Texlaxing: the highs, the amazing, the lows

I had my first official texlax on the 7th of February 2014. After my failed transition to natural, i started researching on how to get healthy relaxed hair. Since the beginning of my trying to grow out my relaxed hair, i had one major dilemma. My hair just wouldn't get bone straight. I have a very sensitive scalp and I just can't stay with a relaxer in my head for longer than 15 minutes. I used to apply my relaxer from root to tip, as such I had so many different textures in my hair from thick texlaxed hair at the roots to bone straight at the very ends. I knew that was one of my major causes of breakage in my hair and was on of my goals to fix that. I tried so many different brands but to no avail. After a good roller set, i would come out of the salon with my hair looking sleek, full and beautiful. However after my first wash it would all just revert back to some curls which made my hair really dry, hard to maintain and comb. Back then i had not discovered moisturizers and i did not know much except for my Sunsilk petrolatum based hair oil that i just loved because of the smell. I did not know much about hair. Researching about why my hair wasn't getting silky straight, I stumbled upon a few blogs and YouTube channels that were talking about texlaxing.

Texlaxing is relaxing your hair partially while leaving some texture in the hair. The amount of texture you leave in your hair is absolutely up to you. You can achieve texlaxed results by: 

• using a mild relax 
• leaving the relaxer in your hair for a short time instead of the usual recommended 15-18 minutes
• Not smoothing your hair out after applying your relaxer
• Mixing your relaxer with some natural oils or conditioner
• Basing your new texture with oils, conditioner or petrolatum before getting a relaxer

You can use any of the methods above, or combine two, three or even all depending on how much texture you want in your hair. How long you keep the relaxer in your head is also entirely up to you. For my first texlax, i used the first, second and third methods with Sunsilk mild relaxer. I left it it my hair for 11-12 minute without smoothing and rinsed it out. There was just too damn much texture left in my hair. 

I tried to do a corrective relaxer with the same relaxer, left in on for the full 18 minutes and smoothed it out so much but i just wasn't getting the results i wanted. For my second texlax on the 27th of April, i went ahead and purchased Dark and Lovely precise Super relaxer. This is a very strong relaxer. I applied it in my hair and smoothed it lightly for 11 minutes as well. I rinsed it out, deep conditioned, and voila, perfect texture :-D. My edges were a little bit straighter than I preferred however, and i will keep that in mind next on my texlax which will be hopefully on the 7th of October. I will also hopefully be using the same relaxer.

Now to the pros and cons of texlaxing;

Pros:

• My hair is so much thicker and healthier now that it is in one or two curl patterns
• It can withstand manipulation
• It is growing longer and faster than it ever has before
• The breakage at the demarcation lines is not as bad as before as it is more of a smoother transition in terms of the curl pattern from my natural new growth to my bone straight ends.
• Goodbye relaxer hurt and burns on my scalp! I can not express enough how happy I am not to have one more burn on my scalp cause of a relaxer y'all :-D. lol

Cons:

• Detangling takes so much longer. In the past I never really had to worry about detangling as my hair was mostly bone straight
• My hair is now prone to breakage at two demarcation lines; the point where my natural hair meets my texlaxed hair; and where my texlaxed hair meets my relaxed hair
• I can never see the true length of my hair unless i use heat to stretch it out. My hair just loves to shrink up and with my big head, lol, most styles become hard to achieve

Overall, I love texlaxing. I finally found something that works well with my hair. It is so much fuller, so much thicker, and so much healthier. Looking for a way to have full, healthy and long relaxed hair but you are just not ready for the work that comes with being natural? consider texlaxing.

Happy HHJ ladies. Stay blessed :-)