Straight Talk about Straightening Hair

Is this hair Relaxed or Hard Pressed? Let us review some Questions and Answers about straightening hair:

Should you apply relaxer to hair that has been hard pressed or heat trained? In order to answer that question, it is important to understand that sometimes hair that is "hard pressed" or "heat trained" has become permanently straightened like a relaxer. The hair literally may be so straight that even when the hair is wet, it will not curl or wave up. Relaxers are designed for "new growth" or unprocessed hair. If the hair has been permanently processed by heat or a previous relaxer service, then one would risk potential breakage in the overprocessed areas. So relaxing hard pressed/heat trained hair is not a good idea.

Can you go back and forth between wearing your natural curls and straightening your hair? If you are satisfied with a soft press and some reversion, then you can go back and forth. However, if you desire to achieve extremely straight hair, you may risk permanently straightening your hair from excessive heat temperatures thus preventing you from wearing your natural curls without some straight, stringy ends surfacing.

So how to maintain little girls' hair? In my opinion, if the little girl does not have a "job" that requires a straight hairdo nor a social event that require a specified look, then twists and puffballs are essential up until puberty age. I would recommend learning to deal with peer pressure ahead of time. Embracing one's curl pattern is a great opportunity to become a leader versus a follower. Also, online blogs and "youtube" video offer some great children styling ideas.

So when it is time to go from "afro" to "relaxer," what should you expect? Type 3 curl patterns usually will straighten within one relaxer service. Type 4 curl patterns may take two or three relaxer services. Similar to permanent color, going from black to blonde in one setting is not healthy for anyone's hair. Typically, one can safely lift the haircolor up about three levels at a time. So that means that going from black to blonde should take about three separate color services within a three month period. You may be asking how did we start talking about hair color when we had been talking about straightening. Well, please understand that if you can weaken your hair by drastically changing your haircolor in one setting, then you can weaken your hair by drastically altering your curl pattern in one setting. For kinky curly hair, consider about two relaxer services within one month about two weeks apart. If the hair is still easy to revert in high humidity, then go for a third relaxer service to get the hair a little closer to 80% in curl reduction. Each "starter" relaxer service should be treated like a virgin application concentrating on midshaft to ends first and then applying relaxer to the roots near the scalp last. If there's only two weeks between relaxer services, then skipping the roots and just focussing on the ends may be all that is necessary. It is a personal judgement call based on your visual evaluation of your hair needs. Remember the heat from the scalp is going to process quicker. As the ends expand away from the scalp, they process slower because there is less "scalp heat." Similar to color touch-ups, about an inch or farther from the scalp processes much slower because the hair is so far away from the scalp . . . and NO do NOT sit under a hairdryer trying to speed the process up! Patience is key. Remember changing your curl pattern may not be a one shot deal. So if you have a big event, you need about a month or two to get your "curl reduction" under control especially if you are a resistant, type 4 curl pattern.

This is real talk about straightening curly hair.

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.

Natural Hair: Divide and Conquer

Naturally curly hair usually fall in the curly or kinky-curly categories. After the conditioning and leave-in conditioning phase, you will determine whether or not to divide and conquer. Sometimes the curly hair is very manageable, and partitioning is not necessary. You just work your way through from nape to front. However, if you can tell during the wide-tooth comb-out phase that the hair is going to continuously tighten up, then yes, partition first. Keep clean part lines and divide into as many 7 to 11 sections.

Straightening, cut, and Styling by Hair Stylist Benita Blocker.