Lye versus No Lye Relaxers

HairBarbie · Oct 7, 2009

Yes I know this has been done before, but I want to hear new perspective on it. Opinions do change. :grin:

For those that switched from No lye to lye, what was your experience, pros and cons. Less breakage, more breakage, more scabs on scalp, more dryness, less dryness etc. Did lye relaxer completely damage your hair or did it repair it from a constant breakage and damaged town to beautiful healthy hair.

Has anyone every gone from Lye to No Lye and had better results?

:look:

beana · Oct 8, 2009

great thread!! I'm a pretty consistent no-lye user so i cant really answer your question, but im looking forward to reading the responses to this.

HairBarbie · Oct 8, 2009

I'm no lye to, but I've always wanted to switch to lye, but I'm not sure if I'm ready to take the risk or not.

daydreem2876 · Oct 8, 2009

i have been using SE lye relaxer after using no lye for years. this past year and I can honestly say that I have noticed a big difference in my hair... than again I have have been taking overall beter care of my hair as well. It probably a combination of both. I have not noticed any damage, if anything it has not been as damaging. I have much less breakage, my hair is not as dry, and seems to respond better to product. Most importantly, my hair has grown out quite a bit, is stronger and stayed attached to my head. (i will update my siggy)On the flip side, I have not managed to get my hair stick straight, but i like the way my hair hold curls and the extra body in my doobie.

Adaoba2012 · Oct 8, 2009

I've been using no-lye relaxers all my life and the relaxer before my last one I decided to try ORS lye relaxer. Let me tell you..it left me severely underprocessed and burned the mess outta my scalp. Lets just say I went back to what has been working for me. If it aint broke dont fix it... :grin:

a_shoe_6307 · Oct 8, 2009

I'd like to know for my SO. No lye is not working on her very coarse hair. :nono:

twinkletoes17 · Oct 8, 2009

I was using Just For Me No-Lye initially. Then I switched to ORS No-Lye. Then I switched to ORS Lye... then to Mizani, and now I've settled with Affirm.

Switching from Just For Me to ORS No-Lye made a very small difference. My hair was straighter but still dry and brittle. Switching from No-Lye to Lye was a wake up call for me. I was using ORS Replenishing Paks while using No-Lye and my hair was ALWAYS dry. No matter what I did, my hair was dry, but I didn't know any better then.

After switching to Lye, it was like heaven

ORS Paks actually penetrated my hair lol. I didn't get my hair straight with ORS Lye. I agree with Adaoba2012 with that relaxer. Dry, tangled, underprocessed hair and a burning scalp. HOWEVER, that was my attempt to self-relax lol, but it made my hair take conditioners better.

From then on, it was about finding a lye relaxer that gave me the results I wanted. Mizani was a little too harsh for me so I'm using Affirm now.

ETA: My hair is much better-looking with lye, I must say. It looks healthier, breakage has definitely decreased, and I've solved my dry/brittle hair problem.

yardgirl · Oct 8, 2009

I've used ORS Lye once and it's safe to say that I was underprocessed. My hair definitely felt stronger and softer though. I'm going to try it again in 2 or 3 weeks and see. If I don't like it again I'll switch to something else. Maybe Hawaiian Silky Lye.

KhandiB · Oct 8, 2009

I tried ORS Lye, it underprocessed and burned me up!

LOL .. Love their no lye but will not try the lye again.

I am going to use Lye for my next relaxer .. dont know which brand yet ..

goodmorningruby · Oct 8, 2009

When I was younger and getting my hair regularly relaxed I'm pretty sure my stylist was using a lye relaxer and I never experienced any major problems with that. My hair was healthy and long. It responded to products much better, stayed moist longer, looked healthier, felt healthier, experienced minimal breakage and healthy shedding only, etc. I also noticed that my ends were much healthier, which is important for retaining length. Fast forward years later, and I performed a self-relaxer with no-lye in July and I've been dealing with the consequences since. I won't attribute my damage to poor application technique, or anything like that because I've self-relaxed many times before that, and never had any problems. The problem with no-lye for me, I've discovered, is severe dryness (despite my best DCing/moisturizing efforts), and presumably a calcium build-up (despite my best chelating/clarifying efforts), and a post botched BKT did not help matters!! :nono:

I intend to switch back to lye after my 6 month stretch is over with, and I'm really excited to get back on track. I'm interested in this thread...looking forward to more responses.

Aggie · Oct 8, 2009

I can definitely say that Lye relaxers are far better for my hair than no-lye which left my hair dull, brittle and lifeless. I hate it.

I do not have scabs with lye because I base my scalp very very well with something really thick like Vaseline Petroleum gelly or Blue Magic Grease.

Since using Lye relaxers, my hair can retain moisture a lot better and there is a lot more texture left in my strands which I prefer anyway for my fine hair.

HairBarbie · Oct 8, 2009

Adaoba2012 said:
I've been using no-lye relaxers all my life and the relaxer before my last one I decided to try ORS lye relaxer. Let me tell you..it left me severely underprocessed and burned the mess outta my scalp. Lets just say I went back to what has been working for me. If it aint broke dont fix it...

I was going to try lye relaxer a long time ago and this were my major fears, underprocessing (by hair barely relaxes straight with no lye) and a burning scalp.

The consesus seems to be that lye relaxer is much better than no-lye for hair, but stay away from ORS Lye relaxer?

Has anyone had success with Mizani butterblend lye relaxers? I think that's my front runner right now, since I'm using Mizani sensitive scalp (no lye) and it's the best relaxer brand thus far.

goodmorningruby · Oct 8, 2009

http://www.longhaircareforum.com/showthread.php?t=256241
Lye/No Lye poll

http://www.longhaircareforum.com/reviews/showproduct.php/product/59/cat/13 Mizani Butter Blend Lye reviews

I've never personally tried ORS Lye Relaxer, but I know that there are some ladies here that won't relax with anything but ORS Lye.

CoCoGirl821 · Oct 8, 2009

I have not used ORS lye but I have a friend that did and she said it burned the sh!t our of her head. I have used ORS no lye, it used to be the truth, but I guess my hair got immuned to it and it didn't do the trick anymore. I have gone through other brands. More recently I was a on a Mizani kick, but it was too harsh and too expensive and I switched to Affirm Lye. I love it. I have not burned my head in I don't know when (granted I base my head like I am about to bake something), and my hair loves it. I think I am going to stay with that for a while...

Poranges · Oct 8, 2009

The switch to Lye is the better one in my opinion. (I am biased because my scalp really doesn't burn, I get three tiny scabs at the most and that's because I leave it on for an extra 3 minutes. :look:

). My hair with NL was soft but with L it is SILKY...manageable and stretches are much easier.

Poranges · Oct 8, 2009

Oh and that ORS bullcrap left me so dang underprocessed. If you're really looking for straight hair. Hawaiian Silky is the way to go. It doesn't take anything to get you straight with it and smoothing for an extra minute at the most gets my hair bone straight. I am 3c/4zzzzzzzzzzzzz..coarse..dense...THICK.

Aggie · Oct 9, 2009

HairBarbie said:
I was going to try lye relaxer a long time ago and this were my major fears, underprocessing (by hair barely relaxes straight with no lye) and a burning scalp.

The consesus seems to be that lye relaxer is much better than no-lye for hair, but stay away from ORS Lye relaxer?

Has anyone had success with Mizani butterblend lye relaxers? I think that's my front runner right now, since I'm using Mizani sensitive scalp (no lye) and it's the best relaxer brand thus far.

This is the relaxer of choice for me as well. I started using it last year and fell in love with it. I use the mild strength one.

HairBarbie · Oct 9, 2009

I read a review for the Mizani BB and it seems like most of the people that like it are fine haired people. Those with coarse hair, complained about breakage. My hair is in the middle, some parts are fine and some are coarse.

I think I'll go ahead and try it once I use up my no-lye relaxer.

Aggie, do you have coarse or fine hair?
Poranges, I've heard good reviews about the Hawiian silk. The top three lye relaxers seem to be Hawiian Silk, Mizani Butterblend and Silk Elements, with Alter Ego lye having a cult following among a small number of people.

Tarae · Oct 9, 2009

HairBarbie said:
I read a review for the Mizani BB and it seems like most of the people that like it are fine haired people. Those with coarse hair, complained about breakage. My hair is in the middle, some parts are fine and some are coarse.

I think I'll go ahead and try it once I use up my no-lye relaxer.

My hair isn't fine and I like it. My mother's hair is very coarse and she likes it as well.

I don't think I'll ever go back to no lye. My hair is doing so much better with lye.

Giselle685 · Oct 9, 2009

I heard that No Lye hurts your hair in the long run..dries it out til its completely dead and cannot be revived back to life.

Esq.2B · Oct 9, 2009

^^^ Well dayum. :look:

Definitely switching to lye.

ackee walk · Oct 9, 2009

i was using no lye for years. i have found that if i wanted my hair to be bone straight then that was more easily done with no lye than lye BUT no lye dried the mess out of my hair, especially when i attempted to use no lye to texlax :nono:

my hair was always dry. now that i have been using a lye relaxer, my hair maintains moisture better and doesn't tangle as much. my lye relaxer of choice is mizani bb

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