Since when did white folks start getting relaxers?

[Starian]

My coworker is a cute, cherubic looking white boy. Curly red hair, super pale skin, freckles across the nose, light brown eyes. We joke around and call him altarboy because he goes to Catholic school and he just looks like an innocent little boy.

I digress.

So he comes to work yesterday and his beautiful curls are gone, replaced with sleek gelled back hair. I asked him what he did and he told me,

"I got a relaxer."

I was like "Huh?"

"Yeah, I got a relaxer. Got tired of the curly hair."

It struck me as odd until I remembered the hair typing system. He didn't appear to have coarse hair, but as curly as it was it was at LEAST 3B.

He unfortunately didn't know what kind of relaxer it was. Do you know of any Caucasian folks that get relaxers?

 

[LocksOfLuV]

Yeah girl. They have been doing it for years.

 

[HoneyDew]

Yep, it's not new. There are different kinds of relaxers and I haev heard of people of all races getting them. I think we are the only ones that tend to rely on the the most.

 

[WomanlyCharm]

I had a friend whose hair would put any black woman's 4z hair to shame...curly to the nth degree! I'd never seen that kind of hair on a white person ever.

She got teased so much she finally decided to get a relaxer. Her hair went from brillo to beautiful...she gets relaxed to this day.

 

[HoneyDew]

Oh, I am surprised a guy did it, though.

But, there was a guy on Shear Genius that got his hair flat-ironed so I can't really be too surprised I guess.

 

[Serenity_Peace]

It's really nothing new. Some of my white friends, particularly ethnic Jews have really thick, curly hair and they use relaxers to straighten. It's interesting sharing relaxer stories.

 

[angie10]

I agree with the other ladies, it's nothing new. I mean you don't see it often, but it happens.

 

[DarkAngell]

Actually i know alot of them that do. Alot of people just assume they dont simply because they're white and dont have coarse hair...but alot of them just dont want whatever curl pattern they do have...even if its a slight curl. you'd be surprised how many white people that appear to have naturally straight hair really just get it relaxed. ALSO....they usually dont call it that ( for what reason i have no idea cause it kinda makes me laugh..)
Ive heard them say they "got their hair straightened"...some of them just say perm. some of them say "backwards perm" lol

I was friends with this girl once. one day she came into school and i noticed her hair looked..flatter. she never really had curly hair...but still it looked different. after a while i asked her if she was doing something different and her respone was" yea ive just been straightening it"
The subject came up later on sometime and she went into a deeper description saying that "her hair salon puts this chemical in it and it takes out the curl and makes it really straight" It was funny to actually have someone ATTEMPT to explain to me what a relaxer is! That was the first time i ever knew of a white person that did. After that ive picked up on alot more that do it.

But anyway...there u have it! White people definately relax too!

 

[mscocoface]

When I lived in Hawaii I saw the Hawaiians getting relaxers. That was a shock to me, but I was told many polynesians do this.

 

[taraglam2]

The salon that I used to patronize a lot did tons of relaxers on caucasian hair. It was a predomintaely white salon. They had Mizani, Affirm & REVLON relaxers. Apparently it is something that has been done for years

 

[sheba125]

Yeah I have some Jewish friends who relax their hair. If it's humid you can forget it, cause will frizz up in a quick minute

 

[IrisDaVirus]

White folks have been getting relaxers for years. I've definitely known my share of them who've gotten them.

 

[deejoy]

Actually i know alot of them that do. Alot of people just assume they dont simply because they're white and dont have coarse hair...but alot of them just dont want whatever curl pattern they do have...even if its a slight curl. you'd be surprised how many white people that appear to have naturally straight hair really just get it relaxed. ALSO....they usually dont call it that ( for what reason i have no idea cause it kinda makes me laugh..)
Ive heard them say they "got their hair straightened"...some of them just say perm. some of them say "backwards perm" lol

I was friends with this girl once. one day she came into school and i noticed her hair looked..flatter. she never really had curly hair...but still it looked different. after a while i asked her if she was doing something different and her respone was" yea ive just been straightening it"
The subject came up later on sometime and she went into a deeper description saying that "her hair salon puts this chemical in it and it takes out the curl and makes it really straight" It was funny to actually have someone ATTEMPT to explain to me what a relaxer is! That was the first time i ever knew of a white person that did. After that ive picked up on alot more that do it.

But anyway...there u have it! White people definately relax too!

Yep they calling it getting their hair chemically straightened and we call it a relaxer. Just like they say going to the salon is "getting a hair cut" and we call it "getting our hair done/did".

 

[Starian]

Well, I guess I've been living under a rock. I really had no idea that white people got relaxed regularly. The more you know, huh?

 

[cutiebe2]

I remember 20/20 doing a story on hair straigtning....they said that 90% of the time Dudley's relaxer is better for white hair than that new Japanese Hair straightning sysytem
it was news to me!

 

[tnorenberg]

Yeah, these young folks need to be educated a little.... Up until the late 70's everything was called a perm (meaning permanent). Straight to curly and curly to straight. Paul Mitchel has their own professional Relaxer, Loreal had their own professional relaxer and Sebastian too. There are many other caucasian hair product companies who make relaxers, even to this day, for caucasian hair. Hair is hair and race does not always define how straight or curly/kinky your hair is. I knew of many Irish girls in College with hair curlier/kinkier than mine who would hide their when it was close to relaxer time and would come to me and my black/hispanic friends to blow dry and straighten their hair. Yeah, it was a trip.

 

[balisi]

Cosigning with the other responses. I've seen white women AND at least one white man getting relaxers. I myself have applied relaxer to an Indian woman's hair. Many whites HATE any hint of curl or wave in their hair, and the longer it grows, the curlier it tends to get. When I cut white men's hair, they often want their curls cut off (usually at the hairline and/or nape).

 

[RosesBlack]

Our family has a friend who is irish and has been relaxing her hair for probably 25 years I had NO idea until a couple of years ago she broke her collarbone and had asked me to braid her hair. I had my fingers down on her scalp and I joked that it felt like she needed a touch up and she just started laughing and said:

"Who are YOU tellin"

It was probably funnier to hear her say it because she's got a thick accent. She uses Dark and Lovely regular religiously once every 8 weeks.

 

[Proudpiscean]

Yep, one of my co-workers just got one!

 

[Lucia]

Your surprised, this has been going on forever. Check in the pharmacy there are/were the "straighteners/relaxers" even way before the Japanese straightening system came out. If the Japanese mostly had naturally straight hair why would they need to come up with that system, and the geisha's heated up a comb in hot water and passed it through their hair, that was way back in the day.
I mean I know Indians who have been straightening their hair for generations they tell me oh my mom, and grandma did it with "herbs" , the new generation here gets relaxers, even the guys b/c there's an image all Indians have straight hair-and that's not true 60% of asians have wavy/curly/kinky hair.
Even Marilyn Monroe straightened her hair and so did many others.
Did you ever see the classic movie" the way we were"
Barbara Streisand's character Katie got her hair ironed.

 

[Mahalialee4]

They probably were secretly relaxing before we found out about the possibility of relaxing ours. Especially considering that they were measuring your whiteness OR slaveness not only by the color of your skin but by the amount of curl you had in your hair. So I think they had a secret stash that they got from a secret stash, like flour and water...lol...seriously, they were using gums (vegetable gums) starch, pomades, heavy greases loaded with perfume and later those smokin hot curlers and rag curlers, and sleeping caps and braids that they pinned up tight....that hid a lot of "curly". Oh and the "perms" they got could get reversed. They used perm solution and combed it through, sometimes with baby powder to thicken it. White folks been making and selling perms to white folks forever....bonjour

 

[sugarose]

Yep, white people have been relaxing (and wearing weaves) forever.

 

[blue_flower]

This is an intersting thread. I've always known that other ethnic groups relax their hair, but I've never met anyone personally who did it. I still find it fascinating.

 

[imstush]

My jewish co worker hated her curls, she had a relaxer but grew it out and got the Japanese straightening system. Then another co worker half PR and half italian she uses a kiddie relaxer.

 

[JLove74]

for quite sometime. My good friend is Jewish with super tight curly hair. She relaxes with Phyto Index 1, not to straighten, but to loosen the curl. She also goes to the Dominican Salon for blowout

 

[glamazon386]

Yeah the salons in my college town used to do them. I know people who got the Japanese straightening relaxer.

 

[patient1]

In high school, one of the Jewish girls in my classes would get her hair relaxed. I graduated in 1990 and I'm sure it was going on before then.

My mom grew up in a part of Brooklyn that was predominantly Jewish and she would sometimes help her neighbors iron their hair. So I'm sure folks have been using any means to have straight hair regardless of race.

They all don't tell like your coworker though.

p1

 

[LocksOfLuV]

I remember 20/20 doing a story on hair straigtning....they said that 90% of the time Dudley's relaxer is better for white hair than that new Japanese Hair straightning sysytem
it was news to me!

oh LAWD, I wish I would have seen that.

 

[tatiana]

My former boss wore a relaxer; in fact I brought him a kiddie perm from Sally's because he was unsure what type to get. I was hoping he would let me put it in for him but he did it himself. Man you should seen him shaking and flipping his almost shoulder length straight hair at work.

 

[Junonia]

Well, I guess I've been living under a rock. I really had no idea that white people got relaxed regularly. The more you know, huh?

You and me both. I know they get weaves or as they call them extensions but relaxers...I thought they just spent every waking moment blow drying their hair to straighten it .