Let me start off by saying I had virgin (never chemically processed) hair before going to the Beauty Boutique. I called on a Wednesday and had a lovely conversation with the owner Mariza. I explained that I have long natural hair and was growing frustrated with how long it takes me to detangle and wash it. She was super nice and answered all of my questions. I made the appointment for the following week, also on a Wed.
Mariza was just as friendly in person as she was on the phone. I didn't have to wait to be seen. I thought Mariza was going to be the one working on my hair, but to my surprise, it was her assistant Vanessa. I would have given this review 5 stars had Mariza actually been the one to do the work. Vanessa was nice enough but I could tell she did not have experience dealing with my unruly hair. She started to use a very small comb to detangle my hair. When I asked her to use a wide-tooth comb, Mariza came over and started to help her with a bigger comb. To be fair, they did explain that in order to work the texturizer in properly, a fine tooth comb would have to be used.
Mariza explained to me that because I had never used a small comb to detangle my hair, there was quite a bit of shed hair, especially at the root that would need to be removed. After about an hour of detangling (they tried their best), Vanessa began applying the texturizer. It appeared that the texturizer was working so we weren't so concerned about the hair not being completely detangled. I got a very nice shampoo and conditioning treatment from Vanessa.
It wasn't until I was in the chair that we all realized what a tangled mess my hair had become because of it not being thoroughly detangled before applying the texturizer. My hair was a lot softer, so I can tell that the mild relaxer did accomplish what I wanted to achieve which was a softening of the texture, not a full-on relaxer. In this respect Vanessa did an excellent job. That is why I gave as many stars as I did because I plan on returning to her to do the texturizer.
Overall, my experience was VERY good despite it taking 6 hours from beginning to end. We learned that when dealing with very coarse natural hair, it is very important to make sure the hair is thoroughly detailed before doing anything. I will make sure to stay on top of detangling my hair when I wash it on my home. First by using a wide tooth comb, then going over the area with either a Denman brush or a small-toothed comb. We also discussed washing my hair while it is in sections to avoid the tangled mess we got the first time. I'll come back and update this review to see if that helped.
In conclusion, all the ladies at The Beauty Boutique are sweet and I definitely plan on going back there. If you are Afro-American/Caribbean and you have 4B/4C hair, this is a good place for you to try out, especially now that Mariza and Vanessa know how tangled our hair can get. read more
