NOLA Darling says…As Denise pointed out [in recent comment on this post], a chemical relaxer “rearranges” the hair bonds, permanently smoothing the cuticle so that the hair remains straight. While the hair may be permanently altered, it is not damaged in the sense of split ends and breakage one gets with regular use of a flat iron. As a black woman with 3B hair (i.e., tight corkscrew ringlets) living in the most humid place in the country, who has used both the flat iron and a chemical relaxer to straighten my hair, I (and any hair stylist specializing in “black hair”) will attest to the fact that regular flat ironing is far more damaging. When I decided to start wearing my hair straight for work, I had to flat iron it at least twice a week to keep it frizz free, and every time I washed it, I had to blow dry before using the flat iron. Well the cumulative effect of all that heat and tension was lots of split ends (even after use “heat protecting serum”). Once I relaxed my hair, which is a one-time process combined with regular “touch ups” on the new growth, my need for heat styling lessened severely as well as the associated breakage and split ends. Right Brain, this was clearly a question you should have sought a few expert opinions before responding.
The Right Brain responds:
Thanks calling us out on this NOLA. We encourage our readers to push back when they disagree with something we’ve said. You raised a couple of points that we thought were worthy of a follow up post.
Can’t take the heat
In the first point NOLA (and Denise?) took issue with our statement that “chemically straightening is about the worst thing you can do to your hair” and that “blow drying and ironing are harmful too, but they’re much less damaging than chemical attacks.” I’ll stand by my statement that in general, the damage caused by chemical relaxer is worse than damaged resulting from heat styling. However, NOLA makes an excellent case for why this is not true for her specific situation. This is because her tightly curled hair requires SIGNIFICANT manipulation to get it straight without chemical processing. The combination of successive sessions of brushing/combing, blowdrying, and high temperature ironing, does create a tremendous amount of cumulative damage. If her hair was only slightly kinky and she didn’t have to work so hard to straighten it physically, the result would be different.
Relaxers wreck cuticles
The second is a minor, but important, technical distinction. NOLA (quoting Denise) said that “relaxer rearranges hair bonds, permanently smoothing the cuticle so that the hair remains straight.” While relaxers do straighten hair by rearranging bonds, it’s important to understand that these are the disulfide bonds inside hair (in a region called the cortex.) The cuticles (the outer “shingle-like” covering of your hair are NOT smoothed by relaxers, in fact, if anything, relaxers can tend to disrupt the cuticles by lifting them up due to alkaline swelling of the hair.
The Beauty Brains bottom line
So there you have it. Heat styling hair CAN be worse than relaxing. Thanks to NOLA for sharing her point of view and giving us a chance to clarify our point.
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{ 5 comments… read them below or add one }
It’s quite interesting reading through everybodies various outcomes from using either a chemical realxer or a styling / straightening iron. The unfortunate end result is that the hair will get damaged either way. What concerns me though, is how heat styling tools are taking a big knock here. My wife uses a styler on her hair every single day, yet she experiences not breakage whatsoever. Mentioned earlier in the blog, if the chemical ssrvice has not been done efficiently or professionaly, you will end up with a disaster. The same applies to styling your hair with heat. If the correct supporting products are not used in conjunction with this or you are not doing it properly e.g. going over the same section of hair time & time again, you will get breakage.
Some people even burn their hair using a hairdryer that operates at a temperature much lower than most other heat styling tools.
So, in conclusion, I blame hairstylists for being lazy & not informing the genral publiuc on how best to look after & maintain their hair.
So, as a stylists, stop talking crap & educate your client.
Even when I had a relaxer, I would still heat style my hair. Most women who have relaxers/perms do. They get bored and want to change the texture or make curls.
A note to consider: There are different hair types and textures. Each hair type requires different care, maintenance, and styling procedures to have healthy hair. Feel free to take a look at the wealth of information about straightening hair. http://www.typef.com/hair-straightening-and-flat-irons/
What Nola writes corresponds with my own experience, although I’m European, but I have curly-kinky hair. My hair takes a “big” damage every few weeks surprisingly well, namely bleaching from dark to light blonde. I would guess that the degree of “damage” is comparable to relaxing your hair. To make up for it, I go to extreme lengths when it comes to handling my hair carefully. I use the techniques I learned from black hair care (wrap, roller set, sleeping with a bonnet…), and I literally never use a blow-dryer or a flat-iron. That way, I am able to have a full head of long, seemingly healthy hair. Seemingly, because only I know how “damaged” in fact it is. The funny thing is that in the past, when I was not bleaching, and only applying “little” but frequent damages like blow-drying, my hair never seemed to grow because it would break off so easily.
That’s why I prefer styling irons! At least I have the option of curling my hair one day and straightening it on the other, without too much damage like rebonding or relaxing does!