Relaxer Strecthing

Here is an old post from my personal blog

I have noticed that a lot of women on the hair boards participate in what is called relaxer stretches. A relaxer stretch is when you strreeeetttcccchhhhh the amount of time between relaxers. So for example, if you relaxer every 6 weeks and you decide you are not going to relax your hair until 10 weeks that is a relaxer stretch. The theory behind doing it is that if you stretch the time between relaxers you will have more growth therefore lessening the chance of the relaxer overlapping and damaging your hair. However, you have to be careful when stretching your relaxer to take special care to moisturize your new growth and detangle your hair properly to avoid breakage where the two hair textures meet.



When I first started my journal to healthy hair I would relax my hair every 5-6 weeks because I can't stand to have a kitchen. I never even gave any real thought to stretching my relaxer because I never experienced any damage from overlapping and I HATE having a kitchen. But now the tables have turned, my last relaxer was on December 1st (about 7 weeks ago) and my edges are not that bad at all. My hair is still growing at the same rate it was growing before, the only difference is that I am taking better care of my hair. My edges have grown out a little bit as well as my nape area and I do not feel the need to relax my hair as often. I guess you can consider this to be a relaxer stretch for me, but not in the traditional sense.



Here is the plan: I am going to wait until my new growth is overwhelming me and I can't stand it any longer, then I will relax my hair. I'm actually very curious to see how long it will be and I plan on keeping you guys updated.