I just relaxed my virgin natural hair yesterday!! Let's see if I can share some insight:
1. Is there anything I should do to prep my hair before hand?
I'll be honest, I didn't put anything down. I tried to self relax before with ORS - I added 1/4 cup of olive oil to the relaxer and based my scalp with vaseline AND coated my hair with another 1/4 cup of olive oil.Please, that relaxer didn't do a DARN thing through all that grease - it literally did nothing. So this time, I relaxed without any oils or grease. I also knew to leave my relaxer on for 15 -18 minutes, as suggested by the box. How did I know to do this? Because I did a ....
2. What in the heck is a strand test ?...quite frankly...I don't get it!
STRAND TEST!! It's important to know how long you should leave the relaxer on for YOUR hair. Some people leave it on for only 7 while I mentioned I need the 15-18 minutes. I scoffed at the idea of a strand test but I'm glad I did it.
This is what I did: First, I grabbed some hair that I combed out that day. I had a nice amount. I divided the hair into two amounts. I took one section of that hair and taped it down to some plain white paper, slapped some relaxer on it, started the time and let it rip. Every few minutes or so, I would smooth it out to see how much the natural curl pattern had stretched(I still wanted curls so I was texlaxing).
When I got to minute 15, I saw that my hair was right around the curl pattern I wanted. From minute 15 onwards, I would check the hair pattern to see if it was getting too stretched out - which happened at minute 18 (in other words, by this time it was too straight for my personal taste). I figured that meant I simply HAD to get the relaxer out of my hair within 18 minutes. So, I had a 15-18 minute window to get the relaxer on my hair.
Just to make sure, I took that second group of hair, put relaxer on it and left it untouched for 17 minutes. When I checked on it, it was the perfect curl pattern for me.
In conclusion, the strand test is important because it gives you the window of time you have to put the relaxer on your hair. You don't want to over/underproccess.
3. How do I protect my neck and hairline?
If you're worried, I know some people put either Vaseline or olive oil around their hairline.
4. When do you start the timer? When I begin or after applying the perm?
It begins the SECOND your relaxer touches your hair.
5. How soon after I relax should I do a protein treatment and how often?
I started a thread similar to this one last week and I think somebody posted an answer in that thread. If not, do a seach, the info is out there. I do know ORS does a good job of putting protein back in the hair after you relax. The conditioner/shampoo they include in the kit are great!
6. Are there any additional tips?
Yes. Use up ALL the shampoo they give you. I lathered up twice and I left one of the times on my hair for 5 minutes to make sure the relaxer was neutralized. Even if you have a lot of time to put the relaxer on your head, move quickly! The last thing you want is to have half of your head come out great while the other half looks like poo because the relaxer was on for only 5 minutes. I had a great result with ORS and I hope you do as well.
Good luck!!!
