Hot Tool Hair Products
Healthy Relaxed Hair
Bringing life and health back to your chemically treated hair
Relaxed hair, by nature, is damaged hair simply because of the harsh chemical process of relaxing. Your relaxed hair has specific needs that must be met in order thrive. Consistency is key when caring for your relaxed hair. This site is loaded with information to help you bring life and health to your relaxed hair.
The biggest concern that women with relaxed hair face is dryness and breakage. The relaxing process is extremely damaging. The end result is straightened hair that must be consistenty cared for. Your main purpose, in caring for your relaxed tresses, should be to bring balance to your mane. Is your hair weak and fragile? Your goal should be to add strength. Is your hair hard and brittle? Your goal should be to add moisture. The perfect balance of moisture and strenght should be your ultimate hair goal. 
If you are like most African-American women, you probably have spent tons of money in your quest to bring life to your hair. The hair product industry is a billion dollar business. Myriads of product manufactures are vieing for your dollars with promises of hair transformations if you were to chose their product. As of late, hair product manufacturers have begun to add beneficial natural ingrediants to which our hair responds to favorably. 
Natural ingrediants such as plant oils are a blessing to our hair. Plant oils contain beneficial nutrients found in the fruit. Another benefit of plant oils is the added shine and managebility of your hair immediatly after use. Oils such as jojoba oil, coconut oil, avocado oil, olive oil, and almond oil are just some in a long list of plant oils that work well with relaxed hair. Most products on the market contain these ingrediants, but along with the plant oils, most commercial products also contain other additives which may end up causing build up. Build up promotes dryness, breakage, and other undesirable side effects. I recommend that you invest in purchasing plant oils in pure form (no other ingrediants added) and making the oils a staple in your routine. Gleau Nourishing oil blend is a wonderful fusion of 8 unique plant oils formulated to nourish the hair. This blend contains oils with ceramides and penetrating oils such as coconut and meadowfoam. Best of all, Gleau contains ultra nourishing oil such as argan and camellia seed.
Healthy hair can not be achieved if you do not have health eminating from within. Think of your personal health as the foundation necessary to create healthy hair. Without a strong foundation, your hair will lack the strength and health it needs to help withstand the damaging process of relaxing. Hair that does not get enough of what it needs nutrionally has an unfair advantage and will not fair well to destructive actions such as blow drying and flat ironing. In your quest for healthy hair, you must start with your nutrition. Ample amounts of water, fruits, vegetables, fish, and lean meats must make up the majority of what you consume. The more of these you add to your diet, the less room you have to supply your diet with junk foods which add no value to the health of your hair. Along with healthier eating habits, you should include nutritional supplements in your daily habits. 
Your hair will benefit from practically all additional sources of nutrition. Supplements such as fish oil, biotin, a good B vitamin complex, and super green foods such as spirulina are excellent support for healthy hair. Consistently taking a nutriotional supplement will positively impact you hair's strength as it grows in from the scalp. Remember that just the simple act of relaxing alone is turture on your hair. You must first start with hair that is as healthy as possible if you want to give your hair a fighting chance against the damaging effects of relaxing. Maintanance The way you care for your hair will either make or break your chances of having a healthy head of hair. You must think of your hair care routine as extremely critical and must be scrutinezed carefully. Your goal should be to eliminate any harmful activities and or products from your hair routine and replace them with beneficial, health and growth promoting ones. The first thing that comes to mind when I think of restoring the health of relaxed hair is the miminal use of heat. Heat is usually a staple in the routine of women who prefer to wear their hair in straight styles. Continuous use of heat when styling is a short term fix which will produce long term problems. Relaxed hair is no match for the constant use of curling irons, blow dryers, and flat irons. Drying is one of the most obvious outcomes of using heat as a primary styling tool. Breakage is only to be expected when the hair is dry and brittle from excessive heat styling. So what are your alternatives to using direct heat? Rollerseting is a popular alternative to curing the hair with direct heat. When you rollerset, you have the ability to include healthy leave in products to the hair before drying. You can also select the level of heat you choose to submit your hair to during the process. You can air dry (no heat) or you can sit under a dryer under the highest setting and pretty much still get the same results. Actually the no heat, low heat, cool air results are healthier than the highest setting but both are preferred over putting a hot piece of metal directly to the hair shaft. Relaxers Women who relax often tend to undergo the chemical process at the first sign of new growth. This action is extremely harmful to the health of both the hair and scalp. Relaxing the hair every 4-6 six, is a sure way to overprocess the hair by overlapping the chemical on hair that has previously been relaxed. Your hair and scalp will surely benefit if you are able to extend the amount of time that passes between relaxers. Try relaxing every two, three, four months or longer if you are able. As you do, you allow an ample amount of time for the new growth to appear. That hair will be stronger and healthier than the rest of the hair because it has yet to undergo the chemical process. If you allow at least an inch of hair to grow before you relax, you are minimizing the chance of having the relaxer cover the same area twice. Every time you relax, you will be sure to only relax the virgin hair. The result will be naturally stronger hair than if you were to overlap the relaxer. Another key piece of advice would be to avoid purchasing box relaxers commonly found in your local drugstore. These relaxers are extremely harsh on the scalp and contain ingrediants that tend to dry out the hair. I remember buying a "box" relaxer years ago when the cashier told me about the damage it is doing to my hair. She recommended instead that I use a professional relaxer. I researched her allegations and was converted to spending a little more for salon quality relaxers. Back then, I had to search far and wide to find such relaxers at retail locations, now one can easily find professional relaxers on sale at various websites online. Some beauty supply stores carry professional products tucked away from the other product lines usually where someone has to hand it to you personally. Stretching your relaxer will not be easy especially if you are not proned to going any longer than 6 weeks between relaxers. You must go into the process by remembering that the longer you go without a relaxer, the better the health of your hair will be. Keep this in mind when you are tempted to relax at the first sign of new growth. During the stretching phase, you will have to get creative with your hair. At times the new growth will be so evident that you won't be able to easily wear your hair straight as you normally do. It is then that you sport styles such as braids, or braid outs (wearing your hair wavy by braiding overnight and wearing loose the next day). Flexi rods are also a great help when you are battling new growth. Flexi rods are excellent curing tools because they require no heat and can be used to create curls that are tightly coiled or loose soft waves. Best of all, when you are wearing beautiful curls, no one is focusing on your new growth. Most importantly, avoid the urge to use heat as a tool to combat your new growth. You will not do your hair any favors if you institute the direct heat of a flat iron during your last few weeks of stretching.
The Science of Healthy Hair Your hair care routine should be scientific with regards to the steps. Instead of looking at your entire routine in a holistic way, you should instead seek to break down each step and scrutinize your results along the way. Perhaps your hair problems occur while you shampoo. Does your hair end up tangled after the wash thereby ruining the rest of your routine? Is your conditioner the right fit for your hair's needs? Are you using too much protein when your hair is thirsting for additional moisture? These and other questions are best answered when you begin to scrutinize every step of the process. As with any undertaking, you should establish your intended result for every aspect of your hair care routine. If your results are not realized as expected, ask yourself where you can improve next time. Keep working on that step with complete focus until you are comfortable with your results. Then you move onto the next step and perfect that one as well. As long as you continue to analyze and adjust your routine as need, you will be pleased with your results. You should also seek the wisdom of others who have managed to achieve the coveted balance of strenght and moisture therefore have been able to experience healthy lengths. You can also find updated information on hair blogs about the trials and successes of individuals as they undergo a journey to healthy hair and long lenghts. The myth of unhealthy relaxed hair is challenged everyday as more hair lovers post their inspiring pictures of what they have been able to achieve by listening to what their relaxed hair needs.
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