Hi all. Just to give you a quick update on the new look. I’ve been wearing my hair like this about a week and I’ve taken to experimenting with a few styles: a top knot and a more classic, pulled back look with some floral accessories. I styled my hair in this latter look for a ladies’ tea I attended. The look has proven surprisingly versatile, which is one thing I love about natural hair. I still haven’t bought a shower cap (haven’t owned one of those for a while) and have been using a plastic bag instead. Will probably take the braids out next week since there’s a pool party I’d like to attend. Can’t get it wet!
Now this week, I want to focus more on my salon experience at Zamora, as last week I mostly talked about the look. I loved the flat twists on natural hair. We’d decided on a flat twist look beforehand but other than that, I really didn’t know what to expect when I got to Zamora. I’ve never been one to spend a lot of time in beauty shops. I did my relaxer every ten weeks back when I had one, and besides really special occasions-- that was pretty much it for my salon visits.
One expectation that I was happy to have met was a warm and courteous environment. Again, a lot of the beauty business is psychology. In any psychological setting, you’ve got to have a comfortable environment in order to make progress. That’s probably why therapists have big comfy couches. (Wait...salon chair=therapy couch??? Maybe that’s a stretch) While I settled into the chair, I quickly found myself ready to relax, relate, release a la Whitley Gilbert. As many questions as I asked, I felt like Tonika took a genuine interest in me. As we worked on my natural flat twists, I found myself opening up about my journey to natural hair. I talked about my family and how the people in our lives influence our ideals of beauty. That’s a long conversation I’d like to discuss in its own post. I talked about my life quite a bit, but I learned a lot from the questions I asked at Zamora as well.
It wasn’t until I was getting shampooed that I suddenly remembered my pickiness about products and ingredients. I like to read the ingredient labels on everything I buy. If I can’t tell you what a certain chemical is, I take it as a bad sign... and then I google it. The first thing I asked was what kind of shampoo it was. I couldn’t exactly write down the name, but I was assured it was something with natural ingredients. Tonika has amazing skin, and it’s clearly a result of her knowing what she puts in and on her body.
Mind you, not all natural ingredients are good. I got some crazy stories about the products people use for hair growth. One woman brought in a homemade onion (Yes. Onion) hair mask that she wanted to use at the salon. It smelled so strong it made the stylist sick. You’d also be surprised by the number of women taking prenatal vitamins who are clearly not pregnant. Personally, I think (and I’m not a doctor) taking drugs you don’t need-- even vitamins-- is not a good idea. It’s always better to get your nutrients from food when you can, and there’s no medical, scientific, or haircare data that shows prenatal vitamins will grow your hair. I would love to write more about the weird questions hair stylists get.
What kind of questions should I ask next time I’m with a Zamora Natural Hair Stylist? What kind of conversations do you have with your stylist?
Shoot me an email or sound off in the comments section!