Woe is me!

Ok I went to Mia & Maxx Hair Studio yesterday. If I didn't mention this before I chose not to see the hairstylist that was booked 4 weeks in advance (with 10 years of experience). I chose to see the other stylist that was recommended for black hair. Something told me that would be a mistake but not this much of a mistake.

I get there and she's very friendly. She's doing highlights on another client so I waited a half hour for her to finish. Oh btw, SHE is Patricia [edited out her location]. So anyway, when she gets to me, she thoroughly bases my scalp and asks me what strength of relaxer to use. I told her that the sensitive scalp strength probably would leave my hair underprocessed. She tells me that she'll use medium and soon after begins to apply the relaxer. She's fairly quick like the last stylist but I get the sense that she missed some spots but I figure she'll get the spots when she goes back to smooth the relaxer in.

So, as she smoothes it in she begins to comb the hair to smooth it straight. I've heard that this is a non-no but I've had it done before so I thought nothing of it. But then, I start feeling the comb graze my scalp. HELLO! That's gonna burn! And it did start to burn. So I told her that it was burning and she did what a lot of stylists do these days--she sprayed oil sheen or something on the area and she keeps on smoothing. She said it seemed like it wasn't straight enough yet. I told or 2 or 3 more times after that that it was burning. So, she finally rinses my hair out. Again, she doesn't seem very thorough.

Then, she puts some kind of conditioner on my hair and lets me sit as she rinses the other client's hair. I feel a spot in the back of my head burning still so I'm thinking she didn't rinse it well enough. Luckily, she comes over before it gets too bad and rinses that out. Then she shampoos me a few times with the neutralizer. Again, not that thorough... In addition, she used her nails to further scratch my scalp! Stop it you sadistic maniac! OUCH! Finally, she puts in another conditioner (not thoroughly) and combs that through and rinses.

Then, she takes me over to hair to blowdry my hair. It was a bit underprocessed--better than overprocessed. She puts something in my hair that was probably a leave-in and uses a blowdryer and a comb (I think) to dry my hair. That was ok. She didn't yank at my hair to hard. She also gives me a much-needed trim. She did a good job with that and points out to me that I have an underprocessed section of hair near my ends that may need to be relaxed further to prevent breakage. This is true.

Then she puts more product in my hair. I think it may have been serum. She, then, curls my hair starting at the back of my head and working her way to the front. As she takes a section, she sprays something on the section to help the curling iron to straighten the hair further. When she gets to the areas of the head where the scalp is burned, I can feel some stinging when she sprays the hair.

As she'd move the iron down the length of the hair and get to the ends, she'd hold the iron on my ends for maybe 8-10 seconds. You burn my scalp and now you wanna damage my ends?!? It looked pretty good though. She did the best job of styling my hair than the other 3 stylists before her. So, she sprays my hair with hairspray and luckily, I had my eyes closed because she sprayed my left eye! Dang! You are about the worse hairdresser I've ever been to!

This hairdresser revealed to me that she used to work at the Trade Secret where I got my last 3 touch-ups but that she "transferred" to Mia & Maxx. She also told me that if I recommend some people to her I'd get an extra discount in addition to my mall employee discount. She told me how dead it always is there and that she needs to build up her clientele to keep working there. Sorry Sister! I feel for you but you must be out your cotton-picking mind!

I literally prayed to God before I went in for this appointment. I guess it could have been worse. I still have hair... for now.

P.S. I did see that she used Paul Mitchell The Shine. My hair was very shiny so I liked that.

Less Shedding!

I used some Redken Deep Fuel tonight and I believe that it resulted in less shedding or breakage when I blew my hair dry. I used it 2 or 3 times before but I never paid much attention to the results.

Ok so first, I shampooed with Organic Root Stimulator Creamy Aloe Shampoo and applied the Deep Fuel and combed it in. I left it on longer than the 5-10 minutes that they recommended—no heat or plastic cap. Then I shampooed again with Elasta QP Creme Conditioning Shampoo and conditioned with Kenra Intensive Emollient. The comb-out process went well. ETA: I also used a little Porosity Control Corrector & Conditioner on my ends right before I rinsed it all out.

After it was all said and done, my hair definitely felt stronger. So I added some Pantene Relaxed & Natural Daily Oil Cream Moisturizer to my hair and some Joico K-Pak Leave-In Protectant and blew my hair dry. Voila! Much less shedding and breakage! This will definetly be a part of my routine. Since The Deep Fuel lasts for 8 shampoos, it’ll be something I use before touch-ups.

I should add that I’ll be getting my hair touched up on Monday at Mia & Maxx Hair Studio. I’ll definitely share my results next week.