Would you relax a 12 years old type 2C hair?

[BandB2003]

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Vitality said:
My 12 year old niece is frustrated with her long and thick 2C (pass bra strap) hair and is asking for a relaxer on her upcoming 13th birthday. She told me she wants to have straight hair. I am not to keen about getting her hair relaxed, and her parents have asked me to take on this task to make sure it gets done appropriately. I feel she has beautiful long and healthy hair right now, and I don't want to see it get damaged. Ladies can you please offer any advice on how to manage a soon to be teenager's hair and the type of relaxer you would recommend for her 2C hair?

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I have not read the other comments so someone else might have written this. A 12 year old is too young to get a relaxer. Relaxing her hair at such a young age will ruin the childs hair follices. Can she just get her hair lightly pressed for more manageability?

 

[Chichi]

[ QUOTE ]
Karonica said:
I don't think 12 is a young age to relax. But 2c hair? Can't you run a flat iron through it and call it a day?

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Ah, no.

Thick 2Cs (think coarse) benefit from a relaxer. But since she is so young and a relaxer is so permanent, I would just teach her how to do a good braidout, conditioner rinses, etc. That is, all the good tips from this board. Then she could get a good press or doobie done at a Dominican salon from time to time. Relaxers require a lot of maintenance that a 13 year old may not want to do.

If she does go ahead with the relaxer, two brands that I recommend are Arosci (that is what I use) or International Textures (if you could find it; it is made by Olive Lee Benson out of Boston). Good luck!

Chichi

 

[Vitality]

Ladies, thanks for all of your responses. I am going to let my niece read your comments tomorrow, and hopefully she will see that Auntie has her best interest and stop begging for a relaxer. This weekend we are going to sample with the blow dryer to get her hair straight. I might try the flat iron on her hair, but just like the relaxer, I am afraid she will abuse it and start damaging her hair. I have always lead my nieces and their parents in the right direction with hair care and I really don't want to be responsible for causing their hair to break. When I have children I only want boys because little girls are high maintenance

 

[jd_bdfly]

I think the flat ironing (with the ceramic iron, not the metal) might work better than blowdrying. My experience was always that after blowdrying my hair got thicker and puffier. If you do blowdry, maybe just use a low setting and then follow with a ceramic flatiron.

 

[godzooki]

I got my first relaxer around 12 and ya know, I just realized I have no memeories of every having problems with my hair prior to it. I mean no bad hair ripping combouts, poufy unmanageable doos or what ever. I remember the hot comb, washings and braidings but appaently it was smooth sailing (that or the memories were just to horrendous and I blocked them out!) but I can't for the life of me remember if my hair was difficult to comb. My mom told me I had the easiest hair to comb out of me and my sisters and she loved combing my hair and I was like so why did you relax me and she said for convenience and it was a new fad that everyone was doing. tell her don't relax.

 

[DDHair]

Can you convince her to just get her hair flat ironed that day and as someone else suggested, buy a ceramic flat iron for her to learn to use properly?

 

[sassygirl125]

My cousin has really big, natural hair. Imagine the goofy sister on Half & Half on a bad hair day... When she wants straight hair, no amount of flat ironing is going to last longer than a few hours. She needs a smoking hot comb or a relaxer.

Whether or not your niece relaxes her hair is up to her and her parents. She wants to and her parents say it's ok. She's at an age where she wants to look like everybody else.

I wouldn't want to be the one to apply it though. If her hair got ruined because of my mistake or her own poor hair care practices, I could never forgive myself!

Edited to add:
2C hair is probably a good candidate for something like thermal reconditioning or Rusk Anti-Curl.

 

[jainygirl]

bump for ya girl

 

[patience]

[ QUOTE ]
Vitality said:
My 12 year old niece is frustrated with her long and thick 2C (pass bra strap) hair and is asking for a relaxer on her upcoming 13th birthday. She told me she wants to have straight hair. I am not to keen about getting her hair relaxed, and her parents have asked me to take on this task to make sure it gets done appropriately. I feel she has beautiful long and healthy hair right now, and I don't want to see it get damaged. Ladies can you please offer any advice on how to manage a soon to be teenager's hair and the type of relaxer you would recommend for her 2C hair?

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Please do NOT relax her hair. I would STRONGLY suggest that you all find out WHY she wants straight hair. Is it because people are teasing her? Are you all not combing her hair properly? Is it not being taken care of correctly? Does she feel that she has no styling options? Why does she want straight hair?

Next, I would take her to get her hair lightly pressed, flat iron it, roller set it or band it to stretch it straight. I would then let her go through the process of having straight hair INCLUDING wrapping it up every night, wearing it in protective styles, not sweating it out, deep conditioning, etc. I would do this for about a month or two.

Educate her about relaxers AND texturizers. They are basically the same. Tell her the pros and cons of each, INCLUDING the caustic chemicals AND the fact that they have the same key ingredients as commercial cleaners and hair removers like Nair and Drano. Pick up the containers or relaxer/texturizer- pick up containers of Nair and Drano and actually SHOW HER! Give her as complete a picture as possible. She needs to not only know what will be going on her head, but also how to take care of it and how much time goes into taking care of her hair once these chemicals are applied. She also needs to understand that this process is permanent.

If she still wants a relaxer, I'd let her do it when she turns 18 AND can afford to take care of it HERSELF!

 

[Miosy]

Gosh, where did this thread come from...I just noticed the date. It's very old. I need to check the date before I comment

I haven't read through the entire thread but I would just take her to the salon to get a blow out whenever she wants it straight. It's nice to have a option of curly or straight. She'll appreciate you for that in the long run. Me personally, I would never put a relaxer on my daughter with 2C hair.

 

[Mikeygurl810]

My mother would never allow me to get a relaxer and years later I thank the lord she didnt cuz I realize i didn't need it. I just needed to learn how to control my hair. In my opinion, she just needs to learn how to work with her hair rather than against it esp. being a 2C. It shouldn't be difficult to get her hair straight. To straighten my hair which is a 3A/B , I rollerset it then use ceramic flat iron ( i believe these are the best ones) and it comes out silky and smooth.

 

[quitestorm22]

I would NOT relax her hair either. Most people tend to think that because your hair is relaxed it should be easier to take care of it but it is just the opposite. For a 13year old, I don't think it would be wise. Try taking her to the dominicans and let them blowdry her roots ONLY, if you let them blowdry that much of her hair. She'll be happy later on that she didn't ruin her thick hair.

 

[PretteePlease]

please don't relax the hair. Try flat ironing blowdrying, braided styles anything but the relaxer.

 

[EbonyF]

I wouldn't even care what hair type it was, I wouldn't relax it.

imo.

 

[Tai]

I wouldn't relax it. It's going to require a lot of upkeep that most 12 year olds aren't willing to do. I've seen what a relaxer did to a girl w/ that hairtype who did not take care of it. It was not a pretty sight and once the relaxer grew out, it completely changed her hair texture. She wishes she never had a relaxer.
If it's too thick, she could go to a stylist and they could give her a thinning cut that would leave the length but take out some of the weight in her hair.

 

[Poohbear]

No, do not relax her hair. There are other ways to straighten her hair if you want it straight. Im transitioning to natural without the big chop and I feel like i wish I had never got a relaxer in my head. I would not suggest putting those chemicals in her hair.

 

[pookeylou]

Nope.

 

[LondonDiva]

I would say no, don't do it, but the fact that the mother is handing the task over to you, tells me that even if she was to get relaxed there's not guarantee the mother would want to help with the upkeep of her hair.