Whats a perm? Whats a relaxer?

Many women use perms/ relaxers to get their hair to be straight for a longer period of time. Other women use perms/ relaxers to get their hair to be curly depending on ones hair texture. What are some of these that are actually in these perm/relaxer products one may ask?

A Perm/relaxer is” a chemical treatment that is used to permanently alter the natural texture of the hair. “(Hair about). “The active chemicals that are used in the most common kind of  perm/relaxers are potassium hydroxide, llithium hydroxide, guanidine hydroxide.”(wikipedia).  These perm/ relaxers break down the  different kind of chemical bonds that are in something called the hair shaft, basically the strand of hair. This is one of the reasons a lot of times a persons hair breaks off, because the hair after one of these perm/relaxers becomes dry and brittle which makes the hair break off.

When a person gets a perm/relaxer treatment done to them some of the effects that come with it are scalp irritation, permanent scarring, scalp drying. Since this is basically a chemical, a person must use gloves when applying this to a persons head because it can burn there skin as just said.(mtholyoke). When the perm is being put onto the persons head, the perm is going to start to tingle the persons scalp and if kept on too long, it will start to actually have the  feeling of a burning sensation on the scalp. That is when the person much wash the perm out of the persons head.

Depending on ones hair texture the perm can either straighten the hair or make it curly. For African American woman, the perm makes the hair straight. In order for one to get their natural hair texture back they have to either cut all of their hair off completely or let the perm grow out on its own. In order for the perm to constantly work, a person must get a touch up of a perm, every 4-6 weeks or however long they want to wait to get another one. If a person doesn’t do this, their natural hair will begin to grow back.  If a person wants to get rid of their perm, but does not want to actually cut all of their hair off, they can “transition” back to their natural hair. This means that they let their natural  hair grow out and slowly cut off the relax ends. The relaxed hair will become very dry, brittle and dead, and during this transitioning process the hair will shed more that usual. When the natural hair grows out and its still connected to the dead ends, there is something called the line of demarcation, this is where the natural hair and the relaxed hair meets and this is where the hair is the most sensitive, and breaks off the most.

I began to transition my hair, after a bad hair cut and wanted my hair to start growing and to get back to a healthier state. I was also just very tired of the scalp irritation, and scabs that I had began to get on my head after my perms. I also believe that getting a perm is also one of the factors of me having a very dry scalp. I am still transitioning my hair right now and I have been doing it for about 22 months now. My permed hair is almost all grown out of my head, and my natural hair is very thick, and curly. I do think getting perms/relaxers is just up to the person who gets them. If a person prefers to just have straight hair or curly hair then getting a perm/relaxer will help them manage there hair better. I personally like my natural hair better than having straight hair so that is why I made the decision to stop getting them.

Here is a video of  what sodium hydroxide( one of the main ingredients in a perm/relaxer) does to a soda can.

http://blackhair.about.com/od/glossary/g/relaxer.htm

http://www.mtholyoke.edu/~nshah/cosmetics/relaxers-healtheffects.html