Alternatives to Chemical Straightening Products

Alternatives to Chemical Straightening Products

Many African Americans choose to use a chemical approach to straightening their hair. This is primarily due to the length of time that the chemicals can give you perfectly straight hair. The convenience of having straight and tangle free hair is appealing to most. These chemicals that are placed on your hair can cause your hair damage. The chemicals that are typically found in hair straightening kits include guanidine hydroxide, sodium hydroxide, and ammonium thioglycolate. These are very harsh chemicals that can leave your hair damaged resulting in breakage. The breakage caused by relaxer damage is usually irreparable. There are alternatives to these harsh chemicals to take your curly hair to straight hair without the damage.  Follow this guide to aid in finding some healthy alternatives to harsh chemicals in your hair.

There are a myriad of products on the market today that will straighten your hair. They do not provide the long term straightening but they are much less harsh on your hair and scalp. There are flatting irons like the Sedu Flat Iron and there are also hair straightening solutions, serums, and creams. You must be warned about the dangers of too much heat, though. Use heat sparingly on your hair as this too can cause severe damage. Check out the reviews for different hair straightening products before sinking your money into them. Reviews are a great way to gauge the true effectiveness of a product. Epinions is a great review site.

Straightening African American hair requires the high temperatures of a flat iron when chemicals are not used, this high heat can damage the hair follicles and leave hair looking brittle and broken. When using any flat iron to straighten hair, make sure to moisturize the hair often. You may also want to purchase a good heat protectant to shield your hair from heat damage.

The choice of professional flat irons can be an overwhelming to the average shopper. The Sedu Flat iron, the Chi-flat iron, and the Instyler are just a few of the many irons on the market. There are also many serums, solution, oils, and straighterners in the market too. Look for natural ingredients that have protein, mayo, and eggs, because these products are great for your hair.  Look on line to get good reviews before you buy.

There will be times when a flat iron will not straighten the hair in the wanted or needed manner. In these cases, a chemical relaxer may be needed to create the smooth look of straightened hair. The chemical straightening of hair requires a four step process that will need to be followed carefully to prevent damage to the hair and the hair follicles and roots. If you adhere to these you are likely to acquire less damage.

Chemical Straightening

There is a four part process to chemically straighten your hair. The first step is a test. You are testing a small strand of hair to see how it will react to the chemical. You will need to see how long it takes for your hair to reach as well as the strength, texture and elasticity of the hair. If your hair tolerated the test well, than a scalp protectant like Vaseline will need to be applied to protect the scalp. Some supply stores will have it labeled as a base. A wash of chemicals is then applied to the hair and rinsed off with hot water. Be sure to use a neutralizing shampoo that is colorized to demonstrate when all chemicals are thoroughly washed out. The final step is when the scalp is relaxed with a conditioner. Use a good conditioner that will thoroughly deep penetrate your hair follicles. It is very important to have your hair professionally straightened as there is serious damage that can occur if it is not done properly. Home relaxer boxed kits are usually bad news. Professional products performed by professionals are the safest route to take.

Chemical relaxers are not recommended for African American hair; But if you must get a chemical relaxer, there are steps that you can take to ensure proper application and maintenance of your hair so that it will remain as close to strong as possible.

• straightening black hair without chemicals
• how to straighten black hair without chemicals
• straighten black hair without chemicals
• black hair straightening alternatives
• how to straighten african american hair without chemicals
• straightening african american hair without chemicals
• straighten african american hair without chemicals
• mss
• black hair straightening products