Relax, Tex-Lax, or Texturize?

Relax, Tex-Lax, or Texturize?

As women of color, sometimes it is a complex decision to decide how to manage our hair. Is your desire to have bone straight tresses or do you want to rock more of a natural look? Sometimes the possibilities seem somewhat limited with African American hair. As Black women with a myriad of hair types and textures, exploring different options can be a bit challenging, however you may discover that there are quite a few avenues that you can take advantage of!  Basically, if your mind is made up that going natural is not for you, it may be beneficial for you to investigate the ways to chemically relax your tresses.

To begin, it is important to realize what you want. If you’re aspiring bone straight hair by chemical processing, then relaxing to the maximum results, is the best choice for you. When you relax your hair, you are chemically altering the texture of hair, loosening tightly coiled hair and making it more manageable. Your hair is being permanently straightened, hence the term, “perm”.  If you opt to get a relaxer, in order to get your hair bone straight, it is necessary to leave the relaxer in the recommended time suggested on the packaging. However, keep in mind that you are dealing with a chemical, and it is necessary to take caution as to not overdo it, which can lead to severe damage and breakage.  The chemical, lye in relaxers are said to be faster acting and more powerful and effective in the straightening process than the no lye relaxers.  Unfortunately, your relaxed hair does come with some drawbacks. If your relaxed hair is not maintained and deep conditioned regularly, you will experience breakage and hair loss.  It is recommended that you attempt to stretch your relaxers, the amount of time between relaxers, in order to avoid overlapping which leads to breakage.

One alternative to relaxing is tex-laxing. Tex-laxing is actually applying a relaxer to your hair but for a short length of time. If your goal is simply to loosen your curl pattern, not to have straight hair, this is the best option for you. When you tex-lax your hair has more substance to it and you more than likely will have more body and volume to your hair. Many ladies with fine hair choose to tex-lax, due to the fact that they don’t want their hair to be altered to tissue fine hair. When tex-laxing, keep in mind that you won’t achieve curls if you’ve never had them to begin with, as this will only loosen your natural curl pattern. Tex-laxing should be done respectively, according to your new growth just as with a relaxer. As with any other chemical treatment to your hair, deep condition to ensure optimal results.

A texturizer is a great way to loosen the curl pattern as well; however, it is made specifically for this purpose, as opposed to the tex-laxing.  A texturizer is ideal for people who want to avoid shrinkage and cut back on the frizzies. Some attempted naturals have chosen this route due to fact that they desired more manageability, but still wanted that versatility of curlier hair. Do not attempt to apply a texturizer to already chemically treated hair. If your hair is already relaxed, you must cut off all of the relaxed ends and start with virgin hair.  A texturizer can help you to achieve beautiful results if applied correctly and properly maintained.

As you see you have options to choose from in order to achieve your preferred hair goals. Keep in mind that any option that you choose, you must take every step to ensure that your hair is thriving and growing. There is no such thing as not having choices with your African American hair. Figure out what will work best for your hair, and enjoy a beautiful head of hair no matter what you go for!

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