Product Review: Summit Mend conditioner

I was excited to meet a retired beautician at my local nursing home (where I also work as a hairdresser). Why did she tell me that? I started asking all of these questions about "pressing and curling." She agreed with me that these pressing combs on the market right now are not as good of construction as the "old school" pressing combs. Thank God I still have my twenty year old ones. Please see my separate blog article on pressing combs.

She described how they use to deliver the most beautiful press and curls back in her day. I asked her so "which conditioner did you use?" (because I know that your final results are based on the results from the shampoo bowl.) All she remembered was the word "Men" and it looked like a relaxer jar. She remembered only one beauty supply that still carried it. I tell you I was googling "men conditioner" and could not get a hit on the right thing until I searched on "old school hair products." Then Voila! Within the pictures of products, the conditioner "MEND" came up. Oh my God, that is it! It has to be. She remembered the "Men" but not the "d" on the end of it. So once I knew what I was looking for, I narrowed my beauty supply store down to large, foreign owned stores who carried everything from Murrays Pomade to Ultra Sheen.

So yes, I found it! I was so excited that I decided to try it on my own hair. I have mostly relaxed hair, but I am about three months post relaxer. So my hair has two different needs. My relaxed ends did not absorb the Mend conditioner very well; however, my underprocessed hair and new growth seemed to like it well. I had to follow up with Bee Mine Beeloved moisture conditioner through my relaxed ends to balance them back out.

The Mend conditioner has a pleasant smell to have "animal protein" within its ingredient list. So for relaxed hair - this conditioner is probably a "no go." But for the naturally kinky head of hair, this conditioner will be a good start toward filling the hair with protein instantly without heat in preparation for the press and curl.

The product is very thick; it reminded me of a "Crisco based frosting." It needs to go on wet hair versus damp hair. Read the directions on the jar if all else fails. Smile.

So I have Kayvel Creme Press and Kayvel Curl Wave as well as the Mend conditioner plus the old beautician's instructions about how much product to use. I will be experimenting on my kinky head mannequin next, but by George, I think I got it!

Relaxer Review: Affirm Normal with Argan Oil

It had been five weeks since I had another stylist to perform my relaxer touch-up. The afro forming in the back of my head was screaming for help! So I skipped the entire front of my head and only relaxed the back. In the picture included here, I wanted to show my length in the front.

I self-relaxed the back of my head from ear to ear below the occipital bone. Apparently, even the other hairstylist was not able to get it any straighter than what I was able to do on my own. Therefore, I took the opportunity to try out the new Affirm relaxer on the back part of my hair. I know - I have so many brands of relaxers that I have been experimenting with. I keep trimming the back away in search of stabilizing it. I am thinking that all of that Chi Super relaxer (mistake) is cut away by now.

Anyway, the new Affirm relaxer is much, much more tolerable than its old formula. The Argan oil, Pequi Oil, and the Cupuacu butter were added to the Normal strength relaxer. As far as straightness goes, nothing has beat my "True Indulgence" relaxer.

With type 4c hair, I am finding that if the hair is too underprocessed then it leads to dryness and frizz making it more prone to break. If type 4c hair is processed to a point that it holds straight, then it is much easier to gain length. The front of my head is less maintenance because it is straighter. Don't get me wrong, I still like body too! So finding that balance is important.

I will probably stick with a mild True Indulgence for the front half of my head, and Regular strength True Indulgence for the back half in the future.

It is good to still have the Affirm normal strength relaxer as a salon service option. I have a much better idea of its straightening power now that I have used it on myself. Type 3 and 4a curl patterns should find this relaxer to be sufficient.

Fried versus Fro'ed as in Afro!

(Photo credit: pgbeautygroomingscience.com) Judging by the all over texture of this head of hair, I would say that this model has "fried" her hair. There is straight, long hair, and then there is short, frizzy hair all present on the same head.

I do prefer to have an afro in lieu of fried hair. The "fried hair" typically will not smooth out no matter how much treatment, leave-in conditioner or heat that is applied.

Fried hair can be caused by heat (probably in this case) or by chemical. If you over-relax the hair by excessive overlapping then it will erode the cuticle. If you add pure protein treatment to the hair on the same day as a relaxer then the already slightly opened cuticles will absorb too much protein and blow the cuticle wide open where it will not close up. Chemicals involving peroxide which includes lightener and haircolor can potentially overprocess hair as well. Peroxide is designed to elevate the hair cuticle to remove pigment or deposit color.

Chemicals are designed to manipulate hair cuticles to alter the internal hair shaft. You don't want to blow the cuticles wide open such that the hair breaks or one can not close the cuticle back down.

The only way to know if your hair is frizzy because it has texture in it (i.e. underprocessed) versus being overprocessed is by its ability to straighten and smooth out. If hair will not smooth out - then no more chemicals nor heat need to be applied. Try extra curl hairstyles until one can grow out the overprocessed areas. Otherwise, if the frizzy hair smooths down, and is re- activated by humidity or sweat, then it is underprocessed. Underprocessed hair is like a raw vegetable . . . you can continue cooking carefully making sure that you do not lose all of its firmness.

Corrective Relaxing using Fiberguard Affirm

Hair by Benita Blocker. Traditional Stove and Marcel iron used to achieve the shine and beauty of this hairstyle. No ceramic/ionic irons.

Corrective Relaxing is necessary when a customer gets irregular relaxer touchups. The heat from your scalp helps to process the relaxer. A client with excessive new growth will NOT process evenly. Therefore customer will have some underprocessed areas of the hair strand. Please see separate article on underprocessed hair.

Sometimes the underprocessed areas can frizz quicker than the rest of the hair and mess up the hairstyle. The underprocessed areas are more "sensitive" to the weather. So if the client is having problems with frizzing because of uneven relaxation, then the midshaft needs to be relaxed again in order to even out the underprocessed areas. Yes, there will be some overlap, but as long as a relaxer that helps preserve the tensile strength of the hair is used, corrective relaxing is safe.

I just completed a corrective relaxer service on the client above. She does have existing color highlights. She had been back and forth out of braids as well as trying to decide if she wanted to go natural. Fiberguard Normal had been her regular touch-up strength. I used the Design Essentials Restore as a pretreatment on the color-treated areas as well as through the rest of the hair ends. I applied relaxer as if was a virgin application. I started applying relaxer an inch away from the scalp and extended the relaxer over about 2 or 3 inches to make sure that I covered all potentially underprocessed areas. The processing time took about 25 minutes mainly because I did not want to overstress the hair strands as I parted gently. I manipulated the hair gently because of all the weight from the relaxer. I applied the relaxer to the roots after I finished putting relaxer on the midshaft. The roots ended up a little more texturized because parting the hair with so much relaxer on the midshaft was hard to part using gentle manipulation.

The end result was beautiful. We did a blowdry/style service to make sure the roots were straighter. In another 6 to 8 weeks, I will extend the touchup service about an extra inch out. Because the scalp heat processes quicker, I do not have to worry about overprocessing. The hair that is farther away from the scalp will process slower.

My client was happy with her corrective relaxer and final hairstyle. We were too short on time to take a picture on the relaxer day, but we did have time five days later to capture the final styling from our maintenance hair service. The picture above is after our followup shampoo/style after corrective relaxing on color- treated hair five days before. My client's hair is still strong and shiny. The Fiberguard Affirm relaxer with the Design Essentials Restore Pre-protect treatment worked well. By the way, Fiberguard Affirm does have its own Preservo protective lotion; however, I have found the bottles have short expiration dates. I did not feel that they sell enough on a regular basis.

Overall, I was happy that Fiberguard Affirm relaxer system was gentle, but effective!

Underprocessed relaxed hair causes breakage?

This picture is from www.longhaircareforum.com It is an example of new growth -> relaxed hair -> underprocessed relaxed hair -> relaxed hair. The underprocessed hair looks slightly looser than the new growth at the scalp. Do you see the underprocessed area in the picture?

It is like a tree's rings. The farther out that the underprocessed area is then count a half inch a month to figure out when the underprocessing took place. Based on this picture, about eight months ago, this person's relaxer did not take very well. I estimated the underprocessed area was four inches down from the scalp so 4 times a half inch/month equals about 8 months.

What can cause underprocessing? 1) Too much product (i.e. oil, grease, buildup, excessive base) is on the hair. 2) The room is too cold or client is too cold for the relaxer to process within a timely manner. 3) Client is on their menstrual cycle and their body's chemical balance is off. 4) Relaxer is not strong enough for the hair type and curl pattern. 5) Relaxer is rinsed out early due to burning or concerns about overprocessing in other sections of kinky hair. 6) Client drank excessive amounts of juice or other acidic drinks prior coming to hair appointment. 7) Client waited over 12 weeks between relaxer touchup services. (excessive new growth)

Relaxers typically have a pH between 11 and 13.5. Anything on the hair that "dilutes" the relaxer like excessive base or product buildup can interfere with the relaxer processing in a timely manner. Normal body heat is also needed for the relaxer to process. Please note: Do not put a client under a platform dryer with relaxer in their hair because the dryer heat is too excessive. Some alternative relaxers may instruct you to do otherwise; however, the pH in the alternative relaxers may be a pH of 10 which may be too low to get straight results without adding additional heat.

So for whatever reason(s) you find that you have under-processed/underprocessed hair, you may suffer hair breakage at your "snap points" or where the straight hair meets the underprocessed hair.


This picture came from www.mylonghairjournal.blogspot.com It is highlighting how combing naturally kinky hair too roughly can cause breakage. It also gives you a good mental picture of how underprocessed hair takes more resistance than straighter hair. Your blow-dry stage could cause breakage at the line of demarcation connecting the underprocessed and the straight hair.

How to solve the underprocessing? 1) Run the relaxer through the underprocessed areas. (i.e. Corrective relaxing) 2) Roller set the hair so that it will not be so noticable. 3) Eventually trim it away.

If your hair is fine, overcurly, and underprocessed - then corrective relaxing may be overkill, but to do nothing could cause breakage. It is a tough call. Medium to coarse hair can survive a corrective relaxer. If you have a loose curl pattern, then you are probably used to some underprocessing, and the relaxer is just used for some styling control versus straightness. I have found that some wavy hair will not relax straight, but the relaxer application helps control frizz. It is a judgemental call. Every person has to make a decision based on their hair type.

This "underprocessing" is also considered texturizing. Consistent relaxing is important to keep your hair strands uniform. Ideal touch-ups should fall between 5 and 10 weeks for curly to kinky-curly hair. Wavy hair can touchup around every 3 to 5 months.