Errol Douglas welcomes Afro hair, tempting offer here.

Hi all,

I got this link from Afroblush, one of my fave bloggers right now.

http://afroblush.com/2012/10/12/errol-douglas-and-moroccanoil-celebrate-afro-hair-new-clients-to-receive-100-gift-certificate-and-moroccanoil-gift-set/#
  
''New clients visiting the salon’s specialist Afro stylists until 30 November 2012, will receive a complimentary Moroccan oil gift set (RRP £35) at their appointment as well as a £100 Errol Douglas Salon gift voucher.''

This is a salon in Knightsbridge that caters for Afro hair as well as all other hair and that sets them apart from the crowd.

This sounds remarkably tempting and it's not just about the offer. I want to go this salon. I just need to get the weave out first. 

Has anybody been there yet? Let me know.
Is anybody else tempted?
I will let you know of my experience in a couple of weeks. Meanwhile I suggest you take them up on this offer.

Leillah 

Salon International or the Caucasian salon show

Last weekend I had the pleasure to attend 'Salon International', the exhibition at excel. I did not do much research into this before booking tickets as I was taken in by the word International.
Being in London, I expected the International salon show to showcase different hair types.
How wrong was I? Very!
There was not a single black/Afro/Afro-Caribbean hair salon exhibiting at this show. I did not want to believe this and therefore kept going round and round in circles for most of the day.
All was not lost though as mixed chicks were there. If you haven't heard of them, there is a link. http://www.mixedchicks.net/
They were very friendly and gave me a few samples for my child. She is not mixed but 'hair will not know the race' That is a direct quote from the people at the stand. Waiting to use those and I will let you know.

The only other thing available for me was the black hair magazine.  http://www.blackhairmagazine.co.uk/ They were there offering reduced price subscriptions and I quite happily grabbed one of these so I could say that my day was not totally wasted.

When I told someone this story, they said to me, 'well it wasn't the black hair show so what did you expect?'
But actually, I expected more.
I did ask if they could have named it the Caucasian salon show, but I guess in the world we live in where you can call a show black but not Caucasian, some people would find that racist. (I call this reverse racism by the way and I do not agree with it)

I am not sure if anyone is to blame here as the show organisers can only exhibit the salons that want to be exhibited. And the 'black' salons will probably not exhibit because apart from silly me, their clientele were not expected there.
Are salons really that racially diverse? I am quite passionate about this due to memories of living in South Africa and walking past salons with a poster at the door saying, 'we don't do ethnic hair here!'
In my mind this is the same thing, just with no posters outside.

What do you think? Should salons do any type of hair? Should they exhibit side by side? Are the markets so different that it is a totally different ball game?

Age that we relax our hair,our daughters' hair?

Poll on the left!
Having read a lot of blogs from people who have decided to go natural, I realised that my experiences on relaxing hair are totally different.
I made the decision to grow and relax my hair when I was at university.I clearly remember the day I asked my dad to take me to the barbers when I was 6 as I was tired of having my (natural) hair combed. (And the ensuing drama with my mum, Ha!) I had short hair throughout my high school years as I could not be bothered with hair. Given my previous aversion to spending lots of time on my hair, the decision to relax it came naturally. (No pun intended) It just took less time to deal with.
Was it a decision that I agonised about and researched heavily? No.
Should it have been? Yes. 
Do I regret relaxing my hair? Not for a minute.
Will I ever go natural? If there are ever any conclusive findings that hair relaxer when used right is a danger to me, then yes I will think about it.
And yes, I have read Dr Wise's findings and also the fact that she has said there is a suggested link which is in no way the same as a discovered fact. And I am aware that this link supports going natural but it also quite honestly tells the story.
http://www.curlynikki.com/2012/02/hair-relaxers-and-fibroids.html
 What stood out for me in this were 3 things:

• Age of first use
• Frequency of use
• How it is used. Length of time it is left on hair, instructions followed etc.

Of all these things, we really only have control over the last 2.
I decide when to relax my hair and that is usually 3 or 4 times a year.
I ensure that the hair stylist follows all the instructions on the pack, and have never had chemical burn.
What a lot of ladies/girls cannot control though is when they first relax their hair. I personally think it should be at an age when they can make a mature decision which includes reading the research and making an informed decision. What do you think?
Please answer our little poll, top left.

Survey results

A week ago, we asked our lovely readers to complete a survey for us. If you did not see it, it was on this post.
http://noscrunchie.blogspot.co.uk/2012/10/vote-please-let-us-know-what-you-think.html

If you still have not voted, go over and vote as the survey is still open but here are the preliminary results.

If you are not a graph nerd like I am then here is the breakdown:

Most important things about salons to our readers:

1. Skill of hairdressers.
2. Time taken to do hair. 
3. Honesty of hairdressers.
4. Same hairdressers each time. 
5. Price
6. Ease of getting an appointment
7. Hairdressers give too much advice. 
8. Salon looks cool and modern. 

So the shop front is running 8th compared to skill, time and honesty of the hairdressers.
This is what we need the salons to know. Before you paint up your shop in the best colors, hire skilled people please!
And I am pleasantly surprised that Price is at 5 and not any higher because it shows that most of us are willing to pay for good quality service. All you need to do is provide it. 

If anything changes with more votes, I will let you know.
But for now, we are looking at those top 5 as the measure of our ratings.

Leillah

No Scrunchie
for a better salon experience.

An open letter to afro/black/ethnic salons final.

Dear afro carribean salons,

This will be the last letter we at NoScrunchie write you in a while. And then we might start taking it personally if you refuse to change. By taking it personal, I mean we will find a way of warning all our friends if you are doing any of the previously mentioned things as well as the ones to be mentioned here.
So I will list here the rest from people's comments from Facebook, twitter and some on this blog.

• The inability to book appointments. All salons should offer a chance for clients to book appointments. 
• Quality of entertainment in salons. I have personally been to a salon where they were showing an x rated club night video and wanted all the kids to face the wall. (Scarred and have not been there since)
• Stylists who eat while doing hair. Can't they wait an extra 10 minutes before they open that KFC box? When we say we want oil in our hair, we do not mean that! 
• Hair stylists who gossip about everyone who leaves. This breeds paranoia as I am either scared to leave or ever come back. 
• Dirty/smelly hairstylists. You have to lift your arm to wash my hair, deodorant would go a long way in making this a comfortable experience.
• Salon discrimination. Why do salons not cater for all hair. Best described here: www.xojane.com/issues/we-dont-do-black-hair-discrimination-at-the-hair-salon
• Rude staff. This is a service industry. There is never any need to be rude to your customers if you want repeat business. 

When I started this, I had a few things that irritated me, but thanks to all the responses we have recieved, we know that a lot of this is not due to one time incidents. This is all down to the way salons treat clients and in return what we as clients have accepted for far too long.
We are done with the accepting though, so watch your backs dear salons. 

Sincerely, 

Customers. 

Have I left any rants out? Let us know please.

Vote! Please let us know what you think.

Hi,

We at NoScrunchie would like your opinion before we go ahead and make decisions. What would you like to know about a salon before you went in?
Quick survey, 5 minutes or less.

https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/XJGG2TD

Thanks,

NoScrunchie
for a better salon experience.

An open letter to afro/black hair salons 4

Honesty, is it so hard? 

Dear salons,

When a customer walks in and asks if you can do Rihanna's latest hairstyle, and you have no idea what Rihanna looks like, this is a good time to be honest. 

When a customer walks in and says she wants to do the hairstyle she has ripped out of a magazine, and you have no idea what the grainy picture represents, please be honest. 

When a customer with natural hair comes in and you have only ever worked with natural hair to relax it, please just be honest. 

You get the idea. It is so simple to say, 'I have never tried that before' as then the customer can choose to take an informed risk.

Saying that you can do the hair, and then halfway through making excuses such as, 'but Rihanna is a celebrity and she has 5 stylists' is not going to wash. 

Other known excuses include, 

-it's the wrong hair type for this weave. (You should have seen that at the start)

-her hair is natural, that is not a weave. (same as above)

-her head is smaller than yours/she is prettier than you etc (insert expletives here or not)

This is particularly annoying as this is usually halfway through the day and the customer has wasted their day. (as mentioned in a previous post)
So dear salons, once again. This does not make you look clever, it simply makes you annoying.

Sincerely,
 Customers

Any other excuses or annoying experiences related to this? Let us know. 

NoScrunchie

for a better salon experience

An Open letter to afro/black/ethnic hair salons 3

Continued:

3: The lack of set prices. 

I love it when I walk look at the price board in the salon window and all the prices are 'from £20'. LOL. Jokes indeed! This means that the 'from' is the set price if you come in bald and simply need a wash. When you get into the salon and ask, they claim that depends on your type of hair.
What I really see though is the salon 'boss lady' looking at my bag and shoes and setting her prices based on that. I am unsure what that has to do with the price of fish or hair in this instance.
I understand that afro hair may be hard to judge and therefore setting prices before seeing/touching (or even ruffling) said hair may be difficult, but wouldn't it be nice if these prices had upper limits?
And on the same note, when they quote a price, why do they then change it midway and offer excuses like, 'your hair is too long.' Knowing how long it takes for my hair to grow, I am always shocked when they say this as it suggests that my hair grew while I was in the salon. While I may wish, I think we all know it didn't.
So, dear salons;
-Please set some kind of price range.
-Don't tell me prices are subject to change without prior notice and at manager's discretion.This in no way endears the salon or it's management to your customers.

Sincerely again,

Customers.

There are 2 more of these coming, and I am hoping to put together all the comments and responses that we have received, both here and on twitter #whatihateaboutsalons.
Thanks for all the support.

NoScrunchie, for a better salon experience

An Open letter to black/afro/ethnic salons 2

continued from part 1:

2: Hairstyling should not take all day!

Many of us have been in this situation. 

You go to a salon at the weekend. You find there are a number of people there.

You think, that’s fine, I will go somewhere else.

The lady catches your eye before you leave and says, ‘come in darling, I can fit you in.’

She points at the sink, and although you know what’s coming you excitedly sit down.

Then, after your hair is washed or un-plaited or un-weaved/de -weaved?( basically anything that ensures that you cannot step out in the street looking like that), they go back to the person whose hair they were doing to begin with. Your heart sinks...

They continue this cycle for hours and you leave as they close. In fact all the customers end up leaving as they close.

Now dear salons, wouldn’t it be easier all round to serve people either by appointment (chance would be a fine thing) or by first come basis?

You are not being clever by doing this, you are just annoying your customers.

Sincerely,

Customers.

Thanks for all your responses to part 1 on fb, twitter and the blog itself. Please keep letting us know the things that you want changed.
No Scrunchie, for a better salon experience.

An Open letter to black/afro/ethnic salons 1

This is a very long list for me so this blog post will have number one of a possible 100.

           1: Hair Salons seem to have a hairdresser revolving door.

I am not sure if salon owners realise what makes a good salon. Contrary to popular belief,  it is not the fancy shop front and swiveling chairs.  (I am not disputing the fact that looks matter or how would we explain explain the cute but dumb guys always getting dates.)

So dearest salon owners, I will spell it out for you THE HAIRDRESSERS make the salon. I would like to go to a salon and find the same good hairdressers. If I go in and someone does my hair really well, I would love to find them there next time. I hate to go back and have somebody else attempt to recreate what they never even saw  as they worked somewhere else at the time.

The only staff members salons seem to retain are the salon owners’ cousins and friends who are asked to wash your hair, like hair care is a  genetic thing. Hair care is a skill and should be considered as such.

So salons, please try and keep your staff happy in order to retain them because if they are good (which we presume is why you hired them), they will end up at another salon.(Probably the grubby looking one down the road) 

So if you want loyal customers, we want you to have loyal staff.

Sincerely, 

Customers.

Let us know what you hate about salons. Add your comments, or add your tweets to #thingsihateaboutsalons