First, I am not a professional (I am in my own mind, but I digress), so take these things as advice but not from an expert (again, all in my head). When working with chemicals you have to be careful that you are not allergic to them, nor will they take out your hair. Here is a list of the things I use: Good fitting latex gloves, rattail comb, clips, relaxer, oil, neutralizing shampoo, clarifying shampoo, moisture shampoo, deep conditioner, and leave in conditioner. I do not have a specific relaxer that I use. One, because they do mostly the same thing, and two I'm cheap and I add things to it. Things you say? Why yes, let me explain. I have a dry scalp some seasons, and I tend to scratch the aforementioned scalp. To combat this I one, base my scalp with oil (which is a combo of coconut, walnut, jojoba, argan, and evo oil) from an applicator bottle, then I put 1/4 cup in my relaxer. Now how special is that? What this does is add barrier to my scalp to keep it from getting those nasty burns. It also allows me to leave it in a bit longer (I usually have it in there from 10-15 minutes). Here are the steps I take.
- Apply a liberal amount of oil to your scalp and let it sit 10-15 minutes
- Part your hair in 3rds, or 4ths, and clip them.
- Put gloves on and apply conditioner to your already permed ends, to prevent overprocessing
- Mix relaxer with 1/4 cup of hair oil
- Apply your perm to wherever your hair needs it first ( i do front-back then alternate)
- Wait for however long it takes to get the desired straightness, but don't process over 30 minutes
- Rinse it until its gone, then rinse it some more
- Wash with neutralizing shampoo, rinse, repeat
- Wash with regular shampoo, rinse
- Wash with clarifying shampoo, rinse(you only need to do this once, and it should get the remaining residue out of your hair
- Wash again with neutralizing shampoo, rinse (you should see that the suds are no longer pink)
- Wash with regular shampoo, rinse
- Give your hair a good oil rinse, and comb it thru, let it sit for maybe 10 minutes, rinse
- Apply conditioner until fully saturated, put under a conditioning cap or dryer for 20 minutes, cool rinse
- Spray with leave-in conditioner, use as much as you need according to length of hair
- Style as usual
It may seems like you washing your hair quite a bit, but you have to get the relaxer out of your hair. If you don't it will be hard and crunchy. Which isn't something you want. A relaxed and moisturized head is a happy head. Happy Relaxing!!
