Quick Hair Survey

I will post the PDF results for the survey later this afternoon.
My ethnological notes and final paper will be done sometime next week or so and I will post that as well. Again ladies I really appreciate it.
.....I'm doing the second part of the project, I'm at Dominican Essence getting my hair done and I interviewed the owner Juanita and her sister. I chose this salon because it is so highly recommended on LHCF. Juanita's comments about LHCF ladies and hair in general are excellent.

Thanks fam.
D.
 
And a BIG 'OLE HUG from me to you. Thank you again. Now I'm off to my next "to do"


.....No sleep till Brooklyn..(I'm delirious with sleep deprivation)
 
Below are my initial Ethnological Notes (my interview with Juanita and her sister from Dominican Essence) I'll post the final paper later.

Ethnological Notes

Interviewed Juanita and her 'sister' at their salon Dominican Essence 1181 President St. Brooklyn, NY 4/29/2009 1:00pm
- Interview based on the highly regarded reviews on Long Hair Care Forum

Neither of the ladies were prepared to be interviewed with the recorder so the video will not show them. (wetpaint will not allow me to upload the interview videos)

Both ladies note that the women who go to the salon based on LHCF reviews are generally more knowledgable about their hair, ask many questions about care and upkeep, and their stated goal is to have healthy and long hair. (though Juanita does emphasize that she encourages people to ask questions)

Juanita talks about the many problems within the haircare industry for black women - that there are "2 kinds of hairstylists, ones who want to make money and ones who love hair." She told the story of a woman who had gone to 5 salons trying to get someone to rinse the relaxer in her hair out for her; the water in her building was out and she had no way of rinse the chemical out of her hair after she had applied it. All the salons told her they were closed. She saw the girl and told her come in - she washed and gave her a treatment. "She had so many burns in her hair, aye mommie! what was wrong with those people."

"My clients are my children, my babies, I know everything about them. I teach them, you know their counselor, doctor, whatever they need. Its all in the hair." Juanita tells me this after one of her young clients walks to the bathroom lazily with her pants unbuttoned at the top. She and her sister converse back and forth and Juanita knocks on the bathroom door, and asks the girl what's wrong with her. When the girl goes back to the drier she mumbles, "she better not be pregnant" and glaces at her sister who is standing nearby the girl.

As I'm writing this Juanita is washing the hair of a client, she asks her if she just permed her hair. The client had given herself a relaxer at home and come to the salon for a roller set. Juanita decided to wash the hair first (later I asked her about this and she said "I've never seen her before and her hair didn't look good so I washed it first.") Juanita pulls her hand away from the client's head with suds in her hand and the suds were pink. Juanita had washed her hair with neutralizing shampoo and hadn't told the girl about it. (Neutralizing shampoo is color coded to detect the relaxing chemicals) Juanita asked her about treating her hair; why her hair was falling out; if she had relaxed the ends of the hair; and then reaches over in one of her many treatment containers, comes away with a handful of Alter Ego Garlic treatment and rubs her hair with it. "Do you see this," she says, "you need a treatment your hair is falling out." The girl is no older than 20, unaware of what Juantia is saying about her already 3 inch length hair. The girl then says she will be getting a sew-in "weave." "Mommie you have to wait atleast 2 weeks before you can get a weave, and the condition your hair is in right now will not take it. When you take the weave out your hair will be broken. "

Juanita, her sister and mother have been at this salon for 5 years. They are open Monday - Saturday from 9:00am-6:00pm and will stay later if they get a late clients. "On Sunday we can't wait for Monday, to see who will come in the shop, what we will do. I call my sister 'what are you doing,' and we get here early on Monday." They live not far from the shop. A third (silent partner sister) purchased the salon for Juanita. "Before here I was everywhere, in the Bronx, Brooklyn, Manhattan. I worked at a salon for 1 day one time and that was it - muy mal. My sister got tired of trying to keep up with me and she bought this place, she's an accountant." Her mother makes "growth oil" that is very popular here, and very popular on the hair forum. She asked me about my hair, to which I explained my difficulty in having my hair done because of my unwillingness to have my hair uncovered infront of men. She shook her head yes, "we know". (I was surprised as many stylists do not understand this concept in my experience) "Honey we run the men out and cover you up." There was a male friend of theirs sitting in the shampoo chair as we spoke. When I told her I'd love to have my hair done, she told the gentleman to leave "right now."

The salon is a small shop in the nether space between the West Indian and Jewish neighborhoods of Crown Heights. It is not upscale, and Juanita stated she does not sweat it when people "don't pay me, cause I get it back 3, you know what I mean." She has no problem speaking about hair, herself and teaching others about haircare.

I asked her if she thought Dominicans attained longer hair because their hair was different.

"Honey we are the same, same complexions same body shapes, same everything, same hair types, we learn hair EARLY (she emphasized), my daughter is 10 and can tell you about your hair. Its like if we were lawyers or doctors we teach what we know to our children - a family business." When I asked her how long she'd been doing hair, she said "since I can remember, too young you know."

She said she loves the ladies from LHCF, "you know (and her sister is nodding her head and saying "when they come in its like we already know each other") they are like family, I love those girls. You know a girl come here from South Carolina one time to get her hair done, when she come in she was so excited (she raises her hands in excitement as if the client hugged her) like I was a celebrity or something." "They really listen to what I'm saying and want their hair to grow long and healthy. But you know, sometimes the hair is not going to be long, or sometimes it is nothing wrong with the stylist she was using, it could be inside." She then tells me a story of her giving counsel to a lady who thought the previous stylist was doing something wrong because her hair wouldn't grow. "you know (and she gestures with her hands) there is a problem inside maybe."
 
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