New Salon experience - Liz's

I went to a new salon, referred by my girl K and Ms. S. My appointment at Liz's Hair Care was on Friday morning. I was a little late, because parking on Tremont street, especially on a Friday, is a beast. However, the receptionist and my stylist were really cool about it and took me as soon as I came in. I was nervous at first because they just sent me to the sink and I wanted to talk about the condition of my hair. The girl who shampoo'd me said that I didn't need a heavy duty protein treatment (yay!), so she gave me a deep conditioner with a mild protein- they wouldn't tell me what kind (bad). After I was rinsed, I sat in the stylist's chair. I liked her a lot. She likes to talk about hair, which is the way to my heart. She thought that I should cut almost all of my hair off and start over. I know my hair is overprocessed, but I wasn't ready to cut my hair, especially by someone who I was going to for the first time! She said she would just rollerset it and I could get it cut when I came back for a relaxer. As she was rollersetting me, I told her that I had been thinking about going natural, but not now because I'm starting a new, pretty conservative job later this month and I need to get settled there before I come in with an afro, lol. Well, the rest of the time I was there, she kept pressuring me to cut all my hair off in a twa and start over natural. She said that I could get braids and weaves until it grew back. She even had another customer who is natural come talk to me about it while I was under the dryer! She kept pressuring me, and I felt like she wasn't listening to my reasons for not going natural right now. When I left, my hair looked nice, but not as nice as everyone else who walked out. My ends don't look as thin as they did, which is good and is leading me to think that I really don't have to cut all my hair off. My new growth is very manageable. Also, felt really overwhelmed when I left- should I cut my hair? should I go natural? do I hate myself and black people in general because I'm not ready to go natural? Afterwards, I talked to my friend K who goes to Kathy, and she thought that the stylist didn't understand because she is so young and never had a conservative job where being natural isn't as easy. So I may go back, but I would probably go to Liz, the owner. Also, the place seemed a little too tight. I'm not usually claustrophobic, but when I can kick a customer in a stylist chair while I'm at the sink, I feel like the walls are closing in on me. I felt like everyone was in my conversation when I was talking to my stylist about my hair, which made me a little uncomfortable. But I did go on a Friday, which I'm sure is more crowded than usual. I've been pin curling my hair since my appointment, and my hair still looked nice until I washed yesterday.

I bought some of the leave-in they used - Fantasia IC with Olive - but it didn't work for me when I used it. It made my hair hard, which I had to soften with a warm flat iron.