Hair Aniversary, mini chop and my skirmish with heat damage

Actually Its my belated transition anniversary! I am currently almost 14 months post and I took these when I was 12! I forgot about it and then I just never got around to posting it.

I have been struggling to keep my relaxed ends and I had just given up on the idea that I was going to be a transitioning unicorn and retain all of my length. Out of laziness, I kept wearing my hair in a wet bun. This led to matting and tangles mainly in the center of my hair. It became so bad that I just said screw it and went to a new Dominican salon that just opened up near by.

I went in and asked if she could cut my hair evenly. She said that my hair wasn’t straight enough(I was trying a new product which was just horrible) and my hair needed to be washed and redone. Even though I had just straighted my hair, I decided to get it re washed and blown out professionally. It has been a year since I stepped foot in the salon and so I decided to treat myself.

She washed, deep conditioned, blowdried and flat ironed my hair. She did not tell me what she used and all of her products were turned around and pressed against the wall so I could not see what they were. I thought that was kind of shady but I guess she had to keep her stylist secrets. The PJ in me could figure out a few of them from the back label though! LOL I had asked for curls(with a curling iron) and she said that she doesn’t do curls. WTF?!?! I was also charged ore because I had alot of newgrowth and was technically natural.

The experience was really cool. My hair was super-dee-duper straight. It looked like I had gotten a relaxer and many people thought I got one too. She also gave me an inverted bob because the breakage was so bad in the middle.(parts of my hair have broken clean at the new growth) I liked the look initially. It made me feel grown and sophisticated. A part of me feels that shorter hair actually flatters me a little better. The cut has since grown out though and I kind of hate it now. I wish it was just cut straight across.

The downside of my hair being this straight was the flatness. Now I don’t mind my hair being flat for like a day or two when its fresh but my hair would not hold a curl at all . It just stayed in the same straight bumped look from the salon even if I did pin curls or put rollers in. The only way to get curls in hair this straight would be to wet in but I didn’t want to deal with that. So I just had to deal with flat hair that got greasy in just a few days.

My hair was so straight and did not revert at all. It had me worried. After almost a week I decided to wash my hair and I was really(but not so really) surprised.

WTF.

My curls were gone and replaced with stringy Ramen noodle waves! Even after a protein treatment my hair was limp and soggy looking!

I kept telling the stylist not to use too much heat because even though I like my hair straight I still want it to curl up when wet. I felt like she brushed me off in that regard and burned me a few times with the heat of the dryer. At that point I knew I was playing a game of heat Russian roulette. Although my self straightened hair isn’t immaculate like the from the salon,it has never loosened up like this from heat alone. Even after YEARS of straightening with my hot comb AND flat iron.

I wasn’t going to give up without a fight. So I looked in my stash to see what could help. I decided to use a vial of Salerm Vegetable Placenta Reconstructor (review coming soon!) I didn’t know if this would work but trying it wouldn’t hurt.

My curls snapped back pretty much back to normal after sitting with it on with heat for about 15 minutes. I will never be without this stuff in my stash. It saved me from having to start all over again!

Overall, I loved my new style and felt nice being pampered in the salon. I just did not like the anxiety that comes with stylist not really listening to what I wanted, doing what she wanted and giving me the look that fit her aesthetic. This was just a big wakeup call for me and reminded me why I go so hard for #teamDIY. I’m not mad that I went and I don’t feel like I wasted my money at all. But I just know that it is really hard to find a stylist out there who cares about how my hair looks whether curly or straight but me. So I will keep my “not so perfectly straightened” hair AND my curly Q’s thankyouverymuch!

Thanks for reading! <3