We all know that racial stereotyping is not cool. And anyone can like any beauty supply store that they want for what ever reason. Were clear on that? I have to confess my love for the black lady beauty supply.
Sally’s has earned itself well known name for being your average everyday beauty supply store that sells to the general public. This is a fact. I often refer people to Sally’s for their DIY hair tool needs ( Still on the lookout for a good independent online beauty shop to refer readers to for their beauty needs??)
If you don’t already know, there is another world of hair supplies out there. It’s the black lady beauty mart. It makes Sally’s look like office depot. It is a special and wonderful world of treasures.
Every reasonably sized town has one. They are almost always run by Korean people (here’s why) and are geared towards more kinky textured hair and hair needs. They are often in strip malls, and you can tell them by the brightly colored poster on the door advertizing ‘Ombre Yaki weave’ or a special on wigs and doo-rags.
My first trip to the black lady beauty mart blew my mind wide open. It is my most fun and exciting shopping experiences to this day. I was immediately hooked, and I try to visit one in every city that I travel to. I always leave having paid next to nothing for items that I’m giddy with excitement to try out, and hair-inspired in a whole new way.
It is also really fun to take people there for the first time. I brought my very begrudging Jonny into a huge and awesome one in Kansas City, we were in there for nearly an hour and he bought more stuff than I did! I take my kids with me when I go, because it is fun for them too. I let em pick out a little something to take home.
Walk in, and here is what you will find…….Every brush, comb, and pick you could ever need, wigs and weave in every color, all your hair chemicals for coloring perming and relaxing hair, oils and butters for curls and textured hair, bandanas and doo rags, pins and clips, plastic colored barrettes that say I LOVE JESUS on them, sparkly fake diamond jewelry, little facial razors for shaping brows and removing mustaches, baubles, big hoop earrings, make-up, products that add ‘sheen’, nail polish, and much more.
A couple days ago, I picked up my daughter Selah from preschool. It was 3 o’clock, the hour when I’m generally in energy-crash mode, and desperate for something interesting to do with my kids to span the time between after-school and dinner time when I can finally begin to see the light at the end of the tunnel. I had been invited to a Halloween costume party the next day and I decided on a whim that I would run by Young’s Beauty Mart on Wedington blvd and see if I couldn’t muster up some sort of costume inspiration.
I opened the doors and breathed a sigh of relief as the wafting scent of plastic hair and coco butter entered my nose. It felt like home for just a minute. You know how it is kind of comforting to look up at the moon and know that your loved ones far away might be looking at the moon too? I felt that same sort of comfort. Don’t ask me why.
We spent a good half hour in there. I found a bin of synthetic hair in my color for 1.29$ and I bought 2 of ’em. I reckoned that I could braid them into my hair and make 2 long creepy braids to accent a dead prairie girl costume.
I bought the weave hair, and a teasing brush, a teasing comb with a pick on the end, and a donut sized scrunchy thing that I can put my hair up with while I sleep. I almost got more shea butter to use in my liquid gold polishing butter, but remembered that I still have some left from the Kansas City beauty mart.
Most excitingly, I got a pair of red plastic chopsticks. I had been playing with using pens and pencils to hold my hair up prior to my shopping trip but had gotten frustrated with the pullyness and catchyness of them, not to mention the lines drawn on my scalp. I had raided my kitchen drawers for chopsticks to no avail. These red chopsticks are perfectly red and smooth, and slide through my buns like butter. How naughty!
Anyways, I put my hair up with my pretty red chopsticks and I felt downright regal.
Have you ever used chopsticks in your hair?? Soon I will make a little how-to tutorial for putting hair up with hair sticks to share with you.
In conclusion, I spent a total of 8$ on my shopping trip, and If I could put a dollar value on the satisfaction that I got from it, it would be at least $65.
XO!
