Anytime your detangling sessions are causing you pain this is a clear indicator that you are detangling the wrong way.
Improper detangling is one of the worst mistakes that you can make and will without a doubt prevent you from reaching your hair care goals.
So recently, I had a near disaster with my hair in Dominican Republic. The resort I was staying at had a spa and the spa offered hair braiding services.
I was being lazy so I thought, hey why not? This turned out to be a big mistake on my part.
I decided that I wanted cornrows for the front section of my hair and two strand twists in the back (I know, that’s a pretty inconsistent style request, but I don’t have the patience for taking out box braids).
When I first got to the spa it was a weird experience. It was awkward because my hair was examined at the front desk instead of in the salon area. I really didn’t want my hair out for everyone to see because it looked a hot mess!
I had just taken out my old set of two strand twists and my hair was really dry from the chlorine in the pool. After washing my hair and lightly blow drying I just put my hair into an extremely sloppy ponytail, slapped a hat on, and then I left my hotel room.
Before my service began, I guess it was really necessary to look at my hair in the payment area. There was also a lot of discussion taking place in Spanish (It was this moment that made me think, I really should have taken Spanish class more seriously : | ).
Whether they were talking about my kinks or the length of my hair (At one point it was taken and stretched, I felt like a total science project), it was certainly a long discussion taking place. After all that stopped, they told me it would be $90 for the service, when originally when I scheduled the appointment I was told $70.
Even then I proceeded because I just figured whatever, it’s vacation and I didn’t feel like dealing with my hair.
At first it didn’t start out too bad, she did the cornrows in the front section of my hair pretty decently. However, when she attempted to do the back section is where the nightmare began.
She took a fine tooth rat tail comb on my bone dry hair and attempted to detangle it! I was horrified.
I could see my hair just steadily breaking off too.
After making several attempts to explain that she needed to use a wide tooth comb (she didn’t speak English too well) and some moisture, I decided that it was best to do the rest of my hair on my own.
My hair felt horrible after that experience. I would just touch it and see those irritating tiny wisps of broken off hairs.
You are never, ever suppose to detangle natural hair in this manner. Ever!
A wide tooth comb is suppose to be used. You should always do it on hair that has been moisturized with water and or product for some slip. You always want to make sure that you are combing from the bottom up and not the other way around.
When you do the opposite of this, you are guaranteed breakage and a painful experience.
If you are doing this to your hair at home please stop it! You are literally ripping your hair out.
Do you have a salon horror story?
I had been natural for 2 years. I wanted to press my hair so that I could trim my ends and wear it straight. I didn’t like and the humidity didn’t agree with my naturalness. lol. I washed my hair and deep conditioned it. Well long story short I was horrified that the back of my head of hair wouldn’t revert back to it regular curl pattern. It stayed long and wiry looking while the rest of my head of hair went back to its natural curly pattern. I was devastated not knowing what to do I put in a relaxer. I was 8 months preggo and didn’t have patience and really didn’t know what else to do.
Yeah I can understand, I hate when my hair is inconsistent as well. I have suffered from the permanent straightening of my hair from press and curls too. I ended up cutting it off as I grew my hair out and now my hair is one consistent texture.
Ugh. I’m sorry this happened to you. Why didn’t you lightly detangle after you blow dried? And did you still pay her?
I don’t have a recent salon experience, but back when I was in high school (I was relaxed) I went to get my hair braided. Apparently it was her first time braiding because they were uneven and cut and burned unevenly. (They were extensions.) I was so angry I cried.
So glad those days are over 😉
I should have detangled lol why I didn’t I have no idea. Yes, I still paid and tipped her. The cornrows were nicely done. I only had to pay half of the $90 because I did not get my whole hair done.
Wow, that’s an awful experience! I never experienced something like that, but I would be kind of scared to tell her ( the professional) that it’s not the right way. I would be scared to offend them or something 😛 Weren’t you?
Good thing to stop and leave to do the rest yourself! How’s your hair feeling right now?
It was weird saying something, but I could see my hair steadily breaking so I couldn’t bare not saying anything. It’s recovered all good now :-).
One time, this nice lady at a popular salon said she knew how to do “our” hair, and offered to do my hair. I questioned her if she ACTUTALLY knew how to do MY hair and she said she had 15 years worth of experience and was slightly offended by me asking but I HAD to know for sure. I dared to let her just wash, condition, and press and curl my hair. She blew dried my hair on a medium setting (not good), as she starting curling my hair, I could hear the water sizzling in my hair (and it burnt me–just like the old days of being by the stove with the hot comb and real fire to my head) and told her to please blow dry it again and turn up the heat setting. She said it “felt” dry but I said it is NOT. When that was over and my head and hair was finally dried 100%, she started to curl my hair with the big curling iron. She needed to straighten my hair first by passing the curling iron through it twice not just curl it. Needless to say, it looked like a curly afro (which now would have been cool, but then I was relaxed 80%). She said I didn’t look happy and I wasn’t but needed something done to my hair since it was the first day of my college class tomorrow. I promised myself never again or at least not her. That was the start of me spending time with YouTube for hours sometimes 3 AM timeframes. I haven’t perfected it yet, but I can do my own hair now, good, bad, or indifferent. #doingitformyselfforonce