Whose idea was it for you to get your FIRST relaxer?

[unique4lyfe33]

when i was young i wanted a perm badly lol

 

[filthyfresh]

My mother relaxed me when I was 5.
So I have no idea what my actual texture looks like.
Well until now, since I'm transitioning.
I think I could have been natural if my mother had LHCF.
My hair is coarse & resistant when it's not properly cared for.
All it needs is some good moisture and it's fine.
It doesn't handle oils too well though.
I wish my mother would have toughed it out a little longer.
Just so I could have had some natural hair.
Because I am loving these coilies I've got going on. LOL.

 

[Forever in Bloom]

I got a relaxer after I just turned 13 and was getting ready to go back to school for the 8th grade year. I had watched the infomercial for Rio all summer long and all the people's amazing results, but my mom was apprehensive - thank GOD! I had been to Lisa Akbari a year before and my mom spent a ridiculous amount of money on her products to get my hair to grow. It did grow - on one side and ended up being snipped off right before school started because it was so uneven.

My mom actually trIed to talk me out of getting a relaxer, but my beautician was telling me it was best. I didn't realize until later that she just didn't like pressing hair. It was too much for her I remember sitting in the chair getting ready for a press and curl, and she started whispering in my ear to go on and do it. My mom was off to the corner shaking her head, saying "it's up to you". Now I wished she would have talked me out of it. This was the first of many mistakes with my hair. I remember her asking me if I had scratched my hair recently. I'm thinking, "what does that have to do with anything?"

I said yes, but she proceeded to relax my hair anyway. She used to put the relaxer on and walk to the other side of the shop where her husband worked (his side was the barber shop, her's was the beauty shop) I would be burning up!! She did this all the time until when I was 14 and begged my mom to take me somewhere else. She eventually took me to a young woman (who looked just like Tisha Campbell to me) that she had known for years and who had done my mom's hair since she was a teenager.

She was the only beautician who took care of my hair. But when she started making appointments for a specific time with 3 others in the same time slot - - and showing up 2 hours later, I booked and decided to go natural after experimenting with a slew of other stylists in between.

 

[wheezy807]

My aunt, she was tired of "dealing" with my hair.

 

[cheeks87]

funny enough, my dad was the one who kept pushing me to get a relaxer while my mother wanted me to wait. I got one when I was about 12. and i thought i was so grown... but then my hair started to fall out.

same here. my hair was really long & really thick and i'm really tenderheaded. it was not a good combination. so every wash day ended up being this "ordeal" with me trying really hard to hold the tears in (and failing) and my dad being like, "JUST PERM HER DAMN HAIR!"

we had a rule that my sis and I could get a perm 2 years after we started our periods (my mom has this theory about raging hormones and relaxers not mixing well and it being the reason a lot of young girls' hair breaks off when they get relaxed), so at 14, i finally got a relaxer (with my mom in the background shaking her head)

 

[cmw45]

It was completely my idea. I was a big fan of SisterSister and I just had to have their curls. So I begged my mom for...years...and she finally let me get a modified jehri curl. At first it was gorgeous...then it went down hill...hair thinned...chemical burn...braids...relaxed and hair in decent shape...college and things went down hill again. I've been natural for about a year and a half and my mother says that I ever put a chemical in my head again she will kill me so...I'm done.

 

[*KP*]

My mother did mine when I was about 8. She'd relax it twice a year using Kiddie Kit, only leaving it on for a few minutes. I guess she was texlaxing before texlaxing was cool

And although for years she relaxed root to tip my hair was very healthy until I was about 19 ...a few months after I started going to a white salon where they would blowdry my hair from wet with a round brush

 

[carib_n_curly]

my aunt did mine too and without my mom's permission.
so when my mom got home from work it was

the same thing happen to my oldest sister my aunt told her i'm only going to grease your hair.

i've always been natural and it was my idea never to relax my hair.i use to equate relaxers with being bald and i didn't want to be bald.
i don't and didn't trust my cousins,aunt etc so i never let them in my hair after what they did to my older sister .

 

[LadyKaypnyc]

Up until the age of 14, I had waist length natural hair. My mother kept my hair in protective styles and she very rarely pressed it

I got the relaxer itch when I went to high school

After a year of buggin my mother to let me perm my hair, she finally relented...my hair was really healthy for a few years, but I noticed that it got thinner and thinner with each relaxer...eventually I started to suffer from extremely dry scalp and my hair started to fall out.

Now, I'm natural and loving it...

 

[Napp]

myself. i texturized myself last year with my mom the whole time

 

[SoSweet08]

My hairdresser at the time. I wish I was able to make my own decision. And then I heard my sister and my cousin try putting another perm in my hair from root to tip and it broke my hair off.

Before that my mom use to have someone braid it and bead it up and I was soo good. Only thing that was bad was that Pink lotion and I don't think my hair was properly moisturize which made it hard to comb.

 

[Traycee]

Oh god I honestly can't remember....

 

[adw425]

Mine...I was 14 and a half and bugged my mother silly for a relaxer. She did not want me to get one and I should have listened as I had a nice head of hair. She was utterly opposed to it, but I bugged the crap out of her for about a year and she finally relented.

 

[aziza]

My mom. I got my first relaxer when I was 7 before that she use to press my hair.

 

[BklynHeart]

Mom. Got it at age 8, but she took good care of my hair and it started to get really long. Before that, my hair was healthy but just short. And it never held a press.

 

[reallynow]

Mine! I begged my mother for a relaxer, she was totally against it-but I prevailed and she allowed it at 16...........Luckily I have never had any issues with having my hair relaxed. I did give it up for about two years though-I just felt my hair needed a break.

Possibly thinking of doing it again.

 

[Wildchild453]

Mine at about 13. My cousin was living with us then and she had(and still does) have gorgeous thick relaxed hair. My mom fought me for a bit but eventually relented

 

[Duchesse]

I begged and begged my mom when I was 9-10 for a relaxer. She didn't want my sis or I to relax, but of course with peer pressure we wanted to. She used a Just for Me which did absolutely nothing to my hair. I remember being sooo angry with my mom because my hair didn't get straight, and crying about how she did it wrong..sigh.

After that, my godmom pressed my hair for a couple of years. I started self relaxin when I was around 14.

 

[1QTPie]

The hair stylist; when I was in the 7th grade and decided to chop all my hair off because I was stupid.


My mother took me to Supercuts and asked them to fix it, the lady asked my mother if she could relax it. It was my first experience with it and her's too. None of the women in my family relaxed as far as i know we all hot combed. My mother got her first relaxer after me and I was 12.

 

[mili]

I was very young, 5 or less, I remember having what my Mom called Shirley Temple curls a lot of the time; my Mom was a beautician, any and every type of new service that came about went into my hair. Until I went totally natural 3 yrs or so ago now, I had no idea that my hair was curly, let alone a 3- a,b,c combo.

 

[silvergirl]

when i was 5 i saw my mom relaxing her hair, so i asked if she could do mine and.......... she did.....

 

[neks4u2c]

Yep! My Mom decided for me! No hard feelings though...I guess it was the trend or it made my hair easier to manage. I'm trying to transition now so maybe I'll get to know my birth hair! We'll see...

 

[Southernbella.]

My mom. According to her, I was 3.

I know my hair is thick and all, but dang ma!I had BSL hair until 4th grade, when I started doing my own hair. It gradually got chewed up until my mom's stylist cut it to chin length in 6th grade.

I don't regret having a relaxer though. I got to almost WL with relaxed hair, so I know what my hair is capable of. Now I'm natural and I'm enjoying that too, so it's all good.

 

[stinastina]

I was 20 or 21 visiting my college roommate in ATL. She convinced me to get one because everytime I left the house in the humidity, my pressed hair would revert. So I went to Macy's downtown and got my scalp burned. It took a while to get over that.

Now I'm 2 years natural.

 

[hothair]

Mine!!! I wanted my hair to fall over my eyes and down my back like my cousin and sister! Mum was soooo mad!!!

 

[onejamifan]

It was my mother's idea. When I was 10 years old, the person that had been doing my hair since I was born quit. When faced with the the fact that she was going to have to do my waist length hair herself, my mother tried taking me to the hair salon to have my hair blown out and within minutes of walking out of the salon it was frizzy and crazy. The lady at the salon said it was too much work for her to blow out my hair every week and that I was better off just getting my hair relaxed... the rest is history. I've been relaxed for 21 years and have no idea what my natural hair was like. I mean, I have pictures with my hair in thick braids, but I don't remember what the actual curl was like... I sometimes think about going natural...but I've always been relaxed so I don't know what I'd look like with my natural hair even though my hair has thinned out considerably due to relaxers...

 

[leona2025]

I had to beg my mom until I turned 13 and she finally let me get a perm at a salon. She did contibue to keep it up until my hair grew about waist length and then she turned it over to me, which I promptly destroyed all her hard work on one summer.

 

[Blkprincess]

I begged my mom for a relaxer in the eighth grade...I do regret it, sometimes I wish I never relaxed it. my mom had to use two kits to straighten my hair, which should have been a sign of things to come

 

[basketballbabe03]

It was kinda both my mom's idea and my idea. My mom wanted me to get a relaxer because she saw it as like a right of passage. Me, I just wanted straight hair. I didn't know that I would have to get touch ups and treat my hair differently. As soon as I got a relaxer, my mom let me do my own hair. Not knowing what I was doing, I went from natural APL hair to chewed up see through relaxed hair.

 

[quasimodi]

It was my mother's idea.

According to her, my hair was thick and beautifully curly, except after she pressed it and I went outside to play my roots would swell up. Finally, she just slapped a relaxer into it...when I was about six.