I don't think "new growth" is actually new growth

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ITA with Keen. I've been under processed before and it's not cool. I can vouch that my entire head, roots and all, looked excellent and silky straight on TU day but 1-2 weeks later told a different story.
 
Carrie A said:
It's just hair that's not relaxed bone straight. When I was relaxed I never had bone straight hair. It always curled into a ringlet even with the relaxer sitting for a long time and with overlapping (relaxing the whole head evertime). I didn't really get what bone straight was until hair boards lol.
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That was my experience too.

OP - your posts border on trollish.
And your signature - :spinning::spinning::spinning:
 
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But for what it's worth I do have this problem my hair is resistant to relaxer. I suppose I'll stop fighting it one day. :look:
 
Anne26 said:
Ok, this is weird and I don't have an explanation for it but, when I was a teenager (a little less than ten years ago) I relaxed my hair, over and over again on the length over the course of a few months, and it always curled back to some extent, after a period of straighter hair (1b).
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Hmm I think that's why they call it a relaxer. Some bonds are broken while others are retained thus giving an overall relaxed lengthened coil.
 
LadyRaider said:
I would swear on a stack of O Magazines that this very question was posted by the OP before.
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i need cold hard scientific facts its still not making sense to me since your hair can revert back after an underprocessed relaxer what makes it not do the same 6 weeks later..
 
wavezncurlz said:
That was my experience too.

OP - your posts border on trollish.
And your signature - :spinning::spinning::spinning:
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I'm not familiar w/the OP, but this happens to be a valid question. My hair would be straight on relaxer day and for about 2 weeks-- including under water. Then I would seriously "sweat" it out. No one could tell if I had a relaxer or not; it would bother me to have new hairdressers ask me if I've ever been relaxed when I had been burning relaxer through my hair all those years. All of that thick stuff at the roots may not necessarily be newgrowth.

summerof1990 said:
did you reply?
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Haha, well did you (since you brought it up)? :)
 
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After you relax your hair does not "revert". After a few days or weeks your relaxer is not as fresh so it looks like it has been "reverted" (if thats even a word). Also most of the time after a relaxer people usually flat iron or set their hair to make it even straighter, flat irons and roller sets dont last forever...
 
JayAnn0513 said:
I'm starting to question some of y'all intelligence...
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I know a relaxer doesn't wash out! But what happens, happens. Having the length relaxed over 10 times and still curl it up again? Is that still underprocessed? Of course I wouldn't relax that much again...like I said I was a teen back then. And I'm happy with my natural texture now.

All the answer I can find here is that my hair is "difficult to relax"? I was curious as to why this happens aswell as many other ladies here. You don't need to call people stupid for it.
 
Carrie A said:
Hmm I think that's why they call it a relaxer. Some bonds are broken while others are retained thus giving an overall relaxed lengthened coil.
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That's why I said 1b (straight with bent ends) in my previous post. It looked 1b for a while and then it curled up again (3a+).



It isn't just a flat iron effect like another poster said, I didn't flat ironed/roller set, I just air dried.

I guess I'll have to settle for "my hair is difficult to relax" answer.
 
EightiesBaby said:
After you relax your hair does not "revert". After a few days or weeks your relaxer is not as fresh so it looks like it has been "reverted" (if thats even a word). Also most of the time after a relaxer people usually flat iron or set their hair to make it even straighter, flat irons and roller sets dont last forever...
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Yes, but I specifically said wet hair. That takes flat iron and heat out of the equation. Wet to dry---> that is, airdried hair appeared straight after relaxer; and then airdried hair appeared reverted after a couple weeks.
 
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Anne26 said:
I know a relaxer doesn't wash out! But what happens, happens. Having the length relaxed over 10 times and still curl it up again? Is that still underprocessed? Of course I wouldn't relax that much again...like I said I was a teen back then. And I'm happy with my natural texture now.

All the answer I can find here is that my hair is "difficult to relax"? I was curious as to why this happens aswell as many other ladies here. You don't need to call people stupid for it.
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What's wrong with the answer you got? Someone quotes the Chemist from Keracare, the guy who formulated the relaxer and still it's not enough. Relaxer is a product marketed to the masses. It's not custom mixed to work the exact same on every persons hair. So even "super" or " coarse" relaxers arent going to break down everyone's hair the the same way. I know my hair reacts to all chemicals super fast and I can go bone straight with a mild relaxer if it's left on long enough. My daughter's hair would be on the floor before it was bone straight. The same way some of us can straighten with a 250 degree flat iron and others need 425 degrees to get the same result.

But saying that the actual relaxer just wore off...it's like saying fire can be undone. All wood doesn't burn at the same speed, temp, etc. some are harder and some softer. But that's not the same thing as saying well that tree didn't burn so the fire reverted. It's a permanent chemical reaction...period.
 
JayAnn0513 said:
But saying that the actual relaxer just wore off...
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I was very careful not to say like that. Because I don't believe it "wore off". My hair was straight for a few weeks and it was curly again. I just stated facts.

If that's the answer, that's the answer.

I just thought maybe, in a hair forum, I could learn something more specific about it. But just out of curiosity. This is not my first hair forum and I think I just expect too much sometimes. It's not a necessary information for me at all, since I don't relax anymore. We're allowed to be curious, aren't we?
 
Anne26

if you go to my second post in this thread i posted something very specific about the relaxing process.

Anne26 said:
I was very careful not to say like that. Because I don't believe it "wore off". My hair was straight for a few weeks and it was curly again. I just stated facts.

If that's the answer, that's the answer.

I just thought maybe, in a hair forum, I could learn something more specific about it. But just out of curiosity. This is not my first hair forum and I think I just expect too much sometimes. It's not a necessary information for me at all, since I don't relax anymore. We're allowed to be curious, aren't we?
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I was gonna come up in here and get all "scientifical", but I can see that this is like yelling at a brick wall.


*moves along*
 
FlawedBeauty said:
http://www.dralisyed.com/2008/10/can-relaxed-hair-be-stripped.html

To answer the question--can relaxed hair be stripped?--it is necessary that we first understand the chemistry of the hair, as well as the lanthionization (relaxation) process.
When two or more polypeptides align themselves parallel to each other, and their cysteines (amino acid) combine with each other to form cystine or disulfide bonds across these polypeptides, a keratin fiber is created in the process.

Hair, or keratin according to chemical terminology, is made up of polypeptides. (Polypeptides are made up of amino acids -- the basic unit of protein.) Polypeptides are aligned in a parallel fashion and are cross linked with cystine bonds (also called disulfide bonds). Note that cystine bonds have two sulfur atoms.

When excessively curly hair is chemically straightened with hydroxide-based relaxers, (i.e., sodium, potassium, lithium, and guanidine hydroxide, etc.) approximately one-third of the cystine bonds are changed to lanthionine bonds. The lanthionine bond has only a single sulfur atom; one sulfur atom less than the cystine bond of virgin hair.

Lanthionine bonds are very stable, meaning that they are no longer susceptible to further change. Thus, once cystine bonds have been changed with a relaxer treatment, there is now no way known in science for the lanthionine bonds to be changed back to cystine bonds. In other words, chemical relaxation is a permanent process that cannot be reversed.

Why then do you hear clients saying that their relaxer "didn't take, went back, or reverted"? Or, why do professionals sometimes witness a frizzy appearance on portions of their clients' hair that were previously relaxed? Actually, there are a few explanations.

The first is that the hair was insufficiently straightened in the first place. If, indeed, less than one-third of the cystine bonds were converted into lanthionine bonds, the hair may look straighter on the day of treatment, but will eventually appear to revert. To prevent this occurrence, the proper relaxer strength must be selected and adequate time given to the smoothing segment of the process.

The second possible explanation is that something was done to the hair to roughen-up the cuticle, (i.e., improper shampooing, the use of pH-imbalanced products, incorrect combing, and brushing, etc.). Also, due to the fact that relaxed hair is more porous than virgin hair, humidity can give hair that "less-than-straight" appearance, especially in hot and high humidity climates.

The third possibility is a rare phenomenon, which I call "natural reversion." Although this is a hypothesis and not a documented scientific fact, it is one that has been discussed over the years among some in the scientific community. It has been established that when hair is relaxed, the natural arrangements of atoms and molecules of hair in the space are changed. The "natural reversion" theory purports that this new rearrangement of atoms and molecules in the hair is so stressful and uncomfortable for the hair that it fights to return to its original positions. Therefore, within a week or two, the hair may slightly revert back to its original status i.e. some noticeable reversion.

Keep in mind that even as theorized, natural reversion is a very, very rare occurrence that is experienced by only an infinitesimally small number of people. By and large, even if relaxed hair seems as though it has reverted, don't be confused...most likely it hasn't.

Since the early 1980's, there have been at least a couple of products that claimed to strip relaxed hair so that it then could be permanently waved. These attempts were not successful. Equally unsuccessful are the mythical "home remedies" of rising the hair with highly acidic substances such as vinegar.

None of these methods have been scientifically proven to work, and they can actually cause damage by ruffling the cuticle and disturbing the charge balance of amino acids and polypeptides of hair fibers.
Should a client ever want to return his or her hair to its natural state, the only way is to cut off the relaxed portion once there is adequate growth. For those who now have a natural head of hair and are not comfortable with the idea of a permanent texture change, it's best to press the hair to achieve straight styles. Pressing is a "physical" alteration that is temporary. Lanthionization is a "chemical" change that is permanent.
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How much more specific can the answer get???? Paragraphs 2 and 3 tell you why its not possible, then it goes on to tell you what it is.
 
I guess I didn't want to be one of the "rare cases" but I guess I am. Sodium based relaxers didn't straighten one of my curls, but guanidine worked for a while.

I actually studied the relax process in chemistry in high school, thinking about it, it's kinda odd to study that. :p
 
andherewego.gif
 
I'm not going to break out the regla ol butta popcorn..oh no..it's the holidays. I'm breaking out that big rass tin can of popcorn with caramel and pecans.
 
I know we don't get "tone" on the internet, but I have a feeling people are being rude to me? I apologize if I came off rude or something because it wasn't my intention at all, I was really just curious. English is not my first language. I'll be leaving now, good night.
 
Though someone made a "scientific" article, her hair, and apparently a number of others hair still "reverts" after having been straight for a period of time. It makes no sense to you? It makes no sense to us either. Can we have a discussion w/o condescending remarks and insults?
 
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