This is going to be a long one, so bare with me. They are not on W Marshall Street anymore. I never visited that particular location, they are in Midlothian now. Here's the deal: I decided that I was no longer going to the African Braiding salons anymore because they braid absolutely too tight regardless of how many times you asked them not to. I would suffer soreness (a lot) for 5-7 days- couldn't sleep at night due to the pain. I would try taking a pain reliever before going which did not work. I spent many years dealing with it. I found BAD on the internet after calling an African place and asked if I made an appt would they refrain from braiding tightly, I got hung up on. I called another place and they were closed. After calling BAD, I spoke with the person who was going to braid my hair in box braids. We made the appt. I asked about hair. She assured me that they had hair and asked what color my hair was yada, yada. The day of my appt. before she began, she took a pic of the color of my hair and proceeded to leave me in the salon while she went and purchased the hair.
She came back, she seemed very nice and we talked about hair, blah, blah. As she was braiding, I did not experience any discomfort that I normally would. Upon completion, the hair looked nice. She dipped the hair in hot water to form some beautiful curls which I was very pleased with. I left her a tip, purchased a jar of their hair oil and left. Within two days, I noticed that the hair started to unravel where the hair ended and the curl began which meant that she did not secure the end of the braid with glue as I was accustomed to at the African places. In addition, I noticed for the first time how the texture of the hair really looked! It looked like some hair that she paid 50 cent for. Ok, so I called her a few days later to set up another appt to have the unraveling problem fixed. The day of the appt. the owner was there styling someone's dreads. She seemed nice. So the stylist asked: "what happened to the curls? I said: "don't ask". What was going on was that I was trying to fix the unraveling myself and in so doing, I had to brush whatever curls that existed out. It wasn't much which is another thing. So I spent all of an hour with her rolling the hair in perm rods, then dipping them in hot water. I thought that was kind of quick. Ok, after I got home, I noticed that the hair was still unraveling. I was hot! Basically, because she did a rush job and did not do her job to secure the braids. She actually did the same thing she did the first time. I spent over $200.00 for that mess! And I had to return a 2nd time. Yes, I was quite hot!
I WAS in no uncertain terms going to return for a 3rd trip. What I did was go online to their website and inboxed the owner of my dissatisfaction. I was angry but respectable at the same time. I kindly express myself and left it at that thinking I would get an apology at least. Sister girl did not respond. Now, you would think that as the owner of a salon that you would at least offer an apology or an attempt to make amends. I got nothing. It appears that the stylist was a friend of hers as they talked about ppl that they knew and talked at length and even went outside. So, I knew they must have known each other. Here's my thing....she decided to put friendship above customer satisfaction and that's not a good business practice. For that reason alone, I will never return, nor will I recommend anyone. I had two of my friends ask about the place. I had to show them better than I could possibly tell them. After seeing my hair they declined to go there. Can you blame them? What happened is that since I paid that amount of money, I decided to leave them in for at least 4-5 weeks if possible. They look awful! I have to cover them when I go out. I went to another salon and the stylist looked at the condition of the hair and shook her head. When I take these horrible things out, I am going there to get them done, right. But you can best believe that I will be looking at what's being done. read more
