It’s FRIDAY morning and I’m at Kim’s Salon in Woodbrook in the presence of a master: Clem LueYat, an expert on hair weaving and extensions.
He pops off the clamp that secures my hair, gently tugging at it.
“What beautiful hair,” he says. “It’s so strong, but I can tell that you have been relaxing your hair yourself and that’s not good.”
He was right. I had been doing my hair with those $40TT at-home relaxing kits for months, but never realised that I was damaging my hair.
“Many women choose to buy kits like that because it is cheaper than going to the hairdresser, but it is better to pay a hairdresser $100, or whatever they charge now,” he said. “When you relax your hair on your own, you miss some parts, so some gets relaxed and some doesn’t. By the time you are ready to use the kit again, you are relaxing the same areas and abandoning the same areas all over again.”
For the rest of the morning, hair tips according to LueYat occasionally crept into the conversation. Being in the hair business for over 40 years, LueYat can’t help but share his knowledge. In fact, his visit here from his Brooklyn, New York base was to impart his knowledge on the latest hair trends including his own interlocking hair weaving technique, long hair styling and hair extensions without chemicals and hair replacement.
“Giving back is important,” he said. “This generation has to learn techniques from the older ones.”
In the hairdressing business, time is money and LueYat’s workshops teach hairdressers techniques to work smarter and faster.
LueYat chose to use his interlocking hair weaving technique to take my hair just past the shoulders.
With this technique, LueYat eliminates the use of cornrows or any pre-tracks and uses only a needle and a single nylon thread.
Buying the hair
The first step in putting on a weave is to buy quality wefted hair (hair that is attached at one end by stitching).
Since my hair was relaxed, LueYat had advised me to choose hair that was similar in texture to my own.
I finally settled on the Ultimate pack of relaxed straight human hair, 12 inches long with a golden-brown colour that matched my hair perfectly.
For extra body, LueYat recommended that I take two packs to get the desired effect.
At the salon
Since I hadn’t relaxed my hair for three months, it was well due for relaxing.
LueYat is known for his hair weaves, but he is also famed for giving elegant coiffures since the ’60s, I am told.
Before he applied the relaxing cream to my hair, LueYat coated my scalp with a grease to prevent me from getting burned.
The only time I ever remembered getting my scalp “based” (the application of grease to the hairline and and the scalp) was at those long-time home-based salons.
“This prevents your scalp from getting dry and being burned by the relaxer.”
And he was right.
Even though I had irritated my scalp by scratching it the night before, I got no burns. After relaxing, deep conditioning and blow drying, I was ready for the next step.
The transformation
For the last ten years, I have worn hair weaves off and on, so LueYat’s counsel on how my head would feel after the weave was done was something for which I was already prepared.
“People always ask if a weave would feel uncomfortable. I tell them, of course it would. I mean, it is something foreign you are putting in your hair. But it should not be painful.”
With a quick pull of the nylon thread from the huge spool, he threaded a C-shaped needle and stitched the wefted hair, piece by piece onto my natural hair.
“As you can see, I don’t use cornrows as other hairdressers,” he said as he worked.
Instead, he used a section of my own hair as a “track” on which to sew the weave, parting with his long pinky finger nail as he went along.
“Time this process to see how long I take,” he said.
LueYat’s weaving technique differs in many ways from that of other hairdressers. He doesn’t cut the wefted hair unless he has to, he doesn’t knot the thread, he uses a single thread to stitch rather than a double thread, one needle rather than several, and he prefers to work with nylon thread rather than cotton thread.
“This lasts longer and it’s more invisible,” he said of the nylon thread.
“When you use cotton thread and you wash your weave, you can see it because the thread swells with water.”
After applying the wefted hair clockwise around the outer portion of my head, it was time to tackle the middle portion.
First, he oiled my hair to keep it in good condition for the estimated three months the weave would be in place and a special reusable net was put over the wrapped hair.
“This wrap will give your own hair on the crown a rest from daily grooming and it will lay flat instead of being bumpy as most weaves are.”
For the middle, instead of using my own hair, as he had done for the outer portion, LueYat put a net in place which served as the tracks on which he sewed the hair.
An hour later, LueYat’s work of art was complete.
Usually, it takes a hairdresser three hours to complete a weave, the process, after relaxing the hair, drying it, putting in cornrows, stitching the cornrows down so it stays in place and then sewing on the hair to the cornrows takes more time.
I now understand why LueYat could complete as many as eight hair weaves in one day.
With scissors in hand, LueYat cut the hair for a seamless finish.
“One must not be able to tell where your hair ends and the weave begins.”
Sitting in the chair looking at the completed product in the mirror, I was in awe.
This was the kind of weave I had only seen on celebrities. I also loved that there were no tell-tale bumps and that no matter how the wind blows, no one would see any tracks.
Photographer David Wears was just as awe-struck.
“Man, I don’t know exactly what you did, but it looks really good.”
As one who wears weaves, I had often admired Clem LueYat’s work was one I often , but had never experienced it until that Friday when I spent the morning in the presence of the master himself.
Hair tips according to Clem LueYat
l To avoid dry scalp and burns, base the hairline and scalp before relaxing.
l Deep-condition the hair before applying a hair weave.
l Tell your hairstylist what kind of look you are going for so that you don’t stray from your own style.
l Use a weave to add colour to your own hair if you are not willing to take a risk with permanent colour.
l Stay away from home relaxing kits. Instead, go to your hairdresser who should be well-trained.
l When touching up your hair, your hairdresser should only apply relaxer to the new growth if you have had your hair relaxed before.
l Choose wefted hair that is close to your own hair colour unless you are experimenting with colour and texture. (Originally published in the Trinidad Guardian Newspapers)
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