Help! Daughters hair is falling out after a relaxer

elfone

New Member
I just put a relaxer (Optimum) in my 15 year old's hair. I neutralized like normal and it was fine when I rinsed it out. But after putting the leave in conditioner in and trying to blow dry it, clumps of hair are coming out. It is really poofy and hard. I just rinsed it out again and she is doing a deep condition right now. What could have happened? I have been doing her relaxers for 2 years now with no problem. What can I do now?
 

msa

New Member
Is this the same relaxer you normally use (brand/strength)? Could it have been expired? Did she have anything on her hair already that could have reacted with the relaxer? Did you leave it on too long? Is that hair coming out from her scalp or is it broken hairs?

Maybe you should neutralize again just to be sure.
 

flowinlocks

Well-Known Member
I'm so sorry to hear that.:sad: Do you have a protein treatment available to stop the breakage? Since you said you have experience relaxing her hair I will assume it's not over processed. Does your dd have any color on her hair? Is this her first time using this perm?
 

elfone

New Member
This is the same perm I have always used. It kind of smelled funny when I opened it but I went ahead and used it anyway. I just rinsed the conditioner out and it is much better. Not as hard and poofy. And there are not clumps coming out any more. I don't know what was wrong. She lost a lot of hair though. She will probably have to have it cut. I want to figure out what I did wrong so that I don't do it again.
 

msa

New Member
This is the same perm I have always used. It kind of smelled funny when I opened it but I went ahead and used it anyway. I just rinsed the conditioner out and it is much better. Not as hard and poofy. And there are not clumps coming out any more. I don't know what was wrong. She lost a lot of hair though. She will probably have to have it cut. I want to figure out what I did wrong so that I don't do it again.


Well since you say it smelled a bit off, check the box and see if there's an expiration date.

As far as figuring out what you did wrong, was the hair coming directly from her scalp? Or was it broken pieces coming from somewhere along the strand?

If it was coming from her scalp I would say either her scalp can't handle the relaxer anymore or there's something about that relaxer that had a negative effect this time.

If there's breakage from the length it could be from overprocessing (from the relaxer runoff or from overlap), not handling her hair gently during the process (especially if it wasn't detangled well beforehand), or her hair being too weak to handle a relaxer right now.

There are lots of factors that could have caused that outcome so try to go over the process and what she's been doing recently to her hair.
 

Empressive

New Member
You can not take any chances when applying chemicals. If my relaxer looks funny or smells funny it is going in the trash. I am so sorry this happened to you daughter. I hope you find out what went wrong.
 

elfone

New Member
I can't find the expiration date. Does anyone know where the expiration date is located on an Optimum relaxer? It kind of smelled like it had already been mixed. I didn't even think of checking the expiration date after smelling it. I definitely will be checking from now on. Her hair was not breaking at the scalp. I had never seen her hair so poofy after a perm. It was mushy and poofy while wet and then when I dried it it got really hard and poofy. Weird. But it is okay now. Thank you all for all of your advice. I was kind of freaking out. I almost started crying lol.
 

joib

New Member
I can't find the expiration date. Does anyone know where the expiration date is located on an Optimum relaxer? It kind of smelled like it had already been mixed. I didn't even think of checking the expiration date after smelling it. I definitely will be checking from now on. Her hair was not breaking at the scalp. I had never seen her hair so poofy after a perm. It was mushy and poofy while wet and then when I dried it it got really hard and poofy. Weird. But it is okay now. Thank you all for all of your advice. I was kind of freaking out. I almost started crying lol.

It is normally on the bottom.
 
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