Myth:Relaxers stunt your hair growth

[amconner]

Hi my name is Mel and I am new to the forum. I have a question. When I go to the salons the stylists are always telling me to let the relaxer grow out of my hair and do press n curls because my hair will grow longer without a relaxer. She told me that relaxers do not allow your hair to grow to its full length potential. For all of you ladies that have relaxers in your hair do you find this statment to be true? I am only asking beacause Ihave recieved this same information from three different people. Thanks for your input.

Mel

 

[glamazon386]

IDK I think it depends on your hair. My hair is definitely growing faster now that the relaxer is gone. It seems like after I chopped it took off like wildfire. However I do think that any hair that is well taken care of will grow long. There are many ladies on this board who's hair has thrived either relaxed or natural.

 

[Missi]

IMO: hair stylist get their info from other stylists who don't know any better either. They past their own "myths" amongst themselves then to their customers. Cathy Howse puts it like this: "Hair stylist are not scientists" I guess its safe to say that is self explanatory. So I don't believe its true. Someone can conclude that relaxing causes more potential for breakage: thus if ur hair grows as fast as it breaks off: one would think ur hair doesn't grow. There's yah rumor "Relaxer stunts hair growth". ~HTH~

 

[Ms_Twana]

I don't know, but I will see. This is definitely one of the reasons I went natural. I noticed that my hair has been the same length (little past shoulders) for FOREVER, so I started researching growing long hair, and I found the board. After reading several threads on chemicals and heat breaking down bonds in your hair strands, I decided to go ahead and go natural. So, hopefully it is worth me cutting all my damn hair off!!!!

ETA: Another thing, like the person above said, is that chemicals and heat does cause more breakage and split ends, so the amount that is getting "trimmed" every time, may be the amount that is growing; giving the effect of no growth.

 

[tnorenberg]

Ummmmmmm.........................................NO! Your hair will grow the same regardless if it is natural or relaxed. The idea of percieved growth is in retaining length. Yes, it takes more work I think to retain length on relaxed hair, but we are doing it nonetheless. Have you not seen the beautiful heads of waistlength relaxed hair on this board? There's no question that it can be done, but we are all here to find the routine that makes the journey to whatever length goal we have easier. Mine WILL BE waistlength.

 

[Empress Yahudah]

As many long haired relaxed ladies I see i feel its a myth...but If ur scalp is burned big time from a relaxer then its of poss that growth may be effected

 

[WomanlyCharm]

I think alot of that comes from not taking care of your hair when a relaxer is put in...of course it will break off, shed and look like it's "not growing".

But judging from some of the amazing relaxed heads on this board, I think what you were told is a myth.

 

[sareca]

Ummmmmmm.........................................NO! Your hair will grow the same regardless if it is natural or relaxed. The idea of percieved growth is in retaining length. Yes, it takes more work I think to retain length on relaxed hair, but we are doing it nonetheless. Have you not seen the beautiful heads of waistlength relaxed hair on this board? There's no question that it can be done, but we are all here to find the routine that makes the journey to whatever length goal we have easier. Mine WILL BE waistlength.

ITA!

... Where do they get this stuff?

 

[locabouthair]

IDK I think it depends on your hair. My hair is definitely growing faster now that the relaxer is gone. It seems like after I chopped it took off like wildfire. However I do think that any hair that is well taken care of will grow long. There are many ladies on this board who's hair has thrived either relaxed or natural.

I agree on the bolded everyone's hair is different. I've heard a lot of people say that their hair growth took off when they went natural. I was natural for 4 years and my length pretty much stayed the same. it all boils down to care. i used to think that perms were the devil and made my hair fall out. but then i came to this forum and i realized i wasnt taking care of my relaxed hair at all, no wonder it fell out. im not saying get a relaxer cuz it does have it drawbacks, what i am saying is that maybe if we knew how to take care of our hair we wouldnt so many problems growing our hair.

 

[sunnieb]

FALSE.....

My hair is the longest it's ever been in my life and I'm fully relaxed with no intention on going natural anytime soon. I just didn't know how to properly take care of my hair before finding LHCF.

 

[SweetTea]

I think it's definitely a myth, however since most women use relaxers improperly I'm sure there's a strong correlation between relaxer use and short hair. It also depends on the person. My scalp is sensitive and relaxers always leave my scalp irritated and flaky. I wasn't relaxed for over a year then got a mild one and suddenly had dandruff. When my hair was fully relaxed in the past, my scalp would be so itchy, oftentimes I'd be scratching my own hair right out of my scalp.

 

[KaramelDiva1978]

I too agree that relaxers do not change the rate of growth unless the scalp is badly damaged, however, it does make it difficult for some to retain the length. No-lye relaxers cause extreme dryness which can cause breakage and in breaking down the hair cuticle, the hair is thinned. I hated that my hair would be see-thru after it passed my shoulders and I've seen a lot of relaxed heads that you can see through the hair as it lies on their backs. My mother is the same way, so I'm going to say for me it may be heriditary.



However, some seem to relax, retain and grow in leaps in bounds just as flowy and gorgeous. It definitely depends on the strength of that person's hair and how it responds to a relaxer as well as their upkeep also. I am newly natural, so I'm definitely hoping to keep my thickness and retain length. This last relaxed length in 2008 was the culprit for me cutting into a bob and then a pixie, then natural. I don't want thin hair anymore.

 

[Foxglove]

They don't stunt growth. Overprocessing can lead to breakage which affects retention. If growth was stunted people wouldn't have to get touch-ups since no new growth could come in

 

[southerncitygirl]

depending on the person some folks retain hair better when they relax, go natural or even rollerset.....it relative to the person. even still proper hair care/ maintanence is key. remember everything isn't for everybody, too.

 

[Miss_C]

I am currently growing out my relaxer due to the fact that I really just don't like the relaxer process and I'd like to see me with just my natural texture.

That said, I had long hair as a child, got it relaxed at age 9, and before it got cut (never to return until LHCF ) at age 14, it was WL, maybe a bit longer.

So no, relaxers do not stunt your growth, bad haircare practices do.

 

[NYDiva]

If I look back over my years of being relaxed, it was EXTREMELY poor hair care! Believing that grease was a moisturizer. But the worse thing that consistantly did was overprocess, I always relaxed my whole head each time. I'm currently natural but do plan to relax once my hair get to full apl or beyond................hopefully sometime in 2011. But until then I'm absorbing as much information as possible.

 

[Traycee]

I'm relaxed and I will say relaxers do not stunt your growth...

But if your hair is chemically treated in anyway it makes it easy to have breakage... So it can make it harder to retain length if you do not properly know how to care for it...

So it does not effect growth but can effect retention if not properly cared for

 

[lana]

This thread helped me realize that I'm using too much heat on my hair. I continue to trim monthly and have lost some progress because of heat usage.

I'm a LYE texlaxed head and that has really helped me with retaining length, because I'm not yanking, pulling and snapping my hair trying to get it straight (detangling was a monster for me when I was natural for years). But I am using my Sedu too much and even though I blow dry on low heat after Week 8...it's still too much heat for my hair.

So I'm going to start bunning wet hair and just using heat on my bangs at least for the next four weeks.

Switching over to a LYE relaxer, from No-Lye, was the best step I've taken for my hair yet. My hair was dry and had a hard time getting moisturized properly with No-Lye. I am not having any of the same issues with my Lye relaxer. I'm close to BSL now, if not there already.