Cory Dade for the Wall Street Journal did a story about the take over of Dominican salons. The Dominican blow out has been the talk for some time now as an alternative to getting hair super straight without relying on chemicals. Many people I know swear by them and believe that it is healthier because you can sport freshly straightened roots and hair week to week and not worry about over processing your hair. In my opinion too much of anything on your hair is bad whether it is relaxer or heat. Dade writes:

Delshawn Rollins once trusted only fellow African-Americans with the delicate task of styling and straightening her tightly curled brown hair.

But that meant enduring hours of salon gossip, ordered-in lunch (and sometimes dinner, too) and occasional mishaps, like the time the ends of her hair snapped off after she had it dyed.

Fed up, the 35-year-old respiratory therapist last fall pulled out a flier she had for a new salon that promised to "work magic" using "Dominican styling." She was in and out of The Hair Co. USA, which displays the Dominican flag in the front window, within two hours, sporting a straight, feathery "do" for $20 less than she had been paying her old stylist.

I can absolutely relate to Ms. Rollins. I hated sitting in a salon for hours only to be about a pound lighter in the wallet when I left. When relaxed, I pretty much stuck with a basic roller wrap because I was never a big proponent of using direct heat on my hair. Which is one of the reasons I've never tried the Dominican Blow out. Cory Dade's assessment delves little further in not only the blow out's effects on your hair but the effects on the beauty industry as a whole.