hair ib club (the language barrier)

November 29, I made my third visit to Hair IB to get a Japanese straightening touch-up. Again, the experience had its pros and cons, but the biggest con that stood out this time was the communication problems. This actually happened before the salon visit, not during. The salon’s site has a forum called freeboard as an option for clients to make appointments and ask questions. It’s well used and questions are responded to in a decent amount of time. I used the freeboard to make my recent appointment and, as a blogger that tries to document my experience as vividly as possible, this feature really benefited me. It was unplanned, I didn’t realize until after, but I was able to capture the full conversation between me and the salon. Instead of writing down what happened from memory, here’s the actual dialogue -just click.


Free Board

Response
Can I make an appointment for a JHS touch-up this Saturday at 12pm?
The bottom half of my hair is sodium hydroxide relaxed, so I also wanted to know if I could bring in a protection cream that is to be applied to the previously chemically treated hair before rinsing out the JHS. It’s purpose is to hinder the JHS from penetrating the ends during the rinse. I will pay extra. 

Response to Khaya
We only do JHS touch up, so we would have to see your hair in order for us to know if we can process or not. We do not know what sodium hydroxide is or what it does. So we cannot exactly tell you if it will damage your hair a lot or not.
Eventually we would need to take a look at your hair and see. and yes, we will make the appointment at 12 pm on this Saturday the 29th for JHS touch up.
For any other question, don't worry we do have another consultation time before we get to your hair. 

Response
This is my third time getting a touch up at this Salon. A sodium hydroxide relaxer is a lye relaxer. 

Response to Khaya
Even if you do say it is a lye relaxer, we do not know how it affects your hair nor we do not know anything about it so that is why we are telling you that we would have to see your hair condition.
And if this is your third time, then you should know we only do touch ups only. 

Response
But... a JHS touch-up is what I’m asking for, it’s what I said in the first post.
It’s okay if you want to check my hair condition again. I have been to the salon before though, you can see that I made an appointment on this free board June 16, 2014.
I thought you had not recognized the term sodium hydroxide, so I used the more common term, lye relaxer. Saying that you do not know anything about lye relaxers is confusing me, because I’ve been there before and told you guys I was relaxed, and there wasn’t this problem. And on this site, you talk about relaxers, in the JHS service and beauty tip page.
Oh, I realize that the problem is that maybe you don’t recognize the word lye in front of relaxer? Sometimes JHS can be called thio relaxer, so I was trying to be specific by saying hydroxide/ lye relaxer... 

Response to Khaya
There are thousands and different kinds of "relaxers" and also, since it is just touch up there should be no problem. We only do touch up, we do not touch the bottom part unless you want us to. 

Response
I’ll just bring the protection cream with me and visually explain what I mean when I come in Sat. Thanks for trying, but I think we’re having communication problems here.

I don’t think I showed it, purposely trying to conceal it, but this conversation was kinda frustrating. Those of you have been following all my visits to the salon know about the past communication problems we have had. Example, miscommunication on how JBS works and using protection cream. Now you guys can concretely see what I’m talking about.

Turning on my critical mind (aka mild, intellectual, ranting)-

• In the beginning I explained the type of protection cream I wanted to bring in and how it would be used because the last time, it turned out the protection cream they said they had was something completely different -a cream they put in the Japanese hair straightening solution to hinder damaging effects. When describing protection cream the first time I might not have been as detailed, but I know I said I wanted it so my already sodium hydroxide relaxed hair would be protected. Someone who spoke fluent English would have caught that and knew I was talking about a different type of protection cream. I would have gotten exactly what I asked for my first and second salon visit, a Japanese straightening with protection on my lye relaxed length. 
• I don’t know why the salon receptionist kept saying “we only do JHS touch up” when that was exactly what I was asking for in my first post. I never said I wanted my previously treated hair to be reprocessed, I said the exact opposite. I guess it was the “It’s purpose is to hinder the JHS from penetrating the ends during the rinse” that they didn’t understand. The salon knows full well though that when they rinse the JHS solution off the roots during a touch up that it inevitably penetrates the ends (since they don’t use protection cream). I know, because they are careful to tell their clients that before they get a JHS service. So I blame them not understanding what I mean on the language barrier. 
• I had used the term sodium hydroxide relaxed to describe my hair the other two visits, and never was told the salon had no idea what that was. I don’t think the salon is used to having customers that are hair knowledgeable. There are not ‘thousands of different kinds of relaxers,’ that's a complete exaggeration. I’m not even sure if there are thousands of brands of relaxers. There are 4 main types of relaxers. So those of you who are sodium hydroxide relaxed and want to take the risk of transitioning to Japanese straightening, this is not the salon to do it. 

So now you guys have a vivid example to see for yourselves. I still plan on going to the salon, because like I said in the third review, the salon tries their best to answer all questions and actively listens, doing all the extra things I want done on my hair. And now, I believe the language barrier has been penetrated and they now know how I want my hair done. Communication also felt like it went better when I went to the salon, so though they have freeboard, I recommend going into the details of what you want in person. If you're the type that believes you shouldn't go to a salon if the workers' first language isn't English, or if you're the type that easily gets frustrated and project it, this might not be the best salon for you.