How Chemical Hair Relaxers Work
Sit down and relax to the hair raising story of hair relaxers. It began early in the twentieth century.
His name was Garrett Augustus Morgan, and he was born the seventh of eleven children of former slaves. He is best known for his invention of the automatic traffic signal and gas mask. Around 1910, while attempting to invent a new lubricating liquid for the sewing machine, Morgan wiped his hands on a wool cloth and found that the wooly texture of the cloth “smoothed out.” He experimented on his curly haired Airedale dog and successfully duplicated the effect. Morgan called his discovery a “hair-refining cream” and patented the first chemical hair relaxer.
Today Morgan’s discovery, lye (sodium hydroxide), is still a common ingredient in chemical relaxers because it provides the strongest and most dramatic effect. However strong drain cleaners also contain this harsh chemical. Try visualizing drain cleaner on your scalp. Not a pretty picture!
Guanidine hydroxide, another chemical commonly found in hair relaxers, is often promoted as the “no-lye” relaxer. However, do not let the name fool you. It still contains strong chemicals. Although this type of relaxer can inflict less damage than its counterpart, your hair and scalp should still be in top condition before you attempt the procedure.
His name was Garrett Augustus Morgan, and he was born the seventh of eleven children of former slaves. He is best known for his invention of the automatic traffic signal and gas mask. Around 1910, while attempting to invent a new lubricating liquid for the sewing machine, Morgan wiped his hands on a wool cloth and found that the wooly texture of the cloth “smoothed out.” He experimented on his curly haired Airedale dog and successfully duplicated the effect. Morgan called his discovery a “hair-refining cream” and patented the first chemical hair relaxer.
Today Morgan’s discovery, lye (sodium hydroxide), is still a common ingredient in chemical relaxers because it provides the strongest and most dramatic effect. However strong drain cleaners also contain this harsh chemical. Try visualizing drain cleaner on your scalp. Not a pretty picture!
Guanidine hydroxide, another chemical commonly found in hair relaxers, is often promoted as the “no-lye” relaxer. However, do not let the name fool you. It still contains strong chemicals. Although this type of relaxer can inflict less damage than its counterpart, your hair and scalp should still be in top condition before you attempt the procedure.
How Chemical Relaxers Work
How Chemical Relaxers WorkHow can chemicals “relax” or straighten hair? Both lye and no-lye relaxers contain harsh chemicals that work in the same manner: they both alter the basic structure of the hair shaft. The chemical penetrates the cortex or cortical layer and loosens the natural curl pattern.
However this inner layer of the shaft not only gives curly hair its shape, it also provides strength and elasticity. Once you perform the straightening process, the result is irreversible. Although you end up with straighter hair, you are now left with much weaker strands susceptible to breakage.
It is easy to “over-process” hair by using excessive relaxers or by applying more chemicals to hair already processed or relaxed. This over processing illustrates the most typical misuse of hair-relaxing chemicals. Once you apply the initial relaxer to “virgin hair”, perform touch-ups over new growth no more than every six to eight weeks.
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