Self Relaxers, what mistakes causes hair loss or damage?

[simplyhair]

I am ready to take the dive into self relaxing. My DH has been holding me back because he thinks I (or he for that matter) should not mess with chemicals. I have studied the self relaxing methods provided here along with Sistaslick's mid protein and PH articles.

There seems to be many members here that self relax with great results. However, there are a few members that had a bad experience in their past with self relaxing and lost clumps of hair or something else horrible happened.

What could a person possibly do wrong that would cause immediate hair loss or other damage?

I am 12 weeks post relaxer and MBL.
I do not have color treated hair.
My hair is pretty healthy without any damage.
I did the Aphogee 2 min on Saturday (need relaxer by Thursday).

 

[cmbodley]

Overlapping & not neutralizing enough

 

[sharifeh]

Leaving the relaxer on too long...depending on what strength it is...

 

[imaccami]

Not rinsing enough

Leaving the relaxer in too long

Not following the directions

Going under the dryer with protein/conditioner before neutralizing

Using a regular shampoo to neutralize instead of a neutralizing shampoo.

 

[simplyhair]

Overlapping & not neutralizing enough

Isn't some overlapping unavoidable? Do you use multiple mirrors?

 

[ILYandY]

Heres my list and I am a self-relaxer.

• Leaving the relaxing in too long.
• Not Neutralizing thoroughly after relaxer.
• Not Chelating the hair at least once a month (although you neutralize the hair sometimes the chemical is still left on the hair)
• Not Deep Conditioning w/ph of 4.5 or 5.5 (especially after a protein or reconstuctor treatment) to give hair moisture and to help close the cuticle.
• Not Moisturizing.

 

[simplyhair]

Leaving the relaxer on too long...depending on what strength it is...

I always use a no-lye sensitive scalp relaxer. Can I use a no-lye Normal relaxer?

 

[taz007]

Not neutralizing properly

Not covering previously relaxed hair with (oil, vaseline, neutralizing shampoo, etc)

Not chelating the hair if using a no lye

 

[Uber]

hmm, nice thread. I am thinking of self relaxing my hair. I have done it before with no hair loss but for one reason or the other I am a bit terrified this time...maybe cos I'm old and wiser....or so I'd like to think

 

[SelfStyled]

The back of me head is very coily and resistant. One time in order to ger the coils to submit, I smoothed, smoothed, smoothed. About a week later, that section had broken down to about 1/4", lucky for me it was just one section. I learned it is okay to smooth, just don't be too overzealous.
ETA: The smoothing was done with my fingers

 

[tada1]

It was a relaxer incident that made me go natural last year. I was texlaxing my hair about 85% without any problems until i decided to stretch. oh boy. When the time came for my self-relaxer, I got the roots straight but i missed about a 1/4 inch of hair so each strand looked something like this --~~~--- so i tried to do a corrective touch up a little later and wound up with bone straight roots and texlaxed ends

I can laugh now, but i was devastated. I mean, what if i reached my goal of BSL and then made this type of mistake? I haven't messed with relaxers ever since. I highly respect ladies that have self-relaxing down to a science