Relaxer Residue Lingering Around

Look closer at this picture. Do you see the white relaxer residue on the shampoo nozzle? Be careful when rinsing out your relaxer bowl as well as while rinsing out a relaxer service. Relaxer residue can get caught on the shampoo nozzle. I found that if you try to push the residue off the nozzle with your fingers, that it just slides around in a circle. I literally had to take a paper towel to remove the residue.

Many of the relaxers have been adding more and more oils and butters to their formulas to make it more tolerable to the "sensitive" scalp clientele, but I do not think that the relaxer rinses off in water as well. Remember water and oil don't mix.

Just be more aware and check that your shampoo nozzle stays clear of relaxer residue. If this residue seeps into your client's rinse water; it may cause "creeping oxidation." This is where the relaxer residue may get trapped in the hair past the neutralizing phase. It can cause the hair not to neutralize properly because there is a "foreign object" present.

If you feel any chalkiness or any slickness at any time after rinsing or neutralizing the hair, then check your shampoo nozzle and go for another neutralizing shampoo lather making sure that the lather is White. Although such as small amount of relaxer may not be enough to turn the lather pink enough to see.

Relaxer Service: From Texturized to More Texturized

Yes! I caved in. It was time to relax my hair. I was a little sad, but I have a hair show coming up as well as some other business meetings. Although, nappy hair has nothing to do with my IQ, it has a lot to do with sales and decision making. In addition, I got so tired of people going into culture shock over my type 4c hair. Black people are not used to seeing their own African ultra curly texture. My hair kept shrinking on me. Even texturized some, it was a "bear" to control. Every time it shriveled up, everyone kept thinking that I cut my hair. When outside of the flat iron damaged pieces that break off, all the rest of hair was still there - just tightly coiled. So I could not take the stares that I had been receiving- plus my virgin new growth was a full inch in some places so I had an afro underneath of my texturized hair.
I used the Chi Deep Brilliance SUPER strength. My hair is resistant as you can see. I am still not bone straight, but most Type 3 clients never get bone straight when relaxed. I think that we have been brainwashed to think that our hair needs to be relaxed bone straight.
I still have a sensitive scalp. I based my scalp really well and let it distribute onto my scalp. I put protective solution on my ends. I self-relaxed trying to avoid touching the scalp until the last possible pass through.
About 20 minutess later, I started to feel the burn. Thank God that the Chi Deep Brilliance relaxer is a conditioning relaxer. It seems to have a delay before potential scalp irritation starts. I had completed a relaxer strand test a few days prior to self-relaxing to see how Super strength would do to my hair. Please see my separate article on "saving shedded hair for testing" as well as an upcoming article on showing the results of the relaxer strand test.

The "BEFORE" pictures show how unruly my hair had become. People are not used to seeing this hair. The "AFTER" picture is above and is more socially accepted. Hey! I still have some waves when it is wet. So I may work the "wash n' go" regimen when I can. However, I did trim/cut to get all the rigid ends off. I was trying to keep the ends from catching on itself. I still may get a little more cut off. We will see.