General Info:
The Basic Dominican Wash and Dry - Levado Y Secado
This is the "Dominican Blowout" that you have heard so much about! We don't call it that, for us it's just the regular lavado y secado (wash-and-dry or roller set). What I describe here is how they do my hair in the salon once or twice every week. It leaves my hair smooth, full, wavy, and bouncy, the way I like it, without strong chemicals. Different types of hair and different styles have different requirements and can take more or less time.
When your turn comes up (cuando te toque a ti), first you have a shampoo (lavado), from a shampooer or from the stylist herself if she is not too busy. The shampoo might begin with a hot oil treatment. Then when the shampoo is rinsed out, you have 10 minutes in the dryer (el secador) without rollers to warm up your head, and then you have a wonderful scalp massage (un masaje) to stimulate the roots (estimular las raíces), that might be done with some product like a rinse (un rinse). At this point your hair is still wet.
After the massage, a leave-in conditioner (un acondicionador para dejar sobre el cabello) is applied and (if you need it) a special hair treatment (tratamiento, suero, ampollas, gotas) from Alter Ego or Cosmo or RR Line or Salerm or Star or UNA. And then they put in the curlers (los rolos). Big ones (los grandes) if you have long hair, smaller ones (los chiquitos) if you have short hair (el pelo corto) or you want your hair more curly (rizado) or wavy (ondulado). We like to use BIG rolos and the dryers are extra big so our heads will fit!
And then you sit under the big dryer (secador) for an hour! While your hair is drying, you can sleep, or read, or eat, or talk on the cell phone, or chat with the other women, or have a manicure or pedicure, or all of those at the same time! THEN, when you come out of the dryer, they take out the rollers, they spray your hair with a special product for blow-drying like Salerm Brushing Termo Activo or sometimes the stylist's own mixture of water, lave-in, and treatment in a spray bottle. Then they divide your hair into sections, which they brush (cepillar, and sometimes they pull - jalar - hard), and blow-dry (secar a mano) for half an hour, using a big round brush (cepillo redondo) or other kind of brush, depending on the length of your hair and style you want, and whether you want it to fall inward (hacia adentro) or outward (hacia afuera, 'con flip'). And that's it!
Copyright © 2009-2011, Aleida Morel, All Rights Reserved