“You have to relax it. I don’t do
that here.”
“Okay.”
Bongani dragged me to a
second salon. I sat down in the
chair, and the woman took my hair
and started painting this creamy
white stuff in it. She was wearing
rubber gloves to keep this chemical
relaxer off her own skin, which
should have been my first clue that
maybe this wasn’t such a great idea.
Once my hair was full of the
relaxer, she told me, “You have to
try to keep it in for as long as
possible. It’s going to start burning.
When it starts burning, tell me and