@
yaya24
Sho' do lol.
I usually add 1 tbs of a Silicone rich conditioner (silicones help slow down the relaxer process) and 1 tbs of a rich ceramide oil (usually wheat germ or grapeseed oil. No particular reason why, I just like em' alot
) to one cup of Relaxer (in my case, Texturizer).
Also, @
Saludable84 and @
sweetome1 are right about how adding conditioner may affect the pH of the relaxer. However, depending on your wants this may work in your favor.
If you're gearing towards texlaxed hair this method (adding oil or conditioner or in your case both) can be extremely beneficial. The high PH of a relaxer is what causes the hair cuticle to lift and allow the chemical to process the hair straight. Therefore if you add oil or a ph balanced conditioner to the relaxer it will lessen the PH of that said relaxer. This causes it to process slower, hence the retention of texture.
Audrey Sivasothy, author of "The Science of Black Hair" (SistaSlick to us LHCF ladies)wrote a awesome article about it here:
http://voices.yahoo.com/how-texlax-hair-simple-texlaxing-4823912.html?cat=69
Now, @
Isis33
Now the amount of conditioner and oil will depend of 2 things:
1. The porosity of your hair and how it generally responds to chemical processes:
This means if...
- If you porous hair or hair that is highly susceptible to chemical processes (relaxer takes very easily) then you should use a "heavy" amount of both conditioner and oil, maybe 2 1/2 to 3 tbs of both.
- If your hair is Low porosity or not susceptible to chemical processes (your hair is very resistant to relaxers) then I suggest you use only a "medium" amount of both, maybe 1 1/2 to 2 tbs.
- If you hair is of normal porosity or hair that is neither extremely resistant or susceptible to relaxers (doesn't process extremely easy or process extremely slow) then you may want to use a small amount of both, maybe 1 tbs.
- If you hair is of mixed porosity like myself (my hair is normal to high porosity) then you may just want to stick to the amounts between "small" and "medium", 1 to 2 tbs of both.
If you don't know your hairs porosity then I highly suggest doing the strand test. Here is a great blog post of it here:
http://www.thenaturalhavenbloom.com/2013/01/junk-science-hair-porosity-tests-float.html.
Also, please keep in mind that damaged hair can often change the hairs porosity. So if you do utilize the strand test, please do so every couple of months because as the health of your hair improves the porosity of you hair may change. I experienced this first hand because my hair went from completely high porosity to mostly normal porosity for the very reason
.
2. The type of relaxer you use:
The amount can also be based of what type of relaxer you are using. For instance, If someone is using ORS Lye Relaxer she may have to less oil and conditioner of someone who is using Mizani Lye relaxer. Why? Well the potency of the relaxers will slightly differ due to the fact that one is a "salon" brand relaxer (Mizani) and one is a "store" brand ORS.
To learn you relaxers strength and straigthening power I suggest you either do a relaxer strand test (Here is a thread about it:
http://www.longhaircareforum.com/showthread.php?t=82831). Or you can research the Relaxer on the forums, google and youtube to see what other have said about it. To be on the safe side I would suggest doing both.
Before setting the amount of both to use I suggest you take in account these factors and use them as a guideline. It'll help acheive your best results. Also, the oil and conditioner amounts are my personal measurements. Please feel free to adjust them to you liking.
Well...I seriously hope this wasn't to long winded
lol
and helped you in some way
.