December 30th 2014
When documenting my last relaxer touch up, I mentioned I left more texture in my hair than anticipated and I knew a corrective relaxer would be necessary.
By the time I reached 4 weeks post, my hair was a nightmare to cope with. I could just about get the end of a rat tail comb to part my hair and despite moisturising my new growth and roots every other day if not daily, I found that I was experiencing breakage around the hairline and could of cried... Instead I decided to wait 2-3 days then bring out the relaxer and try to correct my hair as my hair was closer to natural than relaxed and I just couldn't allow any more breakage to take place.
When correcting a relaxer before, I had waited until I got to 6 weeks post but this time around, waiting was not an option. Although I have corrected a relaxer before, my mother-in-law was there to help me so before I started anything, I went online to do some research on corrective relaxers.
I came across a post by Jen of Just Grow Already which gave some great tips on corrective relaxers.
These are the steps I followed for this corrective relaxer:
Sectioned my hair into 4, applied Roux Porosity control and Vaseline to the length of my hair for each section and applied vaseline to my scalp to avoids burns.
Parted each quadrant into 1 inch sections and twisted from the demarcation line downwards. Once each section was saturated with conditioner and Vaseline, I set my timer for 18 minutes and starting with the two back sections, I went through and applied relaxer to my new growth with a relaxer brush. In the last 5-6 minutes, once I had gone through each section, I went back through and this time applied relaxer to the under processed sections that were in urgent need of being reacquainted with the relaxer crème. Once each section had been smoothed through, I then applied relaxer to my edges, left for a minute or two and then rinsed. I chose to only apply the relaxer to my edges in the last few minutes due to the breakage I had discovered around my hairline.
With the crème thoroughly rinsed out, I applied Aphogee 2 minute reconstructor to my hair root to tip and left on for 3-4 minutes whilst I mixed up my deep conditioner mix then rinsed and neutralized with ORS Creamy Aloe Shampoo, lathering 5 times and letting the shampoo sit in my hair for 3 minutes before the last rinse.
I deep conditioned with ORS HAIRepair nourishing conditioner, Avocado oil and JBCO. I covered with a plastic cap and my heat wrap for 30 minutes and rinsed once cool.
I t-shirt dried for 15 minutes and spritzed the length of my hair with Mane & Tail Detangler then detangled my hair. I applied my leave ins; CON Straight from Eden leave-in conditioner and Keracare leave in conditioner.
I am still left with plenty of texture which is what I wanted, but the curls have loosened making my hair more manageable. I had hoped to air-dry my hair but the day had disappeared and I was running late for date night so I tension dried my hair in sections with cool air and wore it in a low bun with center parting.
The next morning, I wanted to trim my ends to ensure I started the year with healthy ends so for the first time in about 3 years, I decided to flat iron my hair. I spritzed my hair with Fantasia IC heat protector straightening spray and starting with the back section, began to flat iron. With the whole head complete, I assessed my ends and although they were better than expected due to regular dusting, I trimmed off an inch.
