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The straight story about latest wave of hair care
Dominican, ‘divina’ right down to the roots
Wednesday, July 19, 2006
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by Easha Anand
Special to The Gazette
Click here to enlarge this photo
Brian Lewisâ„The Gazette
Arelis Natera, owner of Arelis Hair Salon on Colesville Road applies some makeup to her mother, Lucia Natera just after the shop opened on a recent Monday.
When one of her 2,000-odd clients walks in to Arelis Beauty Salon, owner Arelis Natera looks at them and knows.
She knows whether their hair should be curly or straight, worn up or down, heavily conditioned or styled with heat.
Rosa Perez, one of Natera’s stylists, likes to watch Natera do up a new client. Natera shows the client how to pucker her lips so that she can apply the right amount of lipstick. She side-steps around the salon chair to get a panoramic view and blow-dries the client’s hair with a full-arm flourish.
That flourish, that something extra, is not something an outsider can just learn, say Natera and Perez. Though they have tested stylists from many different nationalities, they have only hired Dominicans.
Perez points to Natera, hands buried in her client’s hair.
‘‘Divina,†she says. Divine.
With their nationality printed on awnings and frosted into glass windows, Dominican hair stylists, like Natera’s salon on Colesville Road, are building a reputation for hair care that’s a little different, a reputation that is reaching an increasingly diverse clientele.
Though it has certainly not reached the magnitude of, say, the trend of Asian immigrants owning nail salons, the Dominican difference may represent a smaller, more local trend, perhaps a result of the increasing mix of races that will frequent the same salon, said Gordon Miller, executive director of the National Cosmetology Association.
‘‘There is more cross-pollination,†Miller said. ‘‘Before, by consumer choice, salons tended to be more — I hate to use the word — segregated.â€
And with that cross-pollination comes brisk business for the Dominican-owned and -operated hair salons — a half-dozen within walking distance of the Silver Spring Metro station alone — that are going from niche to known as clients from across the D.C.-metro area look to the ‘‘divina†Dominican stylists for hair care.
Not just ‘lavar and leave’
Natalie Keley, a student at Howard University’s College of Dentistry, has been going to Arelis for three years because the stylists help her get her hair ‘‘back on track,†explaining — sometimes by pantomiming — what she is doing wrong.
Claudia Emiliano, who owns Claudia Hair Salon on Georgia Avenue, said she was drilled in a very different approach to hair care when she learned cosmetology in Santo Domingo.
‘‘Dominicans have better hair condition, while Americans have more beautiful hair styles,†Emiliano said. ‘‘I’m not saying it’s better, just that it is different.â€
It’s not just ‘‘lavar and leave†at Arelis Beauty Salon, said Natera, pointing to her hairline, pulled tight under her long halo of an afro and above her two-inch hoop earrings. She likes hearing customers tell her, ‘‘Look, my hair is healthy, no more weaves,†when they return. She looks at their roots every time they come in, checking for oil or dandruff and teaching them how to care for their hair and scalp.
Dominican hair care means lots of natural conditioners, such as olive oil, aloe vera and coconut milk, plus a gentle approach to hair care that means less heat and fewer chemicals than American salons, Natera said.
The Dominican difference
In some ways, the story of the salons is the classic immigrant story: Coming to America for a better life, working hard, finding a balance between old and new cultures and, with a bit of luck, making it big, or at least comfortable.
Emiliano came to this area to get her kids a good education. Natera came for the money and for a little peace and quiet (New York, where she worked for 14 years, is too fast-paced—‘‘pop, pop, pop,†she said, snapping her fingers frantically, ‘‘there is always somethingâ€).
The stylists cater to Americans, but play merengue and chat in Spanish. Emiliano’s FM radio set is pre-set to El Zol. Natera says the money still goes back to the Dominican Republic, but the dreams have started to take place in Maryland, key phrases of English slowly piling up.
Last month, Natera learned two new words in English: ‘‘Gay†and ‘‘gorgeous.â€
She holds up four black-and-whites autographed by Christina herself, Natera’s first transvestite customer, hair styled Lionel Richie-curly in some, Marilyn Monroe-straight in others.
Christina had heard, said Natera, that Dominicans did hair differently, and she wanted something special.
‘‘I’ve done white hair, black hair, brown hair,†Natera said. ‘‘I’ve done Bronx hair and Manhattan hair — I’ve done it all. But I had never done anyone like Christina.â€
Roots
Michelle Moore has been coming to Ana Marmolejos’ hair salons, Sa She on Georgia Avenue and Sashelvis on Wayne Avenue, every two weeks or so for a year now. She has no problem pinpointing why Dominican hair salons are so popular in Silver Spring.
‘‘Dominican hair salons do hair care, rather than hair style,†said Moore, who was lured away from a salon on Seventh Street in the District of Columbia that claimed to specialize in African-American hair. ‘‘My hair feels noticeably better.â€
Marmolejos’ daughter, Sasha, 14, says business has been better since the move to Wayne Avenue, which has more accessible parking. Moore likes the salon’s décor and its competitive prices.
But Sasha says there is something deeper driving the Dominicans she knows.
‘‘Other people, they do it to do it, to make money,†Sasha said. ‘‘But our whole family does hair.â€
Andy Adje, who manages the newly opened African Hair Gallery on Colesville Road, an extension of his family’s original salon, across the street at City Place, said what Sasha described applied to many of the non-Dominican immigrants he knows as well.
Adje, an aspiring painter, laughs when asked how he learned to braid hair. His family braids hair, he says, and they have done so for generations.
‘‘You used to be able to tell from the last name whether the family did woodworking or jewelry,†he said. ‘‘Business used to be a family affair.â€
As a result, he said, the braiding techniques that the African Hair Gallery employs are more intricate and natural than the ones of their American competitors.
‘‘Americans learn to braid hair in a school,†he said. ‘‘In a school, if you don’t know, you ask. In a family, if you don’t know, you practice. It is something you are born with, I think.â€
Getting in customers’ hair
The techniques stylists learn in the Dominican Republic, which has a mix of ethnicities and thus of hair types, are particularly well suited to the hair of the African Americans who make up a majority of Arelis’ clientele, said Perez, a stylist at Arelis.
‘‘Mira,†she said. Watch.
She pulls on a piece of hair in front of her ear.
‘‘Our hair is like this,†she says, making a face. Dry.
‘‘Black people have similar hair. We use a special way of relaxing.â€
She mimics smoothing out her own hair, waving her wrists like she is rolling out dough.
‘‘Salons in Maryland use other forms, but our forms are smoother, more professional,†Perez concluded.
Marmolejos, whose stylists are 80 percent Dominican — 90 percent if you count her daughter, Sasha, born in the U.S. — shrugs, draining her cup of Jamaican soup.
‘‘Who knows why they come?†she says, referring to the 100 or so customers she serves on a busy day. ‘‘Everyone is looking for it, so I guess Dominicans do good hair.â€
Copyright © 2006 The Gazette - ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. Privacy Statement
http://www.gazette.net/stories/071906/burtnew221337_31957.shtml
The straight story about latest wave of hair care
Dominican, ‘divina’ right down to the roots
Wednesday, July 19, 2006
E-Mail This Article | Print This Story
by Easha Anand
Special to The Gazette
Click here to enlarge this photo
Brian Lewisâ„The Gazette
Arelis Natera, owner of Arelis Hair Salon on Colesville Road applies some makeup to her mother, Lucia Natera just after the shop opened on a recent Monday.
When one of her 2,000-odd clients walks in to Arelis Beauty Salon, owner Arelis Natera looks at them and knows.
She knows whether their hair should be curly or straight, worn up or down, heavily conditioned or styled with heat.
Rosa Perez, one of Natera’s stylists, likes to watch Natera do up a new client. Natera shows the client how to pucker her lips so that she can apply the right amount of lipstick. She side-steps around the salon chair to get a panoramic view and blow-dries the client’s hair with a full-arm flourish.
That flourish, that something extra, is not something an outsider can just learn, say Natera and Perez. Though they have tested stylists from many different nationalities, they have only hired Dominicans.
Perez points to Natera, hands buried in her client’s hair.
‘‘Divina,†she says. Divine.
With their nationality printed on awnings and frosted into glass windows, Dominican hair stylists, like Natera’s salon on Colesville Road, are building a reputation for hair care that’s a little different, a reputation that is reaching an increasingly diverse clientele.
Though it has certainly not reached the magnitude of, say, the trend of Asian immigrants owning nail salons, the Dominican difference may represent a smaller, more local trend, perhaps a result of the increasing mix of races that will frequent the same salon, said Gordon Miller, executive director of the National Cosmetology Association.
‘‘There is more cross-pollination,†Miller said. ‘‘Before, by consumer choice, salons tended to be more — I hate to use the word — segregated.â€
And with that cross-pollination comes brisk business for the Dominican-owned and -operated hair salons — a half-dozen within walking distance of the Silver Spring Metro station alone — that are going from niche to known as clients from across the D.C.-metro area look to the ‘‘divina†Dominican stylists for hair care.
Not just ‘lavar and leave’
Natalie Keley, a student at Howard University’s College of Dentistry, has been going to Arelis for three years because the stylists help her get her hair ‘‘back on track,†explaining — sometimes by pantomiming — what she is doing wrong.
Claudia Emiliano, who owns Claudia Hair Salon on Georgia Avenue, said she was drilled in a very different approach to hair care when she learned cosmetology in Santo Domingo.
‘‘Dominicans have better hair condition, while Americans have more beautiful hair styles,†Emiliano said. ‘‘I’m not saying it’s better, just that it is different.â€
It’s not just ‘‘lavar and leave†at Arelis Beauty Salon, said Natera, pointing to her hairline, pulled tight under her long halo of an afro and above her two-inch hoop earrings. She likes hearing customers tell her, ‘‘Look, my hair is healthy, no more weaves,†when they return. She looks at their roots every time they come in, checking for oil or dandruff and teaching them how to care for their hair and scalp.
Dominican hair care means lots of natural conditioners, such as olive oil, aloe vera and coconut milk, plus a gentle approach to hair care that means less heat and fewer chemicals than American salons, Natera said.
The Dominican difference
In some ways, the story of the salons is the classic immigrant story: Coming to America for a better life, working hard, finding a balance between old and new cultures and, with a bit of luck, making it big, or at least comfortable.
Emiliano came to this area to get her kids a good education. Natera came for the money and for a little peace and quiet (New York, where she worked for 14 years, is too fast-paced—‘‘pop, pop, pop,†she said, snapping her fingers frantically, ‘‘there is always somethingâ€).
The stylists cater to Americans, but play merengue and chat in Spanish. Emiliano’s FM radio set is pre-set to El Zol. Natera says the money still goes back to the Dominican Republic, but the dreams have started to take place in Maryland, key phrases of English slowly piling up.
Last month, Natera learned two new words in English: ‘‘Gay†and ‘‘gorgeous.â€
She holds up four black-and-whites autographed by Christina herself, Natera’s first transvestite customer, hair styled Lionel Richie-curly in some, Marilyn Monroe-straight in others.
Christina had heard, said Natera, that Dominicans did hair differently, and she wanted something special.
‘‘I’ve done white hair, black hair, brown hair,†Natera said. ‘‘I’ve done Bronx hair and Manhattan hair — I’ve done it all. But I had never done anyone like Christina.â€
Roots
Michelle Moore has been coming to Ana Marmolejos’ hair salons, Sa She on Georgia Avenue and Sashelvis on Wayne Avenue, every two weeks or so for a year now. She has no problem pinpointing why Dominican hair salons are so popular in Silver Spring.
‘‘Dominican hair salons do hair care, rather than hair style,†said Moore, who was lured away from a salon on Seventh Street in the District of Columbia that claimed to specialize in African-American hair. ‘‘My hair feels noticeably better.â€
Marmolejos’ daughter, Sasha, 14, says business has been better since the move to Wayne Avenue, which has more accessible parking. Moore likes the salon’s décor and its competitive prices.
But Sasha says there is something deeper driving the Dominicans she knows.
‘‘Other people, they do it to do it, to make money,†Sasha said. ‘‘But our whole family does hair.â€
Andy Adje, who manages the newly opened African Hair Gallery on Colesville Road, an extension of his family’s original salon, across the street at City Place, said what Sasha described applied to many of the non-Dominican immigrants he knows as well.
Adje, an aspiring painter, laughs when asked how he learned to braid hair. His family braids hair, he says, and they have done so for generations.
‘‘You used to be able to tell from the last name whether the family did woodworking or jewelry,†he said. ‘‘Business used to be a family affair.â€
As a result, he said, the braiding techniques that the African Hair Gallery employs are more intricate and natural than the ones of their American competitors.
‘‘Americans learn to braid hair in a school,†he said. ‘‘In a school, if you don’t know, you ask. In a family, if you don’t know, you practice. It is something you are born with, I think.â€
Getting in customers’ hair
The techniques stylists learn in the Dominican Republic, which has a mix of ethnicities and thus of hair types, are particularly well suited to the hair of the African Americans who make up a majority of Arelis’ clientele, said Perez, a stylist at Arelis.
‘‘Mira,†she said. Watch.
She pulls on a piece of hair in front of her ear.
‘‘Our hair is like this,†she says, making a face. Dry.
‘‘Black people have similar hair. We use a special way of relaxing.â€
She mimics smoothing out her own hair, waving her wrists like she is rolling out dough.
‘‘Salons in Maryland use other forms, but our forms are smoother, more professional,†Perez concluded.
Marmolejos, whose stylists are 80 percent Dominican — 90 percent if you count her daughter, Sasha, born in the U.S. — shrugs, draining her cup of Jamaican soup.
‘‘Who knows why they come?†she says, referring to the 100 or so customers she serves on a busy day. ‘‘Everyone is looking for it, so I guess Dominicans do good hair.â€
Copyright © 2006 The Gazette - ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. Privacy Statement
I just wish there were more in Cali.
