Betty Chambers Has Spoken: I Would Relax My Hair, But

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I Would Relax My Hair, But
Tuesday, April 15, 2008

It's been well over a decade since I relaxed my hair and I don't feel like re-learning how to deal with my hair. Whenever I would consider making the change, a multitude of issues come up:

The warning on the box still says eye and scalp injury. I've seen pictures of relaxer scalp injury. It ain't pretty. It's downright sad and scary.
It burns! It burns! In retrospect, it was crazy of me to go through torture just to get straight hair.
I'm cheap. I don't want to spend money on salon visits or a ton of expensive miracle products - just to stop breakage and hope it makes my hair grow.
I like my hair thick. I value my hair line and nape. I don't want to worry about a relaxer causing hair loss in those areas.
I don't want to wait until my scalp heals after getting a relaxer, before I can do anything else to my hair or scalp.
It smells toxic, which is it. It stinks too.
I'm lazy. What may be convenient to others isn't to me. I don't want to follow any complex rules regarding my hair. These rules seem to grow. Here are some that may be required, before heading off to the salon: base the scalp with heavy oils, do not scratch the scalp, deep condition the hair, do not wash the hair, [another rule], etc.
I enjoy my free time. I don't want to visit a salon every 6-8 weeks losing an entire Saturday.
Hair salons employ scissor happy staff. There are hair dressers who don't (wont?) wash the product out completely.
If it is supposed to permanently straighten my hair, then why must I use flat irons or certain techniques to re-straighten it?
Using different relaxers is really tricky. One can love certain products only to have them discontinued. That's cruel - I sense a conspiracy, yo.
I don't know, or care, about the differences between no-lye and lye relaxers. I wouldn't want to risk eye or scalp injury or baldness just to find out which one works.
After losing hair with relaxers, I view it as a gateway product (yeah, like a drug!) to weaves and wigs. If a relaxer was supposedly good for hair, then weaves and wigs would not be necessary. It is just going from bad to worse. (Don't get me wrong, I wear wigs on occasion.)
I am terrified of involuntary baldness. I've read the horror stories. That's too much stress for me.

Outside of these hassles, what is supposed to be the benefit of a relaxer?

Labels: damaged hair, hair, relaxed hair, relaxers

posted by GoldenAh

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