Never Experienced a Relaxer Setback?

[Junebug D]

This is more so for people who have been relaxed for quite some time; especially those who have reached long lengths.

Is there anyone who has NEVER experienced a relaxer-related setback since being on your healthy hair journey? No broken nape or missing edges or bad burns or severe breakage? What do you attribute your success to?

 

[JJamiah]

I haven't experienced any issues with a relaxer, I just always been into hair care. I did go into a pool and didn't wash my hair for a week, and lost lots of hair, but that is natural and relaxed issue, and I have also used MT and lost hair due to adding that to my hair and not needing it, again relaxer and natural issue.

But as far as hair breakage from a relaxer, no. Just xtra care, conditioners, conditioners, conditioners and low manipulation.

When I was younger I had a color issue, I would color my hair permanent colors every 2 weeks to once a month and it BURNED my hair out, but with bleaching my hair every two weeks it was waiting to happen, I was just having some fun, but never the relaxers for me.


I also wanted to add when I first started to relax I'd get a relaxer every 6 months. I now get a relaxer every 4 months. I don't consider 4 months a stretch it is just my natural time to relax. it helps to avoid over processed hair for me. I reevaluate my hair state every other shampoo, if my hair seems to change I tweek it immediately to avoid issues.

This year I have started going Sulfate free just as a new step for myself. I will see by the end of the year if this is for me. If not back to Sulfates otherwise this is my new thing!

 

[Dposh167]

i never have. but that's all due to my stylist.

**knocks on wood

 

[Nameless]

i never have. but that's all due to my stylist.

**knocks on wood

That's the same with me. My stylist knows that she has to do it well or else I'll sue her

 

[locabouthair]

I have been to 4 stylists and all of them gave me breakage from not washing/rinsing out the relaxer properly. I did have 1 stylist who never damaged my hair but she moved away.

One of them was a stylist someone on this board recommended. She didn't wash out the nape properly and thats how it looked in the attached picture. Thats not regular breakage.

I wish I could find a good stylist. But after having that happen to me 4 times I gave up trying to find one. I do my own relaxers now but it comes out underprocessed. But it's better than being bald.

I can honestly say that if I didnt have those setbacks my hair would be much longer than what it is. I probably would be APL right now.

 

[imaccami]

I haven't. The only time I had relaxer damage was 4 or 5 years ago when I left no-lye relaxer in for 40 minutes and took it from root to tip. I did that for years and years, so I don't know why my hair broke that one time. My hair was about 4 inches long by my face and the rest was long, it looked like I had bangs. That experience is what started me to casually look into haircare, I found Shamboosie's book which caused me to switch to lye, then I found Folica.com which caused me to get a Sedu, and it's been all good from there.

I attribute my relaxer success to rinsing well to the point that I feel like I nearly drowned when I'm done, never doing correctives, leaving the relaxer on for 22 minutes and not a second longer, and accepting that a relaxer gets hair straighter than it was before but not truly straight.

I think that people experience trouble because they expect to have type 1 hair when they're done so they leave it on too long and do correctives, my airdried hair is exactly like my natural hair except that it's much easier to comb. It's straight after the blow dry and flat iron.

Also I don't mix anything into the relaxer and I follow the directions.

 

[longhairlover]

I've never had a relaxer setback. No broken hair or edges or nape etc, I attribute it to always having my hair professionally relaxed by my moms and when I learned and felt comfortable to relax myself I make sure to do so properly, following instructions, not scratching my hair days before or washing a few days before things like that. But a relaxer has never been the reason why i've experienced any breakage (if I have crown breakage it was due to thyroid issue I didn't know I had til 2009 or bad products in general).

And I never had a hair journey my hairs always been healthy, now that I think about it there isn't a hair length that i'm seeking to get to either, I like my length now on me and it normally goes to bsl then I cut it back to apl.

I joined this site because I like reading about hair and seeing other nice heads of hair guess I have no real purpose :/ just a hair person.

 

[sunnieb]

I'm glad I found this thread! I was thinking of posting something similar! I was beginning to think I was the only one.

I've never had problems with getting a relaxer. Never ever. No burns, scabs, hair stuck to scalp, bald spots, etc. Before LHCF, I got touch ups every 4 weeks. I also scratch my scalp whenever I want to!

My heart always goes out to the ladies who post about all the problems they have with relaxers or post the :burning: smiley when describing the relaxer experience. My only problem was that I didn't know how to properly take care of my relaxed hair.

I'm not sure why my hair/scalp is so resilient. Shoot I've had some of everybody up in my head putting a relaxer in it, so I can't give them all the credit. Maybe it's genetics???

ETA: I did have a setback with my front edges. However they didn't disappear because relaxers, I shaved them. Thank God I found LHCF and they are growing back!

 

[LittleLuxe]

Raises hand.

Personally nothing special. I've never had a setback from a relaxer. I've gone between lye and no-lye, left my relaxers on too long, gotten it done by my mom and stylists. Shrugging. I really don't have any advice I can give, but I do think basing your scalp is an important step to never burning and I never did the root-to-tip thing so...just never suffered from relaxer damage.

 

[sunnieb]

^^^ I can't even say that I based my scalp. I do now, but back then I would just go in every 4 weeks for a touch up dry scalp and all.

 

[silenttullip]

I'm natural now BUT from 8-16 I didn't have a setback maybe minor burns every few years but never and broken edges or anything. Lol my edges are worse as a natural than when I was relaxed but back then I had long hair so all I had to do was bun it and no pressure on my edges. I attribute that protective stuff u can put on before the relaxer and my mom not overprocessing

 

[SlantedEyezMiss2003]

Well before I started paying attention to my hair, yes I had some breakage when I started doing my own hair, but I was using color also, and didn't know about overprocessing my already relaxed hair, didn't know about using protein after the relaxer or fully washing the relaxer out, or dc, or moisture, etc, I didn't know nothing, but only breakage no bald spots or tons of hair fallin out, NOW I know what to do, I'm doing better now then I ever did, and I do my own relaxer.

 

[LittleLuxe]

^^^ I can't even say that I based my scalp. I do now, but back then I would just go in every 4 weeks for a touch up dry scalp and all.

I have sensitive scalp so I think basing my scalp helps me with being able to keep my relaxers on long enough.

 

[getta]

There is a person on this site that, after she gets her hair relaxed and styled at the salon , she comes homes and uses neutralizing shampoo to get rid of any remaining relaxer within her hair. she doesnt care that her style is ruined and further says that her hair is so much healthier from doing this. This makes total sense because it took me six rinses to get all the relaxer when I relaxed my sister's hair, but most salons only rinse 2-3 times to save water and time at the cost of your hair..

 

[sunnieb]

^^^ I am the same way. I've always kept a bottle of neutralizing shampoo in my stash. My dh thought I was weird for washing my hair basically right after getting it "done".

Even before LHCF, I'd given up on trying to get the latest style at the salon. I couldn't keep the look anyway. So my focus was just on getting the relaxer application and getting back home so I could wash, wrap, and go on about my life.

 

[brucebettye]

Since I have been taking care of my hair I have not had any setbacks with perming my hair. I had a couple of minor setbacks because of too much protein which led to breakage and cowashing everyday gave me a head full of single strand knots. Since coming to LHCF I have learned the proper techniques to perm my hair and have had success. I think is funny that now I want to go natural after I learned to have healthy relaxed hair.

 

[Solitude]

This is more so for people who have been relaxed for quite some time; especially those who have reached long lengths.

Is there anyone who has NEVER experienced a relaxer-related setback since being on your healthy hair journey? No broken nape or missing edges or bad burns or severe breakage? What do you attribute your success to?

I've never had any of the problems you listed...broken nape, missing edges, bad burns, or severe breakage. I attribute it to two things:

1. my hair straightens easily, so I don't leave the relaxer on too long past the recommended processing time
2. I have ALWAYS based my scalp well & rinsed well. My mom wasn't all into hair care, but she taught me those two things. When I was younger and I got a relaxer at a salon, I based my own scalp before I went.

Now, I have had some breakage - probably due to when my mom used to put the relaxer all over, right before rinsing. After I started reading the instructions that came with the kit for myself, that practice stopped. I also used to abuse heat. I think it was the heat, more than any problems with the relaxer, that gave me dry ends for the longest time. I have suffered two small bald patches that were unrelated to relaxers - they were caused by stress and hormonal problems. One was right after I had my son and the other was during my first year in law school (i.e. the two most stressful periods in my life).

I have also gone back and forth between lye and no lye. I used to get lye at the salon and do no-lye relaxers at home interchangeably....no problems...I now use no-lye.

 

[LaReyna756]

I have been to 4 stylists and all of them gave me breakage from not washing/rinsing out the relaxer properly. I did have 1 stylist who never damaged my hair but she moved away.

One of them was a stylist someone on this board recommended. She didn't wash out the nape properly and thats how it looked in the attached picture. Thats not regular breakage.

I wish I could find a good stylist. But after having that happen to me 4 times I gave up trying to find one. I do my own relaxers now but it comes out underprocessed. But it's better than being bald.

I can honestly say that if I didnt have those setbacks my hair would be much longer than what it is. I probably would be APL right now.

The hair on my nape used to be much shorter than the rest of my hair, and I thought that was normal. My back edges were just one or two inches long. When I found this site, I started relaxing that area last, and I haven't had any issues since then.

 

[sunnieb]

Bumping....

 

[belldandy]

I have not had any setbacks due to relaxing yet. My only problem is that I cowash like crazy.

 

[leona2025]

My hair is super resilient. I have never had a setback due to relaxers. I switched back and forth between lye and no-lye and I've tried many brands of relaxers. Before I found LHCF I use to to relax from root to tip every 6 to 10 weeks. I used super, mild, and regulars. Mostly Supers. Never burned.

I never conditioned. I wore my hair in a ponytail with just grease and water as my moisturizer and my hair was always bsl or longer. I never got trims. I had no splits, but I used no heat besides the blow dryer on the day of relaxer. I didn't know what a flatiron was. The only time my hair was wet was the day of the relaxer.

My hair now. I just don't know. It seems like much more work. I only relax the roots and my length actually look texlaxed which I don't like because it makes it hard to comb and detangle. My hair was actually thicker looking before LHCF, but I think that was because I discovered the mighty flatiron and I just couldn't quit the Sedu. I got heat damage on my ends and splits, but I refuse to trim. They not splitting further and been in there for a few months. I have conquered my toxic romance with heat, lol. I was flatironing once/twice a week and I guess along with all the dye jobs and what ever else I was doing my hair could not handle it.

Me and her are on the road to recovery. I rarely flatiron now. I've found that my hair will get just as straight on the lower temps. like 250. I was using 350+. I'm doing braid outs and airdryed buns. It's easy. I really fell off with the rinses which I think gave my hair a layer of protective coating, but I can't see getting in and out the shower.