A Rollerset Won’t Work on Your Hair
Those of you reading this, who have already had a dominican rollerset, especially those, who swear by them, will know where this rant is coming from.
Because I’m not in NYC anymore it has become increasing more challenging to find someone to do my hair. A worst case scenario is a 5 hour drive into the city. A better case is me only driving 3 hours to get my hair done by una Dominicana from Brooklyn, but she sometimes likes to skip vital steps, such as a deep condish following a touch up.
Keeping all of that in mind, over the past year, I have resorted to doing my own touch ups. I had about 4 inches cut off and had layers put in, thinking that it would make my like easier. It did, in the sense that I could manage my hair a lot easier. However, I too forgot critcal steps in when I was doing my touchup. I forgot to base my scalp [insert butt-kickin' emoticon right here].
Over the summer, I blotched up my touchup so badly, that I needed a corrective relaxer, due to major underprocessing. Dreading the worse and having little to no time to travel to either location, I opted to go to a local beauty school. La niña, who did my hair was really good. She was just as good as una dominicana. She applied a low-lye relaxer, moved it down the underprocessed areas and smoothed it out very well.
Believe it or not, I managed to blotch that up too. I was so paranoid that I damn near saturated my hair with CHI Silk Infusium, because I didn’t have any idea whether or not I’d be faced with a slap-happy stylist. I also based my scalp to the nth-degree and was prepared for battle.
Ok, what I didn’t know was that while the CHI protected my already relaxed hair from damaage, it hindered the relaxing process. Although, my hair looked nice and straight, it reverted back, but that wasn’t an immediate transformation, so I didn’t notice until recently.
I asked the girl who did my hair if she would be going to work in a salon, but she was actually planning to go to NY to continue studying. She did recommend a woman, who she said was her mentor and I decided that I’d give her a shot.
La mujer was bien nice. She was the ONLY person who didn’t seem to gag when I asked if I could bring in my own products. What’s the deal? I didn’t ask for a discounted price, just want to use what works for my hair and since I have so much of it, I’d like for it not to go to waste.
Anyway, I would typically not need a touchup for several months, but since the underprocessed parts were showing up again and they were really bad, frizzy and dry, I decided to give la mujer a go. She’s licensed, nearby and works every day, except Sunday. Prices aren’t bad either; $25 for a touchup? Can’t beat that!
Fast forward to the relaxer day. Yep, I was hella nervous, but took my tub of supplies:
Mizani – check
Humecto – check
CHI – check
Neutralizer – check
I explained that I like my hair straight, but wanted her to back off the hairline until the last possible moment. I pointed out that I have a head full of hair, but it’s very fine and my hairline takes only moments to straighten. Ok, so started at the back, working her way up from the nape. I’m accustomed to starting from the crown, working back to the nape, then working the front and the hairline lastly.
La Mujer did her own thing, but what got me a little heated was the fact that she slapped the relaxer on the hairline so quickly that I had not time to react. [Breath - puff, puff]. No sooner than she put the cream on the entire head, she was ready to rinse. [ Insert huge question mark].
Um…this is different, I thought to myself, but the sooner she washes me, the less chance of damage. I wanted her to just rinse me, put my conditioner in and I was going home to do my own rollerset, because I had a test to study for. She insisted on combing me before I left and just as I was about to leave, she pointed out that I had a lot of underprocessed hair.
I then changed my mind about her, because I never mentioned to her that I had underprocessed sections, but she impressed me when she said that next time I come for a touchup, she’ll wait until the last minute and pull the relaxer through just to fix the areas.
Great! She may work out after all.
That’s until today…I spoke with her last week, asking if I could come in for a relaxer, because my hair was reverting where she gave me the touchup. She didn’t have a problem with that, but recommended that I was a couple of weeks. Then I said, “Well, can I get a roller set?”
“If you have new growth, or if your hair is thick in the roots, a rollerset won’t work on your hair,” she said.
What the puck?!
I didn’t know if I should laugh, or cry. Granted it takes longer for the hair to dry and takes a little extra work to blow out the roots, but there is not a dominican salon around that would opt for direct blow drying to a roller set. In fact, every salon that I’ve gone to has tried to suggest that the reason I never get my hair blown out, then fried, I mean hot-curled, is because I have never had anyone do it the right way. That makes me chuckle, because I ponder, is there a right way to fry one’s hair?
At any rate, I don’t think I can get as far as NY, but I called my girl 2 hours away and she was confident that she could fix me up.
Needless to say, I will probably be backing of doing my own relaxers, unless one of you guys can recommend a fool-proof technique.
I didn’t know if I
