Re-Relaxing my entire head????

I've been getting a relaxer on a regular basis since I was 4 years old without any setbacks. When I started college in 2004, I began to stretch my relaxers for 9 months to a year at a time because my sister was relaxing my hair for me but she was in school herself in another city. When I started my HHJ in July, I decided that I was going to start relaxing my own hair more consistently; every 10-12 weeks.

Since I've started doing that, its seems like after every relaxer, my new growth will be straight, but the rest of my hair is curly and wavy. Before I started stretching for long periods at a time, after a relaxer, all of my hair would be straight. But now, it seems like my hair is reverting back to its natural state and its making it harder for me to detangle when its wet because it is so curly. Im thinking about re-relaxing my whole head when I relax my hair next Sunday or Monday. Any suggestions on what I should or shouldn't do? Any advice would be helpful because I dont want to risk damaging my hair however I think I would eliminate my breakage by relaxing all of my hair so that it will be one texture. Thanks!!! erplexed

I'm not an expert at all, but I was always under the impression that you should only relax the new growth because re-relaxing previously relaxed hair can cause damage and breakage. But I'm interested to hear what other people think... Good luck!

I am not saying that it is OK to do, but I have done it before just recently as in Nov08. I am guessing that I use to texlax my hair when I was relaxing back in the days and after my relaxing in Oct I realized that it was underprocessed so I went ahead and put relax on my ends for like 5 mins. My hair has not been breaking, I keep my hair balanced so therefore it is doing fine. I just added my 2 cents, I am not saying what to do. Sorry I have to let this be known cause some other ppl may take it the wrong way and try to bash me about it.

It's because you are not overlapping like you normally would, so it is not pin straight at the roots. I would suggest doing shorter stretches, overlap will happen naturally. Re-relaxing is just so damaging, I would not recommend it!

envivany said:

It's because you are not overlapping like you normally would, so it is not pin straight at the roots. I would suggest doing shorter stretches, overlap will happen naturally. Re-relaxing is just so damaging, I would not recommend it!

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I am glad you said this, I say the same thing especially when a person starts to smooth the relaxer out.

Yeah I see what yall are saying about the damage but right now Im feeling like, whats the point of me even relaxing my hair if only my new growth is straight. Like, I really want to do wet wraps and even rollersets without fighting with my hair. Ill probably add some relaxer to my previously-relaxed hair like a minute before I rinse it out. Im so confused lol.

My hair has been just like OP described and I did re-relax/correct my hair. Before I made the decsion to do it my hair was always breaking off and extra hard to comb through because of the frizzy,knotty texture compared to the straighter part.
I got tired of the breakage and not being able to comb it through and I did a corrective or re-relaxed it. It was the best thing for me to do for my hair at that time. It didnt ruin it or cause me any setbacks. I just have to make sure I take good care of it like I would if I started adding dye jobs to my regimen (which I'm not).

So if you do decide to re-relax your hair, just make sure you stay on top of the moisture/protien balance and you should be fine.

I wouldn't recommend it.

I know it isn't recommended but I had to do this back in March. My hair had different textures and was breaking like crazy so I re-relaxed the whole head and cut off 3 inches. I haven't had to trim since (just dusted last week) and have just been babying my hair and ends. If I hadn't done it I'd have a lot less hair on my head than I do now.

I'd say only do it if you have exhausted all other possibilities...moisture, protein, etc etc.

I had to re-relax my entire head in November because of the exact thing the OP stated. My roots were straight but the length would never straighten, even after flat ironing. So, after a 16 week(my normal) stretch I combed that baby through to the ends. I was panicked but all worked out. My hair looked gorgeous and I just continued to do protein treatments weekly with my normal wash. Your choice of course but it definately corrected that issue.

If your roots are straight and the rest of your hair is kinkier, I would think you would be doing more harm than good by NOT relaxing the rest because you're putting stress on the demarcation line which could cause breakage anyway.

If you have a stylist that you trust, consider seeing him/her for a corrective.

Either way, you know your hair best, do what works for YOU and YOUR hair.

Ok Im going to do it because I think it will be the best way to keep my hair from breaking because all of the different textures going on on my head lol. When I did my protein treatment this past Sunday, I made sure to put a lot of the product on the shaft of my hair so hopefully it will stay strong. I probably wont put any relaxer on my ends though.