How to relax your ethnic hair at home.

Whilst there have been quite a large number of ethnic women moving away from chemical straighteners, a large number of women still choose to relax their hair. I’m not going to get into the natural vs. straightened debate though. The point of this post is just to ensure that when you relax your hair, you do it right.

At home relaxing is inexpensive, but if you don’t know what you are doing, you could have a disaster on your hands. First of all, the don’ts:
1.DON’T wash your hair for at least 3 days prior to relaxing.
2.DON’T scratch your scalp before relaxing.
3.DON’T relax hair that has only just recently been dyed or coloured. Give your hair some room to recover.
4.DON’T over process the relaxer. Stick to the time indicated on the box.
5.DON’T relax your hair if you have an irritated scalp or anything similar. The chemicals in the relaxer will just aggravate this.

Ok, let’s get started.

I would recommend that you buy a relaxer kit that comes with plastic gloves , a wooden spatula for mixing, neutralising shampoo, leave-in conditioner and protective jelly for your scalp.

You first want to line your ENTIRE scalp with the protective jelly (You could even use good old Vaseline). Make sure you cover your entire head, including all around your hairline and ears.

Next, you section your hair into four sections. Once you have your gloves on, apply the relaxer to your hair, starting at the crown area, as this usually takes the longest to process. Apply the relaxer only to the roots of your hair using a brush. Make sure you don’t apply the relaxer directly onto your scalp. If this is your first time ever getting a relaxer, I would recommend you get a professional to do it for you. If you’re a regular, make sure you only apply the relaxer to the roots, as this is where the new growth is.

Continue applying the relaxer section by section until your entire head is done. Once you are done, using a plastic comb or just your hands, smooth the relaxer. This together with the chemicals is what actually straightens the hair. You have to work fast though. You don’t want to over process!

If at any point during the process you start to feel burning or discomfort, WASH OUT the relaxer. Relaxer burns are not a joke!

Once you are done smoothing, it is wash time! Firstly, wash out the relaxer, using warm water. Once you don’t see any more relaxer in the hair, you can start using the neutralising shampoo. Most neutralising shampoos change colour once all traces of relaxer are completely removed from the hair. So for instance, if the foam is still pink, then there is still relaxer. Once it goes white, there’s no more relaxer.

After washing, make sure you condition or preferably even deep condition your hair, just to counter any harshness from the chemicals in the relaxer and to moisturize your hair. Use a good leave in conditioner afterwards as well.

Once all that is done, all you have to do is style and go! I personally prefer a roller set after a relaxer, as this allows your hair to air dry and you get silky curls!

It is important also to take really good care of your relaxed hair as technically the chemicals in the relaxer strip the hair of protein, making it more prone to breakage.

So ladies, be careful with that relaxer and well, happy (safe) relaxing!

Article by: Nekwaya Iileka http://www.beautybulletin.com/blog-directory/our-bloggers/beauty-in-a-flash