JC Penney Salon-A Huge Don't!

by Yoruba
(South Carolina)

In January of 2008, I went to a JC Penney Salon for a relaxer touch up. This was supposed to be a treat for myself, since I had been doing my own relaxers. My hair is long and thick and I was becoming overwhelmed with trying to relax it. Also, my hair was unevenly relaxed. Long story short, needed a professional's touch. Why did I choose a JC Penney Salon?

Well, I was relatively new to the small town where I reside. I hadn't seen any other black women with hair that I thought looked cute and healthy. Therefore, I didn't know who to ask for a referral to a salon. I didn't want to try a local salon. There weren't that many serving Black women anyway. The nearest salon that I trusted was 2 hours away-not exactly convenient.

So, I decided to go with a national chain, like JC Penney. For some reason, I thought their standards would be higher and I would be pleased with the service. I arrived at the salon and my stylist wore this horrible, Beyonce-like weave. She was the only black stylist in the salon. She appeared to be young. I think she was around 20. She had a graduation picture of her with that same horrible weave taped to her station.

She asked me if I had a sensitive scalp. I said no. Up until that point, I'd never had a problem with bad burns. I asked her what kinds of relaxer they used and she said they only used Mizani. So she begins to apply the relaxer and at this point I can't even remember if she based my scalp. She probably didn't. All seems normal until I catch a glimpse of myself walking to the shampoo bowl. She has applied the relaxer all the way through my hair. Oh No. So she proceeds to rinse my hair and I'm in great pain. It hurts. My head is on fire. But I suck it up.

I had asked for a trim and a roller set. So she begins to trim my hair. But I guess she got tired because from what I could tell she only trimmed less than a fourth of my hair. Then she gets out the rollers. She only has red and green rollars-the smaller ones. My hair is way too long for that. She starts rolling my hair, starting from the nape of my neck. No, she didn't start from the top, middle, she started from the nape. My hair is drying and getting frizzy and she's still trying to roll it on these small rollers. She doesn't try to re-wet it with a leave in or anything. Then she tries to fit me under this small dryer. I tell her I need to really get under the dryer so my hair can dry. Normally, my hair takes at least an hour to dry-90 minutes to get it to perfection.

The stylist comes back after 45 minutes. I inform her that there is no way my hair is dry. She takes the rollers out and my hair is a frizzy, tangled mess with a few curls thrown in. She attempts to brush it. Then she reaches for her flat iron. I tell her that I've never used a flat iron but am considering purchasing one. She tells me that she got hers for 20$ from wal-mart but that JC Penney sells some for 100 bucks but that she didn't see the point in buying an expensive one. So, she's a professional using a 20 buck wal-mart flat iron.

She proceeds to rake the flat iron through my hair, using several strokes on one section. At this point,I'm just ready to go. The white stylists and patrons were just kind of looking on like "I don't think her hair is supposed to look like that" As I'm leaving, the stylist picks up her card and says "Here is my info in case you want to come back" When I get home, my hair is stiff, dry, and matted like I just woke up after sleeping on it. I attempted to comb some of the tangles out...but my head is too sore. In fact it hurt to comb or brush my hair for a week. The next morning I can detect a huge scab the size of my hand across the middle of my scalp. At this point, I'm worried about some permanent to my hair and scalp. I deep conditioned my hair and babied it for a few weeks and it got back to normal without too much damage. That is my hair horror story!