To be honest, I did’t even know that there were salons that actually specialized in natural hair. I did my big chop soon after I moved to a new city, so not only did I not have a solid hair stylist yet, but I also didn’t want to go to someone who didn’t specialize in natural hair.
I made it a point to take care of my hair once I chopped off all the relaxed ends, and I didn’t want one bad salon experience to set me back from achieving my desired length and hair health. So here’0s what I did to find the salon that did my big chop and then later the stylist who slays my protective styles:
1. Yelp.
I read tons and tons of yelp reviews. Typically, I only used yelp to find good restaurants, but Yelp has reviews for pretty much anything- including hair salons! I started by googling natural hair salons in my area, and from the list that came up I then looked at the reviews on Yelp to cross reference, and also look at photos.
2. Instagram.
Instagram has become more and more popular, and many people have started making business related pages. So, I went into the search box and just typed ‘natural hair stylists’ or ‘protectivestylesnyc’ and I was surprised at how many photos popped up just with that tag.
Ultimately, Instagram is how I found my stylist who has been installing my crochet styles for the last year! She was just getting started at the time, but she had a lot of photos of her work, and I was impressed, so I took a chance, and was so happy that I did! Which leads me to my next point….
3. Trial and Error
Even if a place does have good Yelp reviews, you really won’t know how your visit is going to turn out. Even salons that had awesome reviews, also had some negative reviews as well. So, ultimately you have to just try a few places out after doing your research, and hopefully you’ll get lucky!
