A Day at the Saloon

For a while now I’ve been wondering what would happen if I got my hair straightened… like chemically. I’ve been asking around and I usually get one of three responses: 1) why would you want to straighten your hair? 2) Go for it, it can’t go too wrong, and 3) DON’T do it, it’ll fry your Obroni hair and what you’ll have left will still be curly.

So I buckled Saturday, bought straightening cream for $7, ran to a salon (which my roommate pronounces saloon) and had them relax it for another $3. The process is simple: put the cream in your hair, wit ten minutes, wash it out. So I figured it would only take an hour, max right? Not. They put the cream in my hair and washed it out yes; then they put in curlers for some odd reason. I mean, I came to get my hair straightened… why would I want it curled minutes after it’s straight? But they put them in never the less. I think it was to make my hair dry faster in the dryer. They used rollers so big though that, with the size of my head and them combined, we had to maneuver my head in and out of the dryer which can be very difficult to do while laughing. So I sat in the dryer, burning because the warm button was broke so I was stuck on fiery hot, and finished reading a book from a friend of mine. By the time they pulled me out of the dryer, one curler at a time, I felt like a piece of frozen chicken that someone attempted to thaw in the microwave on high (It never works: the edges cook and the insides are still frozen). The stylist took out the curlers and I was happy to be done and out of the saloon. But life never works the way you want it to. Before I could run, she insisted on putting gel and hairspray in my hair. Everything would have been fine, but hair gel here is basically scented glue. Women here have to deal with the wind daily. They must have gotten fed up with it at some point because now, with gel in place, not a single hair will move even, I swear, if they were in a tornado. After three hours in the saloon, I walk out from my straightening appointment with curled hair that is cemented to my head, smelling like a giant candy banana. Actually I didn’t mind the smell at all J. The real problem came today when I tried to wash the cement out. I’m four shampoos in and giving up for the day. Hopefully tomorrow after another four my hair will move normally again.