Charla
New Member
So after considerable thought (and pain and almost tears) and research, I've decided to relax my hair. (primary reasons are unending knots, tangles, matting, ssk and the countless hours required to deal with it properly if I still want any hair left on my head!)
So I've been doing a lot of research in the relaxer sticky and I think I've come to some conclusions, but I'd really like you ladies to double check my research and make sure I'm starting off on the right foot.
These are all questions! I plan to use my old relaxer of Gentle Treatment (no lye)
Before my relaxer:
@sunnieb I'm tagging you b/c you're the only relaxer advocate I can think of right off!
So I've been doing a lot of research in the relaxer sticky and I think I've come to some conclusions, but I'd really like you ladies to double check my research and make sure I'm starting off on the right foot.
These are all questions! I plan to use my old relaxer of Gentle Treatment (no lye)
Before my relaxer:
- Chelate and protein dc and moisture dc 1 week before
- No scratching scalp, of course
- Base scalp very well the day before and day of relaxer
- Detangle and remove shed hairs (although I worry how I'll really accomplish this without affecting my scalp.)
- Relax in top half and bottom half.
- But not sure if I should start with the curliest hair or the coarsest hair (my curliest hair is med-course. My coarsest hair is straighter and frizzy)
- Rinse relaxer extremely well.
- Then chelate shampoo(this should be conditioner not shampoo?) or do I protein shampoo(conditioner?) before I neutralize (since I'm using an no lye relaxer)???? huge question! And totally new idea for me!
- Then neutralize twice for 10 mins each time.
- Since I'm using no lye, I should seek out ceramide products (possibly Nexxus)
- Do I DC after the whole relaxer process? Should it be protein or moisture or ceramide?
- What other no-lye relaxers do you recommend if I don't use Gentle Treatment?
- Is Quantum ok to use? I already own it since I live in a very hard water area.
- Vaseline still ok to base my scalp and edges with?
- As far as maintenance, how often do you recommend I chelate? Every wash (weekly or biweekly) or once a month, etc?
@sunnieb I'm tagging you b/c you're the only relaxer advocate I can think of right off!
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