The itinerary for today was to wake up early, go to a saloon close by to get my hair braided and see my niece later in the day but the weather had other plans for me. It had been raining since last night and it went on until this morning. While the rain messed up my plans, it was rather refreshing to see the heavy downpour here in the south, unlike the north where it barely rains.
I eventually set out to get my day started at about noon when the rain had eased a bit. It wasn't a long walk but the showers, wet road and heavy umbrella stressed me on the way there. I was trying to not be too late so I don't miss my appointment. Luckily, I met only the braider there who looked sort of pissed. Well, I had informed her hours earlier that I would be there before noon because of the heavy downpour and I was only a few minutes late.
She was ready to begin immediately I stepped in and didn't want to waste further time. This didn't give me enough window to make my selection of hair extensions so I made a hasty decision for my colour mix. Some rows in, I was already in regret for my choice but it was too late to go back, I couldn't afford to change colours at this point.
This is my japa hair (travel hair) and it sucks that I wasn't in love with it even before it was done. The colour mix turned out to be a lot different from what I had envisioned and I felt I should have stuck with good 'ol black. You see, I had wanted to lift my mood with bright-coloured hair but this shade of gold/brown is not doing justice to that.
When we began, she sorted the extensions and I was happy she didn't bother asking me to hand her extensions. I don't remember the last time I handed a braider extensions because I don't see why I should do that when I'm paying for a service. The problem here was that there was no one else available to hand her the extensions yet she began braiding.
It was then I realized she didn't need help because she wasn't doing knotless braids. I made a poor decision with the colours, I wasn't going to make it look worse by not getting knotless braids done, so we had to switch the braiding to knotless and I had to hand extensions throughout. It was an arm workout the whole 4+ hours I spent there, my right arm still hurts.
She mentioned it took that long because it was knotless braids and also because, "you have full hair and a big skull". It was so funny to me because she was saying I have a big head but trying to pick her words. I guess she didn't want to head shame me or come across as offensive. She's not the first hairdresser to say I have a big head but she's definitely the nicest one 😁
I like her work a lot, she braids neatly, fast, and studious. It almost makes me forget I don't like the colour of the braids. It was a nice experience though. It will be the last time in a while I'd be in a local hair saloon like this so I was grasping the Nigerian-ness of it all. These braids should last me at least a month or a little longer if I don't hate it too much before taking it out. I hear braiding in the UK is very expensive, thankfully, I have my wigs and can also wear my hair out sometimes if I can't afford to braid.