Home hair care proves frugal, efficient for African-American students

by Rosie Lukanc
For The Post

For some African-American female students, home — or dorm — hair maintenance has become the answer to salons’ price and time.

“I haven’t gone to a salon for a couple of years,” Ohio University sophomore Alana Below said. “Last time I went, it cost me $140, and that was just for a relaxer.”

Below said high prices and an inability to style her hair correctly led her to home-hair maintenance. She is biracial and said finding a stylist is difficult.

“It’s so expensive, and no one can do my hair right,” she said.

She now goes to her friend, OU sophomore Kenisha Sanders, for her hair needs.

“It saves $15 every six to eight weeks when I do it,” Sanders said. Sanders has been styling her and others’ hair since coming to OU, although it’s more an issue of time than money to her.

“I’m lazy sometimes, so I’ll just do it myself. But when I can, I go to Attractions where my mom’s friend works,” Sanders said.

“I cherish my hair,” she said. “I don’t care who does it, as long as it’s done right.”

Sanders gives herself a home perm every six to eight weeks to maintain her hairstyle. Although home perms are a complex process, Sanders said she takes care to do it right, so she isn’t concerned about doing it herself.

“You have to be careful, or you’ll go bald,” she said.

OU sophomore Doris Colston isn’t as brave with home chemicals as Sanders, so she said she prefers to press her hair with heat at home.

Pressing involves using a heated comb to straighten her hair. Although a difficult process in the dorms, where there are no stoves to heat a press, Colston makes do with an electric model.

“In a salon, it costs $30 every two weeks,” Colston said. Her electric press cost $25.

She said she thinks the hassle is worth the extra money and would go to a salon if she could find a stylist who could press hair.

“It’s not mandatory for beauticians to learn how to do it anymore,” she said. “It’s uncommon to find one that does.”

Colston said she wishes she could treat herself to a trip to the salon but is thankful for the money she saves.

“I’m thinking of getting it braided just to avoid the trouble, though,” she said.

But sometimes home maintenance comes with some home mishaps.

Sanders remembers the first time she ever cut her roommate’s hair.

“I was trimming her ends and I clipped her ear,” she said. “She was not pleased.”