Is it bad to....

[nikkilee]

Relax my hair bc its severely tangled??
Today I took my sew in out and washed my hair and it was tangled extremely bad in the roots. I cannot get a comb through it wthout ripping my hair out. My hair is extremely long at this point and i dont wanna cut it. My mom suggested that i just relax it and it would be alot better. I did a search on here and everyone suggested different detangling conditioners and such but i just needed an opinion on relaxing. Thanks ladies...any info or personal experience will help!

 

[cocowhite]

I used to weave sewn-in all the time, so IMO I would wait at least two before relaxing, so that you can really deep condition your hair before relaxing, but again that is just me...

Just find a good detangler and go through very slowly, remember you have shedded hair that got stuck in while wearing a sewn-in, but good luck on whatever you decide...

 

[Chanteuse]

GIRL!! Don't do it! You need to detangle your hair first even if you lose a lot of hair. When you relax you will need to be able to separate your hair in small sections and you won't be able to do that if it's all tangled. I feel for you though. The same thing happened to me a few years ago when I took out braids and washed my hair w/out combing it first. My mom helped me detangle it (with a safety pin!!!!!!!!!!!!). It took forever and I lost a lot of hair but I didn't lose ALL of my hair which is what I was afraid of at the time. Good luck with whatever you decide to do.

 

[caligirl]

I've relaxed matted hair before with no problems. Just don't use a comb to apply the relaxers, only your fingers

 

[Sweet_Ambrosia]

Relax my hair bc its severely tangled??
Today I took my sew in out and washed my hair and it was tangled extremely bad in the roots. I cannot get a comb through it wthout ripping my hair out. My hair is extremely long at this point and i dont wanna cut it. My mom suggested that i just relax it and it would be alot better. I did a search on here and everyone suggested different detangling conditioners and such but i just needed an opinion on relaxing. Thanks ladies...any info or personal experience will help!

Unless you want to be bald, don't do it! Instead detangle your hair first using a wide tooth comb and a decent conditioner, detangling in the shower may help the process.

 

[mica]

I had this happened. I did a pre poo with evoo. Then I deep conditioned with my dominican conditioners and waited three days. I dont relax but I texturize and my hair came out perfect. PERFECT. So I would definitely wait or you will do more damge than good.

 

[maryj1584]

i think that you should put your hair in about 4- 6 big plats. conditioner wash your hair, and then deep condition with a moisturising conditioner with lots of slip like Cream of Nature the purple bottle. The slip tends to increase the hotter it gets in the dryer, so you want to deep condition with heat. When you get out, take a wide tooth comb and work your way through each plat with the comb starting from tip to roots. I mix my cream of nature with honey and evoo, I notice that it is more moisturizing and the slip increases, which is what you need right now. I really hope this helps, because I have relaxed my hair with tahngles in it and what resulted was a big underprocessed mess that had to be cut off. Good luck and tell us how it goes.

 

[nikkilee]

See i thought it would be bad to relax it to. My mom sd it would loosen the tangles??? Who knows...Im gonna try some of your suggestions b4 i resort to anything drastic! Thanks ladies

 

[Carlie]

Relaxing hair just because it's tangled is definitely a bad idea.

 

[metro_qt]

Actually, no it's not.
My hairdresser texturizes my hair matted... because no matter what I do... I'll wash my hair before I go in, and it will twist and coil on itself and tangle really badly.

The actual reason I went from being natural to getting a texturizer was because I was losing too much hair from it tangling so much naturally..

Needless to say, my roots tangle badly. We comb out what we can, and the relaxer will smooth out what can't be untangled... it really loosens it up.

But, it's always best to see what you can get untangled first...

 

[ftballwidow]

Maybe there should be info posted that addresses tangling issues for taking out braids/twists/weaves. Like:Beware! read this before you take out braids/twists/weaves

I never, repeat, NEVER take out braids/weaves w/o re braiding my own hair as I go and conditioning. I explained this whole process on another thread (someone had a tangled mess after braids or a weave). But I had to learn the hard way.

For those who have had braids before and haven't had the problem, then great. But for those who are trying to transition, or haven't worn braids, or haven't worn braids longer then two weeks, they need to know what to do. I would hate for people to loose so much hair or the opposite be scared to wear those hairstyles for that reason. There is a safe way around it. But when you take the hairstyle out and wet your hair, its over.

Why can't I do a short sweet post? Just stop typing....

 

[locabouthair]

i dont think you should get a perm so soon. i know from experience and others have said it that you shouldn't get a perm the day after you take your braids out because your hair is going through a resting phase and when you perm it so soon it goes into shock which results in damage. you had a sew in so im assuming your hair was conrowed so its basically the same idea. my hair grew soooo much with braids and after perming it the day after i took the braids ( i did this several times) and my hair was never the same. it broke constantly for 2 years till i had not choice but to cut it all off. like you said your hair is long you want to hold on to it. you can always blow out the roots or press then perm it like a week or two later. hth