There are two types of women, those with natural hair and those with relaxed hair. While it’s fair to say that the natural hair movement has literally taken over, that’s not to mean that there are no people who still relax their hair. Natural hair is not so easy to maintain and those who have no time nor the energy and resources to go au naturel prefer to relax the hair as it’s easier to comb and style. But, a majority of us are unaware that even permed hair needs a lot of maintenance seeing as relaxing makes it weaker, so you definitely want to ensure that you’re taking great care of it. Lucky for you, we have a few tips on how to maintain your relaxed hair.
1. First things first, do not relax it yourself.
A majority of us are guilty of this. You think to yourself that you have seen your hairdresser relax your hair so many times and that you can do it yourself. While you may succeed, there are always small chances of failure here and there. You may burn your scalp, or not wash the chemical off completely, or over-process your hair since you cannot see how much growth you have, for instance and even risk looking hair. What you want to do instead is always have it retouched by a professional hairdresser to ensure your hair remains healthy.
2. Give your hair time to grow before relaxing again.
Most of us will see a little growth and run to the hairdresser to have it relaxed. But 6 weeks is not even enough for your hair to have grown out properly. In fact, you need to give it at least two months. Even if your hair grows fast, wait till you see that clear line of demarcation between your natural hair growth and the relaxed hair. This will give your hair a break from the relaxer, which at the end of the day, is a chemical.
3. Trim your ends regularly.
Every time you relax your hair, make sure you have the hairdresser trim the ends. Don’t worry, your hair will not be shorter, you’re only taking off about an inch of your hair length so that’s okay. And the great thing with trimming the ends regularly is that you will get rid of unhealthy split ends, you will have less breakage and trimming will promote hair growth.
4. Condition your hair regularly.
Relaxing the hair takes away a lot of the natural proteins that the hair has and also alters the PH balance of the hair. Because of that reason, you need to condition regularly because conditioning gives the hair back those proteins and moisture that it needs for it to have a neutral balance.
5. Wrap your hair at night.
This is something that’s quite important because it prevents the pillows from stripping moisture from the hair leaving it really dry. Another alternative to wrapping the hair is getting pillow cases that are made from silk for instance as they will not take up the oils and moisture from your hair.
6. Avoid high heat.
For instance, if you want to straighten your hair, try and flat iron once a week then wrap your hair when sleeping this will ensure it stays straight and you don’t have to keep using a flat iron. If you want curls, use flexi rods for instance or other no heat methods out there. Relaxers damage the hair so you don’t want to add on to that damage by constantly exposing your hair to heat which can damage it further by making it dry, freezy, and full of split ends.
7. Wear protective hairstyles.
This is to give your hair a much-needed break because let’s face it. You’re putting a harsh chemical on your hair and this is causing it to be dry, have split ends, frizzy, become weak etc. So, you want to ensure that in between relaxing, you’re giving your hair a break by wearing protective hairstyles like crotchet and cornrow styles.