Lye has been much better for me. No-Lye dried out my hair, and caused chronic breakage for years. For the first 5 years that I used a lye relaxer, I had no problems with breakage. Until recently I was using Mizani, which was excellent. Last week, my hairdresser tried Nairobi on my hair ... so far I love it ... though I don't know if it's because of the vitamins I've been taking the last two months, my fine hair seemed to retain a bit more thickness than with the Mizani relaxer. I already knew that other Nairobi products have been great on my hair, and so far the Nairobi is at least as good as the Mizani.