After my month long stay over break back home in Jamaica, I really picked up on a strong interest among my peers to grow and care for their own hair so I decided to share my experience on a great salon “The Salon “Hair and Scalp Clinic”” (on Old Hope Road) which I have been visiting for the past few years. Before I do this I’d like to make note of two important points
1. Proper hair care is mainly up to you and not a salon. Hair-dressers cannot grow your hair so I am definitely not trying to say go here you will suddenly grow long hair because no one can offer that service or we would all have hair to our butts. You could visit a great salon weekly but still opt to have your hair blowed and ironed weekly and not see any progress because of excessive heat.
2. While the onus is primarily on you, it is critical to find a great salon because bad service, can certainly ruin all your progress in just one visit. For instance, they can cut your hair when you asked for a trim or cause severe hair loss and chemical burns through subpar chemical services. For people like myself with an especially sensitive and dry (due to eczema) scalp. it is extremely easy to get chemical burns from relaxers. In fact, I used to think it was simply a part of the process! I have never gotten serious enough burns to lose a significant amount of hair but I know now that I should not get burns any at all. If every time you relax at your current salon, you are left with “bun-buns” (patches of burnt scalp and clumped up hair), or significant breakage then run away from that place and never look back. Obviously no stylist is perfect and so I would not take issue with a minor chemical irritation once in a while, but trust me if she/he regularly burns you, then they are not very adept at their job and he/she is likely over-processing your hair as well. I cannot list all that a salon can do wrong, but bad chemical service (which is pretty much the only time I visit a salon) is probably the most significant.
My experience with The Salon and reasons for recommending it
I am always been pleased with the service offered at The Salon and always visit on my trips back to Jamaica.I’ve told Raquel (the owner) several times that I wish I could take her with me because she takes such great care of my hair. She is also certified in dealing with scalp disorders and has been treating my scalp as well as advising me on how to take care of it at home and I honestly experience far fewer problems now. Raquel understands that my goal is to grow very long and healthy hair (even though my hair has never been super long) and has been willing to help me achieve this goal since she also believes that with proper care everyone’s hair can grow. It is very important for a stylist to truly believe this because we need encouragement that it can be done and not doubtfulness.
The Salon sticks to quality products such as Keracare, Affirm, Redken and so on. Raquel possesses the knowledge and willingness to offer great advice and genuinely cares about my hair. She also carries out my special requests with absolutely no attitude or reluctance (I have definitely experienced a lot of this in my current search for a great salon located close to me in CT). For instance, I recently decided to start texlaxing (intentionally under-process to retain strength) instead of fully relaxing and this is honestly the first place that I have been to, that simply did what I asked without trying to tell me what I am doing is nonsense because of blah blah blah (a host of excuses for not simply doing what I asked for). I don’t know what it is that so many salons have against intentionally under-processing but it is really annoying because some of them react to this request as if I am crazy or something. Raquel on the other hand, let my relaxer sit for about five minutes then washed it out and I finally got the texture I have been aiming for all this time. She is very accommodating of special requests but definitely will not do whatever you ask for if it could be damaging to your hair. I also really like the fact that a trim means a trim and not a cut! I got my hair trimmed here recently and love my sharp ends without even being able to detect much difference in length. If you are currently searching for a new salon that will take proper care of your hair, and offers a very friendly and comfortable environment, I whole-heartedly recommend this place.
I have still not officially settled on any salon in the US because none of them have been just right in terms of location, convenience and service and the quest has reminded me how difficult it can be to find a convenient place that offers great service so I hope this will be helpful to someone. Good luck everyone.