As many of you know, I have a website about Las Vegas and people occasionally write me emails from all over the world with questions - usually specifically about Las Vegas.
However, I got an email from someone in Germany and here is their story:
A friend of theirs has a daughter and her grandfather is from Africa, so the daughter has very curly hair and wants to straighten it out.
It seems there is a dearth of hair products in Germany for girls and women with this type of hair.
They want to know what hair products would be recommended for a girl/woman with very curly, African-heritage hair.
I haven’t a clue. I am not even sure what they are looking for - they mentioned a gel of some kind?
Any tips or suggestions would be appreciated - even though this is hardly the normal question I get from my website, I would like to provide some info for them.
Is there a Sally Beauty Supply in Las Vegas? There should be, they’re everywhere else. They have an extensive selection of products for African-American hair, and are open to the public.
Yeah there are quite a few Sally stores in Vegas, according to their store locator.
Are these people travelling to Vegas or did they just randomly email you? If they’re travelling to Vegas you can help point them to the nearest Sally to where they’ll be staying.
Gosh, they don’t even need to find a Sally Beauty Supply–they sell all kinds of hair straighteners and African-American hair care supplies at Wal-mart, K-Mart, Walgreens, everywhere. Straighteners come in kits, like home permanents.
Thanks for the suggestions and no, I don’t think they are intending to come to Las Vegas, I think they just saw my site and figured, “maybe he’ll know?”
Thus, any name brands (and thus I could find a link to send them) would be appreciated. That way, they could order on-line, or if they have friends coming to the US, they would know what to buy.
Thanks again for the tips. I have no idea who this person is who is writing me, but figured I would try to help them best I can.
I would advise against a do-it-yourself relaxer. The risk of burns is just way too great (“no-lye” does not mean “no burn”), especially for a newbie.
She should try blow drying it with a comb attachment, and then use a good flat iron if she really wants it straight. She should also limit washing her hair to once a week (light on the shampoo), and sleep with her hair wrapped under a satin scarf. Tell her to look for “smoothing” conditioners. Suave makes a good one. A good conditioner will help keep down the frizz.
If she’s only of partial African heritage, her hair may be okay for thermal Japanese straightening. I have no idea if it can be found in Germany, but it seems to be picking up in popularity, so high-end hair places there may have it (it’s expensive). It apparently is too harsh for 100% black people, but it worked for me (50% black, very curly). It won’t become wash-and-wear-just-like-totally-white-people hair, but the results are pretty astonishing, and not fake looking or stiff, with proper care.
If they live near a large town, they may be able to find hairdressers catering to African hair. I know I’ve seen them in Basel (Switzerland) and in Köln. And no, I have no idea why I notice things like that.
The gel they mentioned is likely curl activating gel. It’s clear, comes in a tub and with a light hand, helps moisturize and add shine to ethnic hair. Keeping her hair well moisturized is the biggest priority. It will help keep down frizz and eliminate breakage. A deep conditioning about once or twice a month helps a lot too.
An inexpensive brand of ethnic hair care products is Queen Helene. Hain Celestial | A Healthier Way of Life Since 1993 I use the cholestrol deep conditioner and the curl activater. I also go ape with regular and leave-in conditioners (Northern European ancestry but very curly hair).
I’d second this. Someone with no experience with relaxers at all will probably not do well with a home relaxing kit. If they want it chemically relaxed, they should probably go with a professional.
If not, and she wants it straight, it needs to be very conditioned, pulled straight while being dried (easier if the drier has the attachment - but it’s not necessary), high heat. And then probably hot combed (a flat iron might not be enough - on the other hand, I’ve never been burned by a flat iron). And then it cannot get wet - at all.
Once again, thank you all for your suggestions and I will put all your suggestions together in an email and send it on.
I have no idea what that girl/woman wants to do with her hair, but it sounds like she just wants to have it straightened out…teaching psychology, my guess is that she wants to look like the other kids in school. Maybe it is just a one-shot trial to see how it looks, maybe it is just a phase.
Thanks for your help. It sure is a lot easier for me to respond to emails when people just ask me about Las Vegas,