Relaxing entire length of hair?

twinkletoes17

twinkletoes17

Active Member
For those of you who have read Cathy Howse's book, she mentioned relaxing your entire length of hair perhaps once or twice a year. I haven't done that to my hair since September 2006, so I guess you could say I'm due as my ends are getting curly again. I have a dilemna (somewhat) I think... lol.

My last two relaxers were with ORS No-Lye (both left me underprocessed so I'm dealing with a lot of NG). Before that I was using Optimum Anti-Breakage Normal. I want to use ORS Lye so badly for my next relaxer because of the great reviews about it. Would it be unsafe to use lye on my no-lye head? I'm scared... but I really want to lol. Has anyone relaxed their entire length of hair with minimal or no breakage?
 
Cathy Howse just lost any credibility she might have had with me from that statement. I wouldn't do it. My old hairdresser tried to convince me to let her do that when I switched from Affirm sensitive scalp to regular lye. I refused and had no problems whatsoever.I just grew out the no lye hair gradually. It can be done. It left me wondering if she suggested it out of sabotage so I would need to visit her weekly vs. for touchups only. Unless your length was underprocessed why in the world would someone suggest putting more relaxer on relaxed hair ever? Twice a year?:nono: My hair would dry out, split, break and disintegrate. Even correctives can be tricky when necessary. If it was me I would run not walk to someone else. I stayed with the person for a year after, but I watched her and let her know I meant business when she would suggest it.
 
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I dont care if Cathy Howse said it or not , im never relaxing the entire length of my hair ever - unless im natural (she must be freaking mad)

that's all from me .. no help sorry
 
I have read Cathy Howse's book twice and I never read that she relaxes the length of her hair :nono: In fact, she says to NEVER overlap! Is that a new version?
 
For me I will not do it because even in the recommandations in the box of relaxer they say to put it only in NG .:nono:
 
my aunt did that to me in november. i had maaaaaaaad breakage lol. she told me that needed to be done once a year:rolleyes:. then after relaxing and blow drying/ flat ironing she told me i had a lot of split ends and i needed to get a trim[i did it myself though]:wallbash:

before this my god mom always relaxed me new growth only
 
You should not pull relaxer through to your ends. It should be new growth only.

From your post it sounds like what you need is a corrective to deal with your underprocessed hair from previous relaxer. You should be able to find a ton of threads on this by using the search feature.
 
It's from the 2000 version. I'll copy it word for word here (pg. 145):

"A retouch is the straightening of the hair closest to the scalp that has grown since your last relaxer. As new growth is visible within 5-6 weeks in some people and 8-10 weeks in others, consider having a retouch of only the new growth. During a retouch, the relaxer product should not be applied from the scalp to ends of the hair. The only exception is once or twice a year to straighten previously relaxed hair that has regained too much curl."


She suggests it, but at the same time says "discretion is advised."

It is worrying, but I reread parts of the book yesterday when I was cleaning my room (lol). It's something I haven't done in quite a while, and I thought I was doing the right thing. When Cathy says something it's no joke so it had me thinking lol.
 
Cathy is human, just like the rest of us, and thus has the potential to be wrong. I agree with the other ladies - you want to do a corrective to fix the underprocessing. Re-relaxing already relaxed hair is a good recipe for thinning, fragile, broken off ends. :nono:
 
Yeah I would not do that. Your hair is already delicate. I would invest in a good smoothing system so you don't have to relax the length. I know many ladies get smooth hair by rollersetting.
 
Stylists do it. I believe that Jose, Israeli stylist, also recommended something like that. I think they are talking about lye relaxers and tex-laxing the hair. I've also heard that you cannot correct the texture of a relaxer if no-lye was applied. You can only correct with lye. So, that might have something to do with it. Some people's hair "reverts" during the year. I don't know if it's damage or true so-called reversion or frizz. If it's been bone-straight, don't do it!!!
 
I used to do it four times a year. :blush: Yeah, then I wondered why my hair stayed the same length for years and years and years.

I don't recommend it.
 
I think this is a very unnecessary and potentially hazardous addition to the already complicated relaxer process. Being that your previously relaxed ends get run-off every time you touch-up the NG pulling the relaxer thru to your ends once or twice a year is an over-kill IMO! Cathy has some great info, but I have found some of her recommendations less then desirable for my hair.
 
I'm guessing no one does it anymore lol. Some of my hair is bone straight. The ends no longer are... but it's much better to be safe than sorry.


Thanks so much for all the advice ladies, won't be doing it :)
 
That just doesn't sound healthy to me... I don't see the benefits...the further away from the roots the weaker the hair... A Dominican stylist wanted to do the same thing to my hair "your hair is underprocessed"... she said, ... "no thank you...I will just deal with it"

I would love to hear from someone who has done this and gained successful results.
 
puddin said:
That just doesn't sound healthy to me... I don't see the benefits...the further away from the roots the weaker the hair... A Dominican stylist wanted to do the same thing to my hair "your hair is underprocessed"... she said, ... "no thank you...I will just deal with it"

I would love to hear from someone who has done this and gained successful results.
Click to expand...


So far no one lol.
 
twinkletoes17 said:
For those of you who have read Cathy Howse's book, she mentioned relaxing your entire length of hair perhaps once or twice a year. I haven't done that to my hair since September 2006, so I guess you could say I'm due as my ends are getting curly again. I have a dilemna (somewhat) I think... lol.
Click to expand...

:nono: NO! Cathy Howse said to NOT relax the entire length of your hair. If fact she said to stretch your relaxers so that you will not get an overlapping of overprossed hair. I have read her most recent version and it does not say that. This goes against everything she teaches. Good Luck!
 
Not a good advice at all - don't do it, relax only the new growth.. I've been on a hair care regime now for almost 5 years and I never had to pull the relaxer out to the ends, never and I relax myself...
 
twinkletoes17 said:
It's from the 2000 version. I'll copy it word for word here (pg. 145):

"A retouch is the straightening of the hair closest to the scalp that has grown since your last relaxer. As new growth is visible within 5-6 weeks in some people and 8-10 weeks in others, consider having a retouch of only the new growth. During a retouch, the relaxer product should not be applied from the scalp to ends of the hair. The only exception is once or twice a year to straighten previously relaxed hair that has regained too much curl."


She suggests it, but at the same time says "discretion is advised."

It is worrying, but I reread parts of the book yesterday when I was cleaning my room (lol). It's something I haven't done in quite a while, and I thought I was doing the right thing. When Cathy says something it's no joke so it had me thinking lol.
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pg. 145 2nd paragraph:

Repeatedly applying a relaxer over all your hair again is overprocessing. Hair that has been processed by any chemical is already weak., considered dry, and prone to breakage. Remember, the less damage youdo to your hair during any hair service, the more you will be able to keep on your head to add length!

@ the bolded to interpret the first paragraph. She is saying that even with a relaxer the hair will revert or it was underprocessed to begin with. And that you MAY reprocess the entire head of hair if that is the case.

:nono: I don't recommend it, and neither does she. I thought Cathy Howse went natural. :ohwell:
 
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wonderstar said:
A natural head advising a relaxed head to relax full length once or twice per year:rolleyes:.......wellsah!
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When she wrote the book, she was relaxed. HTH

I have her book and she does say that, I too found it redundant. I don't think it's needed though like some of the ladies said.

Right now my hair has split ends and is breaking because my dominican stylist always relaxed me from roots to tips. I plan to trim off the ends when I do decide to relax (I'm 3 months post) and you can bet that no relaxer is touching the ends of my hair.
 
My sister pulls her relaxer through the entire length of her hair each time she relaxes and she is APL. Granted, she has been APL for many many years and this may be the reason why she can't get any longer...but she does it and her hair looks good....
I COULD NEVER/WOULD NEVER do this or advise doing this though..I guess diff'rent strokes for diff'rent folks...
 
I have that book, and I saw that too, but I wouldn't try it. I have had people put the relaxed on the entrie hair strand before nad it was too much fr my fragile ends. They broke off like krazy
 
jerseygurl said:
When she wrote the book, she was relaxed. HTH

I have her book and she does say that, I too found it redundant. I don't think it's needed though like some of the ladies said.

Right now my hair has split ends and is breaking because my dominican stylist always relaxed me from roots to tips. I plan to trim off the ends when I do decide to relax (I'm 3 months post) and you can bet that no relaxer is touching the ends of my hair.
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My stylist used to do this to me too, and because I was naive and ignorant I didn't know any better. :nono: It annoyed her when I asked her to just do the new growth, because effectively she's only uses half a tub of relaxer whereas before she used a whole tub. No wonder my hair never gained any length. :rolleyes:
 
My hair was so texlaxed/jacklaxed/bonelaxed in different areas all over my head i decided to give my self a corrective relaxer but this time i used ors no-lye.... Previously i was using the worst relaxer in the world pink no-lye:nono:which left 6 inches of hair at my scalp not processed at all so on relaxer day I relaxed in halfs lubricated the bone straight parts of my hair with petro jelly, used ors no-lye regular mixed with silk amino acids, roux porosity control, and a little hempseed oil all this thanks to the lovely ladies advice in the forum! Applied from roots to tips in the underprocessed areas, and for my midstep i used roux porosity control let it sit for 5-10 mins, pooed with ors creamy aloe several times, deep conditioned with my concoction of ceramide conditioners(redken bumble&bumble biolage and optinum). The end result was silky shiny soft hair...... That was until i got 4 weeks post and my entire reverted again.:wallbash: But it is less tangled than before and after giving myself weekly deep conditoning treatments ive experienced no breakage at all. In a sense i can say that the relaxer, along with the creamy aloe poo, and ceramides have improved the condition of my hair but with the reversion now at 8 wks post ill have to seriously consider a lye relaxer.... All i ever wanted was bone straight hair!!!

So all in all it may work depending on the overall health of your hair before and how you take care of it afterwards my suggestion is lots of deep conditioning..........
 
Ms. Twinkletoes, I too do not recommend this. I only recommend the new growth, I love beautiful straight relaxed hair and had to learn the hard way about over proccessing, I definitely took a loss, that's how I found this site. I also discovered relaxing my own hair that mild no-lye give me more time to work with without burning and also got my hair bone straight ;) Good Luck Anna
 
i definitely do not recommend this, I did it once when my hair was underprocessed, and it came out well, the next time i did, it broke off my hair. So if your whole strand of hair is underprocessed, you may relax the whole strand, but only do it once ever, not twice a year, thats just craziness
 
CurlyMoo said:
:nono: NO! Cathy Howse said to NOT relax the entire length of your hair. If fact she said to stretch your relaxers so that you will not get an overlapping of overprossed hair. I have read her most recent version and it does not say that. This goes against everything she teaches. Good Luck!
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Yes Cathy Howse said this...I have the book right in front of me


I would NEVER do this...NEVER
 
Before I knew anything about hair... I did this... worst thing you could do to your hair ever... DO NOT DO IT unless you want to have overprocessed broken off hair... I respect Cathy Howse but to be quite honest... I'm not too impressed with her own hair... it always looks stringy and hard in pics I've seen of her... never bouncy or full of life... better for you to view the FEATURES OF THE MONTH on LHCF and ask them questions... I highly doubt any of them would agree with Cathy Howse's statement.
 
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