What age did you get your first relaxer?

[PeaceFlow]

And what do you remember about the experience..

The first time I had chemicals was about age 14 and I had a texturiser done by a home hairdresser. Thing is I scratched my scalp the day before so when it came to it I had a bit of a Malcom X moment and screamed for water lol! My hairs fine so it still was ok and looked good.

The next time I fully processed was maybe age 15, I did it at home with kiddie relaxer and washed out. My hair was sticking straight up and DRY, I eventually started wetting my hair in the morning and spraying S curl so it was curly and I got a lot of compliments. It also grew because it was constantly wet.


I never realaxed again but it broke off from lack of maintinence in braids

 

[CandiceC]

Around 12 after having jheri curl for 4 years. That was a disaster.

 

[youwillrise]

i was 4 when i had my first
i dont remember anything about it, really.

 

[GoingNatural]

I was 14. I begged my parents to let me get a relaxer.

I had never seen my natural texture. I would get out the shower after washing my hair and immediately blow dry my hair so I thought that crazy texture was my natural texture and I wanted straight hair that went down and not all over the place.

at 22 I left the relaxer and have embraced my real texture

 

[SilkyandSmooth]

18 and out of high school. My Mom refused to put a relaxer in my hair before then. I remember the owner taking a look at my hair and suggesting that I use a no-lye relaxer. The application and rinse out went smoothly. I also remember one of the other stylists asking "what kind of relaxer did you get?" My relaxed hair was still curly. (think 3a curls). It was pretty funny.

 

[YoungWavey]

I was 14. I begged my parents to let me get a relaxer.

I had never seen my natural texture. I would get out the shower after washing my hair and immediately blow dry my hair so I thought that crazy texture was my natural texture and I wanted straight hair that went down and not all over the place.

at 22 I left the relaxer and have embraced my real texture

Me too. I just had to have a just for me perm.

 

[honeybadgirl]

i was 12 and what a mess that was!! well looking back he just texturized my hair. i didnt know the difference or that was even one. i was just so mad that my hair wasnt straight!!! i had that whole mentality back then, i wanted my hair to lay down when it was wet, like the white girls. it was a loose curl and then i would blow dry my hair almost every day...dry hair already. i didnt know how to curl it and i just wanted long straight hair. i was apl, may bra strap. i totally broke my hair off!!!

 

[Dearlove]

Sixteen. I had been getting a press n curl by my mom's stylist since I was 13. One day, she had had enough of my tender headed bush -- detangling was brutal -- and said she was perming my hair. She had an appointment to press my mom's hair at home after she left the shop. She put the relaxer in and went home with me to do my mom's hair. When we got home, the stylist told my mom that she had forgotten whose head she was working on and put the perm in by mistake. My mom was PO'd, but the damage was done. I kept my hair relaxed until my last touch up on July 2001. I was due for a touch up right after 9/11, but I couldn't bring myself to spend any more time than necessary in Manhattan.

 

[CreoleBelle]

I was 3yrs old. My mom said my hair was too thick to deal with, so she went the easy route. I've suffered permanent damage due to relaxers gone bad. I wish I had the knowledge I have now because I would have gone natural years ago.

 

[Z-kitty]

I was in fifth grade. I remember it like it was yesterday!! I was so tired of laying across my cousins lap to get my hair braided and tired of my mother burning me with the straightening comb and it being my fault. It was a joyous ocassion!! I havent looked back since...... Maybe one day I will go natural........

 

[meaganita]

I was 9 years old and was sooo excited because I never knew my hair was that long (shoulder length) or that it could get so straight. For days afterwards I would ride my bike hecka fast down the street, just so I could feel my hair blow in the wind. I was getting compliments at school and everything. But once the freshness of the relaxer started to wear off, I called myself wetting the hair and re-relaxing my whole head while my mom was at work. I don’t remember any specific damage. But I’m sure it’s safe to say that that’s where my unhealthy relationship with relaxers began. I started going natural in 2003 and have been 100% natural since 2006.

 

[cici22]

I got my first relaxer when I was five or six. My best friend had just gotten a relaxer and I begged and begged my mom to let me get a relaxer, she said no, but my dad was like "Let her get it if that's what she wants..." I had thick APL natural hair, got it relaxed and my hair started to thin out. So when I was eight my mom took me to a stylist to have my relaxed hair cut off (I cried my eyes out the entire time the stylist was cutting my hair) and had a jherri curl for two years before my hair was relaxed again.

 

[mzcris]

I think I was 13 or 14 years old...the stylist did an okay job...I don't remember my scalp burning...then I started wearing a jeri-curl.

 

[frizzy]

I was 15, int the 10th grade. My Mom asked me if I wanted one, I was like "OK". She started doing my Dark and Lovelys. I was APL, until I started cutting and cutting for a change in style, by senior year I had a relaxed TWA. I've kept it different lengths of short all these years.

ETA-- I forgot, I did used to get Vigorol liquid texturizers once a year at the beginning of the school year, from about age 9 or so. I almost went back to using them instead of perming last November.

 

[ajoyfuljoy]

I was seven years old. I don't remember much about it except that I was glad I didn't have to suffer through the weekly comb through anymore!!!

 

[hrtbndr21]

I think the deal was at 12 I would be allowed to get a perm. But I wore my parents down and got one a few months earlier. I just knew once I got the perm I would have that "shakeable" hair I saw on the box of the PCJ kids perm. Didn't quite turn out that way.... Gradually I convinced myself to try and grow it out at 24. I only had one really bad perm experience. I let my friends hair dresser give me a touch up, he was going to do my hair for senior prom. He claimed my hair wasn't straight enough with my measly home perm lol now that I think about it I was gettting an up do so what did it matter (I was 17 duh!)? That ish was :burning: like crazy and when I washed out my updo I had hair stuck to the scabs on my scalp and hairline.

 

[Quest4healthyhair]

I was 18 when I got my first perm. My mom was tired of pressing it for me.

 

[PhonyBaloney500]

About 9. It wasn't stick straight at all and only seemed straight'ish in the beginning. Maybe it was a texturizer? Then no touch ups but a new relaxer over all the hair once a year for the next few years lol. It broke off and that was the end of it. Never got one again after age 12 or so.

 

[tschizum]

I had to be between 5 and 7 I think I was in the first grade. (slap my mama)

 

[Amber_moon]

I honestly cant remember.... I have to call my mommy and ask her.

 

[Junonia]

I was 10 and it burned. I did receive many compliments the next day at school.

 

[SW2011]

I got mine at 5. My mom used to braid my hair all the time and put beads on the ends prior to my relaxer, and I loved the result, but hated the process. I got tired of sitting on the floor while she braided my hair. Then sometimes my mom would press my hair, and that scared me way too much. So, eventually my dad got tired of his little baby crying, and told my mom to relax it. It's been 20 years of relaxers since then.

 

[MissMusic]

I was/am 21, and thanks to LHCF it's a breeze, kinda!

 

[motherx2esq]

I was five when I got my first relaxer and I think around 8 when I got a jeri curl. Lawd, that last not even a month. I had to do the BC at 8 to get rid of my relaxed ends. I remember being out in the cold with that jeri curl and getting sick! lol My grandma had them blow that crap out until it grew out! I went natural around 20 or 21 but I could not stand getting my hair pressed ever week so I returned back to my relaxer and I will never leave him again! lol

 

[back2relaxed]

I was 10 and it was 4th grade! I was relaxed for the next 21 years and then I was natural for almost a year...but now I'm back2relaxed! And I love it!

 

[sunshinebeautiful]

I was six.

I started suffering severe hair breakage soon thereafter that no hairdresser seemed to understand how to stop.

Within two years, I had to BC and start over again.

 

[candiel]

I got mine at 17, my mom did it and it came out so beautiful . I didn't burn and my hair was so shiny and silky.

 

[GoldenBreeze]

I was 21, and a week or so after I got it I decided to let it grow out because I hated it. I no longer knew what to do with my hair. It lost all body, and wouldn't hold any kind of style.

When I was about 32 I thought maybe there had been some great change in relaxers, and I might try it again. After the first TU, I knew I would never relax again. I just liked my natural hair too much, so that was the end of my relaxer journey. I think my lifetime relaxer time was 18 months. Oh well.......

 

[Artemis]

It had to have been like 1st or second grade based on old photos, but it's all a blur in my memory. May have to ask grandma for sure. Either way, wash day was still a pain in the bootay with or without the relaxer, as my grandma was heavy handed and my hair was (and still is) pretty fine-textured

 

[Allandra]

Wow, it was so long ago, I don't even remember.