Week 114: A Haircut and Some Leftovers

elenalilamartin
Mar 8, 2025
3 min read

Week 114: March 2nd-8th, 2025

As someone as high maintenance as I am when it comes to beauty, I get my hair cut surprisingly only about once a year. I've spent countless hours and dollars on my own hair, but actual professional hair cuts are not in my regular routine. I have a favorite nail tech in any city I've lived in (shoutout to Kevin at Golden Nails in Berkeley, Trish at Nail Boss in San Diego, and Tom Truong in San Diego!). I also have been loyal to Aaliyahs Beauty Brows in Hillcrest since I first moved to San Diego in 2017. I get regular facials with Hannah at Honest Skin and Botox with Tracy at Revive Med Spa.

This is why I think it is a little out of character for me to have little to no interest in hair color changes or high maintenance hair styles. Considering how expensive everything can be, my bank account is grateful that I don't have a regular hair stylist as well.

That being said, I might have found a wonderful salon here in San Diego for my annual haircut. It is called Black Dagger Hair, and is located in Normal Heights on Adams Ave. Their website says they are "a queer-owned alternative boutique hair space where inclusivity, authenticity, and sustainability reign supreme." Since I wasn't looking for anything fancy, mainly just a hair trim and refresh, I booked an appointment through their online form very easily. Someone named Makenna reached out to me through text to get some more details on my hair goals and scheduling.

When I first got to the building, I was a little confused at where to go. The GPS said I had arrived but I didn't see a door. Thankfully, their website says to go up the stairs above Paleo Treats to get to the salon. When I found the front door, an adorably stiff old dog was blocking the doorway to get inside. I felt bad when he slowly scooted away when one of the stylists lovingly shouted at him to get his "lazy ass out of the doorway." Apparently, he loves to sunbathe right at the front door. I don't blame him, it was nice and warm there.

The decor in the salon was very alternative and funky, and I loved it. You can see a fun video on their website's homepage. I didn't get any photos because I was too busy petting the dog.

All I usually get during my annual haircuts is a few inches off to remove the damaged split ends and prevent more breakage, and maybe some face-framing layers. Makenna took this and ran with it, and after a quick dry cut and wash, she sliced my hair into some fun layers and got a good bounce back into my hair.

Overall, I like the haircut, but it has been challenging to style without heat tools. Over time, I will need to try all my styling methods and find a new protective hairstyle for sleeping, since my regular French braid has resulted in some jump-scare, Einstein-like mornings. I always remind myself that hair grows back, especially mine as the resident Hairy Person(TM) of the family, so any growing pains are temporary.

As a bonus, this week I finally scored a coveted IKEA bag from Too Good To Go. I've seen some mixed reviews online about the IKEA bags, but generally everyone seems to love them. They sell out within minutes on the app, so someone must like them. I braved some random torrential rains to drive 5 mins to IKEA and pickup my precious bag.

It was less food than I'd seen some people post online, but it was still a pretty good deal for $6.45. I got a full plate with their mac and cheese, meatballs, green beans, jam, and mashed potatoes as well as a full wrap and some desserts.

I also returned to my favorite Chicken Pie Shop from Week 110, and got another surprise bag on Too Good To Go for $5.38. This time I got wild rice + chicken soup, a bunch of bread rolls and......the world's largest cinnamon roll!

I even got to glaze it myself with the side of glaze and whipped butter they provided. It is literally so massive, I haven't even eaten half of it yet...

A bit more disappointing surprise bag this week was from Park Pizza for a whopping $7.53. It was by far the smallest bag, and literally only included one plate of strange lasagna pasta, and bottle of water. I also had to wait 10 minutes for the guy to go prepare it... It goes without saying, but I doubt I will be returning to them.