I relaxed my hair on November 23rd using Silk Elements ( I will post the details of the process eventually :-) and shortly after I noticed a small section of my hair (what would be considered my bangs had I any) was significantly shorter than the rest of my hair. I kept inspecting the area and noticed the ends were split - so split it looked like I had dandruff or little white flakes in my hair - it dawned on my after a few days that I had breakage.
I am convinced the breakage occurred during the relaxer process but I am not sure of the exact misstep I made, the only thing that differed was my choice of relaxer - instead of using the Silk Elements with Olive Oil I used the regular formula without. The affected area was only about 1/2 an inch in diameter and after six weeks of simply trying to nurse the area back to health I decided it would be better to trim the damage away. I took off about 2.5 inches and now I have a small section that falls to my eyebrows rather than my shoulders.
The damage was so minor it is not at all noticeable to any one other than myself, but knowing that despite my efforts I had caused damage to my strands was quite overwhelming. Moving forward I may go back to having my hair professionally relaxed in a salon rather than self relaxing at home. If you choose to continue to self relax I offer the following tips:
- Do not switch relaxers without doing a strand test first
- If the relaxer you use does not already contain an oil (olive, coconut, etc.) consider adding a table spoon to your mixture before applying
- Find a trusted friend to apply the chemical
- Be sure to thoroughly rinse, shampoo and condition your hair after the application process
- Use both a protein and moisturizing conditioner
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