Chemical Hair Relaxer

Lots of women today yearn for the long straight shiny hair that is so in vogue with fashion models, Hollywood stars, and trendy celebrities. That's especially true if your hair is kinky, frizzy, or so curly as to be unmanageable.

If that's so, in the hot humid weather, it probably looks even worse. Some women want to literally pull their hair out. Or they go through the summer with their hair wrapped in a scarf or tightly pulled back into a bun.

That's not how they want to look, though. They want an alternative. People can get their hair curled, so why not uncurled? When that's the case, it's possible to turn to chemical relaxers to change the texture and look of your hair.

However, you should be wary of chemical relaxers for a few reasons. They do contain the chemical compound that really is lye. You wouldn't want lye around you for anything else, so why would you want it on your hair?

Because chemical relaxants contain lye, and lye burns what it touches, it's easy to make a little mistake and burn your scalp. There are also reports that over time women's hair has begun to break or thin because of overuse of chemical relaxants.

Hair begins to fall out, which no woman wants. You don't start to use one of these products to make you more beautiful just to have your hair disappear on you because you use it! Lest you despair, take a breath and relax yourself.

Rest assured that there are alternatives to chemical hair relaxants. There are natural hair relaxers that do the work without harsh chemicals. These not only will not harm your hair, but they may actually be good for your hair as well.

They create health rather than take it away. They build body rather than removing hair. And because they're natural, they're also good for the planet too because they won't pollute the environment.

We want to look good for sure, but we'd certainly want to be responsible about keeping the planet safe if we could. You don't have to go to a salon to be treated with a nonchemical hair relaxer.

You can buy these kinds of products in some drugstores and in health food or natural products stores. You'll want to read the ingredients carefully, but if sold in this kind of place it won't have harmful chemicals and toxins.

What you will see are ingredients such as alkaline water, soda ash, minerals, vitamins, proteins, and oils. These types of substances will build body into your hair as the curl is relaxed, so you will win on both counts.

You'll want to treat your hair well as you do this procedure, which means taking your time and working gently. Don't pull or rub at your hair. Use a natural protein shampoo and make sure any products you use on your hair are natural and work gently also.

Don't relax the hair with natural substances and then treat the hair with chemicals. It defeats the purpose. Be careful of too much heat on your hair once it's relaxed, too.

Don't blow dry too much or use hot curlers. If you want to blow dry, think about a low setting, or a brief amount of time. A diffuser on your blow dryer can help air flow to be gentle enough that no damage is done.

Thermal damage is not what you want for your hair that's been newly relaxed with a natural hair relaxer.