Having relaxed hair is nice as it’s easy to comb, but not a lot of people can afford to go do it at the salon.
Relaxing at home can be very tricky, the results may not come out as expected, which is why you have to be very cautious.
Mimi Biggars, a professional hairstylist and Head of Education at Dark and Lovely Academy shares the following steps you have emanate when relaxing your hair from home.
Choose the correct strength
First and foremost, choose the correct strength. If you have fine hair, go for a regular relaxer and for hair that is extremely thick and coarse, super is suggested.
This because the hair that’s fuller, thicker and coarse needs a stronger formula to give you the desired results, whereas if you use the regular on coarse hair it’s not going to do very much. You might end up with a blow up and be upset and blame the brand.
Relaxing the hair. Picture: Bhekikhaya Mabaso.
Read the directions
Relaxing creams are not the same, they work differently. For example, if you’re using the Dark and Lovely moisture plus cream relaxer, you have to mix your active with your passive.
Some people forget to put an active in, the relaxer doesn’t work and you become you unhappy. You have to read the directions in any relaxer that you’re using to be sure if it has to be mixed, or it’s premixed already.
Apply vaseline
Before starting with the application of the relaxer, make sure you apply vaseline around your hairline, tips of your ears up to your neckline. This is to protect your skin from being burned by the chemical.
Confine the relaxer application
You have to confine the application of your relaxer only to your growth. It’s vitally important because if the hair overtime has been relaxed at the ends and you keep applying relaxer over relaxer, it’s going to burn and break your hair off. There is no second guessing about that.
Washing off the cream relaxer. Picture: Bhekikhaya Mabaso.
Neutralisation
Inside your relaxing kit there’s a neutralisation shampoo, which is very important. This is because it stops the reaction of the relaxer.
Even though you might think you’ve thoroughly rinsed the relaxer off, the action is still on because of its penetrative chemical properties. The neutraliser will stop the action of the chemical and also seal the cuticles so that the relaxer stays in and your hair stays relaxed.
Treatment
Once your hair is relaxed and nice, it doesn’t mean all is done, there’s a maintenance involved. In most instances, black people are born with extremely dry hair, by using any chemical, unfortunately the hair is going to dry out even further.
Therefore, treating your hair is important. Like your face needs a mask once a week, your hair needs treatment twice a week. The difference between the treatment and your ordinary everyday conditioner is that the treatment penetrates, re-moisturizes and repairs the hair. It feeds what the relaxer has stolen.
Mimmi Biggars, professional stylist. Picture: Bhekikhaya Mabaso.
* Wait until six to eight weeks before you can relax your hair again.