Relaxer setbacks why you had one and how it wont happen again?

A

almond eyes

Well-Known Member
I thought that we could start a thread on relaxer set backs and advice on how to prevent them. I touched up this weekend using linange lye. By the way I love linange as it is a very easy relaxer to use. But my hair experienced some breakage and this is what I believe caused it and I will not repeat it again. 1) I experienced a lot of growth and it was a beast to get through no matter that I did a good detangle beforehand. I will never relax beyond 10 weeks again relaxing at 12 weeks caused my hair harm 2) I will touch up the back part of my hair in two sections and neutralise before touching up the front section. When I tried to do the entire hair at the same time I felt that I had to work fast and then washing it all out in the shower caused me tangles 3) Using too high a water pressure to rinse out my relaxer 4) using aphogee two minute constructor not a good idea and 5) do not slather too much oil or other stuff on my previously relaxed hair to prevent relaxer run off my fine strands were too weighed down and it got too messy when I began my touch up 6) remebering that relaxing my hair when it was SL length is different from APL and therefore important to take time to go through my hair.
Best, Almond Eyes
 
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I self-relaxed for the first time in years in December, and while I didn't have any breakage at the time, I did have some severe under processing (some sections don't even look textlaxed!), which have made the last three months pretty hard to get through and I did end up with some breakage in my temple area because of it. :nono: Plus, I ended up with a couple of burns because I didn't base my scalp well enough.

Main reason it occurred was I was using a lye relaxer for the first time, and I was handling a lot more hair than I had in the past, and the two factors together created a situation where I was racing against the clock to try to get the stuff on my head, and I didn't give myself enough time to smooth it out properly before rinsing. With the no-lye relaxers I had used in the past, I never based my head (just my ears and edges) and I didn't worry about how long I left the relaxer in. I just left it on until I got my hair nice and straight.

Next week, I will be more diligent about pre-parting correctly, basing my entire head, then twisting off those sections so I can get the relaxer on as quickly as possible. I will also follow the advice of not putting too much stuff on my previously relaxed hair (the weighted down strands slowed me down with all that tangling), but I will stick to the reconstructor step; my fragile hair needs that and my stylist adds a similar product to my hair in that fashion when I get my touch ups at the salon. Hopefully I will get the results I desire this time. :yep:
 
Relaxer setbacks:

Relaxing monthly at the salon
Underprocessed (at salon)
Not asking stylist what relaxer she was using
Relaxing all the way to the ends with each relaxer
Dry, brittle, breaking, chewed up ends


How I fixed it:

Self-relax at 16+ weeks post

Pre-part hair before applying relaxer so I can apply the relaxer quickly and have plenty of time to smooth - I'm never underprocessed now

Cowashing, daily moisture, deep conditioning w/protein 2x a month - I have virtually no breakage and my hair is super moisturized

Great thread! :yep:
 
I self relaxed last week so this post is timely, thanks sunnieb for your advice on underprocessing.

My setbacks have been

going too far (12 weeks) for me, I've come to realize that 8-10 weeks is best for me, my newgrowth gets super tangly and I lose hair instead of retaining. I've been having super breakage. Nevertheless I still will continue to learn how to self relax. I want ALL my hair care to be in my hands.

Not moisturizing NG properly.

Applying too much oil could also have resulted in underprocessing. I have breakage in the front so I've been applying castor oil at night and in the mornings. I will not have any styling product on the week prior to my relaxer next time.

Basing my scalp throughout.
 
I was a self relaxer for years, but I did it all wrong (root to tip every time :nono:). Since joining LHCF, I now do it right, though it takes a lot longer. Like SunnieB, I pre section my hair, which takes alot of time, but is so worth it. The only setback I have had since joining was my last relaxer in December. I did a pre-relaxer protein treatment the week before, then used the Joico kpack before neutralizing and all was great. Where I went wrong was when I decided to flat iron to length check and spritzed apogee green tea and keratin as an extra heat protectant and bam- protein overload. My hair started breaking right away. Fortunately, I recognized it right away, but took a month to get breakage totally under control.

I just self-relaxed yesterday and I have really laid off the protein since last time, focusing on moisture, so I did the 2-minute pre-neutralizing step and my hair feels great today. No breakage.

I did not consider myself protein sensitive, as I had been using it a lot with no problem. So it caught me off guard when it happened. I guess my warning is to be cautious about how much protein you use during the relaxer process. It seems better to use it in several mild doses before and after relaxing instead of big, strong ones. HTH!
 
When I used to be relaxed YEARS ago, i would ALWAYS relax from root to tip....i thought I had to because I didn't feel my relaxers "took" because my hair wasn't bone straight. :ohwell: I though I would have flowy hair right after I relaxed....LOL i didn't even flat iron it or anything, i just though it would automatically be beautiful and luxurious....:nono: so since it didn't look like the model on the box, i would relax every 3 weeks or so from root to tip, :nono: Miraculously my hair didn't shrivel up or fall out....i just couldn't retain any length to save my life (because I was melting it all off).... Then one day I was broke and couldn't buy my box relaxer....I never relaxed again.....That was the beginning of my journey to go natural (without knowing that was in essence what I was doing) :yep:
 
how did yallz hair not break off completely from the root when yall were relaxing your hair from root to tip every month or something? i didn't know that was possible.
 
Most of my setbacks have been attributed to stretching. My hair either don't take well to stretching or I just have not learn the art of stretching.
 
Great thread!!!! My hair is colored and unfortunately, I wasn't keeping it as moisturized as it needed which resulted in dry, brittle damaged hair. Thanks to LHCF, I now M&S nightly!!
 
I have been self relaxing for years but began my hhj last year in march. My last relaxer was last week at 13 weeks post. I can develop protein overload fairly easily as well. This was my most successful stretch. This is the first time I retained some length in years. What I've learned:

1) Never go past 12 weeks
2) Use natural products as much as possible
3) Do the GHE to add moisture
4) part hair into small sections and twist to work quickly
5) Use safflower oil and conditioner on hair shaft
6) Pour safflower into mix to slow the process
7) keep ng moist & detangled leading up to relaxer date
8) avoid cones as much as possible
9) do henna, sukesh and mehendi glosses
10) use all aphogee products during the process

This is a timely thread. I wish everyone a healthy relaxed hair journey

Sent from my iPhone using LHCF
 
I don't know if this is a relaxer set back or not, but while my hair was relaxed, I would shampoo and condition, spray leave in, air dry for around 20 - 30 minutes, then blow dry...every other day... all this without detangling first, during, or even immediately after . I thought wet hair was too fragile to comb...so I didn't....Tangles...tangles...tangles after 3 weeks post...ripping out hair with combing AND blow drying :nono:. Then I paid attention one day when I was getting my hair done, and they combed the conditioner through as they always had... So I started doing it at home with a wide tooth comb, conditioner still in hair.... and that solved my problem. Now I'm starting to get touch ups every 6 months (twice a year) instead of every three. I can still comb/blowdry through my new growth with ease, hardly any hair lost.

Another thing I stopped was shampooing, except for when I get my relaxer. ALL shampoos dry my hair out and it didn't make any sense to strip my hair just so I had to add moisture again with conditioner. I shampoo twice a year now just to get all the styling products and junk off from the relaxer/salon. Scalp and hair are doing much better.

The last thing I did was created a regimen tailored to my natural AND relaxed hair. I did this so that when I had a bunch of new growth, it wouldn't snap off or respond differently to anything I was doing. I don't have to change anything when I have a bunch of new growth because my natural and relaxed hair like all the products/practices I now use.

Sorry for writing a book without pictures. :ohwell: Unfortunately I don't style my hair, so it's always in a mini bun or a clip lol.
 
These responses are so helpful. I had a question about for those who usually co wash or use sulfate free shampoos to prevent tangles what happens when you use a neutraliser shampoo. I found that my hair really got tangled. What is the best method to wash out the neutraliser without creating hair tangles?

Best,
Almond Eyes
 
naija24 said:
how did yallz hair not break off completely from the root when yall were relaxing your hair from root to tip every month or something? i didn't know that was possible.
Click to expand...


I still ask myself this question. I did it for YEARS :nono: When I finally found LHCF, my nape was broken up to neck length,I had a 2-inch wide spot of one-inch long hair in my crown (that I kept slathering with relaxer because it seemed so coarse and dry) and the rest of my hair was SL and extremely thin. Thats what drew my sister's attention to the state of my hair and she led me here. I immediately quit relaxing my nape (It is actually natural while the rest of my hair is relaxed, at least until it grows out) Though, I think the real issue with my nape was the scarf I was tying in an extremely tight knot there every night. I also only used BB grease and pink lotion to "moisturize", and that only when I thought about it after ripping through my hair with a small toothed comb, lol. I am still slowly chopping off those old overprocessed ends and basically growing a whole new head of healthy relaxed hair. Because I am chopping it off, I have been at APL for awhile and expect to be there for awhile longer.
 
almond eyes said:
These responses are so helpful. I had a question about for those who usually co wash or use sulfate free shampoos to prevent tangles what happens when you use a neutraliser shampoo. I found that my hair really got tangled. What is the best method to wash out the neutraliser without creating hair tangles?

Best,
Almond Eyes
Click to expand...

Try not to manipulate your hair too much; find a more moisturizing neutralizer. My elucence acidifying shampoo makes my hair feel soooooo soft!
 
Over processing and somewhat frequent relaxing. I was relaxing every 8-10 wks and while that's not necessarily too short as I had a ton of new growth my hair in the long run I realized was being over processed and starting to thin out. I remedied this by stretching my relaxers to 16 wks but even so, I still was over processed bc the stylist relaxed completely bone straight.

My most recent relaxer is pretty straight but I don't think it's as bone straight as its been in the past. My previous relaxer was a texlax and I didn't like it too much. Didn't like that my hair reverted too quickly and a few weeks after I touched up it didn't look straight. I also didn't like the lack of uniformity but I liked the extra thickness my hair had.

I'll continue to relax every 12 - 16 wks and use Emergencee prob every 3 wks.

Sent from my iPhone using LHCF
 
My setback was not pulling the relaxer thru far enough (I had a lot of newgrowth after a 6 month stretch), then overprocessing one part because I was too slow even when pre parting the night before.

Next time I will make smaller parts to make sure I process all the thickness and try the half and half method so I can take my time.
 
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