When I relaxed my hair again after being natural for three years one of the first things I did was research. I knew that I wanted to maintain my relaxed hair and keep it as healthy as possible so before making the transition I spent countless hours on the internet scouring hair care websites and stalking YoutTube vloggers in an effort to gain as much information about the road ahead. One of the common topics I found among these hair gurus was the importance of protecting your hair during the relaxing process and preventing "relaxer run-off."
What is Relaxer Run-Off?
Relaxer run-off is exactly what the name implies, the act of the relaxer running-off or running down the length of your strands as you rinse the product from your hair. The idea of relaxer run-off is similar to that of what happens when you shampoo your hair, you focus the product on your scalp and the act of rinsing causes the shampoo to "run-off" or down the hair shaft.
Why is Relaxer Run-Off Harmful?
As the relaxer runs down the length of the hair it comes in contact with (however briefly) the previously relaxed ends and can lead to over-processing of those ends. This can lead to thinning ends, split ends, and even breakage.
Preventing Relaxer Run-Off
Unfortunately there is no way to prevent the relaxer from running down the length of your strands, it is simply a natural byproduct of the rinsing process. However, there are ways to mitigate the affects of relaxer run-off such as creating a barrier between the relaxer and your strands. This barrier can be created using any number of products including oils, conditioners, and even Vaseline.
The Benefits of Relaxer Run-Off
Although it may seem so, relaxer run-off is not all bad, and may actually be helpful for those who suffer with moderately under-processed lengths and wish to forgo a corrective relaxer application for fear of over-processing and damage. Allowing the relaxer to simply make contact with those moderately under-processed sections of hair for a few minutes may be enough to fully process those sections to the desired texture. The best way to go about this would be to skip the application of your barrier of choice to that particular section while making sure all other sections of the hair are fully covered.
I have a particular area of my hair that is moderately under processed but I am wary of doing a corrective relaxer simply because the area is not severely under processed nor is it causing any breakage or damage; however, desire a more uniform texture throughout my stands. I am scheduled to touch up my relaxer on December 1st (16 weeks post) and plan to leverage relaxer run-off to help remove a bit more of the texture from those under processed parts. I will have a detailed post on the process when the time comes.
No comments:
Post a Comment