Hair type=touch up time?

[atlien]

Do some people have to relax earlier then others because of their hair type? I have freinds that can relax every 4 months, if I tried this I would be renamed baldicia. My hair literally grows out a relaxer in about 5 wks at this time my hair can not even be combed. Any other type 4's experience this. I have noticed that alot of the lower types are sucessful in extending I've been trying but it's hopeless. I have a afro phony pony in and my goodness you would think I didn't have a relaxer, they match perfectly. Am I alone? Have anyone else experienced this? What do you do?

 

[RabiaElaine]

Ur never alone

I too have to touch up often, every six weeks, though I have combing problems by week 4. I'm wearing a weave right now, and I have to touch up by my 6th week at the latest. I thought it would allow me to go to 8. I guess its a good thing it means my hair is growing, unfortunately our type 4 hair is makes it harder to extend relaxers.

I have found that Carol's Daughters products help to soften my new growth though, like Healthy Hair Butter, and Honey Hair Mimosa. I just started using Surge and from what I've heard that also helps to soften new growth.

You might also want to try supplements. When I was on the supplement bandwagon, my new growth was definitely more manageable. Try Evening Primrose Oil, Flax Seed Oil, and MSM for this.

Make sure to keep the roots moisturized this helps a lot.

One thing I have found though, unless my hair is in braids it is not worth it for me to try to extend my relaxers, because I personally lose more hair than I gain. So I have stuck to relaxing when my hair tells me too.

This is what works for me, if anyone else has any suggestions. I'm open to hearing about them too.

Thanks

 

[Neen]

I too can't go longer than 5 or 6 weeks. Everyone here seems to go, like, 12 weeks and I can't even fathom the thought of doing that

 

[Cowgirl]

Same here.

After reading the post on how long some people extend I've been feeling really bad. I relax every 4 to 5 weeks, the longest I've been able to extend is 6.5 weeks. But that caused major shedding/breakage. After 4 to 5 weeks, It's hard for me to even comb my roots. I've been trying to read the post and decide which product is the best to start using on the new growth to make it easier. But it looks like everyone's results are different and it's a trial & error test.

Anyway, thanks for the post, now I don't feel so bad about the need to retouch more often.

 

[adrienne0914]

i've always relaxed every 3 months. when i did it myself, i was too lazy to do it any more frequently. when i had someone else do it, i was too cheap to go in any sooner. now that i know better, i relax every 3-4 months. i think the keys to waiting longer are:

• finding products that will soften the new growth and make it more manageable. for me, that is curl activator.

• relaxing just enough to loosen the curl so that the textures aren't that different to begin with.

man, i wish i had the problem of having a ton of new growth after 4 weeks. my hair grows really slow. it's really a blessing to get 1/2" of growth a month. i can count on one hand the number of months that has happened for me.

 

[RabiaElaine]

[ QUOTE ]
adrienne0914 said:
i've always relaxed every 3 months. when i did it myself, i was too lazy to do it any more frequently. when i had someone else do it, i was too cheap to go in any sooner. now that i know better, i relax every 3-4 months. i think the keys to waiting longer are:

• finding products that will soften the new growth and make it more manageable. for me, that is curl activator.

• relaxing just enough to loosen the curl so that the textures aren't that different to begin with.

man, i wish i had the problem of having a ton of new growth after 4 weeks. my hair grows really slow. it's really a blessing to get 1/2" of growth a month. i can count on one hand the number of months that has happened for me.

[/ QUOTE ]

Hi Adrienne,

You are my hair "shero"! I haven't been on the forum in a while but now I am back and in full swing. Now that you are out of braids, are you still doing your drawstring ponytail. Do you you wear your hair down and use the S-curl?? I think my texture is too different from my relaxed hair to go 3-4 months, Go 7 weeks and I'm in trouble. You are lucky to be able to wait that long.

I would spend way less if could wait

 

[atlien]

That means my hair grows fast

.....Hey Andrienne someone is paging you on a post.... Maybe it does but it hasn't been like this in a while I think it is so kinky and coiled because of all the vitamins. I will try to go another 2 wks this is really pushing it though

 

[Cowgirl]

Thanks for the tip Adrienne. I think I will try the S-Curl and see how that works for extending my retouch. Your hair is gorgeous. I wanna be like you when I grow up

 

[greAtness333]

Try and use WGO, that really softens my new growth. It allowed me to stretch my relaxer from 6 wks. to 8 wks. I would have went longer if I didn't think I was 12 wks. post and thought I needed a trim anyway.

 

[CheerBear]

I used to relax every 6 weeks and even then couldnt get the comb through my hair, since my friend discovered the board and sent me here, I've been able to extend to 12 weeks at the longest...but sometimes I do very very naughty things to my hair and send it into shock and have to relax sooner in order to cut it and try to save it...I'm so hard headed...

 

[A_Christian]

I'm a 3c/4a but moreso 4a. I'm almost 13 weeks post-relaxer with no breakage but always used to think I couldn't go longer than six weeks without a re-touch. I think that if you have a lot of shedding from stress between the two textures then it's best to go ahead and get a re-touch. But as other members have mentioned before, if you take one week at a time you might be able to space the relaxers longer than you think.

 

[Donda]

My mom has 3b/3c hair and would go over two months between her relaxers. I however have never went that long, I have her 3c on the top and sides of my hair but my fathers 4a edges and back.

I think it depends on your relaxer also, when I used Motions I "had" to relax every 5-6 weeks. Now that I'm using Hawaiian Silky it feels as thou I can go back to my 8 weeks summer, maybe 9 weeks winter. But no matter what relaxer I use I can't go past 9 weeks it is just to much sheeding.

It is the edges near my ears and the back of my hair that scream at me after week 6. I could probably let the top and sides (3c) go for a little more then 10 weeks, but one must compromise for the other.

 

[Isis]

I started waiting 13 weeks as of last year, used to be every 8 weeks exactly. I dragged it out until I started noticing shedding, which for me was the 13th week. That means relaxing only 4 times a year! I feel the daily flaxseed oil intake is partially responsible for this and especially airdrying. I couldn't imagine waiting so long before.

 

[katie]

WGO helps with my new growth but I still get lots of shedding past 8 weeks.