Steps to Relax Black Hair

Video Transcript

"Hi, I'm Amelia, and I'm here to talk to you about steps to relax black hair. Hair is not black or white, Indian, Asian. Hair is texture, so when you're trying to figure out what kind of relaxer you need, it's not so much whether you use a "white relaxer" or a "black relaxer," really, it's about your hair texture. Is your hair fine? Is it coarse? Is it color treated? Is it thick? Is it thin? Is it previous relaxed? These are the things that you need to take into consideration when you go to the beauty supply or when you get your hair relaxed at a salon. There are several different types of relaxers on the market. There are sodium-hydroxide based relaxers, there are also ammonium-thioglycolate based relaxers. You do not want to mix the two. If you do, your hair will break off. The sodium-hydroxide based relaxers are what are known as a traditionally "black" relaxer, traditionally African-American. They're two steps. You've got one that you apply all over the head, then you neutralize with the shampoo. Thee ammonium-thioglycolate relaxer gets its origins from combing a perm solution through the hair, then they started to add thickeners to it, and it's basically the same as a perm. You apply it to the hair, and then finish off with your traditional neutralizer. So these are the types of products that are on the market. It's going to really depend on what you're looking for as far as a relaxer goes. I actually prefer the more traditional relaxers. I feel like that they are not only are quicker and easier to do, especially if you're trying to do it at home, but they also do a mu...far superior job to straightening thee hair. So when searching out a relaxer or figuring out how to do a relaxer, make sure you take into consideration your hair texture, not your ethnicity or your race."