Last summer I decided to get a sew-in because I was tired of buying hair products— they can really add up! I bought hair from Virgin Hair Obsession with plans to get a sew-in weave and give my hair a bit of a break. The hair was nice, I guess. I didn’t know anything about weave and I still don’t!
I got my sew-in at a salon called the “50 Dollar Weave Shop.” The shop charged extra for everything from the number of braids to the braid size, it was terrible. The girl had an attitude and really didn’t know how to handle my hair. I tried to give her tips, but I legit ended up with seven braids on my entire head. Seven. The end result was pretty awful and my dream of having a gorgeous new protective style was fading fast.
This protective style ended up costing me three inches of hair and a few tears.
I ended up calling the salon’s corporate office and of course, the stylist got in trouble. I was also given a free service but I never bothered to use it, that’s how terrible my weave turned out! I couldn’t give up just yet. I found another stylist on Style Seat and decided to give her a try. It looked better than my first go ’round, but it didn’t look great either. It just wasn’t laying down the way I wanted it to.
As a protective style it worked out fine at first, until my braids loosened and the net started to lift. It wasn’t long before I was forced to take it down. I washed my hair and noticed that my ends were absolutely terrible. I gave myself a blowout to access the damage and sure enough, I had about two inches of dead ends.
If that wasn’t bad enough, it gets worse. I went to yet another stylist for a trim and my hair came out terribly uneven. I had to ask my friend’s mom to even it out and ended up losing another inch of hair!
This protective style ended up costing me three inches of hair and a few tears. On the bright side, after the final cut my curls were poppin’ and my ‘fro was happy and healthy. I hope that my unbeweavable hair disaster serves as a cautionary tale against inexperienced stylists and improper technique. If you’ve ever been through a similar experience, leave your horror story in the comments below.
Protective styling doesn’t guarantee longer, healthier hair. Dakotah Carter shares her experience in hope that we all use extreme care when it comes to our precious curls.
