Natural Hair Salon Conversations

Hey everyone,

Last week Friday, I decided that it was time to get my talked about trim that I mentioned in my Hairsolutions post. In order to trim, I booked an appointment at KL's Natural Beauty Bar in Ikoyi, Lagos. I was going to get my hair blowdried to aid in getting the trim done well. Of course, I needed to prep my hair before the blowdry and I decided to detangle and DC my hair the night before. I wanted my hair to be very well conditioned, so I left the DC in my hair overnight, and washed my hair in the morning. I proceeded to head over to the salon, and she was already waiting for me. Kemi (who also blogs at KL's Natural Blog) sectioned my hair, applied heat protectant and proceeded to tension-blowdry my hair, after which she trimmed off split ends and put it up in a beautiful updo.

Blowdried!

We tricked everyone with this photo and pretended I cut my hair :D

Pretty updo.

While at the salon, I met 2 other ladies - one who has natural hair, and another who's transitioning. We all got to talk a little bit and here are the highlights of my conversations with them...

• Natural Hair in the Workplace. One of the ladies is a banker and has been for a long time. She moved back to Nigeria a few years ago, and was told by her friend to relax her hair before coming back, as natural hair was frowned upon in the corporate world in Nigeria. She relaxed it, but since natural hair has been gaining ground, has gone back to being natural. However, she still gets comments about her hair at work. We've all heard those comments like, "How come your hair isn't done? Are you going to work like that?" She's now settled on twists, cornrows (aka didi or weaving) and the like, and has gotten good feedback from even her boss!
  
  It turns out that there's a bank in Nigeria which not only frowns on its employees having natural hair, but states in their policies that natural hair must be covered up in braids, weaves, wigs, etc. NOT COOL!!!
  
• The transitioning lady came to right a wrong that was done to her at another salon. She had seen someone with locs and wanted to try it temporarily. She approached a "locist" who said he could do it for her. She said when she went for the appointment, she mentioned that she didn't want it to be permanent and he said that was fine. When she asked him what products he was using, he refused to divulge anything and was being evasive. At the end of the day, he had indeed loc'd her hair, but permanently! She was so distraught and did what she could to try and unravel/untangle the hair. She used a lot of conditioner the night before coming to KL's, and luckily one of the stylists was able to gently untangle her hair.
  
  Getting your hair loc'd is a process that's done in more than one salon visit, if I'm correct. But imagine if the stylist was unable to detangle the woman's hair?!?! Why would the lockist completely ignore her request and do what he felt like doing anyways? This woman was ready to chop off her whole hair due to this lockist. The takeaway from here is that before you get your hair done in a salon, PLEASE PLEASE make sure that you know what you want, make sure you've done your research, and get recommendations for salons/stylists! 

Okay, this was a random post but there's something to learn, right? What do you think about the conversation points? The first to comment about the post with their email address and network if choice wins N500 airtime (Nigeria only).

Have a pretty weekend

Berry Dakara