5 Reasons Why You Should Never Relax Your Own Hair

Let me just start by saying that I absolutely love relaxed hair. Maybe I should rephrase that, I absolutely love HEALTHY, relaxed hair. Relaxed hair will always have a special place in my heart simply because I myself have relaxed hair and have had it for as long as I can remember. I have learned through experience (which is not the best teacher in many cases), and through cosmetology school that taking care of relaxed hair is critical to the hair's overall health. 

The steps to taking care of your relaxed hair are not hard, but they must be done if you want your relaxed hair to actually grow and remain healthy. One of the main things you absolutely must do to your relaxed hair is to stop relaxing it yourself. This is a big no-no. I'm talking HUGE! I know that when you look at a professional do relaxers, it just looks so easy and when the day comes where it is time for your touch up but your money is looking funny and you can not quite make it to the salon, that self hair relaxer kit in a box does not seem like a bad option.

But when is the last time you actually looked at the directions on those relaxers? Did you even know that there is a certain time limit (8-13 minutes) that you must get the relaxer processed through your hair? And by processed I mean applied to the hair and worked all the way through. Don't get me wrong, I am guilty of trying to relax my own hair in the past (before I even thought about becoming a professional hairstylist) and I will be the first to admit that it took me 8-13 minutes just to base my scalp! So we all know that those of us that have tried to relax our own hair far exceed that time frame.

Yet we wonder why our relaxed hair looks brittle, will not seem to grow, and just looks overall damaged. I am telling you what I know for a fact, you should never relax your own hair at home. Even now that I am a professional hairstylist and have been properly trained on how to apply a relaxer, I still do not do my own. Why? Because when you know better, you do better! Cosmetology school taught me everything there is to know about relaxing the hair, how the hair is broken down where the line of demarcation is, and everything in between which is how I know that most people who do their own relaxers really don't know what they are doing. If you understood everything that goes on when a relaxer is applied, you would only let it be done by a professional.

Today I want to give you four reasons why you should never relax your own hair at home. Let's get started!

1. You can not do it in the proper amount of time-I briefly covered this already. Any time you go over the proper amount of time you are causing more damage to your hair. The next time you are in the beauty supply store and are thinking about how to do your own relaxer at home, read the directions on the back of the relaxer kit. Pay close attention to the time frame that the relaxer is supposed to be completed. Then ask yourself can you really do it in that time frame without rushing, because rushing means you will be so worried about getting it done in enough time that you won't be very effective with the results.
2. You are overlapping and in essence over-processing- While it may not seem like you are doing any damage to your hair at first, trust me when I say you are. When you are at home doing your own relaxer, you can not see where your new growth ends and your relaxed hair begins. This means that you simply take a good guess, and in doing so you more than likely go well beyond your line of demarcation (the line where your relaxed hair meets the non relaxed hair). Some of you even go all the way to the ends of your hair each time (that is another post altogether). Over time, continuously crossing that line of demarcation causes the hair to become thinner and more brittle, allowing to break easier.
3. You can not see what you are doing- Once you get to the middle and back of your head you can not see what you are doing! How can you tell not only where the line of demarcation is, but if you are even processing everything that needs to be processed?  So, in addition to over-processing and over-lapping, you end up with some hair that could be under processed.
4. You are not a professional!-We (professional hairstylists) have been trained to apply relaxers the correct way AND in the right amount of time! Let us do our job and leave the chemicals to us.
5. You don't know what to do in the event something goes wrong- This goes to my point about not being a professional. Not only are we taught to do relaxers correctly, we are also taught how to fix any problems that may arise unexpectedly. 

Relaxing your own hair can be very enticing when you are unable to get to a salon, but you are absolutely damaging your relaxed hair by doing this. I have a client who has absolutely no problem with relaxing her own hair and will do it without even thinking twice about it. Yet her hair is very broken, uneven all over, weak, and will not grow to her satisfaction. She will come to me for a shampoo and style but takes the responsibility of handling the chemical on her own. I told her that my professional opinion is that she is doing this backwards. Instead, she should let me handle the chemicals while she handles the shampooing but for some reason she does not put two and two together and realize that there is a direct correlation between her relaxing her own hair and the overall state of her hair.

As a result, I will no longer service this client. Why? Because she ignores all of my professional advice concerning her hair, and also because despite all of my efforts to keep her hair healthy she is messing all of that up when she gets home and applies her relaxer whenever she pleases. I simply won't be the blame when her hair begins to break off and she she is able to see the physical signs of her actions!

Relaxed hair can be healthy if it is properly taken care of. If you put in the work, the results will be gorgeous, healthy, relaxed hair.

Why You Will Never Be Able To Heat Train Your Natural Hair

Many of us have heard it before. Women who go natural but still want to wear their hair straight and say that they are going to "heat train" their hair so that it eventually does not go back curly. I am sorry to tell you this ladies, but you absolutely can not heat train your hair. That's right, heat training your hair is a unicorn, it does not exist. I have clients that come every week to get a silk press and yet still when they come back to get a shampoo the next week their hair immediately reverts back to curly as soon as the water from the shampoo bowl touches it. Not one strand of hair on their heads is straight.

Let's take this cutie featured in the pictures as an example. The first picture is her hair in its natural state. Her mom does not allow her hair to be straightened very often. In this case it was a special occasion and we also took the opportunity to trim her ends

7 Things That Will Cause Your Damaged Hair To Never Get Back Healthy

So, you have damaged hair. Do not stress, we have all been there. And when I say we, yes I am including myself. The good news is that there is a way out! All hair can be good hair if it is taken care of properly. While many of us know the things to do to take care of our hair, some do not know what not to do to take better care of our hair. Today I am going to share with you some things that will cause your damaged hair to never get back healthy.

7 Things That Will Cause Your Damaged Hair to Never Get Back Healthy

1. Get braids. Getting braids on your damaged hair is one thing that will cause your damaged hair to not get back healthy. Some women think that by getting braids they are helping their hair out because they are not doing anything to it but for many women it can actually make your hair worse. If your hair is already fragile and breaking easily, adding more tension with braids, especially individual braids like micros or box braids, can cause the hair to break even more.

2. Get a sew-in. I do not recommend

How To Get The Best Hair Products In Your Hands (And Someone Else's) Sooner

Two years ago I created Silk Hydration by L. Jones products because initially I wanted to make a fabulous deep conditioner for my clients.  Many of them often complained of dry hair so I wanted to make a product to help with that.  After many tries I created one that my clients and I both loved.  As I began to use it more and more, the clients that did not have dry began to ask why I did not have something that they could use like shampoos and conditioners.  From there I developed an entire line of products which includes shampoos, conditioners, and other styling aids.  There are also many new items that are also going to be produced.  Up until now I have sold these products exclusively to my clients first, then I started selling online to my blog readers and YouTube followers. At this point I am now ready to expand even more and start working on getting Silk Hydration in stores after getting such positive feedback from current users. I would like to start online by expanding to Amazon. Most of the time when you sell things on Amazon, it is pretty simply, you just sign up for an account and start selling. However, since I actually manufacture my own products the products have to be tested and declared safe for people to use (don't worry, no testing

5 Ways Your Hair Can Become Damaged

There are a number of different ways your hair can become damaged. One of the main purposes of this blog is to educate women on how to not only take care of their hair but also on how to prevent damage. I do not want you to only look for help with your hair when you are in trouble.  My goal is to get you to think of ways to avoid damage to keep your hair healthy. However, I know that many of you are already in trouble when it comes to your hair but do not get discouraged, I am here to help! Today I would like to share with you five ways that your hair can become damaged.

Sometimes you may not know you are actually doing something wrong because your hair is not immediately affected. The truth is that the hair may be becoming damaged from the inside and it is only a matter of time before you see the effects on the outside. One way your hair can become damaged is by:

1.  Putting heat on it too much-