Guide Continued.....
STAGE 3: The Mid-Relaxer Conditioning Protein Step
Several relaxer formulations come with a mid-relaxer protein conditioning step that involves the application of a mild protein treatment between the relaxer rinsing and neutralizing stages of the chemical relaxer process. This five minute step is done essentially to restore protein stores lost or compromised during the relaxer application. The great thing about this mid-relaxer protein conditioning step is that it can be safely performed with any chemical relaxer brand that you like and with any mild protein conditioner that you like! The steps are simple. Thoroughly rinse the relaxer crème from your hair with warm water after processing. Apply your mild protein conditioning treatment to your hair for three to five minutes. Rinse thoroughly and proceed with the rest of your neutralizing procedure.
**Some people like to start washing out their relaxer 3-5 minutes earlier than normal to accommodate this step. This is optional. You can still safely fully process your hair with the relaxer for the normal, recommended time and incorporate this beneficial step.
The Benefits
The main benefit of this mid-relaxer protein procedure is the maximum penetration of the protein molecules deep into the hair shaft that it permits. As you have read, relaxers disturb and destroy the protein bonding structure of our hair. This is the same structure that is responsible for our hair's strength and elasticity. The point after the relaxer is rinsed, and right before the neutralizing phase is the most critical point in the relaxing process for the hair shaft. It is here that the hair cuticle is most open and receptive to treatments.
Yet another benefit of this mid-relaxer protein conditioning step is the increased body, strength, and volume it gives the hair following a chemical relaxer. The hair does not exhibit that limp, thin lifeless look that it typically has after a fresh relaxer. This mid protein step actually increases the body and thickness of the hair shaft!
Why this works
Because of the relaxer's high pH, the cuticle layer is the most open it will ever be. Introducing the protein at this phase allows for maximum protein penetration and replacement due to the extreme lifting of the cuticle layer following the relaxing process.
But Will the relaxer still continue to process my hair?
The relaxing process is a chemical reaction that is not compatible at low pHs. Relaxers work in the 10-14 pH range. It is the low pH of the neutralizer that stops the neutralizing process, nothing special. Any and all of the products you apply following the rinsing of the relaxer help to gradually bring the pH of your hair back down to its normal pH of about 4.5 to 5.5.
The water from the initial warm water rinsing of the relaxer has a neutral pH of around 7. The water's neutral pH helps bring the relaxer pH down a bit from its usual 10 to 14 pH range to a range of about 8 or 9 . The protein conditioner has a low, normalizing pH of 4 to 6 as well so it also brings your hair's pH down so that your hair isn't processing at full strength. The neutralizer finishes and seals the process. It typically bears the lowest pH of any product used during the relaxing process, so it helps bring down pH of the hair even more. This step is where the cuticles close back down the tightest. Doing the protein before this happens is the key, however, do not allow the protein treatment to linger on the hair longer than five to seven minutes. You still need to quickly move on to the rest of the neutralizing phase. This five minute protein step is optional, but it works!
STAGE 4: The Neutralizing Rinse
The neutralizing step is the most important, yet surprisingly most misunderstood phase of the relaxing process. Unfortunately, this step is where many relaxer applications go terribly wrong. If the hair is not properly neutralized, the relaxer will continue to work on the bonds within the hair strand. If the amount of relaxer residue still left remaining within the hair strand after you have neutralized and moved on is significant, then permanent hair loss and thinning will result.
Neutralizer should be allowed to sit undisturbed on the hair shaft for 3 to 5 minutes before it is rinsed. It must be given sufficient time to actually penetrate the hair shaft, adjust the hair's pH, and halt the chemical reactions taking place deep within the hair strand. A few quick latherings and rinses will not get this done satisfactorily.
**Note: During the neutralizing process (mid-protein and neutralizing shampoo steps), you should make sure that you are not roughing up the cuticle layers of the hair in any way. Always work your post relaxer products down the shaft in one direction. No lathering, or scrunching the hair, etc. The straighter you keep your hair during the neutralizing process, the straighter the hair will turn out in the end. As your hair is neutralizing, your hair's bonds are "freezing" or falling into their final, permanent place. If you direct the hair downward in a straight orientation with care: 1.) You ensure a neat arrangement of bonds in the final turnout and 2.) Reduce permanent damage to the shaft as the cuticles begin closing.
A color indicator is extremely important!
Using a neutralizing shampoo with a color indicator or color alarm will reveal many things to you about the neutralizing process. One is that, relaxer chemicals are not easily removed from the hair shaft. Another is that gentle scalp scrubbing during the neutralizing process will reveal even deeper traces of relaxer. Even with the best basing, some relaxer will breach your protective layer. You must get this deep penetrating relaxer out as soon as possible.
You should insist on using a neutralizing shampoo with a color indicator for all of your relaxer applications. This color alarm acts as a "litmus test " that reads the pH of a particular chemical and produces a tell-tell color to inform you of any chemical change. Relaxers raise the pH of the hair in order to lift and open the hair cuticle for the straightening process. Neutralizing shampoo enters the raised cuticle to lower the pH of the hair and halt the relaxing process. This litmus test is the only way that you can be 100% sure that the hair's pH has been restored to normal levels and that the chemical action of the relaxer has truly stopped within the strand.
Relaxers are not surface-acting chemicals that can easily be rinsed away. These chemicals penetrate the hair shaft very deeply, so one or two quick rinses with a neutralizing shampoo is not enough to halt the relaxer action. With a typical neutralizing shampoo it can take anywhere from 15-45 minutes and several vigorous rinses before the color alarm indicates that you have removed all traces of the relaxer from deep within the hair strand.
But what happens to most of us at a salon? The neutralizer is lathered up, we are rinsed maybe 2 or 3 times, conditioned, and then styled. If this is happening to you . . . run!
Do I really need a neutralizing shampoo? Water is good, right?
Relaxers bring the pH of the hair up to as high as 13 or 14-- so any product that you use on your hair after that will have some sort of a "neutralizing" effect. Even the water with its neutral pH is considered acidic compared to the alkalinity of the hair after a relaxer. This is why we are able to safely do the mid-relaxer protein conditioning step and why some may be able to get away without a "neutralizing shampoo" altogether.
Unfortunately, the pH of water is often not low enough to bring the pH of the relaxed hair (13-14) back down to the normal 4-6 pH range. Almost all regular shampoos have their pHs formulated within this normal 4-6 hair range, and this is why they are said to be "pH balanced." But even a shampoo in the 4-6 pH range may not be enough to totally neutralize and return the hair back to its normal pH. In fact, a regular shampoo would only bring the hair down to a pH of 7-9 from the original 13, which is still slightly alkaline. This is where the neutralizing shampoo comes in. Most of them have lower pHs in the 3-5 range which really helps bring the pH of the relaxed hair down to normal.
STAGE 5: Your Post Relaxer Game Plan
It is very important that you do a protein treatment the wash following your relaxer. Relaxing disturbs the protein bonds in hair so you need to be sure to put some protein back via a good protein treatment. This treatment should come no later than 7 days after your relaxer. Follow the protein treatment immediately with a moisturizing deep conditioning treatment. If you do the mid-protein conditioning step during your relaxer, you may elect to skip this third post-relaxer treatment. I would not skip the first pre-relaxer protein treatment.
If you used a heavy protein the first time during your pre-relaxer preparation steps, go for a milder protein treatment for the one AFTER your relaxer. You do not want to over do it with too much protein.
Good luck!
Halal, John (2002). Hair Structure & Chemistry Simplified. Delmar Publishers.
But I ended up with 19 windows open and my head pretty much exploded 
