I had a really positive experience with Ngina a few days ago. I am a natural, and have been natural for about 20 years (first locs and now my natural coils). I dislike traditional salons that we find in our African American community. I dislike the waiting time. I dread the way salons use dryers to pacify clients while other heads are being worked on. I dislike the gossip that often gets stuck in such a negative and degrading place. And most of all... I dislike the idea that you have to pretty much write off a good four hours of your life to get your hair done... And yet, despite my best attempts at doing my own hair or going to natural places that blessedly seem to have a different culture, I need to get to a salon to blow out my hair and trim my ends. I do this far less frequently than I should, and I often have the ragged ends to show for it. The last time I went to a salon to blow my hair out and trim my ends was spring time. I was looking for a more affordable option closer to my home, so I checked out Yelp and found Ngina.
I called for an appointment and she returned my call a few days later. We scheduled an appointment for 10:30am on December 21st. I arrived to find a few other women sitting under dryers and one woman getting her hair washed. Whitney, Ngina's assistant, greeted me about five minutes after I arrived and let me know she would be with me. By 10:43 I was in the shampoo chair getting a nice scalp massage and wash. Then under the steamer for a deep conditioning treatment. Back to the bowl to rinse out conditioner and then under the dryer for a bit. Whitney blew me out a bit before I was in Ngina's chair, where she worked her magic. I appreciated that I was always in motion and attended to. I was a bit worried because there were a few other sisters also waiting for Ngina, and I had assumed, based on past experiences elsewhere, I would be neglected. That was not at all the case. While Ngina did have other clients, she clearly knew how to keep everyone in motion. I was impressed. She knows what she's doing in terms of managing time and clients, and I had to chide myself for assuming that she wouldn't. She's very professional.
And she knows what she is doing in the chair. She followed-up on Whitney's initial blow-out. I asked about her silkening pressing technique, and she asked me if I tend to get my hair pressed. I don't, but since I was trying to make the hair last until New Year's we decided to press. She also showed me my damaged ends and asked when was the last time I had them trimmed. At least six months ago I answered to which Ngina reminded me that I should be trimming my ends every 6 to 8 weeks or my damaged ends would "travel" and they did (they were on their way to my scalp). She showed me that in some parts we would need to take off about 2 inches to get the ends healthy. I told her that I rather have healthy hair than long hair, and that she should do what she needs to do. She said she has the same approach toward her hair health. I appreciate any stylist whose commitment is to hair health, and not merely the aesthetic. Though, the aesthetic was quite nice by the time I left her chair. I asked for some curls, to which she obliged. My hair has never looked so shiny and healthy with amazing movement.
I ended walking out of the salon just shy of 1pm. Two and a half hours isn't bad. I'll take that. Ngina told me her goal is to get me out in two hours, but if a morning appointment is late, it pushes all of her later appointments back. I suspect this is what happened, but again, I was out in 2.5 hours and felt well attended to the entire time. The environment was quite nice. Whitney is bubbly and chatty, while Ngina is quietly pleasant. She isn't distracted by talk; rather, she is focused on the task at hand, her clients' heads. Ngina is my kind of stylist. She is gifted with the hands, cares about hair health, and is professional, striving to give her clients a good experience.
This is my new go-to place. Fingers crossed that my second experience will be as pleasant as my first. If I can continue to have such a pleasant experience with Ngina, I might actually be able to maintain healthy ends by getting my hair done more regularly. I am super-pleased and have already shared her name with a few of my natural sisters as well as a few of my processed sisters.
Gold star for Ngina. read more