Visit to a New Stylist!

Thursday, September 05, 2013

I finally mustered up the courage to try out a new stylist! I know a lot of ladies on hair journeys are very anti-stylist and all DIY, but I'm not one of those. I LOVE having my hair done by someone else, as long as I can trust them with it. I am a reformed every-two-weeks-in-my stylists-chair kinda girl. I definitely don't see myself going back to that life, but sometimes I just do not feel like doing all this hair myself. So it would be nice to have someone to go to during those times. I love the feeling of my hair being washed - scalp massaged, and straightening time cut down so much. The last time I flat ironed my hair, my arms got tired and I felt like I didn't even get the back as straight as I usually like it. Although, to me, that says I've made great progress (yay!), it also is what ultimately pushed me to try out a new stylist.

So, one of my sister cousins have been going to this stylist for awhile. Her hair always looks so nice and she raves about her. The lady was even giving her good healthy hair advice. She told me she's seen a number of naturals get their hair done by her as well and she always does a great job. Sounds great, right? I thought so, too, so I went for it and I'm very glad I did. I pre-pooed overnight to prep for my salon visit. Since I had recently relaxed, I knew my hair just had a good protein treatment so I went for a moisturizing pre-poo with Aubrey Organics Honeysuckle Rose Conditioner and grapeseed oil.

As soon as I sat down in her chair and started talking to her she was getting points in my book!

Her: "Are you natural?"

Me: "No, I'm relaxed, I just like to leave a lot of texture in my hair."

Her: "Oh that's great! I do the exact same thing to my own hair."

Score! I felt a little relief at that point. She washed and deep conditioned my hair with KeraCare products. After rinsing out the conditioner, she separated my hair into about 5-6 sections (score!), braided each loosely and sat me under the dryer (on a medium setting). When she started putting my hair in sections, I have to admit ya'll... I was impressed. I've never seen a stylist work in sections. I thought to myself wow she really does know how to handle my hair and let my hair guard down some more. When my hair was at about 75%, she started detangling and blow drying my hair section by section on a medium heat setting. She also applied a CHI leave-in/heat protectant. She went on to tell me whenever she has a client with my length of hair or longer, she knows it's best to work in sections or everything will end up a mess.

She then began to flat iron/spiral curl my hair. She pretty much did both with only one heat pass on the majority of my head. There were a few times I felt her go for a second pass on some sections. But two heat passes max is not bad to me. There are times I have do that myself in certain sections. She really took her time with my hair throughout the whole appointment. I appreciated that; especially because she didn't let the fact that more of her clients were coming in cause her to rush to finish up my hair. Most of all, I loved my hair when she was done! It was soft, bouncy, and I knew that even once the curls started to fall it would still be pretty.

final results [click to enlarge]

Overall, it was a great experience and I will definitely be going back. I watched her take the same care with each one of her clients so I know it wasn't just a one time deal. Not only did she support my whole healthy hair/I want about four more inches of growth mission, but she also believed in it! She was giving me advice on what she thought would help maximize my length retention and even complimented the health of my hair. So I officially have a new stylist! Not to mention the fact that my hair lasted for longer than two weeks. I used flexi rods at night to maintain it, and even once I got to the point of combing it and wrapping it up at night, it was still curly. Awesomeness!