So, I just washed my hair this weekend and finally had a chance to use my steamer afterward. First let me tell you about my color dilemma.... I had honey colored highlights in my hair from years before I began locking. It just so happened that when my locks condensed and matured, all the color was concentrated in the tips of my locks, so they naturally looked like brown tips. I wanted to have burgundy tips for the longest time so a few years ago, after much apprehension, I dyed my tips burgundy. Nothing too dramatic and since it was a rinse, over time, it faded back to a honey color. I didn't bother to color it again.
I didn't feel the itch to color my hair again until this year. I finally decided to make an appointment at a local hair salon named Dreadz-n-Headz because I'd met the owner, Malaika Tamu-Cooper, at a natural hair show years ago and was impressed by her professionalism and the dos that her hair stylists were providing at the show. I don't know anything about coloring hair, so I figured that I needed to go to a professional to color my locks. Bad idea, at least for this salon.
To make a long story short, it was
THE worst salon experience I've ever had. I was overcharged, it took all day (I was in the salon for over 6hrs), my hair color was on more than the tips of my locks and they were varied colors of burgundy (light & dark orange as well), the stylist ruined the shirt I was wearing by getting bleach and color on it, and my hair was never conditioned afterward. I could go on and on about how upset I was with this experience. I had befriended Malaika on FB when I joined a couple years ago, so I thought I would just write her a letter via email detailing the unprofessional and unacceptable experience I had at her shop. This woman
NEVER responded to my email!! Like she just couldn't be bothered. I was and am still appalled. She then proceeded to remove me from her friend list. I've since spoken to a few people that were unhappy with their experience at the shop, so I'm not alone and although I don't normally say things like this, I hope her business fails because this isn't how a serious/good business person approaches customer service & complaints in general.
Needless to say, I've been trying to repair the damage done ever since the end of June when I went to the shop. I've colored my tips a true burgundy via henna and Adore (a popular hair color brand). Nothing worked because after just a couple washes, my tips would turn a dull brown again and now that the color was covering much more than just the tips of my locks (3"-6" at the end of my locks), I wasn't at all happy with the results.
I promised myself that if the last attempt to color my tips didn't work, I would simply dye them black and be done with it, so that's what I did. I decided to just put my locks in a pony tail and color the entire pony. I used L'Oreal Feria 21 bright black and I have to say I'm in love. I don't know why I hadn't colored my locks black before.
I sat under my hair steamer for approximately 20mins after applying the conditioning treatment that came with the coloring kit. And I again sat under the steamer after rinsing the conditioning treatment out of my locks. I first moisturized my hair with extra-virgin olive oil, Oyin handmade burnt sugar pomade for my scalp area, and some Nexxus leave in conditioner. My locks feel so soft and moisturized. The color is so rich and my locks have an amazing shine which I'm sure I can attribute to both the steamer and the color. I have a lock update photo shoot scheduled this week so I'll post those photos when they're available and you'll see how gorgeous the results are!
I also did a steam treatment for my face again after doing my hair and my skin feels great. I think this steamer was an amazing investment and I'm already profiting from the benefits!
Inspirations and blessings,
Nat
