Quick background: I just moved to NYC and I'm located near 125th and St. Nicholas in Harlem. After spending ANOTHER week of being chased down the subway by african women eager to braid up or straighten my hair, I decided it was finally time to do something about my hair.Currently, I am 5 weeks post relaxer and I'm hoping to go at least 12 weeks before getting a touch up
The Salon: I decided to go to a Dominican Salon since I've heard so much about them on this board. I tried to read as much as I could about different salons and in the end, I narrowed my choice down to three: 1. Mirror Image Salon, 2. Touch of Class (Yohanny's) and 3. The Above Ground.
Yesterday morning, I set out and got to 109th and Columbus at around 9:45. I turned around and saw a salon. Peering above me, I saw that this salon was on my list my list - The Above Ground. Great! I was in business. This may not have been the most scientific way to choose a shop
Price: My total service was $20. Deep conditioning is free and I highly recommend it! You get 30 minutes under the dryer with the conditioner. If you just get a wash and a blowdry without the set, prices drop down to $15. They also charge by the length and I think shoulder length is the marker for this. Their prices are clearly posted outside. One note: they don't take credit cards, as I found out the hard way. I was forced to run across the street and use a street bodega atm.
Products: I tried to peep this just for you guys! I was straining my neck to see what were on the shelves. I saw Alter Ego and some Silicon Mix. I also saw something that made my stomach turn - an oversized bottle of some Suave Naturals. If I wanted that in my hair, I could have walked across the street to the Duane Reade and gotten that! Thankfully, it was tucked in a corner and I didn't see it used the entire time I was in the shop. YOu can also bring your own products as I saw one women do
look:Are you Nikko's cousin?!? You had the most beautiful spiral curls and had a baby with you at the shop. )
Time: Total service time was roughly 2 hours and 30 minutes. I don't know if that's an average time for a dominican shop or not. However, I felt that as the day wore on, they were particularly slow with me and the other African American women in the show. One homegirl - she was hispanic - walked in 45 minutes after I did yet somehow left almost 30 minutes before me. I not going to make assumptions, but...
The Service: So I walk in, expecting a receptionist. Instead, I see two women already at work on two clients. I ask them if they take walk ins and already I can see a problem - they don't really speak English. At all. In fact, one of the customers had to answer my question.
After finding that they do take walk ins, I sit around awkwardly for about 5 minutes until I'm called back to the bowl. The woman washing the hair washes HARD. Personally, I like that but she may be too rough for some people.
The woman rolling my hair was GREAT. My hair is in a choppy layered cut and she skillfully worked around that, making sure all of my hair was secured in rollers. She put me under the dryer for 1 hour on high heat, which I found to be too much - I adjusted the heat and brought myself out after 50 minutes.
The actual styling took roughly 15 minutes. Ladies, I was not prepared for how much a blowout hurts! The direct heat on my scalp nearly made me wet myself. My stylist started in my nape area, which is very short. It was SO painful. I think my stylist sensed that I was in pain. The rest of the blowout wasn't nearly as painful so I think she turned down the heat. ARe blowouts supposed to hurt that much?!!?
I edited the style a little bit (pushed my bangs to the side, made my part deeper, etc. but the end result was hair that was bone straight and just floated in the air. It was such a nice feeling. I've gotten so many compliments
Conclusion: I'm not sure if I will go back to this particular salon just because I felt I spent a little too much time in there nor did I see enough product variety. But for $20, they do a nice job.
The Salon: I decided to go to a Dominican Salon since I've heard so much about them on this board. I tried to read as much as I could about different salons and in the end, I narrowed my choice down to three: 1. Mirror Image Salon, 2. Touch of Class (Yohanny's) and 3. The Above Ground.
Yesterday morning, I set out and got to 109th and Columbus at around 9:45. I turned around and saw a salon. Peering above me, I saw that this salon was on my list my list - The Above Ground. Great! I was in business. This may not have been the most scientific way to choose a shop
Price: My total service was $20. Deep conditioning is free and I highly recommend it! You get 30 minutes under the dryer with the conditioner. If you just get a wash and a blowdry without the set, prices drop down to $15. They also charge by the length and I think shoulder length is the marker for this. Their prices are clearly posted outside. One note: they don't take credit cards, as I found out the hard way. I was forced to run across the street and use a street bodega atm.
Products: I tried to peep this just for you guys! I was straining my neck to see what were on the shelves. I saw Alter Ego and some Silicon Mix. I also saw something that made my stomach turn - an oversized bottle of some Suave Naturals. If I wanted that in my hair, I could have walked across the street to the Duane Reade and gotten that! Thankfully, it was tucked in a corner and I didn't see it used the entire time I was in the shop. YOu can also bring your own products as I saw one women do
look:Are you Nikko's cousin?!? You had the most beautiful spiral curls and had a baby with you at the shop. )Time: Total service time was roughly 2 hours and 30 minutes. I don't know if that's an average time for a dominican shop or not. However, I felt that as the day wore on, they were particularly slow with me and the other African American women in the show. One homegirl - she was hispanic - walked in 45 minutes after I did yet somehow left almost 30 minutes before me. I not going to make assumptions, but...
The Service: So I walk in, expecting a receptionist. Instead, I see two women already at work on two clients. I ask them if they take walk ins and already I can see a problem - they don't really speak English. At all. In fact, one of the customers had to answer my question.
After finding that they do take walk ins, I sit around awkwardly for about 5 minutes until I'm called back to the bowl. The woman washing the hair washes HARD. Personally, I like that but she may be too rough for some people.
The woman rolling my hair was GREAT. My hair is in a choppy layered cut and she skillfully worked around that, making sure all of my hair was secured in rollers. She put me under the dryer for 1 hour on high heat, which I found to be too much - I adjusted the heat and brought myself out after 50 minutes.
The actual styling took roughly 15 minutes. Ladies, I was not prepared for how much a blowout hurts! The direct heat on my scalp nearly made me wet myself. My stylist started in my nape area, which is very short. It was SO painful. I think my stylist sensed that I was in pain. The rest of the blowout wasn't nearly as painful so I think she turned down the heat. ARe blowouts supposed to hurt that much?!!?
I edited the style a little bit (pushed my bangs to the side, made my part deeper, etc. but the end result was hair that was bone straight and just floated in the air. It was such a nice feeling. I've gotten so many compliments
Conclusion: I'm not sure if I will go back to this particular salon just because I felt I spent a little too much time in there nor did I see enough product variety. But for $20, they do a nice job.
