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Relaxer Into Your Shampoo

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Months after I made the decision to cut the relaxer out of my hair, I remember having vivid nightmares of being in the salon, someone mis-communicating or misunderstanding and a beautician spinning me around to reveal my freshly relaxed hair. I know, from several conversations with other woman, that I’m not the only naturalista who’s had this thought.

According to Fusion, that’s exactly what happened to a woman in Georgia at Lucy’s Dominican Hair Salon in Marietta. She went to Lucy’s where she asked for a blow out, which includes a shampoo, conditioning and blow drying. But when she washed her hair, trying to get her curls back, she realized something wasn’t right.

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When she called someone from the salon, the employee told her that it was standard procedure to add a little bit of relaxer into the shampoo. The employee told her it’s used specifically for people with natural hair and that it was nothing to be worried about.

When Charles Pulliam-Moore, the Fusion reporter reached out to the salon, they said that they were not commenting on the story.

Later, a Facebook page belonging to a user named Lizbeth Dominican Hair Salon posted a status informing present and future customers that they do not mix relaxer into their shampoo.

But after the woman posted her status, along with the picture of her damaged curl pattern, many women said that she would be well within her rights to sue the salon for permanently and chemically altering her hair.

No doubt.

Those who know anything about Dominican salons and Dominican culture at large understand that natural, thick, afro-textured hair is not well received. Not only in the salons but by many citizens of the D.R., who refer to this type of hair as pelo malo (Bad hair). Many in the country, with its fractured relationship with its neighbor Haiti ,believe that this type of hair not only points to African ancestry; or a connection to Haiti, but also a low socioeconomic status.

What do you think this woman should do in regards to the salon? What would you do in her situation?

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