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Relaxed Hair Thread

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I’m wondering if I should do a corrective on Monday. I definitely forgot there’s a holiday coming up. I could also wait until Juneteenth too I guess but it’d be nice to just have straighter hair so I can just wash/ condition it more frequently after sweaty gym sessions. I feel like my hair has reverted significantly since I relaxed my hair. I was definitely super cautious with my application the first go round since I didn’t want to regret my decision but I feel more comfortable committing to straighter hair which still isn’t bone straight.

Is a month enough time to wait?
 
I am a bone straight gal, so I think if you want to go straighter, I would not wait another month. That more new growth on top of trying to do a corrective. Your new growth may need more processing time that what is needed to correct. I say, correct now to get some consistency first.
 
ScorpioLove said:
I’m wondering if I should do a corrective on Monday. I definitely forgot there’s a holiday coming up. I could also wait until Juneteenth too I guess but it’d be nice to just have straighter hair so I can just wash/ condition it more frequently after sweaty gym sessions. I feel like my hair has reverted significantly since I relaxed my hair. I was definitely super cautious with my application the first go round since I didn’t want to regret my decision but I feel more comfortable committing to straighter hair which still isn’t bone straight.

Is a month enough time to wait?
Click to expand...

The first time I did a corrective, I waited a month. The second time I waited 6 weeks. Both times I regretted doing the corrective. And both times I had BSL-MBL hair so it was a lot of regret.

If your hair were short, I'd tell you to go ahead and give it a shot. But since you have some length, I'll tell you what I found to be most helpful. Instead of doing a corrective, stick it out as best you can until your next planned relaxer. Maybe it's something about making a special relaxer session just to do a corrective - but in the end the results were so-so for me and I feel like I damaged my hair more.

So instead when I went to relax the next time, I just pulled the relaxer up my strand more when I smoothed and that helped me to get the kind of texture I wanted. Because I wait at least 4-5 months to relax anyway, I think I had time to get my hair properly ready with consistent care and treatments that one month or 1.5 months of treatments didn't prepare it for. I hope I'm explaining that right.

This is my starting texture when I first textlaxed.

1716483153542.png

I had reached WL natural and I wanted WNG hair with less shrinkage so that I could enjoy what I had worked hard for. That was my WNG.
I loved it and loved that I could finally do them (bc my natural hair could not). But after a while I was still plagued by SSKs and way too much shrinkage.

I don't really have a good photo of my first corrective bc I wasn't really active in this thread at the time but I kept reading the ladies saying that corrective is the way to go. So I tried it one month after one of my relaxers as they suggested. Needless to say, I ended up with too straight hair. And I didn't like it. I have fine strands so it looked considerably thin to me. So I started growing that out and continued to texlax.


In this photo, you can see a clear difference between my texlaxed hair and my bone-straight "corrective" hair.
1716483675491.png 1716483883022.png

Look how thin the bottom half of my hair is compared to the top half. It received the same if not more conditioning and protection as the top half. To me, this is what sold me on texlax hair for me instead of bone straight.

1716483999208.png

Looked bad wet but when it was straightened, you couldn't really tell the difference.

1716484224664.png
1716484330062.png

And then one of my relaxers didn't take so I was recommended again to do another corrective. I was hesitant but I did it anyway. And immediately regretted it.

This is my texture after that corrective. Very uneven. I couldn't even WNG if I wanted to.

1716484477104.png

I knew then that I would never do another corrective bc:

1- My hair needed more time to be treated, conditioned and cared for.
2- I needed more control over any corrective I did to my hair bc all parts didn't need the same amount of "correcting" so I came up with another way to get the results I needed.

TBC in next post...
 
So then I chopped off the over-corrected bone-straight ends.

1716485035671.png

And continued texlaxing. From then on, if I felt an area needed more straightening, I waited until my next relaxer and then smoothed the relaxer up the strand more to the areas that needed it. So the relaxer only stayed on that section a few minutes and that was enough to give me more consistent texlaxing results.

I didn't need to stretch as much for my first touchup after the cut but I did in areas where I felt I needed it.

1716485220131.png 1716485264571.png

And I kept doing it every relaxer bc I liked the results and control.

1716485564403.png

And then I ended up with the texture I wanted that wasn't super straight but not too coily that I had SSKs.
And it was more consistent throughout. No texlax is ever perfect but it was good enough for me.

1716485686316.png

Here is straightened:
1716485786469.png

And here's one of the last WNGs I did:

1716486004465.png

My texture was a lot more consistent and it wasn't as damaged. I think the special corrective sessions caused me to over process my hair when all it needed was just a few minutes to process. That's difficult to do if I am dedicating a whole session to fixing the texture, where it will stay on way too long.
 
So, here's the thing:
I think the 2 heat passes, plus my relaxer day not going the way I planned made me go into storm mode to batten down the hatches. I'm putting my mini braids in, and we're gonna work from there. I don't know what the plan is gonna be once I take them out.
 
ItsMeLilLucky said:
So, here's the thing:
I think the 2 heat passes, plus my relaxer day not going the way I planned made me go into storm mode to batten down the hatches. I'm putting my mini braids in, and we're gonna work from there. I don't know what the plan is gonna be once I take them out.
Click to expand...
And a lot of my hair is too thin to braid down so far, but when it's not braided it's not half-bad.
 
Thanks @Evolving78 that’s what I was thinking too to handle things before it gets bad. The post with pictures was very helpful @MzSwift , trying to not over process is necessary for sure. I’m going to try a wait a few weeks longer and finish other things this weekend. I want to do it on a holiday when I can get a full extra weekend day to give my hair extra tlc that day and not deal with much else. A few inches may need cutting after that relaxer so maybe this years hair goal is just establishing a new baseline rather than more length.

I’m debating if I want to try the half and half method to make sure I have enough time to process it all evenly. I remember hating that method but perhaps it would work better to have the bottom half done then the top half done rather than left /right. I wish I could find notes on what I felt went wrong back then. I’d use all the precautions I used the first time with olaplex/ k18 since I do feel like they played a major role in ensuring my hair didn’t feel weak at any point. I actually did a k18 pro mist treatment plus mask yesterday since I did some back to back flat ironing and it feels quite strong.
 
@ScorpioLove GL to you!! I pray your process goes as planned and you can whip your hair the way you want to! :)

ItsMeLilLucky said:
And a lot of my hair is too thin to braid down so far, but when it's not braided it's not half-bad.
Click to expand...

Oh no, cuz! Yeah, my mini braids were skinTy!! That was actually when I started doing micro braids with my own hair bc they looked better on the thinner hair. Talk about taking forever to install though. :rolleyes: Lol. But they did a good job of giving my hair a rest.

Maybe with time and a few protein txs, your hair will fluff back up? Like how sometimes the hair is really straight/thin right after relaxing and then the texture comes back to it months later. I know rocking it out/down can be even worse for us. Could you rock a cornrowed bun instead? Or maybe this is braided pigtails month or something. Also, it's finally wetbunning season here in the Midwest!! You know you could do that for at least a few weeks. GL!! ((BIG HUG))
 
Prefacing this by letting yall know I’m pretty nerdy, so yes I have a microscope at home.

So I wanted to examine my hair before I go relaxing it again soon. From the first pic, there isn’t a noticeable difference in hair health with my hair length, even my ends look fairly the same.

IMG_4968.jpeg
But then looking at the hair by my roots, I notice it’s a little different, the cuticles a little more lifted and the waxy sebum is traveling farther down.

IMG_4974.jpeg
IMG_4970.jpeg
I expect the waxy sebum part as a result of slightly straighter hair. What I’m just now realizing is that I have probably been doing a bad job of applying treatments close to the root and my relaxer hair needs that . I don’t want to get conditioner on my scalp (terrible experience with that when I thought you could use conditioner as shampoo) because my scalp will definitely get irritated and inflamed. This is probably where an acidic rinse could help but man I was really trying to simplify wash days since upping to 2x per week.

Fun reading https://www.dovepress.com/microscop...al-stylin-peer-reviewed-fulltext-article-CCID
 
I think I paid 30$ on Amazon @sunnieb. It’s good enough for my purposes and it’s gross yet intriguing looking at the pores on my scalp. It made me a firm believer in at least rinsing your scalp/ gentle shampoo brush/ exfoliating the scalp more like we would do with our face. I washed my scalp immediately after my first time using this thing
 
ScorpioLove said:
I think I paid 30$ on Amazon @sunnieb. It’s good enough for my purposes and it’s gross yet intriguing looking at the pores on my scalp. It made me a firm believer in at least rinsing your scalp/ gentle shampoo brush/ exfoliating the scalp more like we would do with our face. I washed my scalp immediately after my first time using this thing
Click to expand...

I used to work as a consultant at a hair loss clinic. I would examine scalp conditions under a microscope several times a week. It definitely made me a big proponent of using actual shampoo and cleansing regularly. The scalp needs to be washed and exfoliated.
 
Re: Correctives

I don't think I've ever bothered with doing one. If I get my relaxer wrong I just suck it up and wait for the 8 week minimum to relax my hair again.

And as I'm getting older it feels like my NG is getting more and more relaxer resistant, and I refuse to use a stronger strength. So it feels like I should be doing a corrective each time! :lol:
 
My hair is a patchwork quilt of textures. I’ve had to learn to be okay with that. It’s from multiple people relaxing my hair (stylist, my sister, me), different processing times, different methods. Now that I’ve gotten a good self relaxing routine figured out, I know it will get more consistent over time.

I’ve never done a separate corrective relaxer. I’ve always done it the way @MzSwift described. Relaxing the new growth when it’s time, and then pulling it through to the previously under processed length. But the last time I STILL didn’t leave the relaxer on long enough. That’s when I finally gave up the fight. Lol
 
Theresamonet said:
My hair is a patchwork quilt of textures. I’ve had to learn to be okay with that. It’s from multiple people relaxing my hair (stylist, my sister, me), different processing times, different methods. Now that I’ve gotten a good self relaxing routine figured out, I know it will get more consistent over time.

I’ve never done a separate corrective relaxer. I’ve always done it the way @MzSwift described. Relaxing the new growth when it’s time, and then pulling it through to the previously under processed length. But the last time I STILL didn’t leave the relaxer on long enough. That’s when I finally gave up the fight. Lol
Click to expand...
See this is what I am afraid of. I’m generally very careful cause I know even 1 minute of processing makes a difference and I’m forever scarred by terrible in salon relaxer experiences as a kid. My mom still goes to that woman and she recently got a “texture softener” but somehow got my mom’s hair bone straight

The struggle is having enough time to get through all the hair fast enough and let them process for similar amounts of time. I’m going to try a 2part front/back situation next time. I’ve been watching a YouTube cosmetologist do high risk bleach appointments for people who are double processed and go platinum blonde; it’s quite helpful to see her process (using bond builders to help). I do wish relaxers worked slower in general cause bleach seems to provide a ton of time if you use a lower developer volume.
 
ScorpioLove said:
See this is what I am afraid of. I’m generally very careful cause I know even 1 minute of processing makes a difference and I’m forever scarred by terrible in salon relaxer experiences as a kid. My mom still goes to that woman and she recently got a “texture softener” but somehow got my mom’s hair bone straight

The struggle is having enough time to get through all the hair fast enough and let them process for similar amounts of time. I’m going to try a 2part front/back situation next time. I’ve been watching a YouTube cosmetologist do high risk bleach appointments for people who are double processed and go platinum blonde; it’s quite helpful to see her process (using bond builders to help). I do wish relaxers worked slower in general cause bleach seems to provide a ton of time if you use a lower developer volume.
Click to expand...

I do the half/half method when I relax my hair.

Can you post a link to the YouTuber you referenced?
 
Was gifted Epres shampoo and conditioner by one of my white co-workers (she knows I love hair), and OMG I love them!
I had seen they were coming out with them, but wasn't interested, as the brand doesn't seem to be taking off, so I had little expectation.

My current shampoos and conditioners have not been hitting like they used to, even after clarifying. Bought some new ones and same result, so I thought it was just my hair.

I'm already going to purchase more! My hair didn't feel overly moisturized or slippy when I washed out the conditioner, so I thought it would give results like my other products have been.
To my surprise, was super soft and easy to detangle afterwards. Felt clean and sleek.
 
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