It Happened To Me: " A Stylist Added Relaxer To My Conditioning Treatment "
9 Jun
I posted my previous blog post, Stylists are perming your hair, and you don’t even know it! , on my Facebook fan page for StrawberriCurls. One of my readers commented by saying the very thing that I was warning my readers about, had already happened to her and she agreed to share her story with us:
Late April of 2007 I was in IL house hunting. I was at this time
natural, as in I didn’t have a relaxer, but I was in no way as knowledgeable about my hair as I am now.I had an appointment at a local Egyptian salon that was before a meeting I had for my new job. They had told me that I would absolutely be able to be seen on time.. but after an hour of waiting, I had to leave or be late for my work appointment.
I still had some time and a friend I knew in the area recommended an AA salon nearby. The person assured me I could be seen right away and that my hair not being relaxed wouldn’t be a problem. My hair was straighter than my regular texture because I used to straighten my hair all the time and I had a week old blow dry/flat iron when I went into the salon. Once washed, the shampoo girl and my stylist for the day went away from me and started whispering.. I supposed I should’ve worried but I’m not the paranoid type. After the whisper session, the stylist came over and asked what I wanted done… just a wash and blow dry is what I told her. This should involve them washing my hair, conditioning it, blow drying it and then flat ironing it. I had it done hundred of times before without an issue. She said okay and offered to do a deep condition treatment for me as it would help protect my hair.. her words.
I agreed as long as it didn’t take too long and she promised it wouldn’t. To the back of the salon she goes to mix up a deep condition treatment.. I didn’t find this abnormal. I often mix things together to use as a DT myself. She started to apply to my hair and it smelled weird, I asked her about it and she said it’s one of the ingredients for Ph balance.
Ummm.. okay.
About ten minutes in it started to burn which I found weird but she assured me it was just “tingling” and it was good for my scalp… another 3 minutes and I told her to rinse me because I was having some sort of allergic reaction or something (I have pretty sensitive skin so this was possible). She rinsed me out and moved me to the chair. My hair was noticeably straighter as my hair wet without product is very curly and big and poofy, lol. This time my curls hang straight-ish which wasn’t normal. She assured me that it was temporary from the heavy conditioner..
“Okay…” I said
She did my hair as normal and 2 days
later the breakage started. Panicked, I went to wash my hair and again the curls just weren’t there… I had major heat damage. After several deep treatments, co-washes, etc.. my hair never returned to its normal state and continued to break off. I returned back to Michigan (where I was staying) and had my hair braided hoping that would help.
When I finally moved to Illinois (about 3 weeks later) I was ready to take my braids out, upon doing so my hair was just coming out in huge chunks even though I was being gentle. I went back to the salon and pitched a fit demanding to talk to someone in charge. (Yeah, it may seem a bit crazy for hair.. but we know how important hair is to us, right?) When I finally spoke to the manager, she also feigned ignorance. I threatened police action, threatened to sue and eventually someone gave up the information I needed.
She told me that with “nappy” hair, they sometimes add a
bit of relaxer to a deep conditioner and apply it. It’s the “kiddie perm” she tells me and most people don’t experience negative results. But it works well because people are happy that their hair is straighter so they continue to come back.
None of these people have healthy hair but that doesn’t matter to the stylists. They liked the ease of dealing with the straightened hair and the return client base who are excited about their “naturally straightened” hair. Unfortunately, there wasn’t much I could do.
I researched natural hair care online, BC’d and never looked back.
I know its hard to believe things like this are happening but this is real. I am applaud that the owner of this particular salon was AWARE of what was going on at this shop and said nothing about it. Luckily, she bounce back from this.
If you noticed the stylists said THEY as in the stylists themselves as if it were their hair!
Again i ask and warn, please be careful ladies.
*appalled
this EXACT same thing happened to me at a dominican salon in my area. although i BC’d my hair STILL hasnt bounced back and its been almost a year. be mindful of who you let touch your natural hair ladies!
*SMH* I would have taken them to small claims court just to teach them a lesson. That’s devastating and traumatic! How dare they make a decison like that!
Right! Somebody would’ve gotten sued! smh
I agree I would have taken them to small claims as well and make sure you let them the natural’s know where not to go. That’s some Bull$hit!!
Amazing self-control. No stylists were assaulted.
Agreed Sheri. Somebody woulda got hurt. And if it wasn’t physically, best believe, like mizzezmellymel said, court woulda seen me!
LOL…I heard that. Or at least a few choice cuss words! Small claims court would definitely be the way to go, especially when there was hair loss!
Sad, sad, sad! Why can’t the stylist just improve their skills, than be lazy!
Please go back and sue, please tell me that you are going to sue. This is ridiculous. I’ve heard of stories like this, and the more that people who have been taken advantage do something about it, then these so call “professional” salon will no practice such an activity.
I would’ve been flipping things over and acting a fool up in there. WTF?!
Well, I would never risk going to jail for fist fighting…..however I agree with the majority. That salon would have been hearing from a small claims lawyer and it would have been taken to court for sure. They had NO right to make that decision, and with all the whispering being done behind the clients back. They knew what the were doing, and it was being done in secret. She clearly lied to the client, even when she said the so called “conditoner” was burning. I feel bad for any natural who has had to endure such an unfortunate experience. I agree with sbc, please be careful out there in those hair salons!
*sigh* We all make mistakes and the stylists were wrong for putting a chemical in YOUR hair without permission BUT, how it couldn’t have been me.
What’s that smell?
What ya’ll whispering about?
Why is my scalp burning?
What you mixing up?
Too many questions to still be sitting in the salon chair….smh.
No offense but, it’s almost like reading something written by a child. “I didn’t know mama, I just sat there.” I mean…I’m SMH at the salon and the author of this story.
This is why I don’t mess with salons any more. Naturals, take care of your own hair but if you can’t for some strange, lazy reason, then bring your products with you and insist they use those.
Amen! I stop going to salons for over a year now…I love doing my own hair. I also get compliments on it from time to time
LAWSUIT LAWSUIT !!! And I’d ‘ve made them pay thru the nose for any future visits to the dermatologist if I had scalp damage. Another reason wny all naturals who go to salons ought to ansk them point blank if they use any hair altering chemicals
I recently went natural and the woman that I go to was really understanding for the first 3 months of me going to her. At one appointment she said ‘Don’t you want to get a relaxer? You’re hair isn’t going to stay straight in this heat’. I was like ummh, no. I have been working towards being natural for a year and half, so a lil’ heat isn’t going to bother me. If she would think of sneaking some relaxer in the conditioner, I would sue. Alot of hair dresser just get lazy and want to take the easy way out. I am paying you for a wash and press–not a wash, condition, relaxer, and flat iron. You can’t trust anyone!!!
This was done without the knowledge of the client. I would be all up in someone’s small claims court. Transitioning is difficult and it takes a lot of time to go natural! I am dumbfounded at the thought of this!
I would have been hot as fish grease. If not sue, then definitely file a complaint with the board through which they are licensed. But on a different note. I absolutely love the Egyptian Shops in Chicago especially Mena’s. I am always “butter” when I walk out of there.
That’s vile.
Disrespecting someone’s ability to make choices about their own body is not ok. The concept of consent is quite serious, and more people need to understand that.
I swear this happened to me this past winter…I get my hair pressed in the winter and I wear my curls in the summer…this summer when I washed my hair my normal cork screw pattern has changed…my hair looks like it did when I was a teenager and I had a perm and when I washed it, my hair would wave up not curl….next year I will switch salons because I don’t trust the other shop any more…
sometimes with pressing the curl pattern will change temporarily. If you have straight ends though that will be a dead giveaway.
unfortunately, heat damage from pressing, flat ironing or even blow drying can permanently change/ruin your curl pattern. sometimes, all it takes is one time and your hair is not the same.
This just happened to me as well! It’s just hair and it will grow back but my healthy, natural hair is now damaged! I really like the salon but I know now to take my own products whenever I go to a salon. The first time they didn’t do anything. The second time I trusted them to shampoo and DT and they slipped something in on me. I also normally go in after doing my own wash and detangle for them to blow out. I know to stick with that. No more special deep conditioning treatment for me from the Dominicans.
I’d also like to add that these folks seem to think that naturals are exclusively by choice. I had to go natural because I developed a sensitivity to the chemicals. Sure enough the way I knew I had been defiled was my scalp was irritated, my hair broke off, and I had straight ends once I washed it myself. I kept smelling something but thought it was the product or the heat process. Had I not done my own hair I probably would have never known what they did. I’ve never suffered so much damage.
SMH, it’s like hair molestation. They knowingly did something to your hair without your permission and without asking you.
WOW! WOW!! Wubbzy!!! I would have been on Judge Judy!!
This happened to a co-worker of mine. She went to a popular “natural” hair salon in NYC and to make a long story short- the stylist put a “silkener” in her hair which turned her beautiful, huge, puffy fro into a limp, broken off dull mess. She had to chop her hair off and start all over again.
I happened to me as well. It was a salon in Brooklyn on Glenview avenue between 86th and 87th street (I believe) and it was in a little white house-looking salon.
Of course I thought it was heat damage as well, but then my friend Sharon told me that she heard of this thing happening to people because of jealousy on the part of the stylist.
I can believe that because one shouldn’t trust a non-natural person to do natural hair when their attitude towards their own natural hair is that they need to attack it with chemicals etc in order to do anything with it.
Further I feel it was my own stupid fault as the woman was short like me with a ridiculous weave down her buttocks and receeding at the crown with the freshly permed strands on top pulled ever so taut. A stylist with shame on her head.
My real beef with all of this is the blatency and hidden adjenda. The fact that they know they aren’t competent enough to do natural hair and they insist that they can.
More than that, I’m upset that even though I told her how I needed it to be handled (I brought my own wide-toothed comb, told her how it should be combed-tip to root and back which she should’ve already known and I even helped by braiding my hair while waiting hours to be seen with a wet mess sitting on top of my head–now that’s far and beyond when you’re paying) and she kept insisting that the hot comb get hotter and hotter (though I complained about the heat).
I didn’t realize what happened until it was too late. Washing and conditioning etc and no revert to natural beautiful curls. I did a far better job pressing my own hair but had to be fly by getting my hair done at a shop every week.
It took 3 years to get the hair fungus and damage to leave my head and I still have yet to see the same kind of length as before.
Sorry for the long post but as you can see I feel for you girl.
OMG NOOO!!
While reading this story I just envisioned myself raising hell ,going crazy and kicking somebodies behind in that salon. AMAZING self control. Whew. wow.
This is outrageous. I would definitely find out if there was some type of complaint that I could make through their state licensing board. I would also start my own private campaign warning others of their non-professionalism. I rarely go to salons these days. When I do, I make sure that I go to someone who specializes in natural hair texture. While my former beautician was not natural, she was always able to do my comb coils for me, and did my original big chop without trying to coax me out of it.
This is horrible! There is enough information on the FDA cosmetic website to make the argument that the relaxers are caustic chemicals. If someone threw some type of caustic acid on you, that would be considered assault and battery, which is a criminal offense (not a civil offense). Quite frankly, I don’t see any difference between what is happening in these salons and an straight forward assault and battery. Their actions led to chemical burns (the hair isn’t the point here ’cause that would just be civil court stuff). Again, if someone knowingly put caustic chemicals on my skin, without my knowledge, and that led to a chemical burn injury, I’d push my local prosecutor to file criminal charges. Then after they were found guilty of ‘assault and battery leading to great bodily harm,” I’d take them to civil court for financial damages.
Some ppl don’t know how to care for their hair, doesn’t mean they’re lazy. Everyone isn’t knowledgeable in that area, or perhaps haven’t the time to do an natural hair cair regime. It’s easy for some to say, “Wouldn’t have been me” or “Smh @ this or that”. Never say never, & just learn from her story. That is ALL!!!
Normally I do not read post on blogs, but I wish to say that this write-up very compelled me to take a look at and do it! Your writing style has been amazed me. Thank you, very nice article.
AMAZING self control…I have a scalp issue known as seborrhea dermatitis and if chemicals are placed on my head again, I will suffer great burning and permanent hair loss. all it will take for me is ONE relaxer and I am done…i have NO clue how I would handle that, but I tell you, that salon would be out of business, PERMANENTLY!!
The same thing happened to me twice. First time it was a so called professional and friend who came to my home ONLY to trim & shape my hair. After the trim, she insisted that I allow her to give me a straight style with ONLY HEAT and “a little of this conditioning cream” . She said it was “like” a moisturizer and put this stuffon my hair and HOT CURLED IT. I thought i smelled that funky egg smell but of course she denied it. 2nd time, I allowed someone to stay in my home, when asked to leave, she added something to my shampoo in the bathroom and I noticed something different right away but did not reall realize what the problem was until after about 4 or 5 weekly shampoos. Each time my hair became more limp, brittle and nothing that I love about my natural hair. I ultimately had to cut it out and start over. After a few cuts, it was finnally gone. Today, it is as thick, full and curly as before thank God!