Comments on: Is The Roller-Set Essential To Dominican Styling?

By: Sharie

Sharie — Mon, 19 Oct 2009 04:00:06 +0000

I never really enjoyed my hair until I started going to a Dominican Hair salon when I was fifteen. They taught me how to wear my relaxed hair loose and what types of products to use on it. When I was in high school I wasn’t allowed to work, and the prices they offered at their salons allowed my hardworking mom to give me money to get my hair done on a bi-weekly, if not weekly basis AND they were walk-in. I would get a roller set and wrap only, and my relaxed hair came out so gorgeous and bouncy that people in school would ask me where I got my hair done. This was in the early/mid nineties in a New Jersey suburb close to the GW bridge when the shop first opened on the main road. Soon, half the girls in my school went to the salon and would get rollers and a wrap. At a certain point, the black girls in our town were instantly recognized because our healthy shoulder length or longer hair. (No joke).

Right now, for me, and my relaxed hair…Dominican is the way to go. Every time I pass an African American salon here in the five boroughs (NYC), it is ALL about the weave or twists and natural. I am neither of the two so I go where I get results. Many, if not all of the woman sitting next to me in the dom shops in Queens and Brooklyn are black womem with thick/coarse relaxed hair who appreciate the technique of roller setting and blow drying their hair with the round brush along with the great treatments. Not every shop is great, just like not every restaurant is going to be great, but you find what you like and you stick with it. As a grown woman I am not going to let anyone burn my scalp with a relaxer, or FRY my hair with a superhot dryer or flatiron leaving me bald. The stylist is not your ma-ma who is going to slap you with the comb for complaining. You tell them what you like, and you reward them for doing good by tips and returning. If they don’t keep any customers, they will get the hint.

Idk about natural hair, but all of us relaxed girls here in NYC (we are the majority), FLOVE dominican hair salons English speaking or not. They figure out what you want and get the job done for a bargain price.

By: GORGEOUS ONE

GORGEOUS ONE — Tue, 07 Apr 2009 21:49:42 +0000

I Always Wondered What all the ” fuss ” was about - it seems that the Dominican Technique utilizes Traditional Techniques for Caucasian Hair:

Blow Drys, Wet Sets, etc - many Dominican Woman who are more mixed have long hair naturally with a fine texture, hence the techinque.

Sounds like nothing new to me - just what is appropriate & will work for certain hair types.

I would like to look at the results with coarse hair,

By: sharon

sharon — Tue, 24 Mar 2009 12:52:04 +0000

does anyone know the name of the leave-in conditioner the dominicians salons use to blow dry hair?

By: Deborah

Deborah — Sun, 08 Mar 2009 07:46:16 +0000

Does anyone do the Dominican way of doing hair (with rollers) in Portland, Orgeon?

By: Umm Amiyr

Umm Amiyr — Mon, 23 Feb 2009 00:50:36 +0000

I currently have a texturizer, it was applied to approx 3 inches of my hair @ the roots. A texturizer is simply a very very mild relaxer. My problem was that when I perspired my hair was getting kinda knotty at the roots. That was plucking my nerves, so my sylist suggested a texturizer. She used Linange Shea Butter Texturizer. What I like is that my hair is not bone straight, to tell the truth, the only difference I notice is that my rots are not getting bushy.

By: brooklyn7125

brooklyn7125 — Wed, 11 Feb 2009 04:03:52 +0000

I’m in btwn, trying to let my hair growout from a short hair cut, I haven’t relaxed my hair since, Sept, and then I had micros and now, I don’t know if I want to go back to relaxed, however, my hair right now is very hard to manage, I went to this new dominican salon here in the atlanta metro, she suggested a texturizer, not too familar with that, however she said it would be better than a relaxer…. Help, cause Idk what to do…

By: Gemini Gurl

Gemini Gurl — Tue, 27 Jan 2009 16:33:03 +0000

I have been wearing my hair natural (mostly braid styles) for almost 7 years now. With these styles your hair tends to dry out. I recently decided that I wanted to wear my hair out but didn’t know where to turn. My cousin has been going to Dominican to get her hair styled for years and suggested that I go. Of course I wasskeptical about going there and everyone seeing my hair in its most natural state (very kinky). I was welcomed with opened arms. They first washed, deep conditioned, trimmed and then blow dryed it straight. Then the stylist suggested I get a little curl for style. Well let me tell you when I left that shop my hair was as light as a feather. It looked like I had just got a relaxer.

I would recommend anyone who is transitioning from relaxed to natural hair to please check out the Dominicans. I will be going every two weeks so that they can train my hair the way it should be but a Dominican Salon is the next best thing since sliced bread.

By: DRTigerlilly

DRTigerlilly — Fri, 16 Jan 2009 19:07:08 +0000

Well, i have lived in the Dominican Republic for the past five years, and i can’t agree with any of you. I’m from Jamaican, black with some spattering of Indian heritage….my hair is fine, but there’s alot of it….or there was before i came to the DR…My hair is so fine that by the time you’ve combed the relaxer through it once, its already relaxed & ready to be washed out.

In Jamaica my routine was wash, roller set with setting lotion or lottabody & a leave in conditioner, and brush out w/ a little hair oil on the scalp, and oil sheen after styling…when i relaxed my hair it would be relax, roller set as above, brush out & the stove type curling irons to curl the ends of my hair under.

My hair was straight, shiny & sleek…..enter the Dominican Republic, and all my american (caucasian, indian, hispanic) friends go crazy over how straight & soft there hair is. Not so with mine…

There is a distinct difference between when i get my hair done @ home, and when i get my hair done in the DR…straight yes….i’ve realized that’s an obsession, and burn your scalp they will to get it bone straight…but it is no as sleek & shiny as it is when my hair dresser does it in Jamaica.

In addition to that my hair has been breaking since i came here…I’m not sure i agree w/ the Dominican way of doing hair…they look at you crazy if you suggest using setting lotion or heavens forbid hair oil/oil sheen…..the roller set i agree with…the smoke filled salons w/ burning hair i do not.

By: Candy

Candy — Thu, 08 Jan 2009 23:37:32 +0000

I only got a blow out once from a Dominican Salon in the D.C. area. I wasn’t able to get the rollers because I was natural at the time. I was wondering why my friend got rollers and I didn’t. The stylist kept speaking spanish the whole time so I don’t think she was fluent in English. My hair got really straight so it didn’t bothere me at all. Next time I do want to get a roller set. A blow out is the best thing next to a relaxer.

By: Umm Amiyr

Umm Amiyr — Thu, 01 Jan 2009 15:42:05 +0000

I have gone to Dominican Salons on and off for the past 7-8 years. Initially my hair was relaxed, and I would get the roller set and blow out. I then went natural. For the past 4 years I had been with out any chemicals in my hair (I have tightly curled hair) and went to a traitional African American Salon, and got a blow dry and curl, with the marcel irons (the ones that are heated on a beauticians stove). Recently I returned to a Dominican Salon and Yadira (Kebello Kolors-Phila) is the truth, I’ve done both, roller set and blow out and just blow dry and flat ironed. My time determines which service. I prefer the roller set and blow out and flat iron.
My only problem was that my roots would sometime get bushy. Well, Yadirah suggested a texturizer, which she only applied to the roots, LINANGE Shea Butter Cream Texturizer. so far so good. I didn’t mention the fact that I have permanent color with copper highlights. My hair is covered for a good portion of the day as I am Muslim, and I’ve not experienced any breakage. I use a Paul Mitchell product to keep it moisturized.
Well, the truth of Dominincan salons was revealed to me (as if I really needed to be convinced) when I took my 11 year old neice to the salon the other day. Did I mention that her hair is a knotty as a lambs behind and damaged at that. Well, girls they washed, deep conditoned, trimmed it blew it dry and flat ironed it. Her hair looks wonderful. Accomplishing that is a miracle. When she returns to Maryland, she’ll be going to a Dominican Salon in Essex.