To Weave or Not To Weave

As I was preparing to go on vacation with my husband, I debated as to whether I should have my hair styled and wish for the best or get a weave so that I would have little to no concern for styling my crowning glory. As I weighed the options, I thought about the one and only time I’d had a weave in the past. My previous stylist did a sew in and it was beautiful. But despite how cute it was, it hurt like hell having it put in and because I wasn’t used to it, the itching drove me freaking crazy! That beautiful style that I paid a lot of money for lasted me all of two weeks. I went back begging my stylist to take it out.

So here I was again thinking about another weave. I thought about all of the water sports that were offered by the resort, the hot weather, and my desire to not spend a significant amount of my vacation trying to style my hair. So you guessed it, the weave option won. I called my dear friend who is a great stylist and asked her opinion. She immediately advised me to go for the low maintenance sew in weave. I met her at the beauty supply store, paid for some Peruvian woman’s hair and then the process began. OMG, my girl braided my hair so tight that I should never require Botox. Not one line remained anywhere on my face. Once my hair was all braided, she threaded needled and began to sew another woman’s hair into my head and you guessed it, that process hurt too. But when she was done, I looked super cute. I had a head full of beautiful, wavy hair and you couldn’t tell me nothing. I popped some pain meds (my head was freaking killing me), threw on some lipstick and headed home.

The hair was a hit on social media (because sadly we feel the need to post everything) and with the family. I packed my bags and took off for the Caribbean. I had all of my hair care products and instructions on washing my new hair if needed. Day two of vacation in 90 plus degree weather and a boat ride that sprayed my hair with salt water required me to wash it. Gently I massaged the shampoo through my hair, then conditioned it and just like my stylist had said, the curls bounced right back. My hair was cute again, but damn if it didn’t stink to high heaven! Why in the hell didn’t anyone tell me that weave stinks when it gets wet? Is this some big secret held sacred by all of those that swear by weave? At first I thought the horrible odor was my new body lotion, but my husband dispelled that thought by telling me just how bad my hair smelled. Oh, and did I neglect to tell you that my scalp was itching like crazy? So now I have a scalp that I can’t scratch and my Peruvian girl’s hair smelled as if it had been sprayed by a skunk. But I was still cute.

I know that we as women are supposed to be willing to pay any price for beauty, but the cost of this weave was way out of my budget. Not only is it expensive to purchase the hair and have it put in, but it’s also painful. It’s not something I can fully maintain on my own (I can’t wash this mess) and my inability to scratch my scalp is just torture. Now don’t get me wrong, I’m not knocking weave for all of my sisters out there that find it to be a great styling option (cause there are some beautiful weaves out there), it’s just not a viable option for me.

So go on girls, wear your weaves proudly. Don’t think I’m judging you when I condemn any and all future possibilities of a weave for myself. I can say that I had it right all those years ago when I vowed to never do a weave again. As a woman, I had the right to change my mind and try it once more. But please hear me now, I will NEVER put another woman’s hair in my head again! I think they cast a spell on it causing the intolerable itching…LOL.

Stacey

Follow Stacey on Instagram and Twitter. Visit her @ www.staceycovingtonlee.com and find her novels @ www.amazon.com/author/staceycovingtonlee.