Hiya,
So Its finally time for my first NHCG Salon Profile!! A Salon Profile is our version of a salon review where we will rate beauty salons on the following ambiance, price, professionalism, skill and overall rating. 


This month, I will be profiling Supreme Beauty Salon, Lekki 1, Lagos. Note this review is an independent opinion and should not be construed otherwise, please readers who have visited this salon should feel free to rate the salon alongside these ratings in the comment box.



AMBIANCE;
When you open the doors of Supreme Beauty Salon, you are immediately welcomed by a large oval mirror to take a good look at yourself before your 'transformation' and then a large vase at the corner holding dried flowers and twigs, kinda chic! I Also like the really high wall that extends to to the roof and forms some kind of balcony where people upstairs can look down. The Salon is spacious and well laid out, work stations neat and put together, dryers put off to one section of the salon so clients are not all cramped up, the manicure and pedicure section well laid out and the braiding section too. Serenity doesn't exactly come to mind when thinking of Supreme's ambiance but it still has something going on and so for ambiance I would rate Supreme Beauty Salon  highly, maybe an 8 /10!!

 PRICE; 
Most times the prices Salons peg on their services are determined by the area they are situated. So you realize that you are paying for the same exact relaxer treatment at a different price because of location! Supreme being in Lekki therefore charges according to the pockets of its mostly buoyant residents. A relaxer treatment will set you back about N2500 (with your relaxer kit) last I checked. But an off putting thing is a simple wash and set cost the exact same amount of money, now that's a rip off considering that the time, skill, energy put into the two processes are not at par!! I think getting a weave fixed there is about N3000-N5000 depending on style. For Price Ill rate them as average because I have visited salons that cost less that do a good job and I have also visited salons that cost more and are nothing special. So 5/10 should be fine.

PROFESSIONALISM;
This and skill are the two aspects that will either keep me coming to a salon or well away from it! At Supreme, most times you are immediately welcomed and attended to by a manager. She will ask for the purpose of your visit and then assign a stylist to you. I think that is really neat! you go to some salons and you stand there for five minutes, everyone's walking past you and acting like you are invisible until you desperately beckon on someone, anyone to attend to you and if you are lucky someone responds, if you are not, you walk out and no one notices! Well at Supreme they have ironed out that issue. In terms of other staff, I still hear the usual Naija bickering and pidgin English speaking in front of clients, don't know if we can ever get that out of the salon system in Naija but in all honesty at Supreme, the presence of the manager keeps things civil! For Professionalism I have to give them a 9/10  

SKILL;
The beauty industry is a recycled industry! In the sense that , the same stylists just keep moving themselves around carrying along the same level of skill from one salon to the other. Supreme Salon is somewhat a 'victim' of this recycling. Most of its staff are male stylists I have seen work in other salons here in Lekki. Most of them don't really have skill  with natural hair besides the basic fixing of weaves in my opinion and the one time I heard one of them give advice to a client, he told her that her hair was shedding so she needed a trim! Now from my previous post on trimming we all know he was blabbing, the poor lady who came in with a bob left the salon with an Anita Baker style hair cut! the guy was just scissors happy and it took all in me not to involve myself that day because the one time I told a stylist at a Lekki  Salon that relaxing to the tips of the hair was wrong, I almost started a fight! Hence for skill ill give them a 6/10 because even their weaves are not always great.

OVERALL RATING; 
My over all rating of Supreme Beauty Salon would be Above Average(7/10) because though they have a few rough patches here and there in terms of skill and price(which is relative), they manage to keep their clients satisfied. The basic cleanliness of the salon, the ample amount of stylists which make for a large workforce and the manager of the salon guarantee that you will always be taken care of once you are in there though I cannot guarantee the level of care you will be given!!

Hope you enjoyed this post. This review should be helpful in directing you on what to look out for in your salon. I will be visiting more salons specifically to profile them and I won't always be sweet and rosy! Here comes Naija Hair Police!!lol. I might even let them know so they check out my blog and see what I and my readers think of their salons!What do you think? Drop a comment, ill gladly respond!!

Stop by soon,
Dabs

Hiya,
Hope you have all enjoyed your weekend!! Well as I promised in my very first post, every month, this blog will focus on a celebrity who has stylish hair and serves as hair inspiration.

Our Hair Icon for the month of June is none other than Nike Oshinowo Soleye, Miss Nigeria 1990, Fashionista, Naija's very own Victoria Beckham without the David or gorg kids that is(wink). Nike is a self proclaimed 'Diva' and has managed to stay fit and fabulous even at Forty!!

Now let's get down to our business! What qualifies Nike as our Hair Icon. For one, Nike obviously has weaves on majority of the time but the only way we know that is because if all this was her natural hair, she would have let us all know a looonnnggg time ago! We would have read in magazines comment's from her  like ' Oh no! This is alllll mine you know! I have very good genes you know!' (in her very elaborate 'britishish' accent) lol, I Kid! But really my point is the quality, texture and color of her weaves are so believable! and that should be the goal of any weave wearer of the 21st century! Hollywood celebrities have been wearing weaves for years but we could never guess, but here in Naija, its a different story! Just take a look at three of this year's Most Beautiful Girl in Nigeria Contestants!

Really? Babe, We see your dark hair over this light brown weave!

Really Pretty Girl but I'm sure the hair stylist had a straightener to blend in her natural hair with this weave!!

Her natural hair is a different color from her weave and it shows

Nike on the other hand does not give up her weave secret so easily. Now I know her weaves must cost a fortune, so I am not saying go buy the most expensive weave out there because the truth is, you can have an expensive weave and still make it look cheap!! So my advice to you all weave wearers out there is learn from Nike, follow the following rules;

WEAR A WEAVE THAT IS THE SAME COLOR AS YOUR NATURAL HAIR

LET THE LENGTH OF YOUR WEAVE BE BELIEVABLE 'ISH'! I know its not your own hair but you don't have to make it so obvious! if you want a weave to be your signature look,  then the length should be reasonable don't you think?


BLEND BLEND BLEND!!!Please do not go out of the house with your natural hair sticking out like a sore thumb over your weave! Please blend BUT do not be tempted to use Gel!!Nasty!!It will dry out your hair and break it off at the edges. I use Leave in conditioner to blend in my edges and it works!

Nike in Honey blonde locks! Can pass for her own hair (if we did not know better :)!

So dear fashionistas out there hope you can learn from the Icon herself, hope you enjoyed the post! Drop a comment, send a message and Ill gladly respond to you!! Thanks for dropping by!

Hiya, so  I have decided to start a segment called 10 THINGS! Once in a while I will post 10THINGS about a certain topic. Today's topic is just my sarcastic way of listing the things that go wrong at salons here in Naija most of which I have already addressed. Enjoy!!

 I love to pamper myself every so often and in the past part of this self pampering included frequent trips to the salon to get my hair washed or steamed or curled. Well these days, things have changed! I only visit the salon when I absolutely have to. Each time, I go with my bag of expectations only to return home with it deflated. Deflated because in the course of my visit I would have almost blurted out at least 10 things I hate about my visit! I am sure your initial reaction to this topic is that it sounds too harsh or critical but by the time I’m done listing these ten things, I have a feeling you will be nodding your head in agreement.
 Hope you enjoyed this Post, stay tuned for my very first SALON PROFILE post, drop a comment, ask for advice and Ill gladly respond. 


Stop by soon,
Dabs

BEFORE THE TRIM

AFTER THE TRIM

One of the oldest most common  but also most abused hair practices in Naija is getting a relaxer to relax your roots. Ive seen women from all walks of life use and abuse relaxers! From the woman selling bread that asked her friend to apply it on her head while she waits hours for someone to buy her bread to the mother of a new born baby nursing her child, relaxer on her hair and hands, selling credit! Even those who go to so called salons fall victim of this abuse especially with stylists that refuse to read the instructions on relaxer packs and go ahead and relax their client's hair to the tips or tug and pull the hair with the smallest comb ever or fail to time the relaxing process until lumps of hair fall out.

Most of us fail to realize that the relaxer is a chemical that irreversibly straightens the curl pattern of our hair by loosening the protein bonds of our hair, its an intrusive procedure that literally changes our hair texture for good and therefore should be done with great care. Unfortunately, a lot of  Naija babes don't see the relaxer for what it truly is; I for one before I started my hair journey, viewed the relaxer as my Hair Messiah. To me, my hair was only presentable if it was freshly relaxed and all the sides of my hair sleek, once I noticed those darn new grown tightly curled roots, I'd not hesitate to get my hair relaxed ASAP! As a result, I got a relaxer every month! that's 12 relaxer treatments in a year when our hair grows an average of 1/2 an inch every month; thus I put my hair through all that stress for just 1/2 an inch of it to get straightened while I inevitably overlapped the already relaxed strands  thereby weakening them further! Ridiculous!!

Oh well, I know better now and of course I'm gonna share with you how to relax Naija hair, 'Naija Hair Can Grow Style'.
First off, you must prepare your hair at least a week prior to your relaxer day for the harshness of the chemical process. How? Well I'll start by pointing out that one of the dire effects your hair suffers from relaxing it is dryness. The relaxer strips your hair of moisture as it breaks down those bonds to make it straight, so if your are a good student of mine, you'd know where I'm heading with this. Well a week before I relax my hair I do a Deep Conditioning protein treatment either with a ready made deep conditioner like Organics Cholesterol Tea Tree Oil below, Should not cost more than N1000.
   OR  I mix my own deep conditioning protein treatment with the following; An egg, Some conditioner, some oils and some mayonnaise(which is actually eggs and oil). See picture below


 I actually prefer making my own treatment because I have the luxury to put more conditioner to soften my hair if I choose. I apply either mixture on my hair like I would a relaxer though focusing on my ends and then pop on a plastic bag over my head and then a shower cap over the bag; (don't like using a shower cap directly because of the residue that is left on it). The next step is to stay under my hooded dryer below for at least 30mins; Got this dryer recently from Game at The Palms, Lekki for N13,000
OR before I had a dryer, Id go to a salon near by, shower cap on head covered with a scarf and stay under their hooded dryer for at least 30mins and get my hair washed out OR if I cannot be bothered to go any where, sometimes Id just go about my business at home for at least an hour giving it more time to condition since there is no heat involved. After the time is up, give your hair a wash(without shampoo if you don't mind, because shampoos especially those with sulphates will strip off your hair of the oil and moisture we are trying to preserve. When all that goo is off from your hair, then please 'air dry' your hair because blow drying will dry out your hair and again we are trying to prevent that.

Fast forward to Relaxer Day, the next decision you have to make is, What type of relaxer to use. There are two main type of relaxers. Those with 'Lye' and those without 'Lye'. Forget brands, all relaxers are the same! They either have Lye or they don't. What is Lye? Have you bothered to find out? Well According to www.skinbiology.com, Lye Relaxers contain Sodium Hydroxide which is the strongest principal chemical with the most lasting results for straightening hair; No Lye relaxers on the other hand are not necessarily chemical free, they contain Guanidine Hydroxide, another chemical with a lower PH level, used to straighten hair. Most Relaxers in Boxes containing an activator that is mixed into the relaxer are No Lye relaxers like the one below









While Lye Relaxers are most times without a box because there is nothing to mix to activate them like the Herba Rich Relaxer Below;They are also cheaper by a few box and can be used more than once. This relaxer went for N800, while the One above is about N1500









I'm sure you are wondering where I am going with all this, well hold your horses, I am going somewhere. You see these two types of relaxers have different effects on our hair. I personally can testify to the fact that Lye relaxers do not straighten the hair as well as No Lye relaxers, However while they are said to be harsher on your scalp during the relaxing process, they do not leave the mineral deposits that No Lye relaxers leave causing the hair to be dry, dull and brittle. So in the long run, Lye relaxers are said to be better for your hair. I would therefore recommend a Lye relaxer for hair that is limp and in need of some body. To me all relaxers itch after some time so the whole argument that No Lye relaxers are not harsh on the scalp and thus do not cause itching does not fly with me. I would therefore not use a No Lye relaxer solely based on that argument. However,  if I say I'm straightening my hair, I want it Straight! So if you have healthy hair please use the No Lye relaxer for straighter results, but if you want to just loosen your curl pattern use a Lye relaxer or use a No Lye relaxer with a reduced PH level i.e a mild relaxer instead of a normal or super relaxer. The dryness and dullness complained about from using a No Lye relaxer is taken care of below.

When you have made the decision as to the relaxer you want to use, the next step is to prep your ends. When you relax your hair you need your ends to be moisturized so that as you part and work your way through your roots, the ends do not get all tangled. I moisturize my ends with Hair Conditioner on relaxer day. Then I use some oil or petroleum jelly across my nape and temple and over my ears; you know the drill!! Then I put on a timer, stick to the time on the instruction sheet! trust me every time I have overstayed, I have regretted because of the long strands of my hair that fall out due to over processing.  After the relaxer has been applied to ONLY THE NEW GROWN ROOTS see pic below;











 The next MOST IMPORTANT final step as you go to get your hair washed out is to COAT YOUR ENDS WITH OIL. Why? The good students once again will know that the oil which does not dissolve will prevent the relaxer that is being washed out from penetrating the hair shaft and further processing your already relaxed ends.Wash with hot water first to get the relaxer out and then make sure to wash thoroughly with neutralizing shampoo and then condition, rinse out with luke warm water and finally splash some cold water on your hair if you can bear to, so you seal up the cuticles and give it some shine :)

If you follow these simple steps at least every 8weeks( please don't be like I was, relax your hair when you actually have roots to relax ), you will see an improvement in the quality of your relaxed hair. Also, at least a  week after you relax your hair, repeat the deep conditioning protein treatment to strengthen the hair. I know very few Naija babes relax their hair themselves, so for those of you who don't you can write these tips down or print them out and insist your stylist does the right thing, its your hair, you should have paramount say, do not let some stylist who doesn't care mess it up!!
And for all of you out there trying to get away from relaxers or 'creamy crack' as I've heard its called these days, I am going to guide you through transitioning to natural hair. Please do not think transitioning is the answer to your hair troubles, Get healthy hair first and then we will take it from there okay!! Hang in here with me, drop a message, comment and Ill gladly respond!!

Stop By soon!
Dabs

1. You want to ensure that your hair especially at the ends are MOISTURIZED. Moisturizing is extremely essential for our Naija hair because of our weather. The humidity and heat together will dry out the little moisture your scalp naturally produces and since the strands of our hair are made up of protein bonds which can easily be broken when there is no moisture, you need to keep the moisture balanced with the protein and all that will take a simple application of hair moisturizer to your strands especially the ends because they are the oldest and most fragile part of your hair.

Hiya,
As you must know, in every society there must be a common language of communication that members of that society understand and can translate. Well its no different in the black hair society  and to care for your hair you must understand effectively the various terminologies out there concerning your hair! I also will be using these terms quite frequently in their abbreviated form and so you understand what I'm saying, its best I introduce these terms to you right away!

HAIR LENGTH
So your hair is relaxed but what is the length of your hair and what is your goal length?

Most Naija babes are at Chin length hair (CL) and with CL hair the most common look is a bob and it will look good if your ends are well trimmed ala Rihanna in the picture below

The next recognized hair length is Neck length (NL) or Shoulder length (SL). This is most Naija babes definition of 'Long hair'! To them, if you can feel your hair on your neck mehn that's long hair!lol! and to be honest if your hair can get to this length without u caring for it then you have the POTENTIAL for long hair!Below is a picture of me at NL/ SL!

 The next Hair Length which most Naija babes have resolved never to reach because of bad hair practices is, Arm Pit length (APL). This is when your hair can comfortably rest on your back up to your arm pit and if you bring your hair forward you can tuck a little of your hair under your arm pit. This is a realistic goal to have and let me tell you when u have hair that is healthy at that length, you don't need to go and buy 12inch or 14inch packs of hair when you have your very own growing from your scalp. As you can see in the picture below, this lady has her hair in a graduated hair cut and most of the ends of her hair are APL!

 Bra Strap Length (BSL) is next and as the name implies, its hair that reaches your bra strap! Its my present goal at the moment as I have already gotten to APL but for my trim which was graduated also and has set me back a few inches! I shall be BSL by December! Say Amen to that!!!! AMEN OHHHH! Below is a picture of a lady with BSL hair;


Now this  next length is for the Naija Babe who wants to look like an Indian babe!! Its the Waist Length ( WL)! Trust me if you have hair at this length in Naija don't be surprised if random people dig their fingers in your hair searching for weave tracks!lol, happens to me at APL!! and please don't be upset if you start hearing rumors that you have a marine spirit!! In all, if its your goal, trust me when I say it is achievable of course not as quickly as it is for you to get that 24inch Indian weave on your head! You'l need time and patience!

Below is Shima, she is African American and as you can see her hair was 'nappy' as a kid just like any kid from African descent, as she grew older in the second picture her hair is basic and should be about SL or APL but then she started her hair journey and aimed for WL hair and viola!! In doubt? visit her website; www.shimahair.com. She claims she used her specially formulated oils and methods to grow her hair from SL to WL in 10months!!! I strongly doubt that part of the gist sha but I do know its her hair for sure!Basic good hair practices and you too could be the next Shima!