time, I’m thinkin’, “I know she doesn’t think she’s about to comb through my hair while it’s a dry mess,” but she had to put the shampoo cape on. *Wipes forehead* That was a close one.

Mind you, I did not detangle my hair after taking the braids out.

We get over to the shampoo bowl, I lean back and it was so uncomfortable, so I asked for the little booster seat that kids use. She really only needed to adjust the seat and bowl, but …

She begins to run the water over my hair, getting it nice and wet, obviously, because I’m about to get it washed. You know what she does? She rubs shampoo on the top of my head and barely at the nape of my neck. She didn’t rub it in, section it to get shampoo in the middle, nothing. She just rinsed it out. I’m just rockin’ with it though. She does the same thing again, and now I’m like, what’s really goin’ on?

I then saw her reach for the conditioner and I just had to say something at that point. I wasn’t about to pay for that “wash.”

“Is that the conditioner?”

“Yeah”

“You’re done washin’ it? That wasn’t really…. a good wash”

“Yeah, I like to go in sections. I’m gonna wash it again.”

“Oook.”

She put the conditioner on just the same as the first two shampoos, just rubbed it on top, without massaging it through…Like, lady…what are you doing?!

She didn’t wrap a towel around my neck so the bowl wouldn’t be as uncomfortable. When one of the instructors noticed, she grabbed a towel and put it around my neck and told the student that the shampoo bowls get pretty uncomfortable, so always use a towel. I was like, “THANK YOU!!”

Also, since I was sitting on the booster seat…my feet were dangling at an awkward angle, so I put one foot on the chair and another student came over and pulled the leg rest out. Ahhh, much better.

What classes my student has been attending, I don’t know, but these things are basic when it comes to the client’s comfort.

After rinsing the conditioner out. That’s when she actually shampooed my hair somewhat good. She rubbed it on the top of my head, the nape of my neck and then hand parted throughout my hair in order to get shampoo everywhere.

She started scratching and that part did feel good, but she wasn’t scratching at the nape of my neck or around my edges! Come on now! That part gets just as itchy and dirty as the rest of your head.

As I was getting my hair washed, another student came over and started talking to me… because my student wasn’t. She didn’t have any clients that night, so she was just goin’ around helping other people with little stuff.

Now it’s time for the deep conditioner. Another student had suggested what she should use. She rubbed some of the conditioner on my head, I’m pretty sure she didn’t put it all throughout my hair, blah. After applying the conditioner, she needed 3 shower caps to cover my head and everyone had already been coming around marveling at how much hair I had, so having to use 3 shower caps was just crazy, but I have a big head and a lot of hair.

I sat under the dryer for about 10 minutes before she came to get me.

At this point, I assumed she was gonna detangle my hair… Nope. She rinsed it out and that was the end of my session. I knew I should have asked her to detangle, but I assumed since she said she knew how to work with natural hair, that she knew you need to detangle while it’s wet.

We head back to her station and she has this small toothed comb and she starts to comb my hair…I stopped her real quick. I said, “You’re gonna pull too much of my hair out with that small comb,” and she was like, “Oooooookayyy.” She went and had to get an instructor because she didn’t know what to do.

The instructor comes over, she’s super nice and she asks what was going on. I said that I had forgotten to ask my student to detangle my hair while there was still conditioner in it, because I assumed that it would be done, but when I thought about it, it was too late.

So she helps my student out…she sections off my hair and gets a leave in conditioner so they could comb through my hair. At least she knew to go from ends to root. The instructor went all the way to my roots when detangling…my student on the other hand, did not…and I didn’t notice until I started to plait each section. I wasn’t about to pay for 4 plaits, that would be taken down the next day or a few days later, so I did the plaits myself as they got done with each section. The instructor did one section, my student did two, and the student who talked to me during my wash did one section…even she went all the way to my roots.

I feel like a lot of black people are stuck in the old way of doing hair, when everyone wasn’t as educated when it came to our natural hair. Since a lot of people aren’t natural, they don’t know when the right time to manipulate the hair is. This is why back when we were little, we’d be screaming our heads off while getting our hair done. People are too rough and try to manipulate the hair too much when it’s really dry.

My student said she had over 1,000 hours from 2 previous beauty colleges, which both went out of business, but I couldn’t tell.

What I say to all the beauty colleges in the world: Add wide tooth combs to your kits, make sure to teach everyone how to work on all textures…the right way, and make sure you have instructors that REALLY know how to work with natural hair, so when they are supervising students, they can be sure the students know what they’re doing, especially when it comes to natural hair.

I will go back, just not to the same student.

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