Main > Journey > 2001

2001

02-03-01

This was the year I decided to get my hair professionally pressed--or should I say "professionally burned" because that's what happened.  Although I was used to pressing my hair almost every day last year to get my transitioning hair to lay "flat", my hot comb was hardly as hot as my girl Renee's hot comb aparently was.  

Renee was a lady in one of my classes who used to do hair professionally.  It was her own hair that initially caught my attention--she regularly wore her shoulder-lenght hair in natural twists to class.  Seeing that her hair looked pretty good, I got her to press my hair one night.  Ladies, I must tell you that the results were breathtaking, and still are to me!  Makes me feel good that I got pics of it, and it's probably on video too *sigh*.  She made my 3-4" natural hair feel like 5-6" Asian hair, on the real.  The color of my dark brown hair became a shinny "brownish-goldish" color, and--get this-- it blew in the wind.  After all my years of relaxing my hair, my hair had NEVER felt that soft, looked that silky, that shiny, or that straight.  She did an amazing job of burning my hair into a beautiful work of art.

Let me tell you what she did:

• My hur was washed and blow-dried super straight.  I was even pleased with that and even wanted to get up and go home, lol.  But she forwarned me that I haven't seen nothin' yet.
• She placed her free-hand (non-electric) hot comb over her stove, since her cradle wasn't getting hot enough for my hair.
• She took a portion of my hair and slid the hot comb once under the section, then twice over the section while holding a piece of cloth underneath to press the comb against while sliding down my hair.
• As she did this, she would spray her product on my hair, which was I believe in a REDKIN bottle.  When asked what it was, she said she makes her own mixture.  You know how these hairdressers are.
• This took all night, from what I remember it must have been 4-5hrs.  So, when I post the pic of my hair that night, understand the tiredness in my face... I mean, really understand.

I felt on top of the world, or atleast on top of my relaxer-using sisters becasue my hair was better than theirs.  And all I had to use was a hotcomb.  :P

I kept it wrapped at night, and wore it out to school, church, weddings, on dates--everywhere.  Although I was lovin' my new style, I resented any complements, especially from guys.  I would always think "so what r u tryina say, huh?"  I didn't want my new found hair style to take presidence over my natural hair texture.  Straight still was not better in my mind.

Later on this year...

I had Renee press my hair once more, but it wasn't as great as the 1st time.  Yes, it came out straight, but I had some problems.  I was developing knots in my hair.  *head down* Yes, knots.  My hair would blow like crazy in the littlest of breezes, and therefore my hair would form knots, from being all over the place.  My hair wasn't as free flowing silky-like the first time around, it was more of greasy-and-stiff-straight this time.  I also left it in a lot longer, like 3wks. to a month long and I wasn't taking care of the hair.  I was afraid of putting anything in it at all, afraid that it'll change my straight hair texture.  See, if you do something as to not wrapping your hair up right at night, you can wake up with a fro on one side of your head and straight hair on the other... and that's it.  Ain't no turning back, you gotta wash that mess out and re-do the hair.  I couldn't see myself doing this all the time with my hair.  I cut all the knots out of my hair (which cost me quite a bit of hair), washed it out for good, and stayed clear of Renee.  

The Aftermath...

It took me months of re-growing my hair--yes, regrowing.  I had knots up and down the strands of my hair so it wasn't enough to cut the ends, and my hair was gradually breaking off.  Not to mention, my hair's natural texture changed!  I couldn't believe that a hot comb could actually overprocess your hair like a damn relaxer!  Now, when my hair was wet, my hair texture was practically straight at the back, and my curls were stretched out in different areas all over my head.  I realized I needed to re-read Pamela Ferrell's Let's Talk Hair.