Tracy
New Member
And I must say it's not nearly as much of an undertaking as I thought it'd be. I decided to self relax because the lady I liked at Hair Cuttery went on ealry maternity leave, and I didn't want to go through the hassle and angst of finding another stylist.
I chose Dark and Lovely Beautiful Beginnings for Fine hair because it was one of the lowest PH relaxers according the research of the old "relaxed sub club" at BHSGO. Where a regular relaxer is about a 11-13 PH...this one is only a 9 or 10. I also chose a no-lye over a lye, because I was too afraid that I would burn. I selected the fine hair formula because my hair is fine, and I wanted to choose the mildest formula possible to avoid overprocessing if my timing was off - and it was.
All in all, it went well. I was able to stay within the time limits for "normal" hair, and since I was using the "fine hair" formula I didn't worry so much about my application time. I'll practice getting it down to the "fine" hair timing - a difference of about 3 or 4 minutes. I left it on 16 minutes and the fine hair calls for 10-13.
I did it using the normal 4 section method, and applied it as quickly as I could. Next time, I may not use a rat tail comb, as I found the application was going well up until I swtiched from using the wooden spatula they provided to using the comb. The comb teeth kept catching random strands and getting relaxer too far down the length. But that was only in one section, and it was on the hair for less than 5 minutes. Next time I'm going to try using a brush so I have the rat tail end for parting, and the brush end of application.
Once it was processed all the way, I rinsed for about 5-10 full minutes and then neutralized with what came in the box. Since there was supposed to be a color alert, I checked and when I saw no pink lather, I got nervous that the shampoo wasn't working, so I beutralized about 4 times with the shampoo that came with, and once with Elasta's neutralizing shampoo - just because I like the way my hair feels better after that one.
It looks a little extra straight to me, but I am sitting with a Cholesterol conditioner on it now. I'll probably add some oil to this in a bit. I'll let you guys know how it all goes after the rollerset. /images/graemlins/weird.gif
I chose Dark and Lovely Beautiful Beginnings for Fine hair because it was one of the lowest PH relaxers according the research of the old "relaxed sub club" at BHSGO. Where a regular relaxer is about a 11-13 PH...this one is only a 9 or 10. I also chose a no-lye over a lye, because I was too afraid that I would burn. I selected the fine hair formula because my hair is fine, and I wanted to choose the mildest formula possible to avoid overprocessing if my timing was off - and it was.
All in all, it went well. I was able to stay within the time limits for "normal" hair, and since I was using the "fine hair" formula I didn't worry so much about my application time. I'll practice getting it down to the "fine" hair timing - a difference of about 3 or 4 minutes. I left it on 16 minutes and the fine hair calls for 10-13.
I did it using the normal 4 section method, and applied it as quickly as I could. Next time, I may not use a rat tail comb, as I found the application was going well up until I swtiched from using the wooden spatula they provided to using the comb. The comb teeth kept catching random strands and getting relaxer too far down the length. But that was only in one section, and it was on the hair for less than 5 minutes. Next time I'm going to try using a brush so I have the rat tail end for parting, and the brush end of application.
Once it was processed all the way, I rinsed for about 5-10 full minutes and then neutralized with what came in the box. Since there was supposed to be a color alert, I checked and when I saw no pink lather, I got nervous that the shampoo wasn't working, so I beutralized about 4 times with the shampoo that came with, and once with Elasta's neutralizing shampoo - just because I like the way my hair feels better after that one.
It looks a little extra straight to me, but I am sitting with a Cholesterol conditioner on it now. I'll probably add some oil to this in a bit. I'll let you guys know how it all goes after the rollerset. /images/graemlins/weird.gif
