Love my curly hair

OK, I'm not sure I'm ready to discuss this. My experience on Saturday was so awful. It caused a full fledged panic attack which is fairly new to me and most unpleasant. I have very curly hair. It was a curse during the 70's when stick straight long hair was "in" and I lived in the humid Midwest. About a year ago I came across some information about Japanese hair straightening or thermal reconditoning. Since I had just had one of those big decade birthdays I thought I deserved this. So last November I made an appt. with a woman in NW Portland who does this process. She's done hundreds of them and knows her stuff. I loved the results but she is SO weird! The process takes about 6 hours and it was so ackward to spend that much time with someone who I have nothing in common with....not one thing. About 6 months later it was growing out and I thought I'd like to do in one more time. She was even more odd at that time. I thought I would not do this again since I don't want to ever see her or try to carry on a conversation with her again. She threw up 5 times while she was doing my hair. She weighs about 90# and I would say has had a few face lifts, a boob job or two and must be on some sort of drugs. When I went to see my hair stylist who I've been seeing for 17 years she told me about someone that used to work at the Salon I go to who had moved but she does this straightening process. I got her name and number and made an appt for Saturday. I was so pleased...she was all normal and easy to talk to. We both have daughter's who graduated in the same class. Her process is a bit different than the other one I did...this is Chi and I had done Yuko before....very similar. Things were going great until about3.5 hours into it. She said "the rest will go quickly" since we'd just spend about an hour or so with the iron process. I could see her in the mirror. She looked puzzled and then read the directions on a bottle, then she stepped back and had her hand over her mouth with a look of horror on her face. She got really red and started shaking. She dumped some stuff into a dish and started literally throwing it on my hair....while shaking. She was frantic. She opened up another bottle of this stuff and kept on thowing it around..it was everywhere. I was watching my hair stiffen up....kind of like cement.I was hyperventilating and shaking. She completely stopped talking. I finally said "is everything OK?" knowing that it wasn't. She didn't answer right away but a few mintues later said "I've been doing this for 3 years, I know what I'm doing". We ran to the hair washing station where she rinsed this stuff off. We went back to her chair, she looked at my hair and had me run back to the hair wash station again. It was one of the worst things I've been through! I pictured having to shave all my hair off......vanity thy name is "I want straight hair". She then started talking like she knew what she was doing. When it was finally over my hair was staight but very greasy. She said something about the secret to this process is the conditioning and my hair might seem a bit oily. I left there shell shocked. I tried calling all three of my daughters. I think I got ahold of Melissa who told me to chill. I have been scared to death to wash this mess. I've even had dreams about losing all my hair. I did wash it this morning and it's OK. There is an area at the nape of my neck that is like straw but it's hidden under the rest. It seems like it's harder to comb through than the previous times but I'm thankful I HAVE hair. I think I've learned my lesson and I'll just appreciate the hair that God gave me.