Put That Brush Down!
Creéis soy loca, no? Well, I thought my hair “tutor” was crazy when she told me to, “Put that brush down!”
This sounds like an utter contradiction for those of us who get, or do dominican blowouts, but what I learned about my hair and brushes is probably what saved my hair from splitting at the ends.
For those of you who move from NYC and find your self in a dominican-salon-free-zone, have you ever had a, “she must go to a dominican salon” moment? I had one of those special moments and remember it like it was yesterday.
It was early in one Saturday morning. I walked into a Sally’s in State College, PA. , with my pinches and dubi, doobie, wrap, still in tact. I felt someone staring at me, but was used to that for a few reasons:
- I wore a dubi on a regular basis; need I say anymore more on that subject?
- My hair was in the middle of my back (when I moved).
- It was MY hair, not extensions.
Although, I was used to people staring, it was too early and I wasn’t in the mood. I was tempted to say something to this one chica glaring at me, but she beat me to it.
“Excuse me. You go do a Dominican salon, don’t you? she asked.
That was all she needed to say. I understood where her look was coming from. We started chatting it up in the store and turns out she was a biracial girl living in Central Pennsylvania, but she was from NYC too and she also “lived” in Dominican salons. As we were chatting, I mentioned that I only dropped into Sally’s to buy a brush and started to reach for the brush that I was inspecting when she opened up the line of communication.
“Put that brush down!” she screamed, as if I had committed treason.
Ooookaaaay. This conversation just took a turn for the worst, I thought to myself. Thankfully, I didn’t let on that I thought she was nuts, but after she explained why I shouldn’t brush my hair, I owed my healthy locks to her.
She explained that brushing the hair, especially while it’s wet, was the worst thing that I could do. Wet hair is fragile and relaxed, wet hair is the most delicate. This is not a problem if you don’t brush while your hair is wet, right? WRONG!
Although, a brush is mandatory for a good blow out, other than that, she didn’t brush her hair. She pointed out that brushes tend to lead to more hair loss, as the hair gets caught between bristles, flattens the hair, which is not what a thin-haired girl wants and tends to cause split ends. Of course, she was not a licensed beautician, but she actually recommended that I try brushing half of my head and combing the other half and see which side loses more hair.
That little experiment is what lead to me never brushing my hair, other than when I blow out my roots. Thanks to her, I also stopped getting my hair blown out from root to tip. She pointed out that the blow dryer should only be used to straighten the roots, because the ends would be straight once I let down my doobie.
Sure enough, the next time I went to NYC and saw my regular stylist, I thought for sure that she would want to chop off a few inches of hair, because it had been a while since I had a trim. Much to my surprise, she said my ends looked really good, she would only clean them up. She barely took off any hair; that was a first for me.
My hair-guru and I still exchange emails and occasional phone calls, but this woman, who has a room dedicated to her Pibbs and hair products taught me a lot about my hair, hair in general and I figure it’s only right to share.
