4 bad perms in two months

[FluffyRed]

It's a wonder I still have any hair left!

This has been a real learning experience.

8/26 I used Mizani Butter Blends Fine/Color treated (Lye) for the first time. It left my hair in great condition, but not straightened enough

9/9 Did a corrective, thinking the cumulative effect of two perms would straighten enough. Not straightened at all, really.

10/14 This has felt like a stretch. This time, using the same perm, i left it on 35 minutes in the back, 25 in the front, pretty far over the recommended time. The nape of my hair came out curly, the rest was good, but I conditioned with real control and reverted, I guess

10/29 Another corrective. This time with dark n lovely no lye. I started to panic and rinsed out too soon. I kept picturing myself bald. My roots are wavy, which is not horrible, but not great for someone with fine hair who wants to do rollersets. I don't want my blazing yellow scalp showing. Also, I had calcium deposits and had to re-chelate! I am exhausted and my hair is not doing what I need it to do.

Now my Mizani BB F/C is almost used up, I can switch to using the Mizani BB Mild in six weeks. Once again, I will have to experiment to see how long it needs to process.

***I have learned I need the bone straightness. Low mani and low heat are what is going to work for me. with textured roots, I need to use heat.

***I've also learned that lye perms leave my hair in much better condition

Is this a typical learning curve for a newbie?

 

[blackmaven]

Choppy


It is a wonder you have hair on your head. Never heard of anyone relaxing that much for fear of being bald. I would suggest leaving Touch-ups to professionals.

 

[locabouthair]

It's not even that you did it yourself, it's how often you are doing your relaxers. Even with a corrective you should wait 6 weeks ater the last perm.

Some people say 6 weeks is too soon to get another perm and I kinda agree but it depends on how fast your hair grows versus how many weeks post you are.

 

[crlsweetie912]

I think your hair is overprocessed, not reverting. Step away from the relaxer.

 

[crazydaze911]

Choppy


It is a wonder you have hair on your head. Never heard of anyone relaxing that much for fear of being bald. I would suggest leaving Touch-ups to professionals.

I agree. its ok to try on ur own, but if it doesnt work the first time, i would def go to a PROFESSIONAL for a corrective. wow - 35 mins here and 25 there. Im cringing just thinking about how worn down and damaged ur hair cuticle might be from this - i hope ur only doing the roots over. Besides the overlap of chemicals, you REALLY REALLY should not just switch up relaxers like that. they are not all the same and can have a bad reaction being used together so close in time. dont want to be scolding you, but this post had me really concerned. give ur head a break (even if you dont like the results) for at least 2 months after drama like this.

 

[lovenharmony]

OMG!!!! Yes you are quite lucky to have any hair left on your head!!! I think you should leave the relaxers alone for at least 3 months straight and work on getting your hair back on track. There's no telling what type of damage you have done to your hair during this process. Right now you should concentrate on deep conditioning and obtaining protein/moisture balance.
What concentration did you use for each relaxer? If you've used 4 relaxers and your hair is still not relaxed bone straight, you should use resistent strength. Do you comb through the new growth? That should help to smooth it out as well. HTH

 

[LongCurlyLocks]

I think your hair is overprocessed, not reverting. Step away from the relaxer.

I totally agree. Even though I'm natural now even when I got perms I never got them that fast. I'd say do some deep conditioning or protein treatments and leave the perms alone for a good while.

 

[FluffyRed]

Choppy


It is a wonder you have hair on your head. Never heard of anyone relaxing that much for fear of being bald. I would suggest leaving Touch-ups to professionals.

There are not any good professionals where I live. Y'all know the reasons. I am the only one who has ever gotten my hair to SL. No hairdresser has done that. They overprocess me. They look at my supernappy texture and ignore the extremely fine strands and they proceed to melt my hair to the scalp.

My hair is actually not at all damaged. Just calcium deposited right now.

 

[FluffyRed]

I agree. its ok to try on ur own, but if it doesnt work the first time, i would def go to a PROFESSIONAL for a corrective. wow - 35 mins here and 25 there. Im cringing just thinking about how worn down and damaged ur hair cuticle might be from this - i hope ur only doing the roots over. Besides the overlap of chemicals, you REALLY REALLY should not just switch up relaxers like that. .

I know it sounds terrible. My cuticle is roughed up. I am not happy i switched up, but the no-lye used to get me bone straight. The Mizani BB FC is barely changingmy texture at all. I appreciate the gentleness, and it leaves my hair very soft and strong, but I think I need even more processing time.

give ur head a break (even if you dont like the results) for at least 2 months after drama like this.

agreed

 

[Keen]

Maybe you need to stop perming your own hair. May have been able to resist perming if you had to shell out $70 every time.

 

[NYAmicas]

I'm sorta cringing with the others to be honest. 4 times in 2 months?
I'm all for learning to do it yourself via trial and error and it took me a while to get things right.
I hope your hair is alright.

 

[FluffyRed]

OMG!!!! Yes you are quite lucky to have any hair left on your head!!! I think you should leave the relaxers alone for at least 3 months straight and work on getting your hair back on track.

3 months would by my longest stretch ever. I went from a 5.5 week touchup habit to now being a 3 week stretcher. We'll see how far I can get.

What concentration did you use for each relaxer? If you've used 4 relaxers and your hair is still not relaxed bone straight, you should use resistent strength. Do you comb through the new growth? That should help to smooth it out as well. HTH

the lye was extremely mild. I might need a regular mild. I did not comb the lye through. The no-lye was a regular. I should have combed the nolye through, but was too skurred.

The problem with stretching, for me is the need to use heat for styling. The use of heat makes my hair break off in 1/2 inch pieces, and this was before I started overperming.

 

[Evolving78]

i would recommend rollersets and wraps, deep conditioning treatments for the next few months. i would stay away from the heat since your hair is very weak and fragile right now. if you just use it once you wash it and wrap it the rest of the time you should be fine for away. i remember i overprocessed my hair. i went to a stylist and was getting it washed and deep conditioned every week with hot oil treatments every two weeks until my hair got back in order.

 

[FluffyRed]

Maybe you need to stop perming your own hair. May have been able to resist perming if you had to shell out $70 every time.

man, I used to pay $80 a long time ago. Just to get burned by chemicals and fire and cut by clippers. Styles were bangin' though.

I should clarify. I have been doing my own no-lye perms, off and on for over ten years. I have gotten my hair to SL before. (albeit, with overprocessed ends, due to overlapping, which I have learned to avoid, thanks to LHCF)

The two-week wait before doing a corrective is something I got from a hairdresser I had in DC. I've done it before and never had bad results, short- or long-term. Never done two perms and two correctives in this short a time span though.

The only learning curve I'm talking about is the processing time I need on a Mizani BB FC Lye perm. I have trouble telling, when the perm is in my hair, at what point it is getting straight. My hair seems to smooth out when the perm is in. Then, when I rinse it out, it's like 50% straight.
Texlaxing was a cool idea, and I like it in theory, but it requires me to use heat to style. I can retain more length with straighter hair and less heat. That's the point I am trying to get to.

I even permed the roots of 30 shed hairs, taped together, to check processing time. The test hairs were strong and nicely waved at 35 minutes, but on me, that was too much texture for my rollersets to work.

 

[FluffyRed]

ps - the chelating shampoo did not get rid of my calcium deposits, but when you google ACV and calcium deposits, it sounds like a good idea. I'll check back.

Thanks all for helping and advising in a crisis!

I'll get back to ya shortly

 

[LivingDoll]

How can you tell you have calcium deposits?

 

[FluffyRed]

my hair was soft and smooth when wet, then it dried all hard and crunchy.

my hair is normally very soft.

The acv seems to be working perfectly.

We'll see when it's dry

 

[sexyeyes3616]

Over processing can lead to breakage and with severe breakage it can lead to your hair falling out. In the future dont get relaxers that often. Space them out.

 

[AtlantaJJ]

This is why I am natural...

 

[tiffers]

Why do you HAVE to use heat? If your hair breaks from using it, your hair doesn't like it. Have you tried rollersetting? The scarf method? Even steam rollers would be healthier for your hair. I think you shouldn't even THINK about relaxing for another 12 weeks. Your hair may not LOOK damaged, but there's no telling what your hair and scalp are going through. Relaxing is a very traumatic process for the hair, and to use so many in such a short time span is not a good thing.

ORS Creamy Aloe is a chelating poo. ACV doesn't chelate, it clarifies. Join the dc challange and start dc'ing two to three times a week. Keep your hair in a bun and keep it moisturized.

 

[FluffyRed]

I think you shouldn't even THINK about relaxing for another 12 weeks. Your hair may not LOOK damaged, but there's no telling what your hair and scalp are going through. Relaxing is a very traumatic process for the hair, and to use so many in such a short time span is not a good thing.

ORS Creamy Aloe is a chelating poo. ACV doesn't chelate, it clarifies. Join the dc challange and start dc'ing two to three times a week. Keep your hair in a bun and keep it moisturized.

I have never stretched more than ten weeks, as my coils start dredding around that point, but we'll see.

On the chelating, I used all the neutralizer that came in the kit, as well as some additional chelating shampoo by Mizani that I had.

The ACV actually smooths down the hair cuticle and it does interact with calcium. It actually has worked pretty well as I have spritzed it on my hair. It is feeling much softer and smoother and less tangly. I am going to need to cowash again to be positive, but I think the problem has been solved. It may be that the last relaxer worked well enough.

** I also used the plastic clips as recommended by Junglette. That worked really well to prevent overlapping.

I don't have enough hair for a bun. Still in a somewhat choppy bob cut. I'm always pretty consistent about DCing.

 

[HoneyDew]

I think your hair is overprocessed, not reverting. Step away from the relaxer.

I AGREE!!!

I actually thought my hair was underprocessed back in the day and kept relaxing it.

Overprocessed hair can look and feel like underprocessed hair. But I think the difference for me is that is stayed like that even is I flatironed. It was not sleek and shiny and straight. It was still frizzy and underprocessed looking.

 

[Solitude]

Why do you HAVE to use heat? If your hair breaks from using it, your hair doesn't like it. Have you tried rollersetting? The scarf method? Even steam rollers would be healthier for your hair. I think you shouldn't even THINK about relaxing for another 12 weeks. Your hair may not LOOK damaged, but there's no telling what your hair and scalp are going through. Relaxing is a very traumatic process for the hair, and to use so many in such a short time span is not a good thing.

ORS Creamy Aloe is a chelating poo. ACV doesn't chelate, it clarifies. Join the dc challange and start dc'ing two to three times a week. Keep your hair in a bun and keep it moisturized.

This is exactly what I was thinking. Your hair may not look damaged from the frequent relaxers, but what will happen is that your hair will start to break later or you will eventually have crunchy/dry ends and wonder why....After a while, one section of my hair just got mad at me for the abuse and it refused to grow. I even experienced patches of hair loss at one time. No one would have been able to tell by looking at or even touching my hair that it was suffering.

I used to be a frequent relaxer (4-6 weeks). Stretching 8-12 weeks and limiting direct heat to 1-2 times per month MAX has made a huge difference in my hair. Now, when I do use heat, I my hair looks so much better because it's healthy.

Roller-sets are great, too. I'm doing one right now....

 

[Jazala]

I have trouble telling, when the perm is in my hair, at what point it is getting straight. My hair seems to smooth out when the perm is in. Then, when I rinse it out, it's like 50% straight.

I had this problem before and was able to overcome it after watching some professionals in action. You have to make sure your smoothing step is done thoroughly and completely. Take small pieces at a time working quickly but making sure each small section is flattened out. I've even seen some stylist use a small tooth comb for this step but I would not recommend it lol. The better smoothing you do, the straighter the hair will be after the rinse out.

 

[likewtr4chklit]

I personally don't think so much chemical processing in short amounts of time is safe (I've been getting relaxers for the past 15 years by pros and non pros and my hair has never been past SL until I decided to cut back). But I guess if you are comfortable with the way your hair is going, no advice or forewarning from anyone will change a routine you've had for ten years...

 

[FluffyRed]

I AGREE!!!

I actually thought my hair was underprocessed back in the day and kept relaxing it.

Overprocessed hair can look and feel like underprocessed hair. But I think the difference for me is that is stayed like that even is I flatironed. It was not sleek and shiny and straight. It was still frizzy and underprocessed looking.

I have extremely fine hair. When it's overprocessed, it is limp and flat.

 

[FluffyRed]

I used to be a frequent relaxer (4-6 weeks). Stretching 8-12 weeks and limiting direct heat to 1-2 times per month MAX has made a huge difference in my hair. Now, when I do use heat, I my hair looks so much better because it's healthy.

Roller-sets are great, too. I'm doing one right now....

I totally agree with the bold, especially.

Trying to get to the point where I can do all this and have it look decent.

I have been restricted to spiral sets for the past two months. I can't deal with this on an ongoing basis. If the DC I am about to do does not get me into rollerset condition, I may have to take drastic measures, lol.

 

[FluffyRed]

I personally don't think so much chemical processing in short amounts of time is safe (I've been getting relaxers for the past 15 years by pros and non pros and my hair has never been past SL until I decided to cut back). But I guess if you are comfortable with the way your hair is going, no advice or forewarning from anyone will change a routine you've had for ten years...

The double perming has not been a routine. I never did this more than a few times a year. Definitely not within two months. I appreciate all the input. Really just trying to get a decent texture with a mild lye perm.

Also, wanted to post my crazy ordeal in case it may help someone else.

 

[FluffyRed]

I had this problem before and was able to overcome it after watching some professionals in action. You have to make sure your smoothing step is done thoroughly and completely. Take small pieces at a time working quickly but making sure each small section is flattened out. I've even seen some stylist use a small tooth comb for this step but I would not recommend it lol. The better smoothing you do, the straighter the hair will be after the rinse out.

Do you use lye? I read somewhere that you don't smooth with a lye perm.

Of course, i don't recall where I read that. Could this be the overall issue, and why I have used almost a whole bucket of perm for nothing?

Regardless, I will not be looking at ANY chemicals for the rest of the year. Thanks to all who added to this thread. I love LHCF

 

[crlsweetie912]

ps - the chelating shampoo did not get rid of my calcium deposits, but when you google ACV and calcium deposits, it sounds like a good idea. I'll check back.

Thanks all for helping and advising in a crisis!

I'll get back to ya shortly

I don't see why a chelating shampoo would not rid you of the deposits. Doesn't make sense.

Why do you HAVE to use heat? If your hair breaks from using it, your hair doesn't like it. Have you tried rollersetting? The scarf method? Even steam rollers would be healthier for your hair. I think you shouldn't even THINK about relaxing for another 12 weeks. Your hair may not LOOK damaged, but there's no telling what your hair and scalp are going through. Relaxing is a very traumatic process for the hair, and to use so many in such a short time span is not a good thing.

ORS Creamy Aloe is a chelating poo. ACV doesn't chelate, it clarifies. Join the dc challange and start dc'ing two to three times a week. Keep your hair in a bun and keep it moisturized.

Great advice.

I AGREE!!!

I actually thought my hair was underprocessed back in the day and kept relaxing it.

Overprocessed hair can look and feel like underprocessed hair. But I think the difference for me is that is stayed like that even is I flatironed. It was not sleek and shiny and straight. It was still frizzy and underprocessed looking.

ITA

Do you use lye? I read somewhere that you don't smooth with a lye perm.

Of course, i don't recall where I read that. Could this be the overall issue, and why I have used almost a whole bucket of perm for nothing?

Regardless, I will not be looking at ANY chemicals for the rest of the year. Thanks to all who added to this thread. I love LHCF

The bolded is TOTALLY untrue.
You smooth with all relaxers if your goal is bone straight, not texlaxed hair.
I think you need to read LHCF'er's blog KISS! Keep it simple sista. Sometimes less is more.