Greetings! I hope this post finds you well. Below I share a bit more about my recent salon experience, including some photos.
Why Did I Decide to Go in to a Salon during COVID?
This most recent hair salon visit was my very first salon visit since COVID hit the United States. Before this salon visit, I’d been doing my own DIY trims at home, with the help of my husband. In December of 2020 I was blessed enough to travel to Atlanta and get a trim from my sister-in-law, who is not a stylist but has been doing hair for decades since she was a teen. She cut somewhere between 2-3 inches off of my hair, I believe. That was the last trim I received before this most recent trim at the salon.
For this most recent trim, it took a LOT of thought for me to convince myself to risk going to a hair salon: COVID has kept me from attending all but one in-person church service, the dentist, the nail salon, etc. So why in the WORLD would I risk COVID for a hair salon visit???
These were my main deciding factors:
- A while back I received both of my Pfizer vaccine shots, so I knew I had that protection.
- The salon’s website explained their safety measures, and I felt like with everyone wearing masks and my having already been vaccinated, my risk for infection and serious hospitalization were low.
- It was starting to get a little difficult to do my hair due to my split ends: I wear my hair in its curly state at least 80% of the time, and my ends were starting to get very tangly. EVERY TIME I did my hair, I imagined my split ends were further splitting up my hairs’ shafts. Every wash day I felt more and more internal “stress” that I was just further damaging my hair. I really wanted a professional’s eyes and hands on my hair.
- It was now or NEVER: With this new DELTA variation of COVID kicking up, I realized that once we start getting more (inevitable) infection surges, I just wasn’t going to be going to anybody’s salon. Like at all, for certain. And probably for another multi-year stretch.
If any one of those factors would have been untrue, I don’t think I would have gone in to the salon. I still felt uncertain about the wisdom of going in, even while I was there. The main reason is that I have family members who aren’t vaccinated. Because of that, I decided to quarantine for 14 days after my salon visit.
Pre-trim and Post-trim Comparison
Below is what my hair looked like PRE-TRIM versus POST-TRIM. Pressed Roots is a salon that does not believe in trimming INCHES and INCHES of hair. They say as much on their website, and I admit I am SUPER UNUSED TO THAT, LOL. I hope my stylist trimmed enough to solve my tangly-ends problem. If not, I will do a DIY silk press and let my husband trim off more. But if my ends do NOT tangle, I will be elated: That will mean that I’ve found a place that knows how to balance trimming my hair for health with preserving length. That would be AWESOME!!! Miraculous, even: Since I’ve been a little girl, most of my stylists have been giving me the most serious of TRIMS. 🙂
NOTE: The first picture is the PRE-TRIM picture and reveals how much my hair grew and split in the 8 months or so since my previous trim in December 2020.
Products the Stylist Used
At the end of my service, I asked Bree (the stylist) if she would arrange all the products she used . . . in the order she used them. I also asked her if I could take a photo of the TOOLS she used to produce my silk press. The products and tools are shown in the photos below.
Notice the first brush. 😀 It’s the SAAAAAAAME one I’ve been using at home and raving about!!!! I was ridiculously happy to learn that they use that same brush, LOL. It gave me all sorts of calm. My whole soul was like, “These people know their craft!” And they do! I lost so little hair during detangling and styling that I was IMPRESSED.
The Missing Other Brush
There is ANOTHER brush that Niecy (my shampooist) used just before she used the Flexy Brush to complete detangling my hair. Niecy tried to tell me all about that other first brush, but I wasn’t trying to hear it. LOL. My thought was, “Uhn uhn, NOPE! You guys may be professionals, but none of you guys know about the Flexy Brush. I’m NOT listening, I’m NOT changing, because the FLEXY BRUSH has been WORKING. I’m not letting YOU cause me to doubt that, when I know what I know what I know.”
And then I felt foolish once I learned that the SECOND brush she used was the Flexy Brush. That probably means that the OTHER brush was awesome, too. And of course now I’m very curious about it, because she went in on my strands FIRST with that other brush. I keep thinking, “That brush must have been AMAZING to deserve to hit my strands before the Flexy Brush!”
All I can remember about the other brush (I barely got a glance) was that from afar it looked very similar to the Flexy Brush, it was smaller, and it was pink. I called the salon yesterday to ask about. They said that the brush didn’t have a name brand printed on it, but that it was available from Amazon and that it would pop up on Amazon’s site if I searched for “African detangling brush.”
I did that, and below is what popped up. I have no idea whether any of these brushes are the one or not. And you know me: I have already TRIED a brush similar to that STUDIO LIMITED brush. (Now, I didn’t try it with that pincher thing on it, so maybe that was why it didn’t wow me? I don’t know.)
I’ve decided that I’m just going to return to the salon and ask Niecy to let me take a picture of it. I really, really wish I had done so while I was there before. (I guess I’ll try not to BREATHE while I’m there, and I will RUN OUT REALLY FAST after snapping the photo. Smh.) Once I determine exactly what the brush is, I will purchase it (Lord willing), trial it, and share my review here at the blog.
Intended Next Post: My Thoughts on the “No Raw Oils, No Raw Butters” Movement, Details about What I’ve Been Doing with My Hair in 2021, Etc.
I haven’t been posting much lately because I care for an autistic child and have my own business, and with COVID that makes all of that challenging. (You would NOT believe it!) That said, I make it my intention to post in the next 7-10 days or so a bit about hair and health. Here’s a preview/summary:
- I have tried a few DEFINING brushes and a few DETANGLING brushes, and none could hold a candle to the Flexy Brush on my hair. I’ll share pictures and names of those brushes.
- I have tried the “No raw oils, no raw butters” detox challenge. I’ll share my routines, results (including photos), thoughts, and concerns. I’ll share about all the product combinations and how they worked for my hair (involving Uncle Funky’s Daughters Curly Magic, Innersense I Create Hold, Ecoslay Jello Shot, etc.). I’ll share what the PRESSED ROOTS stylist said about the state of my hair. I asked because I wanted to know what the “No raw oils, no raw butters” detox challenge was doing to my hair.
- I’ll share NEW-TO-ME GELS I tried in the process of trying the “No raw oils, no raw butters” challenge. I got some very PRETTY results, but none of them gave me 5+day wash-and-go’s like the Ecoslay Jello Shot does.
- I will share the technique for my FAVORITE wash-and-go result so far. It’s based on a trichologist’s (hair doctor’s) suggestions from one of her hour+ long YouTube videos. (I’ll link the video.) I loved my hair, it lasted over a week, it was so elongated, and I consider it a gamechanger for my hair in terms of reducing mechanical damage and retaining length with wash and go’s.
- I’ll share a list of products I hope to try before I end my official personal hair journey challenge.
- I think my remaining hair care goals include learning how to roller set my hair (as the key component of a growth regimen) and replicating a successful overnight wash-and-go I somehow accidently achieved via plopping overnight. I’ll share information (videos, links) about that. My inspiration for mastering a roller setting length retention regimen is a poster at the LongHairCare forum who had the handle “ElevatedEnergy.” I will share links to her roller setting challenge threads.
That’s it for this post! 😀 As always, thank you for visiting, and please let me know if you have thoughts or questions or suggestions.
Many, many blessings to you and yours! ❤
Yvette
The Blossoming, Fit Natural 