Before I started being serious about caring for my relaxed hair, I new nothing about the term relaxer stretching. It wasn’t something I’d heard before. The hair professionals I would go to for relaxer touch-ups never mentioned it.
Once I learned about it, relaxer stretching became a key part of making my hair look and feel healthy again.
Let me share why and how.
What is relaxer stretching?
This is the act of going longer periods of time between your relaxer touch-ups. The standard for years was to go six weeks between your touch-ups. At least that’s what all of the stylists I used to go to said.
The funny thing is, before I knew what this was, I would sometimes do it. And it wasn’t because I wanted to improve the health of my hair. It was because I wanted to save some money or didn't feel like going to the salon.
When you stretch your relaxer, you’re going longer than that. How much longer is up to you because there isn't one correct number of weeks for everyone.
Currently, I stretch my relaxer 10-12 weeks. After trying varying lengths of time, even as long as 18 weeks, I learned that I don’t like stretching that long. It’s a lot of work, and I have to be even more careful with my hair because of the two textures, which takes extra time that I don’t want to spend on my hair.
Related read: How I Stretched My Relaxer 18 Weeks
Why do relaxer stretching?
Once I started stretching my relaxer, I started seeing improvements with my hair. And that’s because of the benefits that come from relaxer stretching
The first benefit is reducing the chance of relaxer overlap. That is when previously relaxed hair is relaxed again, causing weaker hair and increasing the chances of breakage. The way to reduce this chance is to have more new growth, making the line between relaxed hair and new growth easier to identify.
The second benefit of more time between touch-ups are fewer touch-ups during the year. Not only can you save money and time, but you also give you hair more time to strengthen.
How to manage your hair during a relaxer stretch
1. Keep your hair and scalp clean
Cleansing is essential for healthy hair. You not only need to clean your hair, but also your scalp. A healthy scalp leads to healthy hair. Especially during my relaxer stretches, I wash my hair once a week. Sometimes I may wash my hair twice a week if I've done a lot of sweating or spent lots of time outside.
I mostly use moisturizing shampoos to clean my hair while also replenishing moisture. One or two times during the stretch, I may use a clarifying shampoo to give my hair a deeper clean to fully remove product buildup and residue from my hair that the moisturizing shampoo may not have fully removed.
2. Deep condition regularly
For me, this is a must. I’ve found that regularly using deep conditioner on my hair, especially my new growth keeps it soft, supple, and more manageable. I deep condition weekly, after each wash using a hydrating or strengthening conditioner based on what my hair needs more at that time.
To get the most out of the deep conditioner that I can, I part it with heat or steam. Both of those help to open up the cuticle more allowing the deep condtioenr to penetrate deeper into the hair strands. Now the heat or steam aren’t a must for everyone but they can help.
3. Be gentle when detangling
Detangling your hair when stretching your relaxer is a must because of the two textures. I’ve found that my new growth tends to curl up on itself and if not handled properly I end up with a tangled mess.
So when done properly, detangling gets out any knots that could tighten and eventually break. Detangling also removes shed hair that could cause tangles.
When I detangle before and during my relaxer stretches, I section my relaxed hair. This makes it easier to handle with little to no damage.
With each section, I start at the bottom with my fingers carefully working my way up to my scalp. To make sure the section is fully detangled, I then take my seamless, wide-tooth comb and follow the same process.
By working in sections, you lessen changes of the tangling getting worse. I've also found working in sections keeps me more focused on the task at hand, and I'm more thorough.
4. Pay attention to the line of demarcation
The transitioning line between your relaxed hair and new growth is called the line of demarcation. It’s the place where the two textures meet. It’s also one of the most fragile parts of your hair strands. So it helps when relaxer stretching to pay special attention to it and treat it with care.That means
- don't yank through tangles
- don't aggressively brush the area
- don't repeatedly manipulate it
- keep it conditioned and moisturized
Related read: How To Soften New Growth While Relaxer Stretching
5. Reduce manipulation
Touching your hair, leaving it loose, and constantly styling can cause stress to the hair and be damaging. So wearing low manipulation styles such as buns, braided styles, and even ponytails can be helpful.
While I tend to wear my hair out most of the time, I wear buns and updos more often than not the longer I go between relaxers.
6. Moisturize based on what your hair needs
Keeping your moisturized when relaxer stretching is helpful. It helps to
- stop dryness, roughness, and tangling
- improves manageability.
- minimizes tangles, knots, and breakage at the line of demarcation.
The deeper I am into my stretch, the drier my hair seems to get. I'm not sure why, though I suspect it has something to do with my natural curls slowing down the journey of oil from my scalp down the hair shaft.
To keep my relaxed hair moisturized, I do several things specifically on wash day. I use a moisturizing shampoo and deep condition my hair afterward. I also moisturize and seal my hair using a rich moisutrizer and a hair serum. I try to moisturize and seal at night right before bed, so my hair has time to absorb it.
If my hair starts to dry out during the week, I use moisturizing hair products or do a mid-week wash.
Now you don't need to automatically moisturize more just because you're stretching. You moisturize based on how your hair feels.
Related read: How To Keep Relaxed Hair Moisturized And Healthy
7. Use protein strategically
I've found my relaxed hair doesn't just need moisture, but also protein. There are a couple of ways I can do that. The first is to eat protein-rich foods like chicken and eggs. The other is to do a protein treatment such as the Aphogee Keratin 2 Minute Reconstructor every other week at most. Or I may use deep conditioners or styling products with protein ingredients.
When I use hair products with protein, I focus on the line of demarcation down to my ends since those are the parts of my hair strands that are weakest and need protein. While I use protein, I try to not to use it too frequently. I may apply it bi-weekly or when my hair feels like it needs it.
I also make sure I balance the protein out with moisture by following up the protein treatment with a moisturizing deep conditioner. I don't want to defeat the purpose and end up with protein overload, which comes with its own set of problems.
8. Adjust your hair routine as your stretch gets longer
Yep, you mind that adjustments are needed to hair routine the longer you get into your relaxer stretch. The routine that works at week 5 may not be the routine that works at week 11.
As your new growth increases, you may need to:
- detangle more carefully
- change the hair styles you wear
- moisturize differently
- spend more time sectioning
- reduce manipulation
- use more heat to dry and style your hair
- be more careful around the line of demarcation
When should you end your relaxer stretch?
As I mentioned earlier there isn’t a specific amount of time yous should stretch. It varies from person to person. There are some clues that your hair gives you to know your stretch has gone on long enough. Those signs are:
- your hair is becoming increasingly difficult to detangle
- you're experiencing more breakage than usual
- the line of demarcation is becoming difficult to manage
- your hair stays unusually dry despite your normal routine
- styling becomes much more difficult
- you're spending significantly more time manipulating your hair just to make it manageable
My current amount of weeks to stretch my relaxer are 10-12. I found this worked for me by going longer and paying attention to how my hair was responding. Going longer than 12 weeks requires more work than you want to put into your hair to keep it manageable.
I share more about this in my post How Often Should Relaxed Hair Be Touched Up?
Being patient is key.
ReplyDeleteIt really is. I have to keep reminding myself of that.
DeleteThanks for reading!
Listening to your hair and patience is definitely key. Great tips.
ReplyDeleteDo you have any additional tips for relaxer stretching?
DeleteThanks for reading!