laying off relaxer!

by Sara
( NJ)

Hi Nina!

I'm Sara and I'm 13 years old. My mom relaxed my hair when I was about 11. Before that my hair was almost up to my shoulders now it is up to my neck. I knew that it had something to do with the relaxer but I didn't say anything.

Now I'm trying to grow out my hair. I read your article on how to grow out hair and that's what i want to do. I want to know things like how often I should straighten my hair and what kinds of shampoos I should be using and how often I should wash my hair thank you in advance!

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Nina's Response

Hi Sara,

I'm glad you've made the decision to get healthy hair.

If you're going to straighten your hair and it is relaxed, I would suggest that you do it no more often than every 2 weeks.

Instead of using flatirons and blowdryers to straighten, I would suggest that you learn how to roller set your hair.

Here  is a page on my site to help you with rollersetting.

It is also a good idea to shampoo and condition your hair weekly if wearing it straight. Sometimes you can go two weeks but you will have to pay attention to your scalp and hair. If you notice your scalp gets itchy after a week or so, you'll want to wash weekly. If your scalp does not get itchy after a week, then you can probably go two weeks.

Nina Dyoran, Editor, Long-Healthy-Hair-Advisor.com