My Natural Hair Salon Nightmare

We all reach a point in our hair journeys were we just feel like we need a change. Tired of the bunning and twist outs, perm rod sets and Bantu knots, I wanted a summertime fine look to make myself feel good again! I knew that whatever I ended up getting I wanted it to be a “get up and go” style. Something that didn’t require me doing much in the morning, as I am a bit of a night owl. I thought and thought and came to the decision that I would get a sew-in…Now I had never had a professional sew-in, the only sew-in I’ve ever gotten was from a friend, who listened to every concern I had and was very gentle and cautious with my tresses. Contrary to what I thought, this was not the situation that I’d gotten myself into. I ended up finding this natural hair salon online and was able to purchase a Groupon for my visit and ended up only paying $50, great deal right? Wrong.

I called seconds after finding the Groupon online and was very impressed with the conversation I’d had over the phone with the stylist. She used natural hair terms and overall seemed very knowledgeable about natural hair and 4c hair in particular. Ecstatic for my sew-in with my beautiful Italian yaki bundles I scheduled my appointment for that Saturday. The morning of my appointment came and I arrived about 15 minutes prior to my 10:30 slot. The salon was filled with modern salon equipment and decorated with gorgeous pictures of beautiful brown woman all over the walls, I instantly felt even more at ease.  The stylist was doing a Brazilian blow out on a woman upon my arrival but I didn’t mind the wait. I sat on my iPad and dove into some NaturallyNeiicey Youtube videos, oblivious to the fact that my appointment time had come and gone. I waited an hour. This wasn’t a big deal to me, as I said previously I felt so confident that she knew what she was doing I figured the wait would be well worth it. Before I knew she motioned for me to hop in the chair so I grabbed my hair and went over. I told her how I wanted my sew-in, part etc and that I wanted my edges to be left out. She confidently said that would be no issue and she knew exactly what I was talking about. She began parting and detangling my hair for the braids. At first, I was ok because I know my hair and it can get very hard to manage, but the force she was using was very unnecessary. She preceded to rake and rip through my hair trying to get it to cooperate for the braids. At one point she even used a small tooth comb for detangling. With me being so afraid to speak up, I instantly regretted my decision because I knew my hair was in for it.

My hair was finally braided down and I let out a huge sigh of relief thinking the worst was over. It wasn’t. I saw her reach for a spool of thread and she began sewing my braids down to my already throbbing and tender skull. I wanted to cry but I sat there silent as she watched Netflix on the television. She sewed back and forth for about 7 minutes until I could feel every hair on my head screaming to be released. She finally stopped and reached for something that looked like a fishing net (I told you guys I’m very new to sew-ins lol). She placed it on my head and began sewing AGAIN! If I could have run out of that chair at that very moment, I would’ve been gone! I sat there thinking what I have done to my hair. All of the progress I’d made after my big chop, for what? After about a 1 ½ hours my sew-in was finished. It looked alright but it wasn’t worth what I’d went through. I went home and tried to loosen what felt like 3 spools of thread in my head but nothing helped. I wanted to take it all out but I couldn’t, it was SO TIGHT. I didn’t sleep well for about 2 weeks until it began to loosen up some.  I left it in for about 3 1/2 weeks, all while praying I still had hair on my head due to all of the tension. I couldn’t stop thinking what I would do if my hair just came out with my braids. I read about tension alopecia and all sorts of other horror stories from women who had had a sew-in that was in too tight and the images were horrific. This was nothing to play with!

Take down day finally came. I doused my head in grapeseed oil, grabbed my scissors and anxiously began unraveling all the thread she put in my head. After about 30 minutes of wrestling with this sew-in, it was finally out. I was free. Surprisingly, not only was I free from the weave, but I had all my hair! It had even grown some. Although my hair was perfectly fine despite what that woman did to it, I knew that sew-in was not healthy for my hair. Your sew-in should NEVER hurt or feel tight to the point you can’t sleep because of the tension. I will never put my hair in jeopardy again to have a temporary hairstyle. Ever since that happened I have fallen even more in love with my hair. I realized it’s better than any sew-in I could ever get because…it’s MINE. I have found a new appreciation for my 4c hair in all its lovely, cotton glory! 🙂