More Than a Tingle-Know Your Relaxer

Why do so many women view changing the chemical structure of their hair so lightly?  I think that the decision to maintain a relaxed style is a personal one that is not inherently good or bad.  The problem is that most of us only know about how to watch out for the “tingle.”

 

I have been a victim myself.  I started seeing advertisements for “sensitive scalp” formula relaxers.  These ads spoke to me since I have always “burned easily.”  Although my hair was very healthy, I thought maybe I could use some extra protection on my scalp so I asked my stylist about the no-lye formula.  The extent of our consultation was “yeah, we have that I will put it in.”  I blame myself for not doing any further research.  I always do research before buying a TV, a book, or even trying new medication. 

 

But for a relaxer, I assumed that no-lye was going to be better than lye.  I knew that the chemical in most lye relaxers, sodium hydroxide, is also found in drain cleaners.  I got tired of trying to “woman up” to make it through the processing of my coarse hair to straight, although I enjoyed my straight hairstyle.

 

What I didn’t know was that no-lye relaxers are also made from harsh chemicals, such as one called guanidine hydroxide, that can be damaging if not properly applied.  More importantly, I did not know that the advantages, which were less than I hoped for, were offset by harshness on my hair.  The ingredients in no-lye relaxers actually cause each hair strand to swell more (the cause of breakage) than in lye relaxers.  I discovered this firsthand when my once healthy hair began to shed and my hair became excessively dry.  I learned later that these are very common reactions to no-lye relaxers.

 

After dealing with the effects of blindly switching from a lye to a no-lye relaxer  I did some research.  I learned that some stylists believed that all no-lye relaxers did harm.  But I also heard from others that said that the performance really depended on the natural oils that your hair produced.  Since my hair was normally dry, I was always at risk with using a no-lye relaxer.

 

The Science of Healthy Hair by Chuck Caple references a study that showed that there is not a major difference from Mild to Super amongst one Relaxer brand but that there can be a significant difference in the Mild of Relaxer A to the Mild of Relaxer B.

 

I guess the moral of the story is to know what kind of chemicals you put in your hair.