I Walked out of Drybar – A Blow Dry Bar

I finally tried the Drybar in NYC and boy, that was a waste of my time.  I had to walk out with my hair half wet.  I specifically put in the special request section for my appointment that someone call me by 9:30 am if there was no stylist that could blow out my hair, African American woman with tightly coiled 1/8 inch curls.  I didn’t want to waste my time or theirs since I traveled from Brooklyn.  I got a call at 9:25 am but that was my brother.  Nobody from the salon called by 9:35 am so I went to the appointment in Manhattan.

I arrived at 10:31 am and was told that I was scheduled with Brianna.   The style I picked was Manhattan, a sleek and smooth blow out.  It was clear to me at the wash bowl that the stylist was not familiar with my hair type.  I walked in with a high bun on roller set hair but when washed my curls shrunk to 1/8 inch.  She was totally shocked at how curly my hair was after the shampoo.  She was super complimentary, which was nice since some salons are not all that excited to see my curls pop out.  Clue number 2 was when she didn’t even attempt to detangle my hair before starting to blow it out with a boar bristle brush.  I had detangled my dry hair before I put it in a bun but she couldn’t have known that.  She later changed to a different brush but by 10:58 am it was clear that she was frustrated.  She apologized a few times for the brush hurting me.  The second brush had more bristles and kept getting tangled in my hair.  She said there were knots causing the brush to get caught but I stopped her a few times and untangled the “knots” from the ends.  It became increasingly painful for Brianna to blow out my hair.  By 11:19 am I decided to leave since I was sick of my hair being ripped out by the brush.  She had a chunk left to blow out at the crown as you can see in the photos.  That is my more kinky section, a mix of 4a/4b so I knew it would be painful.  It was a disaster waiting to happen since my hair had been air drying in the meantime.

Brianna said she had worked with my hair type previously but I didn’t believe it.  Maybe she worked with the hair type that the Mixed Chicks line caters to ((3a, 3b, 3c) but definitely not my hair. She also said the flat ironing would give me the style I wanted, Manhattan, but I was not willing to risk it.  I’m hoping there is not too much heat damage to my hair since she blew out sections over and over again, almost as if the complete sections got frizzy so she went back over them.

A young man with multi-colored hair offered to finish my blow out but I declined.  I went to pay, for at least the shampoo, but was told there was no charge.  I felt like I was a guinea pig and they were testing out a technique on me.

As you will see from my other blog posts, I have been on the hunt for a blow out salon for a long while.  For some reason I typically end up with frizzy hair before I even make it home and having to redo my own hair, like I’m doing again today.

The interesting part about all this is I offered to be a hair model for The Dry Bar Flatiron on February 27.  I sent photos, as requested, but never heard back.  I was willing to be a guinea pig back then but by the time I made an appointment I expected a stylist who knew how to blow out my hair type.

If your hair is relaxed or you have a looser curl pattern, then maybe Dry Bar could work for you but it’s definitely not a salon I’d recommend to any Type 4 heads.  They serve mimosas, champagne, water, tea and they have an iPhone charger at the station (iPhone 4 so I couldn’t use it with my 5).  They also play movies.  I didn’t watch much of it since my station was not in the best position to watch but I did realize it when I heard a sex scene playing from “Bridesmaids”.  There were no kids in the salon so it was no big deal.