I have a friend. She said for a month straight, “I really want kinky twists.” So, I found a salon who said they could do the style and booked the next available appointment. I went to the hair store and bought 10 hair bundles with the gracious help of another customer.

We get to the salon. The braider is late. She brought a meal. We tell her to finish eating. She washes my friend’s hair. Then does two twists before saying, “It’s not working. This hair isn’t ‘nappy’ enough.” I told her let’s go to the store and I’ll buy hair she thinks will work. She couldn’t find better hair. So, she talked my friend into crochets. I explained the process and that it’s faster and cheaper. The woman said, “Wow. You know hair.”

She started to cornrow my friend’s hair when my friend said, “Yeah, I’m a little tender-headed.” When she was asked. I offered to grab us all coffee because I felt so out of place. I didn’t think the woman wanted to talk to me, and she wasn’t talking to my friend.

I came back 20 minutes later and she had only one bundle left. So, it took her about 30 minutes total to do the style.

The next day, after my friend used a scarf to sleep in, the edges unraveled and all the crochets in the front and back fell out. She told me, “You paid good money for this, I’m just gonna cover the edges with my scarf.” And she pulled what was left into a pony tail and wrapped her edges with a scarf.

I contacted the salon. I was hoping she’d say to come in and she’d fix it at a discount, do another style at a discount, or just fix it for free. She replied, “She gonna have to take it out.”

My friend thinks she just did a bad job because I paid for it and I’m not Black. But, my friend is Black and the one who got the services… I’m obviously not going to take her back to that salon. But what are your thoughts?