There are a number of mistakes to avoid when relaxing your hair to avoid damages. By Saturday this week, it will be 20 weeks ago since I last relaxed my hair. I would like to share some of the mistakes I made while I was relaxing my hair. Some of these relaxer mistakes stalled my journey to a long Nigerian hair. Here are the top relaxer mistakes to avoid when retouching your hair especially if you want long Nigerian hair.
- Overlapping of relaxers
Back then, I would allow the stylist to apply the relaxer all over my hair including the parts I relaxed 2 months ago. This is what is called overlapping of relaxer. It is when you apply a relaxer to the hair you have relaxed before, maybe, 2 or 3 months ago.
Instead of overlapping your relaxer, your hairstylist should apply the relaxer ONLY on your new growth (what we call undergrowth). You can apply Vaseline on other parts of your hair except the new growth to prevent the relaxer from touching those parts.
2. Relaxing Too Frequently:
I used to follow the instructions on the back of the relaxers that say touch-up should be 6-8 weeks. 6 weeks is too close an interval for you to have your relaxer touch-up. This is because the relaxer will overlap as discussed in point one. For me, I would recommend you retouch your hair every 12 weeks interval.
3. Excessive combing during retouching:
I was a victim of this. I would allow the stylist to comb my hair several times in an attempt to make the relaxer reach every part of my hair and straighten it. This is not a healthy practice as your hair can break at this point. At most, your hairstylist can comb your hair twice during retouching.
4. Not prepping hair for retouching:
I remember I usually lose my braids and relax my hair immediately on the same day. This is not right. One should deep condition hair at least 5 days before a relaxer touch-up. This will make sure that your hair is strong enough to withstand the effect of the relaxer.
5. Applying relaxer to the tips of your hair:
This is similar to the first point mentioned. Doing this will make your hair very weak especially at the tips. The tips of your hair are the oldest part of your hair, so they should be handled with care.
In addition to avoiding these mistakes, also learn how to keep your hair moisturised in between wash days here.
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