The Best Ways to Perm Your Hair to Make it Lay on Your Head
- Petroleum Base Cream
Use a petroleum base cream or light hair grease rather than petroleum jelly to protect the skin and scalp from relaxer chemicals. Reducing the amount and thickness of protective layers applied to the hair and scalp prior to chemical application will allow for a sleeker, straighter result. By decreasing the petroleum barrier, chemicals are able to penetrate and work on the hair shaft faster and straightening time is maximized. Reserve using thick, petroleum jelly for delicate skin areas like the tops of the ears and around the hairline.
Clarify your hair. Clarifying the hair prior to your chemical process works a lot like the same mechanism as reducing the petroleum barrier. A clarifying shampoo is a harsh shampoo that strips the hair of product buildup. Using a clarifying shampoo just days prior to the chemical application will remove stubborn products and oils that may prevent the relaxer chemicals from fully penetrating the shaft. Once buildup is removed, your hair will be able to straighten more dramatically.
Smooth the hair. Contrary to popular belief, relaxer chemicals do not actually straighten the hair. The relaxer chemicals break the hair bonds, smoothing arranges the bonds into a straight orientation, and neutralizing freezes the new orientation into place. Since straightening happens during the mechanical smoothing phase just after the relaxer creme is applied, focus your attention on really straightening, stretching, and smoothing new hair growth thoroughly during this phase to produce a sleeker result that will lay straighter.
Give the chemicals time to work. Allow your hair to process for the entire relaxer application period. These time intervals are located on your relaxer container according to your hair type and condition. Disulfide bonds must be broken in order to straighten the hair. Rinsing the hair early will only cause in minimum disulfide bond breakage, and a puffier result. Do not attempt a straighter result by exceeding the allotted relaxer time for your hair texture! - Relaxing the hair "bone-straight" or to 100 percent straightness is very unhealthy for your hair. Overlapping previous applications of the relaxer will weaken the hair shaft and lead to over-processing and breakage. Finally, relaxing to complete straightness reduces the hair's natural elasticity making it fragile and more likely to break.
Use the gloves provided with the relaxer kit during all phases of the application process.
