Rasheeda Edmonds, a Staten Island native, was distraught when she learned what happened to her hair a month after visiting Guille’s Dominican Hair Salon in Mariners Harbor on Staten Island.

“This was my first and last time. Because I moved over here and didn’t want to go all the way to bay (neighborhood), my friend recommended it to me.” Rasheeda explained that her friend also recommended other friends, who all seem to have the same experience when asked.

Rasheeda’s hair has been natural all her life, with the exception of an occasional wash and blow-out with limited heat damage. Rasheeda claims that while washing her hair for the first time since what she thought was a wash and blow-out, using the same hair products that she has been using for months, she noticed the smell of relaxer chemicals. Afterwards, she continued to detangle her hair with her finger and found out that she was losing a significant amount of hair. The pictures below were all taken on the same day.

Rasheeda believes that the stylist mixed relaxer in the conditioner used, since she did not actually see relaxer during the process.

There have been stories going viral about salon stylists complaining about the thickness in texture of their client’s hair followed by the client later realizing that it was permed and other experiences of those having what is called “pelo malo” by some Dominicans and other Latinos. Dorfi Martinez, a Bronx native of Dominican descent shared her thoughts and stories of her visits to the Dominican Republic which usually began with her aunt taking her to a salon to get her hair chemically relaxed.

“It’s more common to see a NY born Dominican wearing her hair naturally curly, than to see a Dominican born person, living in NY or DR, with curly hair,” shared Dorfi. “It’s just the standards of beauty there,” she continued. “They want to look more European and it’s not common to love your hair if it’s too crazy or too wild like mine.”

The natural hair movement became more accepted in the early 2000s, when black women with chemically straightened hair would “big chop” or slowly let their hair grow back into its natural state. The evolution of this over $774 million industry has resulted in relaxer sales aiming to decrease by 45 percent before 2019, according to atlantablackstar.com. Although some women like Rasheeda are turning to blow-outs for the same look, they are well aware that the straight hair is only temporary and appreciate the fact that they can switch it up and wear their hair natural again – an option that is not immediately available after natural hair is chemically relaxed.

Below are some pictures of Rasheeda’s hair before (blown out by another salon a few months ago) and after going to Guille’s Dominican Hair salon. Her hair was washed and deep conditioned a month later, in the later.

Before

After

I reached out to the salon for a statement and was yelled at and hung up on when I asked about relaxer being mixed in their conditioner.

“I just want to make sure that this doesn’t happen to another person in the future because this is making me depressed,” says Rasheeda. “I’m sure they’ve done this to someone else before and it’s not okay. Not only did she (the stylist) withhold information but she did not do what I came for and she put chemicals in my hair without asking me.”