SOS: Overprocessed Relaxed Hair

The number tip, trick, or inside scoop that I give to growing and maintaining hair length is simple--and yet very complicated--Stop over-processing your hair. Relaxing chemically breaks down the structure of your hair to permanently straighten it. If you relax the same parts of your hair strand over and over, it will cause damage, breakage and even hair loss.

Is My Hair Over-processed?

• Do you have extremely thin or split ends?
• When you manipulate your hair in even the gentlest ways--do you have a lot of broken hairs?
• Do you apply the relaxer to your previously relaxed hair?
• Do use heat everyday?

Before I started my healthy hair journey, I was guilty of  all of these relaxing sins. My ends were jagged. My hair broke off if you looked at it wrong. I siempre self-relaxed from root to tip. The flat iron was my BBF! Over-processed wouldn't grow past my shoulders hair was what I had to show for it. I knew that I wanted thick blunt ends and a healthy head of hair, but I wasn't quite sure where to start. After some research, it hit me that first, I needed to change my relaxing ways. Here's what I did: 

1. Stopped applying relaxer to previously processed hair. I grew up relaxing from root to tip. It never entered my realm of thought that I only needed to "touch up" my roots. By applying the relaxer to previously processed hair, I was further breaking down my hair, and causing my ends to grow thinner and thinner. There was no way that I could continue to do that and expect to retain length. 
2. Stopped guessing and started reading. I actually sat down and read the instructions for my relaxer kit (in English, then in Spanish too). Every kit is different so you can't assume that you know until you read it's manual.
3. Stopped using relaxers that were too strong. I did a strand test to see if the relaxer strength was appropriate for my hair and to verify which processing timing was right for me.
4. Stopped relaxing and applying direct heat. This was the hardest sin to break. Until I found heat free ways to straighten my hair. Although I still love my flat iron, I know that absence does make the heart grow fonder and in this particular case--the hair grown longer.

Eventually, I decided that bone straight relaxed hair wasn't for me and I transitioned to texlaxing in 2010. (purposefully under-processing your hair during a relaxer). The scary/yet rewarding part about using chemicals like relaxers to straighten your hair is that its permanent. Get it right, and you're golden. Slip up and you're stuck with it. So if you're going to do it, do it right. Arm yourself with as much knowledge as possible and when in doubt, find a trusted experienced licensed professional salon to apply your relaxer.

Have you ever had over-processed hair? How did you save it?


Un mil besitos!

KLP