Ok ladies...
So here's the scoop...
My hair is shorter. I got about 1.5 to 2 inches chopped off...but you know what? WHO CARES! I LOVE my cut!!! (I think, lol)
The salon is very nice. I got there and Dickey still had to clients to finish up styling. Both short straight/tapered haircuts which turned out to be fly. While I was waiting, his assistant came over, introduced herself, shook my hand...she was very nice and polite. She asked me to put some contact info down on a sticky and told me Dickey would be with me shortly. Once he finished styling one of the women, the assistant came back over and put me in the chair. Dickey came over asked what I wanted done and when was the last time I cut my hair as a worked is fingers in it analyzing it. Like I've been saying, my ends weren't in the best shape. They were old, tangly, knots, and I saw some splits that along the hair shaft on some hairs. Anyway, I said "9 months" and he froze in shock, lol. He asked where I had it cut, and I told him Miss Jessie's, he says "Ok". He goes on to explain "you have to have it done more often than that" He proceeded to explain that my hair is growing, but at the same time my ends are breaking off, so it's taking longer to see length. He said my hair was very healthy, but the ends were snapping, which they do (I notice this during detangling). He asked how I was styling, straight or curly, of course I go curly
He told his assistant to apply this stuff
http://www.lorabeauty.com/shopping2/pricelist.asp?prid=7623 Rene Fulkner Complex 5 to my scalp as he went ahead and finished up his other client. The assistant applied and started massaging into my scalp. I asked her what it was, she explained its like a scalp cleanser, stimmulates and removes build up, etc. It felt soooo good especially if you like that warming cooling effect. He then asks her to prep my hair for the cut by blowing it out. He spritz my hair with water to dampen and applied a lot of something called Ish Ionic Rescue Conditioner
http://ishrescue.com/web/product.php#CONDITIONER and a little
Mizani H20 hairdress cream and had her blow it out. After she blowed it out, she asked him something (I couldn't hear) and he came over and grabbed a section of my hair, pulled it outward and looked like he was taking a close look at my ends. He said "yes" to her and she grabbed the flat iron, so my guess is she asked if she should press it out slightly more to straighten out the ends a little more for the cut. She just took large sections of my hair and quickly ran the flat iron through to straighten out a little more. He finishes up the other women and starts to cut my hair. He pulls it out at various angles and "snip snip". I saw the hair falling, but I knew he was taking off what needed to go, plus re-shaping. I know at one point he asked me "So did you ever get a texturizer or silkener?" I told him "No" and he says "Oh, so you were one of the lucky ones". I told him that my manager used to get a Silkener and she experienced a lot of breakage. He asks "They haven't opened back up? The sister's had a falling out or something, right?" I said "Yes, that's what I've heard".
He proceeds to say that back around the holidays he was getting a lot of Miss Jessie's customers. He said most of them had silkeners and damaged hair. He started turning away. Titi called him about turning away the customers and he told her that these people were coming to him with these Silkeners and damaged hair wanting him to continue the process. I guess he felt more comfortable not taking them at all. He then starts saying something about how what they are using is a relaxer and makes a comment like "They bring it out the back covered up in some magic african bowl" commenting how all it is is a relaxer and they disguise it as something magic, and that's not right. He said people think it's not a chemical. He makes a few more comments about the whole Silkener idea. of them ar He closely analyzes his work to make sure the cut is even on both sides by pulling out the same sections on both sides of my head towards the front, sides, etc. He proceeds to take me to shampoo. I don't know what he used at this point, but I know he applied a conditioner, rinsed, and applied another one, rinsed. The he fingerstyled with Miss Jessie's Curly Pudding and sat me under the dryer. After it was mostly dry, he took the blow dryer, had me flip my head over and started blowing it out some to finish drying, give it lift, and final finger styling. He says to me "Come back in three months for your next cut. Your next one will be a VERY small one just to maintain the health of your ends. You'll begin to start seeing the length as long as we can keep your ends from breaking off".
So that was it. By the time I got home, it was completely dry and I was able to play around with it some more fluff out some and I'm loving how it's falling. The shape is slightly different, layers a little more "blended" than Miko was keeping them which is cool. I'll REALLY know how I feel about the cut when I style it on my own. But right now, I'm cool with it and surprisingly, not feeling down about the loss of length. I'm actually excited to see what my puffs will look like now
and if I can get more "funky" styling and volume now (it's hard to play with since the Curly Pudding weighs down my hair). But anyway, I can say a positive experience with Mr. Dickey.
Excuse the LONG post, but I wanted to try to give you gals as much details as I could. Also, excuse typo's, incorrect grammer, run on sentences, and anything that doesn't make sense, because I'm not going back through it to proof read, LOL. I didn't take before pics...whatever is in my album is the most recent. But I'll try to post some "after" pics by Saturday. Oh, the total cost was $187.