As a briefer, chemically processed hair typically falls into one class: dyed or chemically straightened. Both are decidedly no longer clean in your hair and include a few much less-than-ideal chemical substances (ahem, bleach; ahem, sodium hydroxide).
I fall into the former category in a first-rate way. I raise my certainly brunette hair right into a sunny California-kissed coloration of blond. In a perfect world, I’d permit my highlights to grow out, and I’d embrace my herbal hue. However, this is just now not going to occur every time quickly. And as a result, I’m not in the commercial enterprise of judgment: If you need to dye or chemically straighten your hair, I’m right there with you. But it does set a thrilling standard: What if you now and again procedure your hair however otherwise want to hold it risk-free? Can natural or easy merchandise correctly care for altered hair?
What is chemically straightened hair?
When you speakme approximately chemically straightening hair, you’re speaking about relaxers, including thermal reconditioning, frequently known as Japanese straightening. The process permanently straightens hair, and you handiest see your curl sample come again with regrowth. These aren’t to be confused with keratin remedies or Brazilian blowouts, which remaining a few weeks and may most effective tame frizz, now not essentially modify your texture.
There are three fundamental chemical substances used: sodium hydroxide (frequently known as lye relaxers), calcium hydroxide (or no-lye), and ammonium thioglycolate (thermal reconditioning), and your stylist can pick one relying on your want.
When you relax your hair, you’re breaking down the chemical makeup of your strands so the hair may be “rearranged” directly, says licensed cosmetologist and hairstylist Gabrielle Corney. It does so by elevating the cuticles, so the lively chemicals can get into the shaft and control the natural conduct or curl sample. “And in doing so, you also are stripping the hair of vitamins and nutrients the hair certainly desires to stay sturdy,” she says.
Here’s a way to care for it.
The first aspect you could do, in step with Corney, is to ask for an oil-infused treatment at some stage in your process. “After you rinse out a relaxer, technically, the cuticle remains open,” says Corney. “Instead of shampooing proper away and ultimate the cuticle, I infuse diet E into the strand first so that you add hydration to the system.” (She says ask your stylist about this even as you are putting in place an appointment; maximum may be capable of doing it.)
