Naturals who would relax again

Would you ever consider relaxing your hair again?

  • Yes...I have more knowledge on hair care now

    Votes: 67 25.4%
  • No....relaxing can only cause damage

    Votes: 144 54.5%
  • I'm not sure

    Votes: 53 20.1%

  • Total voters
    264
  • Poll closed .
Only if I decide that I want to have straight hair on a regular basis again. However, I'm really a slacker when it comes to doing a dc. I couldn't do that on relaxed hair and keep hair on my head. I'd have to get my act together on that first.
 
I will never relax again. I know how to get my hair super straight without a relaxer and LHCF has taught me how to combat dryness. Now if I can get the hang of how do natural styles w/o straight looks Id hit the jack pot!

Plus I'm too lazy to take care of relaxed hair...I'd be stretching for eternity:lachen:
 
I can't say that I would. Relaxing was a pain in the a$$ for me. I burned all the time - I can still remember the pain from all of the burns. Also my hair is pretty thick but after all of the relaxer abuse it was thin and my ends were just getting raggedy.

Besides I love being a natural - it suits my lifestyle. Do you know what it's like to have to bring 50-11 flat irons and curling irons on a buisness trip? Not fun - not to mention the panic and run to WalMart in some strange city when one of them would break.
 
I don't see myself ever being fully relaxed again but, I would texturize/texlax. I love nappy hair but, like the option of having straight hair too. I want the best of both worlds.
 
i dont think so, after 18 years of being natural and then relaxing and then doing the BC just to get rid of it all? :nono: probably not. but if i do (0.0% chance) i will be properly educated..:rolleyes:
 
Nope..I've been natural for over 10yrs now. I love the FREEDOM that it provides me. I never become natural b/c I was seeking a certain style/look. I become natural b/c I didn't want to run from the rain anymore, I wanted to go swimming on a regular basis and not have to dread the washing/sitting under a dryer/styling process, I didn't want a frizzy mess b/c of high humidy, and lastly, I wanted the FREEDOM that natural hair provided.
 
Not at all. I've been natural almost all my life and I cannot see myself (honestly) relaxing my hair ever again. My first and last relaxer application was in the 4th grade, followed by the jheri curl in 6th grade and then a wave nouveau in the 12th grade. I've pretty much done it all and to be honest, I'm done with chemicals; no more for me:nono:. I love being natural and truthfully speaking, I can see myself as a natural head for the rest of my life. Maybe when I get older, I'll probably loc.
 
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I wouldn't relax again because I've grown to LOVE my natural hair. When I wear my hair straight I feel like it's missing something and the personality is gone. Also, my hair has never been healthier and I honestly have a feeling that even with all the knowledge on LHCF somehow relaxing still wouldn't go well for me.

Whenever I do want a straight look I keep in mind it is possible with natural hair, for example pinkskates who can press her hair super straight. It's naturals like her that remind me I don't need to relax to have straight hair.
 
I've thought about it, but I know I will never let a stylist, family member or myself ever relax my hair. lol...Like someone else already said, if I want to see it straight, I'll just flat iron it and if I don't want to deal with it, I'll get it twisted. I keep hands and chemicals out of my hair, that's why it's growing.
 
I have had periods of being natural and longer periods of being relaxed. The longest I've went natural is for 2 and a half years. And it was a lot of hassle. I've been natural now for the past 12 months and I'm itching to get relaxer already. I've been keeping my hair in tree braids. My hair has really really grown. I am still debating when and whether I want to relax my hair. My natural hair when left out takes too much time to handle. I have really thick 4bz hair. I think because of my curl pattern or lack thereof most relaxers do not do well on my hair. If I do relax again, I am going to try the Phyto relaxer, there seem to be some 4b people on here with good results from that. After the info I've gained from this forum, I think I know how to better take care of my hair when it is relaxed though so it can continue to grow.
 
I feel like such an outcast. My hair is natural, but it is soooo retardedly thick and coarse that it's impossible for me to really do much with it. It's pointless to have "versatile" hair if I can't even style it any different ways. I'm trying to be patient with my hair, but I'm so tempted to just cut it all off, relax it, something totally drastic!:look:
 
I begged my mom for a relaxer in 8th grade...my friend told me my hair would look even longer than it does when pressed since relaxers get hair straighter....humph...I shoulda kept getting presses every other week...lol
 
I'd consider it.
Def. not now but I'd be open to the possibilities of re-relaxing...

Right before I chop it all off and rock a short 'do' maybe by the time I reach 60?
Love the look of short, greyand sexy.
 
NOPE. NEVER. And I *can* say never, b/c I now know there are so many other options if I want an easier/quicker time moving from curly to straight ... such as silkening or keratin treatments. I'd go one of those routes before touching a relaxer. I'd probably do the keratin over the silkening since the latter *does* use sodium hydroxide. I've just spent waaay too many years transition and growing my natural hair. As long as my Ethiopian hairdresser stays in business, I'll just head there if I need my hair straight (roller set and flat iron). The day they go out of business, though ... keratin treatments may be the next step as I can't straighten my hair myself.
 
I feel like such an outcast. My hair is natural, but it is soooo retardedly thick and coarse that it's impossible for me to really do much with it. It's pointless to have "versatile" hair if I can't even style it any different ways. I'm trying to be patient with my hair, but I'm so tempted to just cut it all off, relax it, something totally drastic!:look:

I think if you relax it you should rock it long and swangin until your first touch up. Or like an angled bob or something. Then go and get it chopped again with the bang in the front. Cute cute cute!

living vicariously through you :look:
 
No I wouldnt relax. I've been natural for a little over a year and I get much better growth and retention as a natural than when I was relaxed. My relaxed hair looked nice after finding LHCF but it stayed the same length.

Plus- I like being able to wash n go. If I want just straight hair I know I can become a straight-haired natural.
 
I JUST thought about this last night while watching TV...but then I thought about the maintenance it would require to look nice and changed my mind. Right now, I can twist and leave it alone for a week or two weeks if I don't mind the fuzziness and don't have anything important to do. Even with a roller set relaxed head, I would have so much more to do to my hair to keep it pretty (in my own opinion, based on past experiences with my hair). Low maintenance and my thick hair do not go together when relaxed! lol

I think I will be natural for a really, really long time, if not permanently...

cj
 
I strongly doubt it. I still have keratin treatments to help me out and I still haven't tried diva smooth. That's if I want it straight. Otherwise I like my curly afro.
 
yes yes and yes. why for me? because now that I'm almost a year natural and have gotten to know my hair, what I realize is that I don't want to be a heat straightened natural or a twist wearing, braid wearing natural. I want to be a free wearing or slick/ puff wearing natural and my hair can't achieve the look I desire. I look like a runaway right now and very unattractive. My self esteem is shot. All this is enought for me to resort back to what I'm accustomed to. I didn't go natural for "healthy" care. I felt I achieved that with relaxing and I'm not an anti -relax natural either so resorting back is easy for me
 
If relaxers agreed with me then yes I would do it again..My hair was healthy relaxed and I am most certainly not against relaxers (if your hair is healthy).

However, I know that with relaxers comes an unhealthy condition for my scalp, and I am not interested in that pattern again.
 
I don't think I would or will. I hate being on some "routine treatment" that I have to "go to the doctor" for every now and then, so I cannot see myself setting myself up for that.

I know I cannot relax myself without risk of overlap, so I would have to give up this independence I enjoy so much to trust some stylist (<---archenemy) to do my hair.

Secondly, overlap. Every time I'd have a touch up, I'd risk overlap--coz it's human to err--underprocessing/overprocessing and a burned scalp. I'm not saying it'd happen, but there'd be that risk.

Thirdly, I'd be dealing with different textures most of the time--something I haven't had to deal with since I've been natural which makes finding products such a breeze.

Fourthly, I'd have to keep hoping that relaxer formulas don't change or my current perfect relaxer doesn't go off the market where I find myself shopping for the next best thing not sure if I'll get results that match my current hair.

TBH, the only reason I ever relaxed was because I wanted long hair and it made sense that if I had straight hair that a comb could glide through easily, then I would be able to grow hair w/o breaking it with my comb. But now that I know how to handle my hair, I don't need it to be straight. In fact, I get so bored with straight hair that I'd not give up the versatility of my coils for anything.

I love that I can rock the straight do if I feel like it and switch back to coils as soon as I want. I love that I can have long hair once day and a short afro the next. As much as I enjoy my hair, I honestly don't think I'd ever go back to relaxing.
 
There really are pros and cons to each, so I won't say never again. Sometimes I look at pictures of my relaxed days and let out a long sigh. I assumed that I wasn't going to deal with breakage anymore when I went natural and blamed it all on the relaxers, but truth is that I really didn't know what I was doing and I'm still learning how to take care of my hair. I will say that I appreciate knowing what my hair looks like natural and I'm having fun learning how to style it without using flat irons and curling irons everyday.
 
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I've just relaxed after being natural for 2 years. I was bored with the my type 4a/b natural. I loved touching my afro puff but wearing ponytails and puffs on a regular basis meant definite breakage for my fine hair. I had proof of that. But any other styling options were blah for me. So I thought I'd try relaxing again after TONS and TONS of research.

I've been relaxing on my own since I was a pre-teen and I suspect that the issues I've had over the years have been due to crappy products, bad application/use of the aforementioned products, poor/damaging styling choices and let's not forget poor weave attachment and removal procedures. If relaxing proves to be too damaging I'll transition again. No biggie. I'm better prepared now.
 
I don't think I would. I've been wearing a straight weave for a couple months, and I'm tired of the straight look. With my natural hair, it offers such versatility, and I love my kinks!
 
Sometimes I think about it....b/c I hate not seeing my true length (I'm a little past CBL in the front and sides and BSB in the back stretched). You'd never know it though b/c I'm not even SL unstretched! LOL. But I truly am in too much awe with my natural hair to go back to relaxing.

I don't even want to flat iron it -well, that may be due to my lack of a good technique but anyhoo, I digress....

I can say for ME, I don't think I will/would go back to relaxers. I don't forsee it in the near future. My long term goal is to have healthy natural hair and I want to get to SL unstrected hopefully before this year is over. I won't knock other naturals that decide to go back to relaxing.
 
As much as I love the exuberance of that past "moi" (and my post), I do have to wonder, at this time, if I'd relax again if relaxed hair would better fit my schedule and life style. My hair is time consuming, just as a TWA.
 
No I would NOT relax my hair ever again. There are so many options for me if/when I want straight hair.My natural hair is very low maintance as I wear mostly braidouts and twists. One "bad hair days" I can pull out a short,sassy wig or a long straight one. I absolutely love my natural hair. I am committed to it growing as long as it possibly can.
 
I have never and will never relax my natural hair. when I want silky straight hair, I just do a pinkskates.
 
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