Are You Relaxing Your ENTIRE Head?! Big No No :(

Wednesday, November 24, 2010

Question:

"Well I've been hearing a lot about perms and I am 13 weeks post because i thought my beautician was over-processing my hair when i went to get a perm. So when you get a perm aren't you supposed to perm only the new-growth? Because she perms the new growth and then applies the relaxer throughout my whole head from root to end? Isn't that over-processing?"

Advice:
YES! You should speak up and let her know that there is absolutely NO NEED to relax previously relaxed hair! Putting relaxer on the entire head is only acceptable when performing a virgin relaxer, meaning, you have natural hair and you want to chemically relax your hair for the first time. Only in this case should you relax from root to tip. Once your hair grows out, 2-3 months later, you should receive a "touch-up". A touch-up is when you relax the new growth ONLY. There's no need to re-relax already relaxed hair....it's already been chemically altered to remain permanently straight.

Relaxing already relaxed hair is called "Over lapping". Repeatedly relaxing all the hair on your head is a good way to damage your hair and cause thin hair strands which eventually leads to breakage. When performing a touch-up, keep the relaxer on the new growth as much as possible and avoid re-relaxing previously relaxed hair. Many hair professionals are careless and lack vital information when it comes to maintaining healthy relaxed hair. They typically misuse these chemicals by relaxing previously relaxed hair from root to tip or they leave the relaxer on too long, also known as "Over processing".

Tip: Prior to applying relaxer to new growth, be sure to coat the ends of your previously relaxed hair with some type of conditioner, oil or Vaseline. This precaution will help prevent over processing of previously relaxed hair since the relaxer will have a hard time penetrating. Overtime your hair will become healthier. Also remember to condition before and after your relaxer :)

Sunshyne

You Might Also Like

8 comments

  1. I don't understand why many hairdressers don't know anything bout hair. I only go to the salon for touch ups or to get a sew-in. Even then, I'm not totally pleased and sometimes, they act like you're the one that doesn't know!

    ReplyDelete
  2. until recently this was all my hair received from my "touch-ups" from the lack of knowledge my hairdresser and mother knew about overlapping and overprocessing. I think that's the main reason why my hair's so prone to breakage now.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Great question & advice.
    I had to SPEAK UP & eventually leave my stylist b/c of this type of stuff. They would pull the relaxer down the entire shaft over previously relaxed hair & add baby oil, like that was going to be ok. It wasn't. & for years, I wasn't able to retain growth. I knew 1 person who woke up w/ all their hair on their pillow the following day after 1 of those visits.

    Another hairdresser...the shampoo girl was pregnant w/ an attitude. I told her my scalp was burning. She ignored me. I told her again & she told me..."It's not burning, it's tingling." & I told her well whatever it's doing, it needs to come out! So she put me in a BAD sink that was clogged. My hair was just sitting in perm water. My shoulder length hair was severely damaged. I ended up getting a Halle Berry cut a couple weeks later from all the breakage. So now, I do my own hair. If I mess up, nobody to blame but myself. But it ticks me off that we actually GAVE OUR $ to these people to jack up our hair. LOL

    ReplyDelete
  4. All my life my mother relaxed my whole head. I know now that she probably did it because my natural curl pattern is really tight so when it didn't take the first time she kept relaxing the whole head until it got straight..but even after it got straight she kept doing the same thing. Growing up I didn't notice any difference. My hair was never super long, but I've always had long hair that grew rather quickly. However, after trying natural the first time I went back to relaxing my hair the way I always have. Things did not go well. I'm not sure what changed, but I know for sure I'm only relaxing my new growth now. I guess I'll just have 3c hair instead of my natural 4b hair. From what I'm hearing though, eventually my hair will get straight after a few relaxers anyway. I plan on doing them three or for times a year. Depends on the new growth, not the time in between relaxers.

    ReplyDelete
  5. yup i see this happen allll the time. im pretty sure that's why i had to do my BC...now i do my own relaxers!

    happy thanksgiving!

    ReplyDelete
  6. So called trained with diplomas hairdressers do this disrespectful technique to their own Black-Sista's Hair when they know freak'in better...That's why Knowledge is Power....Thank God for it....:)

    ReplyDelete
  7. IS this the same for Texturized hair as well? My hairdresser always adds the texturizer to my whole head and not just the new growth...........?????????

    ReplyDelete
  8. I totally agree with you! Every time I go to get my hair relaxed I always make sure they are putting it on the roots and not the hair! I usually sound a bit annoying when I keep nagging about it, but no one should be worried about that 'ish 'cause you're the one that has to live with it, not them. So make sure you come out looking good! :D

    http://themessenger-bag.blogspot.com

    ReplyDelete