Texlaxers & Relaxed LHCF Sisters.........

[Aura]

I seriously need your advice. I've been texlaxing now with Phyto Index 1 for about a year and my hair has grown nicely and is pretty healthy... However, I am TRULY sick and tired of the HIGH Maintenance of having texlaxed hair. I want to go to the hairdresser again and relax, it's too much work..... I have 4bc...z hair and CAN NOT do a wash and go, I can't even air dry and flat iron without my hair turning to straw. I've noticed as of late that in order for me to have any type of manageability (sp?) I have to blow dry and flat iron my hair for it to at least look and feel decent. I miss having that swang you get with relaxed rollerset tresses and am on the verge of going bone straight. So my question is should I stay with Phyto (no-lye relaxer - Index 2) and go bone straight or use a lye relaxer like Affirm , or just keep doing what I'm doing. The reason I am contemplating using lye is because most experienced professionals say lye smooths the cuticle and it isn't as drying as no-lye and I realize that the no-lye relaxer is sorta drying. Since coming to the LHCF, I believe I will be able to keep my hair healthy if I go bone straight because I have discovered indian hair herbs/products and they work very well on my hair to combat shedding and achieve thickness..... Please help....I'm confused .

 

[jade998]

I seriously need your advice. I've been texlaxing now with Phyto Index 1 for about a year and my hair has grown nicely and is pretty healthy... However, I am TRULY sick and tired of the HIGH Maintenance of having texlaxed hair. I want to go to the hairdresser again and relax, it's too much work..... I have 4bc...z hair and CAN NOT do a wash and go, I can't even air dry and flat iron without my hair turning to straw. I've noticed as of late that in order for me to have any type of manageability (sp?) I have to blow dry and flat iron my hair for it to at least look and feel decent. I miss having that swang you get with relaxed rollerset tresses and am on the verge of going bone straight. So my question is should I stay with Phyto (no-lye relaxer - Index 2) and go bone straight or use a lye relaxer like Affirm , or just keep doing what I'm doing. The reason I am contemplating using lye is because most experienced professionals say lye smooths the cuticle and it isn't as drying as no-lye and I realize that the no-lye relaxer is sorta drying. Since coming to the LHCF, I believe I will be able to keep my hair healthy if I go bone straight because I have discovered indian hair herbs/products and they work very well on my hair to combat shedding and achieve thickness..... Please help....I'm confused .

Also, I am texlaxed with 4C hair as well, I am wondering the same question that you are. In my case I have come to love my hir as it is, I would rather have healthy texlaxed hair than unhealthy bone straight hair. Staying texlaxed helps my better with my hair as It feels stronger to me.

Maybe you just need find better products - I have been looking at Aveda very closely. If you wanted to do a corrective - (I did that after the first time I texlaxed it still wanted texlaxed to the % I wanted) I use Lye - Silk Elements. So far so good.

Sorry hope that helpeds a little......... just wondering what these indian spices that you found help with shedding?

 

[ronakajones]

Aura, Waiting on an update. Stalking your fotki!!!

 

[deborah11]

When I used Phyto years ago my hair became very dry, like straw, and eventually lead to breakage. I stopped getting any chemicals for almost 20 months and the I started using design essentials lye relaxer 2-3 times per year to texlax my hair. I haven't looked back. Texlaxing is not the be all, end all, I too have problems with shedding and have to be careful when combing my hair because of multiple textures ,etc. I however think that this is a better option for me because my hair is longer, fuller, healthier and looks a lot better than it ever did when I was bone straight!

 

[sareca]

I love texlaxing with Phyto, but I use Phyto II which is a little stronger so my hair rollersets straight. Perhaps you could process a little longer??

 

[Aura]

Thanks ladies for the tips. I've discovered a way to get my hair super soft even when the roots are out of control. This is what I do: I saturate my scalp with half and half of coconut oil and amla oil, massage my scalp with the oils in it and in a matter of minutes my scalp is all tingly and itchy. Then I braid my hair in 6 braids and put ORS replenishing pack on each braid. Then within the next hour I wash my scalp with Shikakai bar soap 2X (which is supposed to combat excessive shedding by strengthening the roots)....this REALLY works . I don't have as much shedding and I'll never shampoo without it EVER. Then I use the Vitale Pro Reconstructor and let that sit in my hair for about 15-20 minutes, then rinse and let me tell you I'm like 9 weeks post and have NEVER had my hair this soft 9 weeks post relaxer. My hair was like butter and the comb just glided through with no problem. So I know how to get my roots and hair soft enough to manage when I need a touch-up but I can't stand the dryness anymore it's literally like straw within say 1 week. And I'm trying not to wash it so much because the longer it gets it's just too much to deal with. I've had long bone straight hair before I had the kids, then put some streaks in it and that was it, had to get a BC. SO you can have healthy bone straight hair, but since I've found the LHCF I'm just super analytical now and won't make a move either way . I have to do something though, so I may just go for the Affirm, get it professionally done and make sure I time it, but the only thing is I may have to overlap the texlaxed part at the end to smooth it out, I only have ONE chance to do it, because once the roots is bone straight I can't overlap that part later to get the ends smooth feel me..... What do ya'll think? I mean look at Macherieamour's hair, it's beautiful bone straight, healthy and she uses Affirm. She says that she's also 4a, 4b too.

 

[nycutiepie]

Phyto 2 dried me out like straw too even though I was bone straight with it. I just went back to lye (Mizani Butter Blend Mild) and I'm now texlaxing. I had it done in a salon and he did not overlap at all. I have a couple of different textures going on due to some previous underprocessing. The strange thing is that the part of my hair that is freshly texlaxed with the Mizani feels way better than the Phyto hair. I will never go back to no-lye. Maybe you can continue texlaxing but try switching to lye and then if that doesn't work go to bone straight lye.

 

[Aura]

Mizani butter blend, I have never heard of that one....hmmmm. I might have to look into that. But texlaxing with lye might definitely be something I should look into. I will make a decision by tomorrow and take action. I'll let you guys know how everything turns out. My hair was the longest and healthiest when I just relaxed bone straight, rollerset and was done with it, I didn't use any heat besides the indirect heat from the dryer and that's it. Since my hair is fine, I also noticed that I have to constantly keep moisturizers on my hair and it's too much for my fine strands... I can't even blame it on no-lye, and I hate to say this...because I'm such a big Phyto advocate......but I think it's the Phyto that's causing all this dryness in my hair. I've used Optimum for years and never had this problem.

 

[jade998]

It might be the phyto.... I firstly texlaxed my hair with ORS NO LYE - and it was dry as a bone, I couldn't do anything to it.. Deep condition to the hill, it will still dry - well..DRY!!!!

I then did a corrective with Silk Elements LYE and it feels like an infusion of moisture at the moment. Luckily i texlaxed like 50% before (pic in my siggy) and now I think I am 80% (pic in my avator) - Look up the corrective thread that might help you out a little to understand what to do, as that is what essentially what you would be doing.

I will have to check out that shampoo bar to stop shedding that you are talking about.

 

[EbonyHairedPrincess]

When I texlax I go by percentage. Right now my hair is about 80% texlaxed. If you check my fotki you'll see when I was about 50% texlaxed using Silk Elements. I hated it so I waited 3 months and did a corrective with ORS which was okay. Last month I upgraded to ORS Lye and finally got the results I wanted. I would try doing a corrective to get it straighter but make sure you do a strand test to see how long you want to leave the relaxer on. Bone straight might be extreme since you have 4abz-ish.

 

[Aura]

You ladies give EXCELLENT advice . Thanks so much. So now I feel comfortable with what I'm about to do. Ok, so I'm going to let the beautician do a strand test to determine how long to keep it in to get my hair 80% straight with the lye (affirm). I'm way overdue for a trim as well, but I'll probably just get a dustin...., I'm so close to mid-back I can taste it, I'm probably at mid-back and don't know it my roots and hair is so drawn up. I'll take a picture and post it the day I get it done......one day this week.

Has anyone tried the shikakai oil? The shikakai bar soap is definitely a staple now 4 me, 4 ever....believe it or not, even with all this dryness it's no real shedding and definitely no breaking. I believe it's because of the shikakai and dabur vatika oil. Dem indian herbs work .

 

[lizjoseph]

Is it a moisture issue or more of a fact that you think your hair is too thick in the texlaxed form? If its mositure (which I think is what you mean by saying that it's like straw) what if you clarified and started co-wshing? Maybe the reason why you hair can't hold mositure is because of build up. Once done, bi-weekly (or however often you wish to do them) co-washes can help add in moisture to your hair.Also, what are you using as your daily moisterizer?Do you have one? Is it petroleum and mineral oil free? Are you sealing with oil? Maybe these can be the reasons for the dryness and not necessarily your texlaxing technique.

 

[Aura]

I'm ok with the thickness or fullness I should say. But it's definitely dryness. After I wash and condition it, it's soft like butter from root to tip, I can comb through it and everything. After the 3rd day, it doesn't react to moisturizers. Moisturizers just sit on my hair. And I don't have the time nor patience to wash my hair every 3 days. I never had this issue before. I can tell when I have product build up on my hair, because my hair stick together like glue....Oh and I clarify every other wash.

 

[lizjoseph]

hmm....what about a liquid moisterizer like S-curl or stasofro versus creme moisterizers? Or maybe some distilled water and glycerin. I also heard that spritzing your hair with water before applying the mositerizer helps....I'm really thinking hard here for you!! LOL!!

 

[Aura]

I've tried s-curl, plain ole water, it helps a little but that's about it. Oh and I've also noticed that with my texlaxed hair I need to use a lot of moisturizers and oils, whereas when I was bone straight I didn't. And my hair is a naturally dirty brown which makes it always look dry on top of it. What seems to work pretty well for shine believe it or not is good ole vitapointe.