Anyway, there are few different ways to do a doobie, including the Cuban, which is when you section off a square of hair at the crown and roll the hair on a roller. This gives the hair a lot of lift; this doobie is good for those of you who are looking to give thinner hair a little volume.

If you have a lot of hair, like I do, then a regular doobie is in order.

Just like doing a roller set, it’s about practice. So, let’s get started.

1. You need to part your hair from crown down to the nape of the neck. You can part from crown to front, but I’m not always sure which direction I want my part to go, so I usually start in the back.

2. Since my part is from crown to back, I comb the left half of my hair forward, smoothing as I go.

3. I place the first bobby-pin in the back, at the nape, then place one at the crown.

4. Comb, or brush the hair clock-wise as you work, adding a bobby-pin along the way about 2 or 3 inches from previous pin.

Notice that it just keeps on moving around the head. You put pins around the hairline and in the crown. If you have enough length, you can have larger gaps between pins. If you have a shorter cut, then you may need to use more pins, to ensure that your hair is not slipping down before you get the entire head wrapped.

When you get all the way around to your first pin, if you still have hair that needs to be wrapped, just pull the pins out, brush/comb the hair around a little and replace the pin. Do this as necessary, until all of your hair is completely up and secure.

Ya! That’s it! We’re done.

Someone, who shall remain nameless, as I’m very respectful of people’s privacy, sent me a link to a video showing a woman with natural, coarse hair, not only getting a dominican blow out, but she had her hair set in rollers prior. I watched the entire video from beginning to end and have some very strong feelings about what I saw.

While I love the swaaaay that I get from doing my roller sets and blowing out my hair, I am not a fan of using excessive heat. It is my opinion, and only my opinion, that in some cases doing a dominican blow out on natural, and even relaxed hair calls for using too much heat on the hair.

If you have the type of hair that will wrap around a roller without having a relaxer, chances are your natural hair will look just as sleek as someone with a relaxer. However, if you have coarse, kinky hair, which there is absolutely nothing wrong with having, and your hair puffs up on the rolos, then your hair will require extra heat.

Some say that since the hair is natural it’s stronger, therefore, it can handle the heat. That may be true, but if you are going to apply that much heat, you may as well just use a flat iron. At least in that case, there’s no pulling, or tugging of the hair with a brush.

Keep in mind, it takes only one mistake, one slipup to damage your hair. Once the damage has taken place, you then have a choice to make: gradually grow out the weakened hair by getting regular trims, or just cut it all off. Oh, I forgot, some of us use the “ignore it, it will grow” technique and this tends to lead to further damage.

I want to keep my hair healthy, moisturized and on my scalp, so I prefer to use minimal heat. Whenever possible, I just air dry my hair, that way if I need to pass the blower over it, I don’t have a double dose of “fire.”

In some cases someone will bypass rollers and go straight to the blow out, but the two main differences, in my opinion, is the frequency and the hair type. Although my hair is curly, I have very tight curls, relax my hair and don’t think that I would be a good candidate for frequent blow drying.

Yes, I like my hair straight and shiny and to have swaaaay, but I don’t want to sacrifice my entire head of hair by over doing the heat.

Mi familia ha dicho, my family says, that everyone did rolos growing up, but the blow dryer wasn’t part of the equation when she was coming up. Without giving away ages of my family members, I’ll just say that a few of them probably were around before the blow dryer, and they still managed to have bounce, body and healthy hair.

As I always say, use your discretion. Take precautions, pamper the hair you have now, or you may have to learn to be patient as you grow out damaged, burned hair.

I grew up surrounded by Dom salons. Crazy was I to assume that everyone went to a Dominicana and even crazier of me to think that there would be one waiting for me when I left for college.

Imagine that!

I wanted an education and I wanted my hair to look nice. ¡Qué tonta!

Sin embargo, I found myself calling home every weekend. While my roommates were getting care packages filled with their favorite snacks and treats, mine were filled with jars, bottles and potions that all read, “Hecho en República Dominicana,” or some home made concoction that my mom or her vecinas came up with.

Without getting into my personal details, life was a BIYOTCH in the dorms for a chica like me.

I love braids and think some people can rock the hell out of locks, but I like my hair to sway and swagger. No. I’m not trying to run from my African ancestry, I just like to be able to comb and style my hair as I please. However, I was not willing to let lilly-white-Britney do my hair because she had one black friend who had hair just like mine.

That is when my hair journey officially began.