Reader submitted, Keisha writes:

I’d been dating this guy for a few months and I was so impressed with him I thought he might just be “the one.” So when he invited me to go with him to his hometown to meet his family, I was super excited to meet my soon-to-be in-laws. (Yeah, after a few short months I figured meeting the family was as good as sealing the deal.) He’d told me that his grandmother was a hairdresser and had owned her own salon for many years, so when she offered to do my hair I thought this would be the perfect time for she and I to bond.

She and I had a pleasant conversation while she permed my hair, and I even commented to her how surprised I was that after having had the perm on my hair for 20 minutes my scalp wasn’t burning. I chalked it up to her years of experience, and we continued to talk as she shampooed my hair. She finished my hair and my then boyfriend picked me up afterwards.

The next day I was back at home reflecting on the trip, thinking about how nice it was for my boyfriend’s grandmother to have permed my hair for free. Just as I began to run my fingers through my hair, loose strands started falling faster than I could count. Within minutes I had 3 big bald patches throughout my head. I wore scarves and headbands that week until I could get to my normal salon and have my hair cut. As for the boyfriend, he turned out to be a fraud and I cut him loose too.

Reader submitted, Keisha writes:

I’d been dating this guy for a few months and I was so impressed with him I thought he might just be “the one.” So when he invited me to go with him to his hometown to meet his family, I was super excited to meet my soon-to-be in-laws. (Yeah, after a few short months I figured meeting the family was as good as sealing the deal.) He’d told me that his grandmother was a hairdresser and had owned her own salon for many years, so when she offered to do my hair I thought this would be the perfect time for she and I to bond.

She and I had a pleasant conversation while she permed my hair, and I even commented to her how surprised I was that after having had the perm on my hair for 20 minutes my scalp wasn’t burning. I chalked it up to her years of experience, and we continued to talk as she shampooed my hair. She finished my hair and my then boyfriend picked me up afterwards.

The next day I was back at home reflecting on the trip, thinking about how nice it was for my boyfriend’s grandmother to have permed my hair for free. Just as I began to run my fingers through my hair, loose strands started falling faster than I could count. Within minutes I had 3 big bald patches throughout my head. I wore scarves and headbands that week until I could get to my normal salon and have my hair cut. As for the boyfriend, he turned out to be a fraud and I cut him loose too.

Reader submitted, Elga writes:

When I was relaxing my hair, I used to change its color every other week. This time, I had been blonde for 2 weeks and I was ready for something else. I was a student and my roommate would do my hair for free. She warned me that it would damage my hair, but I didn’t care because I thought my hair was strong. So here I am one day sitting in the room while she is coloring my hair to a brunette tone. We didn’t have plastic gloves; instead, we used plastic grocery bags. I suddenly hear my roomate say, “OMG, OMG, OMG”. I started freaking out, turned around and my roomate had a big patch of hair in her hand. I ran to the bathroom to rinse the color like a crazy woman. Once I was done I came back into the room and my roommate was still saying, “OMG, OMG,OMG”. I was wondering what the hell was going on with my hair and she gave me a mirror. You should have seen my face when I realized that instead of being a brunette, my hair had turned a dirty greenish color. Not only had I lost a big patch of hair, but my hair turned green. I had to wait a week to die my hair to black.”

Elga made a lot of mistakes here. I hope you were able to recognize them. What could she have done differently? Leave your suggestions in the comments.

I have had many bad experiences with hair stylists. Today, let’s talk about the woman that did my hair when I evacuated to Shreveport, LA for Hurricane Katrina. Now this is back when I thought I needed to go to the hair dresser every week. I was desperate for a relaxer so I looked on Avlon’s website… you know the company that sells KeraCare? Well, I did some hair modeling for them and I loved their stylists, so I thought I’d give it a shot. I found one and I asked her if they had FiberGuard relaxers (the only relaxer I used back then), she said no but that she would go to Sally’s and buy it. I was like ok whatever and I went. She was a very large fabulous woman. Dark chocolate complected, wearing a very short , almost bald silver/white haircut, hot pink lipstick, big crazy long false eyelashes, and sporting a brightly colored mumu. Do we remember Queen Latifah’s character from Hairspray: “Motormouth Maybelle”?

Yeah, well, that was her. She was an older woman, but quite FAB (snap) U (snap) LOUS (snap). Now here’s where it get CRAZY. When she applies the relaxer to my scalp, she is sitting on a stool. She pulls the chair up so that I am sitting between her legs. Yes! Just like that classic painting of the little girl getting her hair pressed in the kitchen. (Does anybody know who that’s by? If so, leave it in the comments.) At this point, I am trying to be positive crossing my fingers and saying to myself, “just please let me walk out with hair on my head, that’s all I want”. (I know better now and I would never let this happen again). Okay, so she rinses me out or whatever nothing exciting there, but once she’s done styling my hair, she lines the nape of my neck with clippers. She doesn’t ask or anything, she just does it. Why would she do that? My hair is very fine and straight in the back, it lays down on my neck like baby hair. It’s my favorite thing about my hair. I am cursing her out and crying on the inside. I just want to get out of there. Later that week I noticed huge scabs on my scalp, I think she left the relaxer in too long and it took me months to grow back my hair from that lining. I still to this day wonder why she did that. The only reason I could see giving a woman a lining is if she wore a short cut or one of those hard gel ghetto updos, but my hair was relaxed bone straight and hanging. It still upsets me when I remember it.

Reader submitted, Elga writes:

When I was relaxing my hair, I used to change its color every other week. This time, I had been blonde for 2 weeks and I was ready for something else. I was a student and my roommate would do my hair for free. She warned me that it would damage my hair, but I didn’t care because I thought my hair was strong. So here I am one day sitting in the room while she is coloring my hair to a brunette tone. We didn’t have plastic gloves; instead, we used plastic grocery bags. I suddenly hear my roomate say, “OMG, OMG, OMG”. I started freaking out, turned around and my roomate had a big patch of hair in her hand. I ran to the bathroom to rinse the color like a crazy woman. Once I was done I came back into the room and my roommate was still saying, “OMG, OMG,OMG”. I was wondering what the hell was going on with my hair and she gave me a mirror. You should have seen my face when I realized that instead of being a brunette, my hair had turned a dirty greenish color. Not only had I lost a big patch of hair, but my hair turned green. I had to wait a week to die my hair to black.”

Elga made a lot of mistakes here. I hope you were able to recognize them. What could she have done differently? Leave your suggestions in the comments.

I have had many bad experiences with hair stylists. Today, let’s talk about the woman that did my hair when I evacuated to Shreveport, LA for Hurricane Katrina. Now this is back when I thought I needed to go to the hair dresser every week. I was desperate for a relaxer so I looked on Avlon’s website… you know the company that sells KeraCare? Well, I did some hair modeling for them and I loved their stylists, so I thought I’d give it a shot. I found one and I asked her if they had FiberGuard relaxers (the only relaxer I used back then), she said no but that she would go to Sally’s and buy it. I was like ok whatever and I went. She was a very large fabulous woman. Dark chocolate complected, wearing a very short , almost bald silver/white haircut, hot pink lipstick, big crazy long false eyelashes, and sporting a brightly colored mumu. Do we remember Queen Latifah’s character from Hairspray: “Motormouth Maybelle”?

Yeah, well, that was her. She was an older woman, but quite FAB (snap) U (snap) LOUS (snap). Now here’s where it get CRAZY. When she applies the relaxer to my scalp, she is sitting on a stool. She pulls the chair up so that I am sitting between her legs. Yes! Just like that classic painting of the little girl getting her hair pressed in the kitchen. (Does anybody know who that’s by? If so, leave it in the comments.) At this point, I am trying to be positive crossing my fingers and saying to myself, “just please let me walk out with hair on my head, that’s all I want”. (I know better now and I would never let this happen again). Okay, so she rinses me out or whatever nothing exciting there, but once she’s done styling my hair, she lines the nape of my neck with clippers. She doesn’t ask or anything, she just does it. Why would she do that? My hair is very fine and straight in the back, it lays down on my neck like baby hair. It’s my favorite thing about my hair. I am cursing her out and crying on the inside. I just want to get out of there. Later that week I noticed huge scabs on my scalp, I think she left the relaxer in too long and it took me months to grow back my hair from that lining. I still to this day wonder why she did that. The only reason I could see giving a woman a lining is if she wore a short cut or one of those hard gel ghetto updos, but my hair was relaxed bone straight and hanging. It still upsets me when I remember it.

Tiesha writes…

During my senior year in college, I decided to transition for the 2nd time. I didn’t have access to the natural hair websites and forums back then, so I grew out my hair the best way I knew how — microbraids.

A few weeks before my graduation, I decided I wanted to wear my hair down, so I started taking my braids out. It was late and I was extremely tired, so it got to the point that I was almost ripping the braids out of my head. I was too tired to detangle and anxious to do my hair and go to bed so I jumped in the shower and started shampooing my hair. I noticed it was a little more tangled than normal but didn’t think anything of it until I started to deep condition and couldn’t get the comb through my head!

My hair was so matted and knotted up that I wanted to cry. I used my entire bottle, along with my roommate’s 32oz bottle of conditioner and still couldn’t get the knots out. I ended up having to cut my hair for my graduation, which would have been a great big chop story, only I decided to relax the little hair I had left, thus ending my 2nd transition.

I quickly learned to ALWAYS detangle my hair from any protective style before shampooing.

Sonya writes…

My most embarrassing hair experience was the first time I ever used a curling iron. Someone should have told me that a Golden Hot irons get HOT! I’ll never forget it. I had very thick hair, doing my own hair for school for the first time. I plugged in my new curling iron and commenced to curling. Grabbing a huge chunk of hair for a bang, I stuck the iron right on the roots. The hair melted away just like heat to ice. I couldn’t believe it. I cried for days. Now, I have about a good 2-3 inches of hair burned clear to the root. My hair was way too thick not to notice and there was no way to style it that would hide the damage. Back then we weren’t allowed to wear hats in school so that was out of the question. I had to go almost 2-3 months with this chopped burned hair… or rather no hair. To make matters worse, I tried to turn down the heat and do the rest of my hair and still ended up burning the ends. So, over the course of the next few weeks those burned ends were breaking off too. No matter how I styled it, my hair wouldn’t hold a curl afterwards. My mother just screamed when she saw me. She didn’t know what to do with it. All we could do was wash and deep condition and wait for it to grow back. I didn’t even want to come out the house or go anywhere. I looked like something from Blackula. It took me what seemed like years to recover from that mishap. I’ve since learned how to properly use a curling iron (some 30 years later), but I still look at them a little funny.

Ty writes…
When I was a sophomore in high school, I had bra strap length hair and got it done religiously: once a week. Well, I decided I wanted a change and had my aunt take to me to a salon that specialized in braids. The lady made it a point to let us know that she was certified and licensed and much better qualified than “Pookie and ‘em”. I scheduled an appointment with her and she requested that I get a relaxer a week before my appointment. I found that odd, but hey, she was the professional. The day of my appointment, I arrived and sat in her chair — ready for the super cute style that I selected. I do recall becoming nervous when I overheard a phone conversation with a client who had a bleeding scalp. Nonetheless, I sat there and let her braid my hair. When she was done I was very happy. About 3 weeks into my style, a girl from school told me that when she took her braids out, her hair broke off badly. I immediately went home that night and took out my braids. I was shocked! My hair was literally falling out. I couldn’t control my tears. My mom came into the bathroom with me and cried right along with me. I went to the hair salon the next day and had to get my hair cut past my ears. I was devastated. The lesson I learned was to never get a relaxer before getting braids again!

Nadia writes…

I have a really funny and embarrassing hair story that I can’t believe I’m going share with you!

I used to love juicy hair: hair that was moist and shiny. I would use lots of coconut oil to get the look I wanted. Apparently having juicy hair can backfire though!

Last December on my way to Haiti for Christmas I wore a twistout for the plane ride there. I fell asleep aboard the plane. When it was time to wake up, I fluffed my hair a little and proceeded to get my overhead carry-on when I noticed that the head rest on my seat had spots where the coconut oil in my hair oozed onto the fabric. I was mortified! A big greasy spot, right there for everyone (especially flight attendants who take care of the plane)! I grabbed the blanket I had and threw it over the head rest praying no one had a chance to see it! I grabbed my bag and ran for the hills. It was so embarrassing.

Lesson learned: sometimes less is more.