Having an awful salon trip is like watching someone iron a hole in your favourite silk dress.
When you go to a salon you want to leave with your hair looking great. You pay good money for an experienced professional and hope that it will be a therapeutic experience. You expect they'll make your hair look better than you could yourself. Sometimes, however, they leave you looking worse. That happened to me.
In September 2017 I left the salon with my hair looking like this...
Two years later and my hair has finally recovered! If you, like me, have had a bad trip to the salon and want to know how to get your hair back then read on. It may feel like you have to shave all your hair off and start again but there are ways to recover without immediate drastic measures.
Whatever happened to your hair, there is hope, it will grow back! It can still be a frustrating setback when you've cared for your hair and taken time to get it healthy and then a stylist ruins it. Avoid that happening by following the tips in the blog post on how not to leave the salon in tears.
These tips will be helpful for people who have damaged hair from dye, relaxer or straightening and will help you to transition to healthy Afro hair.
1. Cut off the damaged ends
When your hair has been shredded up, it's tempting to hold on to the length but you need to let it go. If you leave damaged and split ends, your hair will look messier over all. Another issue with split ends is that they tangle more easily. Leaving damaged ends on your head will just let to knots, tangles and more damage. Cut them off.
Hair is dead so once it's damaged there is little you can do to repair the worst problems. When I cut my hair in January 2019, I'd been clinging on to the damaged hair in protective styles but of course my hair still looked awful. I booked a mobile hairdresser who specialises in curls and, though I lost half the length in some places, my hair instantly looked better once the cut was complete.
It was a drastic change to get used to but it grew out fast enough. Hair grows 6 inches a year on average, so by the end of the year I was back to the length I cut off but with a more even and healthy look.
2. Condition, condition, condition
If your hair is in bad condition, you need a good conditioner.
Luckily for me, whilst I was working on helping my hair recover from the traumatic salon trip, we were prototyping our conditioner so I had a new formula to test out each month. For the last few months, I've been using Swirl and I cannot live without it!
A good conditioner: helps you to detangle with ease; keeps your cuticle smoothed down; and leaves hair noticeably strong and shiny. Swirl does all three and helped me to get my kinks and curls back.
3. Be patient
It was only after several months of hiding my hair in twists and feeling miserable about the fact that I ran a haircare company but my hair looked awful, that I decided to take action. When I did decide to work on getting my hair back to "normal" I didn't get results overnight. To achieve the length and fullness I had before the awful salon trip took about a year and a half of consistent healthy hair practices. This meant:
- Sticking to a good moisturising regime: I use the LOC method after cleansing and conditioning each week.
- Using only quality products: only Afrocenchix products work for me!
- Regular protective styles and trims: I protective style about half of the year (but really should protective style more often) and trim once or twice a year. When I see damaged ends or knots, I use sharp hairdresser scissors to remove them.
Follow those three tips and your hair will end up better than ever. Remember, if you need help, we're just a click or a call away. Good luck!
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