length check (june 2015)

Since I haven’t been really growing out my hair, my length checks have been going through the same pattern—I record about three inches of growth then trim it back to waist-hip length. So this time around, I wasn’t very concerned about measuring and taking digital proof before trimming. I will say that my ends keep gradually getting thicker though, and my current length is now at 27 inches.

I can’t believe how much time has passed, I’ve now had 6 Japanese straightening touch-ups, 4 from Hair IB Club. I don't have much to say about my recent visit there, everything went along fine. I am still contemplating whether to start bringing my own wide tooth comb though. And speaking of how many JHS touch-ups I've gotten now, the sodium hydroxide relaxed parts of my hair are also now at the ends, roughly making up about 1/4th of my length.

I've been asked how I measure my hair, so here I'm showing how I do it when I want to take digital proof of it's length. Because it's hard to hold the measuring tape and take a picture from my back I clip it like shown and sweep it to the side.

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.

hair ib touch-up (third visit)

I know a number of you have been waiting for this post, sorry! On top of my part time job, I'm currently attempting 18 credits. Trying to juggle everything the best I can.

Almost two months ago, 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. The biggest con being the language barrier, which I will talk more extensively on with a following post. But all in all, my hair came out in one piece. It was the first time going to the salon and getting everything I planned on getting, a Japanese straightening touch-up with protection cream protecting my sodium hydroxide relaxed ends.

An overview of my salon visit:

• I paid the extra $20 for them to put their form of protective cream in the Japanese straightening solution. I also brought my container of Milbon Straight Liscio Protection 30 Cream and they agreed to apply it the way I described. 
• First my hair got washed, then my hair was detangled, rather badly. They were trying different tools, raking the combs from top to bottom. There was breakage, but luckily not as much as I thought there would have been. It was only when they eventually used the tangle teezer-like brush that detangling sessions got somewhat easier. Now that I have them protecting my ends the way I want, maybe detangling will be the next thing. 
•  It took about an hour ( of sitting with an astro egg aroma on my head ) for my hair to process like last time. Not sure how to feel about that, but the girl was constantly checking my hair, playing with a strand to see how far in the process my hair was.
• Before my hair was fully processed, the Milbon protection cream was heavily and thoroughly applied to the bottom half of my hair. I had also mixed the cream with Roux Porosity Control and grape seed oil, so that my hair cuticles were closed when the JHS solution was rinsed out. The salon workers even went the extra mile and agreed to lift the bottom half of my hair when first rinsing out the touched-up roots, and doing this by having one worker hold my hair up while another did the rinsing. They really try to follow the customer's wants and directions.
• Unlike the other times, they blow dried then flat-ironed my hair instead of starting the flat-ironing on semi-damp hair. I was a little afraid my hair could revert, but my end results still came out nicely, and drying the hair fully before flat-ironing is less damaging. 
• After the last blow drying and flat-ironing session, for the first time, they used some product and serum in my hair. Instead of having naked, dull-looking hair until I got home and applied some grape seed oil like the other times, I walked out of the salon with shine. 

Conclusion, though the salon has the ability to do afro textured hair, they are not kinky textured hair experts. They do not have proper detangling technique, lack understanding of the common relaxer ( will talk about this in follow up post ), and sometimes, I feel a little like an alien. When the girl finished blow drying my relaxed ends without product, she curiously asked if I flat ironed or what I usually do to my ends to tame the dryness and frizziness. Most of the other clients are Caucasian, white and east Indian. Unlike all the other clients, my hair seems to take big dramatic transforms. I think I get some curious eyes sometimes, which gives me... on the spot, mixed feelings. ( Aaw, they're curious. Wait, are they negatively judging me? Wow, the relaxed bottom half of my hair is so frizzy when blow dried and without any product, even I don't recognize it. If this is my reaction, what's theirs? )

The salon isn't perfection, but the most important part to me is that the salon knows how to apply Japanese straighteners with minimal damage to my hair, is friendly, cheap, and tries to do all the extra things I ask them to. This was also the best my hair looked coming out of the salon. It had shine, it wasn't stick straight because they blow dried this time, and my ends were even. I plan on going again for my next touch-up.

A salon review means a length check is coming up~

hair updates

GROWTH EXAMS

My life being busy the last couple months, I unfortunately discontinued the growth exams, sorry guys... plus, I kinda already had a bad start with it. I’m also going to take a break, and won’t be doing a season 3 right away. I might still use growth aids or practices now and then, but it probably won't be with proper recording.

STRONGER ENDS REGIMEN

I've been keeping up with my protein layering and stronger ends regimen, but adjusted it slightly to be more on the safe side. Instead of using protein every other week, like the protein laying pic shown above, I was doing it more every two washes. sometimes three. I feel my hair has benefited with it and will continue to use this regimen for more even strength throughout the hair strand. To protect and baby my transitioning relaxed ends, I had also incorporated other things in my regimen, which can be find listed at the bottom of this post. Despite my hair laziness the past couple months, I successfully added most of these practices, all but the ghe method, leave-in steaming, and continuing to test growth aids. My ends still need tlc as they grow out, but my efforts so far are showing.

TOUCH UP AT HAIR IB 

Two weeks ago, June 18, I went to Hair IB Club to get a touch-up. This was my second time going to this salon. This time, instead of getting the japanese brazilian straightening , I got the normal japanese straightening. I decided not to do the JBS because I didn't feel like the extra cash was worth it. And though I had no noticeable adverse effects, I'm also still not perfectly sure how I feel about the absence of neutralizer lotion in the process. It seems like a good idea, but I like to fully understand the science behind what's happening on my head, and there's holes in my understanding of JBS.

With my second Hair IB experience, I have updated pros and cons about the salon. One, is that the salon apparently does not use protection cream. The first time I interviewed them and asked they said they did, but apparently we had a misunderstanding. The protection cream they were talking about was an extra solution they mix into the Japanese straightener for $10-20 more. This caught me off guard when I was at the salon for my touch-up, as I've been very cautious of my ends. Was all the tlc I was giving them going to be ruined in one day? I asked them if they could put conditioner on my already treated hair to create a barrier, and if they could lift it up my hair and wash the roots out exclusively first to keep the JHS from rinsing into my ends. They did, but my ends still took a toll. nothing significant like disintegrating, but noticeable damage I would have to trim (I would have to trim off my thin ends anyway) and work back to health. This makes the salon lose a few points, next time I'm going to see if I can bring in my jar of protection cream.

On another note, in addition to adding their 'protection cream' into the Japanese straightener, they used a weaker JHS formula on my roots. I'm not sure whether to consider this a positive or negative however, since this made my processing time double. The stylist said this was fine, but unless I'm given a good explanation to back things up, I'm hesitant to wholeheartedly believe. The last thing that was different this second visit, was that my hair didn't end up stick- pin- dead straight like last time, and actually had some volume. This was likely from only doing a Japanese straightening touch-up, and not getting the JBS. I liked how my hair tuned out more this time. If I'm recalling properly, my hair also didn't feel as dry as last time.

LENGTH MEASUREMENT

Above is a picture of my hair, right after my touch-up and before I trimmed at home. As you can see the ends are stringy, but the hair that's growing out is thickening nicely. At first I self-trimmed an inch off by banding, but wasn't satisfied, and trimmed another inch and a half in the shower. I only recommend trimming in the shower if your hair is straight or has just been straightened. I haven't taken an after trim picture yet, but I measured after, and if memory is right I'm currently 25 inches. Remember, I'm currently not growing my hair out, and plan to keep my ends in the same area until my relaxer fully grows out.

hair ib club (salon review)

I hope everyone had a merry Christmas! I'm so glad to finally be on break, and all the hustle preparing for the holidays are over. Last time I announced I would finally be getting my new growth done at a new salon: Hair IB in New York. I also said I would be trying their unique Japanese Brazilian straightening treatment. So how did it go? Here is the long awaited review and my touch up results.

FASHIONABLY LATE

I set my appointment Wednesday morning so there'd be less people and better focus on my hair. But then my driver came late... and then there was unexpected traffic, even though it wasn't rush hour... I ended up getting there, about an hour late? Luckily they didn't mind and there was only two other clients there. If I came in the evening or on a weekend it might not have been the same story. So the first thing they did was look at my hair, asked questions about my lye relaxed length, and showed me a chart to decide what strength of Brazilian keratin they'll use. Here's how the chart looked like:

Type A 

• brand: Hair Go Straight 
• price: $100 (any hair length) 
• formaldehyde: yes 
• straightens: 50% 
• maintenance: must wait 3 days to wash 

  Type B 

• brand: Lasio and Coppola 
• price: $140-$160 
• formaldehyde: yes 
• straightens: 50-70% (don't remember, and it's not on the site) 
• maintenance: must wait 3 days to wash 

Type C 

• brand: Salon Tech Straightening System 
• price: $160-180 
• formaldehyde: no 
• straightens: 90% & up, a lot more shine compared to type A & B 
• maintenance: can wash right away 

Type D 

• brand: Brazilian Blow Out 
• price: $180-$200 
• formaldehyde: no 
• straightens: 95% & up, shine is similar to type C
• maintenance: can wash right away

They recommended that I get type D because of the extremity of my curls, but to me that would have been too much. My ends are already relaxed, why did the extremity of my natural curls matter? I understand type D was also the best quality, but did I really need a 95% curl reduction? I saw from the start they did consider health, but were looking to make my hair stick straight (something I don't particularly like). I might have considered it, but then it cost $20-30 extra, while the other Brazilian keratin types had the fixed JBS price. So I decided to get type 3, the best bang for my buck, and apparently no formaldehyde.

LANGUAGE BARRIER

There were only two fluent English speakers, which made it a little hard to ask questions, but they did answer all of them. Most of them do understand English, but are not fluent. Of the two English speakers was an young Asian girl and a Caribbean-Hispanic wash girl. So for the first step, I got my hair thoroughly washed and detangled. One big concern of mine is having my hair detangled by people not use to kinky curly hair. Plus with Japanese straightening the hair has to be detangled to the point of a fine tooth comb. But they did a decent job, there wasn't much breakage. There could have been less breakage if they started using the fine tooth comb from the ends up and not the middle up, but I was satisfied. Their success was not so much in their technique, but it looked like their tools. They used a brush that looked similar to a tangle teezer.

JAPANESE BRAZILIAN STRAIGHTENING

After detangling the smelly Japanese straightening solution was applied to my new growth. Did I ever mention Japanese straightening smells like rotten alien eggs? They also corrected the parts of my hair that were under processed from last time. But then they wanted to wash out the solution. (Wait, huh? Weren't they going to put the Brazilian keratin on my previously treated length, too?) Turns out the process was different from what I imagined. The Brazilian keratin is applied on the entire head after the Japanese straightening is rinsed. The Brazilian acts as a neutralizer, strengthening treatment, and gives the processing roots straighter results. With this process the hair also only needs to be flat-ironed once, not twice. 

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Remember, Japanese straightening doesn't break the hair the same as relaxers do. If you need a little recap or if this is your first time hearing this, visit here and here. With the relaxing process, the sulfur bonds are broken and turned into lanthionine bonds. The hair is neutralized and that's the end of the straightening process, the hair has taken a new permanent form. With Japanese straightening the sulfur bonds are only temporarily broken, or rather separated. The neutralizer's purpose is only to help stabilize the hair's new shape, not to wash out the solution. This is why using the Brazilian Keratin as a substitute for a neutralizer is safe, and a pretty smart idea they came up with. Before becoming popular in the natural hair world, the Brazilian keratin was intended to be used on chemically treated hair, for straightening and strengthening, but relaxed heads didn't want to spend so much money to straighten their already practically straight hair.

The last thing I'll say before continuing with my salon day story is that this process, JBS, sounds like a better option for super kinky haired girls looking for definite straight results when they Japanese straighten.

- - - - - -  - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

I quickly juggled the pros and cons of the process and realized the only, but serious bad part was that I was going to be rinsed off with no protection. They said online that they'd apply protection cream if they thought my hair needed it, I reminded them that, but they said my hair didn't need it. (Wait, what??) I've been dusting more often, didn't have many split-ends, but my ends did have noticeable wear at the time. I mean, relaxed and Japanese straightened is one of the worst combinations. The two don't go together. I was still trying to process everything when I was getting rinsed. I asked the wash girl to (at least) lift my relaxed length and first focus on rinsing out the Japanese straightening solution, but she said she can only follow orders and I had to ask a higher up. Hard to do that with your hair already soaked in the sink. At the time I didn't worry too much about it though.

They did a great job with processing my new growth. The woman had been checking often to make sure I wasn't over processing. After coming out of the sink my hair was already straight, but not over processed. The Brazilian keratin was then applied throughout my hair, from my just processed roots to my relaxed tips. This was my first Brazilian keratin, and I wasn't expecting my scalp to start burning like a lye relaxer. It wasn't burning that much but I forgot how a burning scalp felt. I got so spoiled on Japanese straightening that I forgot chemical straightening can even burn. She took me to a corner of the salon behind a curtain and opened the back door that was there. She also gave me a cloth to breath in. I knew Brazilian keratins had smoke, but wow, I really forgot how intense chemical straightening can be. You might be thinking, well Japanese straightening is a long complicated process, but it's not intense in the same way. There is no smoke or burning to remind you you're working with chemicals. I kept my face under the cloth for protective measures, but there really wasn't a smell or eye burning or anything. just some smoke. There are many Brazilian keratin brands that lie about not having formaldehyde, but I think the absence of eye irritation confirmed it was formaldehyde free.

The blow dryer setting wasn't too high, it felt between medium and hot, but the blow drying process was long, about a half an hour. Again, this was my first Brazilian keratin, so if something was amiss, do comment and tell me. After that my hair was flat-ironed, and I was impressed with their technique. Two different flat-irons were used, one on high heat and a healthier paneled one with lower heat. The first one was used on my just processed roots and the other one on my previously treated hair with one pass.

And then, I was done!

FINAL THOUGHTS

Thew~ this post turned out much longer than intended, but I didn't want to leave anything out. The whole visit took about 4-5 hours. (Near the end I was starving and thought I smelled fried chicken... turned out it was the flat-iron emphasizing and mixing with the extraterrestrial egg scent, lol >_ _<)

Now I have, give or take, 10 inches of Japanese straightened hair. Some areas were longer, I really should have measured my new growth before the touch up. So is Hair IB club a keeper? I think so, but their only but fatal flaw was, again, not caring enough about my relaxed ends. I fell like I shouldn't have told them my last relaxer was a year and a half ago and that I had usually relaxed 3-4 times a year. It might have given them the wrong idea. If I go there next time, and probably will, I'll make sure they take better protective measures.

My hair was very dull in the shine department coming out of the salon, at first I was disappointed I didn't get that Hair's Talent shine. At home, however, after just applying a little oil, there it was! It was just hiding, since there was no product in my hair. And then after my first wash, a simple shampoo and conditioning, the shine really kicked in. I don't think my hair has ever had this kind of shine. I don't think the picture does the shine justice.

picking out a new JHS salon

For the past week I've contacted a couple hair salons, wanting to get my hair touched up before the holidays. The first time I Japanese straightened I went to Hair's Talent in Connecticut and they were exceptional, but that came with a high price tag and it was quite a commute. The second time I tried home Japanese straightening. It was much much cheaper and the results were decent, but I did get a little under-processed. It was my first time doing a self touch-up, and I might try home Japanese straightening again in the future after I grow out my relaxer. 

So after contacting different salons, Hair IB in New York looked the most promising. They location is reasonable closer, and they're cheap. Their Japanese straightening service has a definite price of $150, the common price for JHS among salons is usually around $300. I made an appointment for their earliest slot on Wednesday. On Yelp one person recommended coming early on a week day so that they are less busy and put more focus on you. below I've listed the good and the bad when making this decision.

PROS

• have pictures of afro textured clients
• have good reviews on yelp
• answered all my questions with the most care and detail out of all the salons I contacted
• will do a hair consultation first
• told me they can work with relaxed hair, but only with their JBS treatment
• cheap

CONS

• their cheap price comes from working on several heads at the same time, but hopefully coming in early and on a week day will eliminate this con
• most of the stylist are Asian and don't know fluent English, but I did ask for an English speaker to be there during my appointment
• from the reviews, they don't trim, they cut.   

 

I mentioned that they will only do their unique Japanese Brazilian Straightening (JBS) on relaxed hair. What in the world is? Talking to them, they said they will not do a Japanese straightening touch up on a head with relaxed hair, because the "product inevitably touches the ends of one’s hair during the course of root touch-ups". I'm not sure if this statement is 100 percent accurate. It kinda depends on how the straightening solution is rinsed out, but they do have a point. You can avoid the chemical touching your ends if your hair is long enough, but the previously treated hair close to the processed roots will get touched. A JBS seems like it's suppose to eliminate this, the roots are Japanese straightened and the already chemically treated hair is given a Brazilian keratin at the same time. It makes sense that these can be done safely at the same time as Japanese and Brazilian treatments do have similar procedures, and Brazilian keratins are compatible with pretty much everything. This will be my first time doing a Brazilian keratin treatment.

So I guess the Brazilian keratin acts as a strengthening and coating when the Japanese straightening solution is rinsed. After consultation they said they would also use a protection cream depending on my hair results. All of this protective methods does make me feel safe, but if it wasn't for the reviews saying the salon is very honest with their recommendations and will even tell you when you don't need something, I would wonder if they were just trying to get more money out of me. They also will not do a Japanese straightening on a head that doesn't pass consultation. I'm glad for that, but hopefully me, with my previously relaxed hair, does pass. I only have minimal breakage from the line of demarcation, but remember, my hair is relaxed, Japanese straightened, and long--so old. That's a lot of wear.   

So wish me luck! 

( update: It seems we had a misunderstanding and the salon is in fact willing to do a normal JHS touch-up on a head with previously relaxed hair.What they meant was that only with a JBS can they treat all my hair. A JBS is also not done in the manner described here. Click here to see the update. )