The Purely Natural Salon

Hi lovely people, Happy Monday!

Over the weekend, I went to my 1^st ever natural hair salon! It has been 4 years I ever went into a salon to get my hair done too.

I am starting this series where I go to different natural hair salons in the London and write up my experience. I am not been paid or sponsored, I am paying full price and I am not telling them I am doing a write up so I don’ get a ‘special treatment’. To kick things off, I went to the Purely Natural Salon in Stratford. I heard mixed reviews about this place, but I decided to go ahead and test them out as those reviews I saw where about 3 years ago.

I don’t want to waffle about too much so let’s get straight to it.

The salon is about a 5-10 min walk from the station so it’s not bad. I booked my appointment about 2 weeks before hand just to make sure I was seen when I got there. I called for directions and the lady was kind enough to tell me how to get there, I was about 5-10 mins late because of this (For some reason I thought the salon was right outside the station). Anyway, I was seen straight away.

She first applied conditioner to my hair to detangle (I will list the product names at the end) but only passed the combed through it a few times. Washed it out and applied the treatment, when I asked what is was, she said it was a special secret blend. I sat under the dryer for about 20-30 mins after which she shampooed and lightly conditioned. I thought I would get a proper detangling sessions when she applied the conditioner but it was the same, passed the comb a few times but didn’t section my hair into smaller sections.

After all that, I sat in the chair a bit nervous because I felt my hair hadn’t been detangled properly and I know when this happens my hair starts to tangle (I have 4c hair which gets about 70% shrinkage! And my wash wasn’t washed in sections which I don’t mind if its detangled properly after) anyway she applied a little bit of their shea butter mix then went in to start combing my hair in sections ( with a wide tooth comb) and blow dry! I was a bit worried because she hadn’t applied any leave in conditioner or heat protectant. So I asked ‘ oh what heat protectants do you use here’ then she showed me it then applied a bit to my hair ( this was after she blew it out a bit, it was still wet)

After completely blow drying, then came the trimming which again I was nervous for because I know some stylists can get scissor happy. However she asked how much I wanted to cut off. There was a lot to cut but I explained I would rather do it bit by bit because I am growing my hair out. So she trimmed it then asked what style would I like. I just asked her to do two large canerows and that what it

Costs/products

Total costs £40 ( Protein treatment £30, trim £10)

Tresemme moisture rich conditioner

Own protein treatment

Tresemme shampoo for naturals

Own shea butter mix

Cantu no drip hair and scalp oil

From start to finish about 1hour 30 mins

My thoughts

It was an ok experience, their customer service is on point though, they are a really nice bunch: asked to take my jacket, offered me water, offered me a magazine and we has a few convos too. My hair came out soft as you would expect after a treatment. I wish though I had a proper detangling session where she would part my hair into smaller sections seeing that it was 4c hair and detangle. This would then eliminate that combing out part she did before blow drying which did nothing but break my hair as I was looking at the comb. Infact I did ask while she was doing that if she’s detangling and she said ‘no, because we have already done that’ in my head I thought ‘oh ok but when?’ then I wouldn’t have seen my hair flying about when she was blow drying, it was painful to watch, not in terms of how she was handling my hair but to see my hair like that because it’s been 8 months since I put heat on my hair and 1 year since I used a comb.

Also I don’t know if she would have used any heat protectant if I didn’t say thing because I don’t think shea butter alone is good enough. I was familiar with all the brands and products used as I have used them before (Is it bad lol #product junkie), but I was hoping for new products I hadn’t used for so I could get some new products to try out or review them on here.

In conclusion, I was looking to rate them on how they handled my hair, in particular how they detangled it. Since I didn’t get that I was a bit disappointed.

I would give it a 6 out of 10.

Read other reviews here

CFYH http://www.cfyh.co.uk/2012/08/23/salon-experience-fail/

Cookie’s Real Hair Care https://youtu.be/0j7J7DkQBvc

Nappturally Me http://napptrallyme.blogspot.co.uk/2011/08/purely-natural-review.html

Let me know what you guys think? Have you been there and was your experience totally different from mine? I am looking to go to another salon next month, I haven’t decided where yet.

Have a happy Monday

Love

Sarah

‘you have been set free, remain in freedom’