10 Top Tips For A Healthy Relaxed Hair Journey

Relaxed hair and natural hair can be seen as very different, after all one is curly and the other is bone straight. The truth of the matter is the way you go about caring for both natural and relaxed hair with the goal of health is fairly similar. Nowadays we see mostly advice  but most of the time advice geared toward our natural hair sisters but never fear! I, Tamara Lyla,  Am here to shed some light on healthy hair practices in the relaxed world. Here are my Top 10 Tips for those of you going on a healthy relaxed hair journey:

Tip 1 – Keep your hair moisturized

Relaxed hair tends to lose moisture faster than its natural counterpart due to change in structure the hair strand goes through during the relaxer process. This means that finding a good everyday moisturizer is very important along with washing your hair regularly to remove buildup on the hair and scalp. Choose a moisturizer that has water for a base and use a sulfate free shampoo* on those days you do not need to clarify.

Tip 2 – Find an oil that works for you

 An oil is typically used to coat your hair after applying your daily moisturizer because adding all that moisture to your hair won’t do much if you aren’t doing anything to keep it sealed in.

Water molecules are small enough to penetrate the hair strand but they are also small enough to evaporate out just as fast too. Using an oil; whose molecules are too big to actually penetrate the strand to sit on top, will help slow down the rate of evaporation. There are many types of light oils* you can choose from for example grape seed oil or coconut oil*, choose the type that works best for your hair.

Tip 3 – Protein treatments are more important than you think

The chemical bonds within the hair are literally broken during the relaxer process; the majority of those chemical bonds are proteins. Relaxed hair is very weak because of this so investing in good quality protein treatments to somewhat rebuild the hair would be a very good idea.

Like most things involving hair there is no one size fits all, because while protein is absolutely necessary to every head, some of us cannot take excessive protein while other types of hair crave protein filled products often. With that said,  be conscientious of that while trying to find the best protein treatment for you

Tip 4 – Minimize The Use Of Direct Heat

I know, I know, I know y’all are probably looking at the screen like “is she crazy?” But I promise there is a method to this madness. Using a flat iron* every day is very stressful for your hair, the high temperatures  not only cause dryness but can further damage the hair strand causing it to appear brittle and lifeless.

I’m not saying retire your flat irons* forever ladies, I’m just saying be cautious, and do not touch your hair with heat every day and when you do use heat use a heat protectant*.

Tip 5 – Stretch the time between relaxers

Hair tends to grow at a rate of  half an inch per month; some a little slower and some a little faster; but what I’m getting at is that some ladies relax their hair every four weeks and that is simply not healthy due to the extreme likeliness of overlapping relaxers which will pretty much spell certain death for strands getting a double dose of relaxer.

The optimum time to wait between relaxers is 12-14 weeks or about 3-3½ months because the average person would have a significant amount of new growth by that time. If you are not experienced in stretching relaxers I do caution and suggest you start off slow, maybe stretch a week or two longer then work your way up.

Tip 6 – Utilize protective styles

Protective styles aren’t just for the natural ladies! Us relaxed heads can do it too. Relaxed ladies tend to wear a wrap with the hair brushing against clothing, that’s pretty tiring for the ends of the hair.

Flat twisting or throwing the hair into a bun once or twice a week can take a lot of the stress off those ends especially in the winter when the hair isn’t only fighting the off the roughness from that wool but the cold weather too. Long term protective styles like box braids, senegalese twist and sew-ins can also help stretch relaxers.

Tip 7- Keep your ends trimmed

Cutting hair seems counterproductive I know but listen, when your hair splits there is really no way to 100% repair it so it will just travel up the shaft and eventually cause hair loss.

Split and damaged ends also makes your hair look a little unkempt, by cutting the damage away you actually retain more of your “true length” but you’re also giving your hair a sharper neater look.

Tip 8 – Beware the rat tooth comb

Ladies there is no possible way to get new growth completely straight by means of a rat tooth comb, all you are doing is pulling out hair and causing thinning.

The teeth of a rat tooth comb are also way too close together and it will cause snagging and tangles within your hair, I suggest buying a shower/rake comb whose teeth are set farther apart which allow more hair to pass and decrease the amount of snagging, also if you are particularly tender headed you could get a wig* brush for your hair.

Tip 9 – Invest in a good detangler

When relaxed hair gets wet it doesn’t tangle it tends to get matted which is about 10 times worse so it’s very wise to buy a product that can help you detangle your hair. My personal favorite is Mane and Tail, I swear that thing is a miracle in a bottle.

Tip 10 – Do not let anyone shake you

With the natural hair movement going a lot of us relaxed heads are getting left out in the cold. Some sisters are calling us traitors and accusing us of trying to conform to European standards of beauty which nine times out of ten, just isn’t true.

Understand, you know what works best for you, maybe you don’t like the look of your natural hair or perhaps you don’t have the time to try and learn about a new texture and ways to take care of it, your reasons for deciding to relax is purely yours so don’t let anyone bring you down or make you feel some type of way about your personal decision. That’s probably the biggest piece of advice I can give to you relaxed ladies.

Happy relaxed hair journey!