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How do Dominicans know how to do hair so well?
Most Dominican women have textured hair (el pelo texturado), which
needs a lot of attention! And therefore almost every Dominicana goes to the
beauty parlor once or twice every week. The beauty parlor is called el
salón de belleza or la peluquería. In the Dominican Republic,
and wherever Dominicans live, the beauty parlor is a big part of our
culture. According to Dominican Times Magazine in 2007 there were
3,250 Dominican beauty salons in the New York metropolitan area!
That's a good thing because for our kind of hair, the Dominican hairdressers
(estilistas or peluqueras dominicanas) are simply the best.
For 500 years, they have been developing techniques of hair care based on
washing, drying, and brushing and on the natural
tropical products of our country like silk, avocado, coconut, olive, and
cinnamon oils; maracuyá [chinola, passion fruit], rosemary, garlic, wheat
germ, and aloe (not to mention sole of shoe and snail slime!)
for keeping our hair beautiful even in the hottest and most
humid conditions!
(Read more about Dominican hair-care
products.)
More and more North American women, especially African-American women, have
heard about Dominican salons and they want to go there too, because it is
really the same kind of hair – a mixture of European, Indigenous
American, and African, just like we are! Dominican salons don't like to use
hot irons or combs or strong chemicals for straightening, they have their
own special techniques that are more gentle for your hair. For example,
because I go to Dominican salons, I never need to have my hair
straightened with chemicals or hot combs!
If you search in Google for "dominican
hair salon" or "dominican
beauty parlor" you will find a lot of American women who are so happy
now that their hair is finally
healthy, growing, strong, and full of shine,
thanks to a Dominican salon!
In the Dominican Republic, people often refer to
pelo malo (“bad hair”) and
pelo bueno (“good hair”). Sometimes Americans are upset
when they hear these terms, because it seems like people who are more Black
or African have “bad hair” and those who are more White or
Indian (indigenous) have “good hair”, and therefore it is bad to
be African. But a person's race is not so important in the Dominican
Republic as it is in the United States; it's just a feature, just part of
your look. Almost every Dominican is a mixture, and almost every Dominican
has textured hair. To us, “good hair” is hair that is
manageable, because we like to change our look,
and our hair style is a big part of our look. “Bad hair” is
simply harder to manage. But we do it anyway! That's just one reason
Dominican women spend so much time in the salon.
Everybody can go – Black women, White women, and everybody in between;
Asian women, Indian women (both kinds!)... Every Dominican salon will want
your business and will be glad to serve you, no matter who you are or what
your hair is like, or whether you speak Spanish or you don't. But since
Dominican salons specialize in textured hair, and especially textured hair
that is overprocessed or damaged, they are especially popular among African
American women, as you can see if you search
Google search on this topic!
I get a lot of questions from Black women about whether they should go to a
Dominican salon, or use Dominican hair products.
The answer is Yes and Yes! Most people in the Dominican Republic –
about 85% of us – are Black or part Black, mixed mainly with European
Spanish and Indigenous Taíno people. Most of us have the same kinds of hair as
African Americans (such as 3b, 4a, 4b, etc, in the Andre Walker
system), so Dominican hair care techniques and products are just as good
for African American women as they are for Dominicanas.
The only thing to be aware of is that Dominican women like their hair to be
long, and some Dominican salons don't know what to do with short hair.
Also, most Dominican salons don't know a lot about styles that aren't
Dominican; for example, corn rows. But you never know. Just ask first!
(See my hair and makeup gallery to see typical Dominican
hairstyles.)
When you go to a Dominican Salon like Yani Vanet in New York, plan to spend a good
part of the day. It's first come first serve (orden de llegada), no
appointments (citas). On the busy days – Thursday, Friday, and
Saturday, or any day before a holiday – you can wait 2, 3, even 4
hours for your turn. But don't let that stop you, it's fun! A Dominican
salon is a very special place for women to gather and “let their hair
down”.
You will make a lot of friends there! Dominican music –
Merengue,
Bachata,
Reggaetón – is playing,
everybody is talking and laughing... and eating! If you have a long wait,
you can go to the restaurant and bring back a delicious Dominican meal to
enjoy (and share) while you wait; it's
the best food there is, and it tastes
best in the beauty parlor!
In the salon they use the Dominican or Italian or Spanish
hair products – shampoos, rinses, treatments, and conditioners –
that are the very best for our kind of hair, and also for brittle or damaged
hair. Healthy hair is the first priority of the Dominican stylist! She
won't put anything in your hair, or do anything to it, that is not going to
make it more healthy.
Hint:
If your stylist uses some product that does wonders for your
hair, be sure to ask her what it is so you can keep using it in case you move
away, or your salon does!
This is the "Dominican Blowout" that you have
heard so much about! We don't call it that, for us it's just the regular
lavado y secado (wash-and-dry or roller set).
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What I describe here is how they do my hair in the salon once or twice every
week. It leaves my hair smooth, full, wavy, and bouncy, the way I like it,
without strong chemicals. Different types of hair and different styles have
different requirements and can take more or less time.
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When your turn comes up (cuando te toque a ti), first you have a
shampoo (lavado), from a shampooer or from the stylist herself if she
is not too busy. The shampoo might begin with a hot oil treatment.
Then when the shampoo is rinsed out, you have 10 minutes in the dryer
(el secador) without rollers to warm up your head, and then you
have a wonderful scalp massage (un masaje) to stimulate the
roots (estimular las raíces), that might be done with some product
like a rinse
(un rinse). At this point your hair is still wet.
After the massage, a leave-in conditioner (un acondicionador para
dejar sobre el cabello) is applied and (if you need it) a special hair
treatment (tratamiento, suero, ampollas, gotas) – usually the
stylist's own mixture of water, leave-in, and treatment in a spray bottle.
And then they put in the curlers (los rolos). Big ones (los
grandes) if you have long hair, smaller ones (los chiquitos) if
you have short hair (el pelo corto) or you want your hair more curly
(rizado) or wavy (ondulado). We like to use BIG
rolos and the dryers are extra big so our heads will fit!
And then you sit under the big dryer (secador)
for an hour! While your hair is drying, you can sleep, or read, or eat, or talk on the cell phone, or chat
with the other women, or have a manicure or
pedicure, or all of those at the same time! THEN, when you come out of
the dryer, they take out the rollers and divide your hair into sections,
which they brush (cepillar, and sometimes they pull –
jalar – hard), and blow-dry (secar a mano) for half an
hour, using a big round brush (cepillo redondo) or other kind of
brush, depending on the length of your hair and style you want, and whether
you want it to fall inward (hacia adentro) or outward (hacia
afuera, “con flip”). And that's it!
For women who want their hair to hang perfectly straight without waves,
without using harsh chemicals or hot irons or combs, the Dominican stylists
have perfected a technique called the doobie or “wrap” or “dry wrap”
(envoltura), which is an additional step after the wash-and-dry, in
which your hair is brushed and wrapped tightly around hour head, held in
place with hairpins or clips and a head scarf, preferably silk. It's like
using your head for a curler! The longer you leave your hair wrapped, the
better it works, so normally we keep the wrap overnight – it's more
comfortable than sleeping in curlers, and less stressful for your hair and
scalp. You can re-wrap your hair every night before sleep to make that
salon look last! (You can't do this if your hair is too short.)
Of course the Dominican salons have a lot of other services too: trimming
the ends (cortar las puntas, I do that every 2 or 3 months), relaxing
or straightening (alisado), hair cutting (corte de pelo) and
styling (peinado), coloring
(tinte), streaks (mechas, rayitos), highlights (reflejos),
extensions (extensiones)... they like to work with you to create what
you want, as long as it is not something that will damage your hair. When
the stylist and the customer work together to create something new, they
both get excited!
For me, the basic Wash and Set is usually $18-20. If I have a hair
treatment (tratamiento capilar), it's another $5.00. If they need to
apply special oils (ampollas, these are very good for my hair!),
another $5.00. To trim the ends, also $5.00. To do the eyebrows
(cejas) is $6.00. Cutting and styling and coloring, of course, those
cost more.
To save money, many customers buy the hair products they prefer directly
from the salon or from my website and bring them
each time they have their hair done, and that way the salon visit costs
less.
Prices vary from
salon to salon, and can change from time to time, and also depend on your
type of hair and how long it is. But for now, at least, the Dominican salon
is a Great Bargain!
In the Dominican salons in the USA, they speak Spanish of course, but they
know the English hair terminology. If you know some Spanish, it will be
helpful, and for Spanish hair terms you can consult my ENGLISH-SPANISH HAIR SALON GLOSSARY. But anyway,
if you show them a picture of what you want in their sample book
(muestrario) or a magazine (revista), they will know how
to take care of you, and they will do a very good job because they want you
to come back again and again, and you will, and soon it will feel like
family. Communication comes naturally because for us women, hair is the
universal language!
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