The Boiling Pot

When you braid hair with synthetic hair to add length to it, you must boil the ends of the hair with some oil mixed in the water to make the ends of the synthetic hair look like human hair, nice smooth and shiny.

Well one day my coworker was braiding a little girl’s hair. The girl could not have been more than eight years old. She had the girl get off the chair for some reason. The little girl had a big shampoo cape on her that covered her whole body. Someone—- I don’t know who—- placed the pot of boiling water back on the chair. My coworker had a teen assisting her that day. The teen girl decided to sit the little girl getting her hair braided back on the chair but did not notice the boiling water pot on the chair. The little girl’s cape was so big that when she lifted her up to sit her on the chair, the cape hid the view of the boiling pot. The worse imaginable thing happened—- she sat the little right in the bowling water!!

All I heard was the most painful scream I’ve ever heard till this day. The little girl got burned. Her panties got stuck on her butt, her skin peeled off. The little dark gloomy salon,  woke the rest of  the supply store with the excruciating screams. The look on people’s faces, the paramedics’, the look on that child’s face was too much to bare.

You  might think that would of stopped me from ever trying to braid synthetic hair on hair again. It didn’t. I became obsessed on learning how to do braids. I would annoy my coworker Shyann and just stand behind her and watch her braid her client’s hair like a hawk. I would beg her to let me finish the braids while her fingers moved like Speedy Gonzalez  at the speed of lighting. I’ve never met anyone to date braid faster than Shyann. I knew she was going to go places. Last I heard, she was doing a Oscar winner wife’s hair. I also saw her on TV doing a makeover.
She left an impression on me with her drive to please her clients and her Independence. She was a independent woman living on her own at a young age, you see, girls our age were often knocked up living at home and working at burger joints. Not Shyann—– she was always dressed nice, smelled good, makeup on point, working like a mule. I give her tons of respect for paving the way for me.

names have been changed to be continued….