Salon

I had only been in a salon to get my hair done once before I moved to the DR.  As a kid mi madre always cut my hair and when I figured out how to do it myself, I took over cutting it.   The white started around 19 and then really started to take over in my late 20s, so I started to dye it black to cover it.  My Pops gave me some lovely eyes and some not so lovely white hair.  In the last year or so Heather, my bff, has been dying it for me.  Now, I am in teh DR and my colorist is in FL, or so I like to call Heath that!  What was once a bit white here and there, has totally turned into most of my roots are white now.  Before I went to the shop today, I seriously thought about asking her to make it white and see what it would be like. Let's be honest, I've learned a lot of Spanish, but I'm not so sure I could communicate that correctly and I didnt want to chance it.  Heather sent me a box of my cheap black dye i used in FL, so I know I can always apply that if something happens.  Ha!  I decided to go to the salon last month because it was so inexpensive here.  I went lighter, but I wasn't too sure if I was going to go back to brownish black or back to my black/blue color I have had for years.  I figured I would figure it out when she asked.

I went to the same place.  It is seconds from the house.  As you walk up, the blue building has two doors, open wide.  No air conditioning.  The lights are off, but there is enough sunlight to light the place up adequately.  There is a better place in town that has AC, but I just like this place.  I dont even know why.  The music is blaring and Yanelly is singing as loudly as possible. Okay, I like it for reasons like this.  I smile at her because if it was socially acceptable in the US to sing like that I would have been doing it for years!  Ha!  Here in the DR, it is! So sing it, girl!  I sit down on a couch and tell her "color, por favor".  I wait a few minutes for them to finish the other lady.  The lady next to me had her hair done in curls with the flat iron.  When she was done, they wrapped her hair all the way around her head in pins, then placed the beanie on it.  I dont see how those curls would stay when she takes it down, but it does.  I saw them do this to straight hair last time, too, and it stays straight with the wrap around.  I cant seem to figure it out for the life of me how curls and straight hair stays the same with the the same technique!

So I survey the area b/c I knew I was going to write a blog about this experience.  The ceiling had mold growing on them, but so does the two back bedrooms of my house and my dining room's ceiling.  It is common here with the moist air.  There are 4 posters on the walls.  Picture the 1980's large posters of hair models.  Plus, a half naked guy for a calendar poster.    There are two shelves that have two mannequin heads, 6 pairs of shoes for sale (I assume), and some random things.  My colorist is in flops, stretch workout pants, a tshirt, with reddish,blonde, strawberry hair up in a knot.  I think the rule is that if I dont like her hair, I really shouldnt get mine done there...but I still do! 

Kaylei finished with the lady and started to mix some stuff up.  She didnt even ask what I wanted, she just mixed and started to apply it to my roots.  What the heck color am i getting, I was wondering!  Surprise!  You get whatever she wants today.  I secretly hope it is a color I would never pick because I dont have the huevos to go outside my norm.  Hehe.  The brown threw me for a loop last time and it took guts to make a change. Mosquitoes are biting my legs and i was trying to kill them before they gave me malaria or dengue, because that is my first thought every time I see a mosquito now b/c I'm a little paranoid about them.

My new colorist is getting dye all over my face and I remember how Heather did a much better job at this.  HAHA.   The power cut off and she yelled "Ay Dios Mio!"  I dont even like typing that, but I dont know how to abbreviate it.  (Side note:  when I worked in a restaurant years ago called LongHorn Steakhouse, I worked with this lady that was "religious."  I didnt know Jesus and wasn't going to church either.  I remember one time she stopped me in the kitchen and said "I want you to know that you offend me when you yell God, da**it!  I really wish you would stop saying it."  I didnt know it was so bad to say, to be very honest.  They are just words, I remember thinking...along with thinking "lady, shut up."  Now, it pierces my ears like nothing else when I hear it!!  I really stopped saying it so much that very day because she brought it to my attention.  Let me also add that this lady also felt the need to tell me that my brother, that is a homosexual, is going to hell for his lifestyle.  Meanwhile, she was talking to a person that was not SAVED (me) and could careless that I was going to hell, but badly wanted to let me know my brother was "burning for his sin."   I am pretty sure I told her to go to hell that day.   I didnt realize that until years later when I accepted Christ as my Savior.  Weeks later I tried a church out with my friend and saw her there.  Bahaha.  I never went back to that church because she attended there and although, i was searching for something, i knew I wouldnt be a part of what she was apart of after talking to me like that.

So...back to the shop,  I want to ask her not to say that in front of me, but I dont.  My students say it all the time!  My RULE in the USA and DR:  "You can say whatever Mom and Dad says at home, but in my class, you arent allowed to say those words unless you are talking to Jesus. And if you are, have at it, tell Him I said Hi!"  That is usually how it goes out of my mouth to my kiddos.  I think it is a common expression here, but then again, we could say it is a common expression in the States.  A lady walks in and has to wait, so she goes outside to smoke a cigarette.  I watched her talk loudly outside and then she came back in, with her cigarette.  Sometimes I forget that I smoked for 12 years!  Her cigarette made me want to puke and it reminded me of all those non-smokers that always gave the smokers dirty looks! Not only was she smoking in the room, she decided to use my mirror and smoke right behind me.  Seriously, lady?  Back up and out, actually.  She threw her butt out when she was done and they washed her hair.  She had to wait on the couch for the next step.  She decided to get up and get some cream out of the cabinet and put it in her hair.  No one minded that she was starting her hair without them.  Okeydoke.

My hair was done with color and Yanelly washed it.  Oh, how I have missed out on years and years of someone washing my hair!  Ahhhh, love it.  I told her I loved when she massaged/scratched my head and I swear she did it longer.  I was hoping she would if I complimented her on it :)  She started to dry it and straighten it with the blower.  This process is unlike anything a hairdresser would do in the States.  I know it is horrible for your hair because you can literally see SMOKE with every blow on your head/hair from the heat.  She was actually burning my head. I pulled a few times to let her know that I AM ON FIRE.  Really, i should have pulled a bit sooner but I was trying my hardest to let her just do it, but I couldnt stand it sometimes!   My friend Jessica told me about this and I remembered thinking, why would anyone do it if it burns your head...here I am doing it again.  Your hair looks so amazing after they are done, and THEY DONT even use the flat iron!!   Maybe it isn't worse than the US.  We use those flat irons like crazy.  This is probably the same heat, just using a blower instead of the plancha.  Just as she was to blowing the bottom of my head,  a guy stopped by on his moto and was talking/flirting with the girls.  He decided to take the brush and finish doing my hair.  I have no idea what was going on at this point.  I didn't see him last time I was there.  Maybe he comes to work at 6PM for an hour??  The brush they were using was filled with hairs about a quarter of an inch thick from previous customers.  All in all, it looked perfect and it cost 500 pesos   If she didnt blow dry it straight (100 pesos) it would have been 400, a little more than the Pure Silk Almond Milk at La Sirena.  Crazy cheap to get your hair done.  To have your hair washed and blown only is the same price as coffee creamer :)  The cheap, small one.

QUE!? 

Next time, white with black highlights!  Kidding.  I would love to see what it looks like...Ive seen some older women with it and it looks so cool!