2 MAIN WAYS TO MAKE SELF-RELAXING EASIER ON RELAXER DAY

Disclaimer: If you haven't relaxed your hair before and are looking to do it yourself, please seek the advice of a professional hairstylist or let her/him do the touch-up for you. The methods below work for me as I took the personal decision to relax my hair myself, and found ways to make it easier for me. These methods are just pointers for those who are already relaxing their hair themselves and are looking for ways to make self-relaxing more enjoyable.

Self-relaxing wasn't something that I felt confident about at the beginning of my hair journey. After I got my pixie cut, I still wanted to visit a hair salon. But at this point in time, I was away from my regular hairstylist. So I decided then that I was going to relax my hair myself.

I watched tons of Youtube videos (not the best way if you want to go about it professionally but it worked for me), read tons of blog posts and forums. When I felt confident enough to take action, I started self-relaxing. And I've been doing so since 2014.

There are two main things that I have been doing for the past year that have made my relaxer day so much simpler that I just had to share. I couldn't be the only one who felt like I had a leg and booty workout on each relaxer day. The two main things I decided to do was to separate my hair in very small sections ahead of time and using white vinegar to clarify my hair.

PARTING MY HAIR IN EVEN SMALLER SECTIONS.-

The instruction sheet found in relaxer kits mentions to part hair in 4 sections and to part each section as you're applying the relaxer. I part those four sections in smaller sections before I start the application process (5 - 6 smaller sections). I always do this for three reasons: 

1. My hair is parted ahead of time, especially that I have thick new growth. It not only saves time in application and smoothing but it also saves my strands as I apply less tension in separating my hair. And my scalp doesn't become sensitive because of unnecessary pulling.
2. I can easily finger-detangle my thick new growth to stretch it a bit, which allows for faster smoothing time and for the relaxer to take better.
3. I have better access to my scalp when applying vaseline or oil to protect my scalp during the relaxer touch-up.

I've been doing this regularly and I never go over the recommended processing time for my hair type when relaxing my hair. By 16 minutes (recommended time is 20-25 minutes) I'm already done applying the relaxer and smoothing my hair.

USING WHITE VINEGAR TO CLARIFY MY HAIR.-

My clarifying shampoos

Now that I've reached armpit length, rinsing the relaxer out of my hair is the most dreaded part of self-relaxing. Not because there's the risk of the relaxer getting into my eyes (i've found my position to avoid that) but it's the amount of time I stay bending over the bathtub, waiting for the lather to be completely white! My thighs are usually sore the next day! So what I do, I rinse out the relaxer with water for 3-5 minutes, then shampoo with ORS Creamy Aloe Shampoo and rinse it out right away, I shampoo again then let it sit for 5 minutes. I rinse it out and use Isoplus Neutralizing Shampoo + Conditioner to see how much of the relaxer was rinsed out since it's color-coded. I rinse it out then spray a generous amount of white vinegar on my hair and let it sit for 5 minutes. I rinse it out and use the Isoplus Neutralizing Shampoo + Conditioner again to see how pink the lather is. Then I would shampoo with ORS twice, letting it sit for 5 minutes each time, rinse it out, spray some white vinegar, rinse that out, and shampoo again with Isoplus. This way, I'm not bending over the bathtub for 40 minutes and not shampooing my hair 7-8 times to still have relaxer residue on my hair and scalp. 

Before I started using white vinegar, the lather of my last shampoo wasn't always completely white. But that changed when I started using it.

WARNING: If you use lye relaxer to relax your hair and intend to use white vinegar to clarify, make sure you shampoo and rinse your hair with water thoroughly as sodium hydroxide (lye) and vinegar SHOULD NOT come in contact. Even if you use no-lye relaxer, make sure you shampoo and rinse out your hair completely as a precaution before clarifying with white vinegar.

So that's how I've been making my relaxer touch-up session easier. I hope they work for you too.