Is there a connection?? Ask any woman who
has lived through the scorching scalp burn and broken hair from a relaxer creme that was left on too long,..........it’s a
resounding YES! It is no wonder that the hair extension
category of our industry has grown immensely in the last few decades.
It’s because so many are losing hair to the short and LONG term effects of the
sodium hydroxide
(lye) culprit. You can watch the movie by
Chris Rock, “Good Hair” to get an education that has stirred
the community in good and not so good ways!
If you can imagine the hair follicle in the scalp for
just a moment, there is a space between the skin of the scalp and the side of
the hair. Imagine it like a vase and the long stem of your flower (you
hair) is standing at attention. Where the gap between the stem and the
edge of the vase(scalp/skin/follicle) is where the damaging factors get
in. If you can imagine 80,000 of these vases arranged next to each
other, that would be the view of a head of hair, each vase representing the
follicle and the flower stem each hair. Now, when a relaxer cream
is applied, that cream gets onto the lip of that vase and slides rite down the
hair INTO the vase where the water should be. In this example, where the
stem meets the bottom of the vase, would be representative of where the bulb of
the hair gets its nourishment from the blood capillaries. BUT, when this
sodium hydroxide, a very caustic chemical (same stuff that unclogs drain pipes)
gets into that bulb area, it burns the bulb. That’s what every woman
knows the feeling of, but only relates to it as a sign to rinse it off!
The problem is that when that gets to the bulb, the damage is being done in a
long term way. After monthly treatments, this continues to burn
that bulb, and also the vase begins to loose its shape, thus flattening down
and out further exposing the root of the hair, allowing the sodium hydroxide to
get in there even easier. Over time, the hair thins, and the
scalp starts to shine! It is not the shine anyone is looking for, and you
who have had this happen over the years know what I mean. It just
keeps getting worse, until extensions, wigs, etc. are necessary to cover the
glaring baldness.
In developing our products, we came up with a solution
that protects the scalp better than anything on the market today including
those in the synthetic and “trusted” categories for ethnic care. In
fact, the only place one will “burn” is the spot that gets missed in the
stylists application. In fact, because the scalp is so protected, it will
require timers to know when the hair is relaxed fully, rather than running to
the sink to stop the burn. It also allows better straightening with less
chances of breakage.
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