Hey everybody =) I'm new, and I really need some advice/opinions. First, some hair background info. I'll try not to make this too
long...
Okay, I had natural hair throughout my childhood. I always wore it in braids and by the time I became a teenager, it was long, healthy and very thick (even though I hadn't been taking the best care of it). I loved it and had NO desire to relax it - I was terrified of relaxers - but I wanted it to have more versatility. I tried using so-called chemical-free relaxers, like the African Wonders Naturalaxer. I also got it pressed at a hair salon one summer when I was 14, but my hair just poofed right back up after I left. Nothing worked well enough for me.
So a few months later in November, I went back to the same hair salon hoping the stylist could work some kind of magic. My hair was HUGE and the stylist suggested that I get a texturizer, which would be less harmful than a relaxer. I agreed and she wound up giving me a relaxer or a texlax or something like that. Whatever it was, I felt like I'd been misled. All on the same day, my formerly virgin hair was relaxed (with Mizani), blow-dried and flat-ironed. The good part was that I left the salon with gorgeous, straight hair and I was SO happy at first. However, I barely knew anything about caring for relaxed hair, and I probably did a bad job thinking I was doing a good job. But anyway.
Two months later, my hair had started to thin out. I stopped going to the salon and started taking really good care of my hair, with lots of help from my mom. But by the time I turned 16, I knew it was just too damaged and too much had broken off, so I had a few inches cut off and went natural. I'm 19 now and I've been natural ever since.
But now, I'll admit, I'm looking at relaxers again. So much of my hair has grown back and it's so time-consuming to manage it! Does it sound like I'm just a bad candidate for a relaxer or were the other factors (overprocessing, poor maintenance, etc.) major contributors to my hair damage?
Okay, I had natural hair throughout my childhood. I always wore it in braids and by the time I became a teenager, it was long, healthy and very thick (even though I hadn't been taking the best care of it). I loved it and had NO desire to relax it - I was terrified of relaxers - but I wanted it to have more versatility. I tried using so-called chemical-free relaxers, like the African Wonders Naturalaxer. I also got it pressed at a hair salon one summer when I was 14, but my hair just poofed right back up after I left. Nothing worked well enough for me.
So a few months later in November, I went back to the same hair salon hoping the stylist could work some kind of magic. My hair was HUGE and the stylist suggested that I get a texturizer, which would be less harmful than a relaxer. I agreed and she wound up giving me a relaxer or a texlax or something like that. Whatever it was, I felt like I'd been misled. All on the same day, my formerly virgin hair was relaxed (with Mizani), blow-dried and flat-ironed. The good part was that I left the salon with gorgeous, straight hair and I was SO happy at first. However, I barely knew anything about caring for relaxed hair, and I probably did a bad job thinking I was doing a good job. But anyway.
Two months later, my hair had started to thin out. I stopped going to the salon and started taking really good care of my hair, with lots of help from my mom. But by the time I turned 16, I knew it was just too damaged and too much had broken off, so I had a few inches cut off and went natural. I'm 19 now and I've been natural ever since.
But now, I'll admit, I'm looking at relaxers again. So much of my hair has grown back and it's so time-consuming to manage it! Does it sound like I'm just a bad candidate for a relaxer or were the other factors (overprocessing, poor maintenance, etc.) major contributors to my hair damage?
