What age did you get your first relaxer?

[silenttullip]

I think I was about 7. I had the thickest hair of my siblings and many others. Stylists would always sit there and say the "if I had a daughter with her like yours I would..." sometimes positive sometimes not. Well it was obvious my hair DIDN'T want to be relaxed. It was fine being worried lol. I'd get a relaxer and less than 2 weeks later have a long fro again *it would go up in the front and lay down in the back*. At about 13 I found botanicals relaxer. It was the first one that totally completely straightened my hair but then came scalp issues. At 17 I went to an african american dermotologist (I included his race because the others I had told me to use this or that and wash once a day with drying chemicals) this guy said "for us to get you on track you should really leave the chemicals alone for a while" so I did and at 18 I bc'ed *even though I wasn't ready and I wouldn't have if I would have known I didn't have to* Now I'm close to the length from before but my texture is a lot thinner but the strands are thicker it's odd

 

[darlingdiva]

I was six years old. When I was five years old, I fell in love with that little girl's hair on the PCJ box & I begged my mother for a perm for an entire year. She finally gave in when I was six.

 

[iri9109]

i was 12...up until then my mom always put my hair in extension braids most of the time, but then i thought i was too old for that and wanted to wear my hair out, but then i noticed my hair was poofy and all the other black girl's hair was straight and i just wanted to fit in...i begged and begged and begged until my mom let me get one, but knowing what i know now i really wish she hadn't

 

[JJamiah]

never had one, natural from the day i was born...why do people feel the need to relax their children's hair?? i just think it feeds the social standard that black women need to have straight hair to be pretty and accepted, as if there were something wrong with wearing your hair the way it grows out of your head?? jmo...

Because it is their choice, like your mom's choice. To each their own their decisions didn't hurt or interfere with my life so who am I to judge.

 

[EllePixie]

Because it is their choice, like your mom's choice. To each their own their decisions didn't hurt or interfere with my life so who and I to judge.

+1 My mom did mine because she didn't know how to do my hair...it wasn't that she thought I wouldn't be pretty without a relaxer. I wish she hadn't done it but she never taught me that my natural hair was ugly or unacceptable throughout my life...

 

[JJamiah]

I asked my mom cuz I don't remember. She said 4. It was Just For Meeeeeee.

I see alot of you are saying you got your hair relaxed when you were older (teen/young adult) against your parents wishes/sneaking it, etc. I know alot of people on this board have said that their children won't ever have a relaxer 'as long as they're under my roof and when they're an adult they can do as they please'. Then they go on to say that they'll do everything they can to keep they're child from getting a realxer by setting an example/praising natural hair.

Was this you? Did your parents set an example of glorifying (or whatever) natural hair but you still wanted to get one anyway?

I ask this because I know people who this happened to (yes, it's a great tragedy ). Mom was natural/set the example/always had great hairstyles&care=adult child relaxed. It must be hard to be the ONLY example for your child I hope this doesn't happen to my future DD's

But.... I guess I'm glad that my mom relaxed my hair when I was lil. I don't think I would have enjoyed being 'different'. Of course I regret it now (I'm transitioning) though.

Sorry for the long post

Both of my parents were natural my mom is 100% Puerto Rican and My dad is Black. My dad didn't want me to get a relaxer and I did Sneak it I have been natural since then by choice, and I am now relaxed again by choice

 

[loved]

Around 13. I can still remember what I was wearing & how my hair looked.
My mom relented and sent me to her "old lady" hairdresser. The stylist put healthy hair practices above appearance & I hated that. I wanted to be bone straight & fly like my friends. She used cold water to close my cuticles, a cool blow dryer & a low heat curling iron. She tried to explain to me why she was doing those things but I wasn't hearing it.

Live & learn.

I'm dealing with my natural texture for the 1st time in my life. Before I relaxed for the first time my hair had been the domain of my mom & my aunties.

 

[MystiqueBabe]

I had my first real relaxer at 16. By "real relaxer" meaning bone straight, I was texlaxed once and was natural until 16.

 

[Chioniso]

I was 16. I had thick shoulder length natural hair and I thought if I relaxed it I would be like a movie star with long silky hair. Instead, it was the beginning of the end because I did not know how to look after it.

 

[caribeandiva]

I was 12. I had to beg my mom to do it since she was a natural her whole life. So we started relaxing our hair at the same time.

 

[amwcah]

I was 17 yrs old. I didn't know how I was going to care for my hair while in college so I got a relaxer.

 

[Lissa0821]

At age 12, when I started junior high school.

 

[PJaye]

I was 17 yrs old. I didn't know how I was going to care for my hair while in college so I got a relaxer.

Me, too. It was done at age 18 because I was going off to college and knew that there wouldn’t be a stove available for me to continue straightening my hair with a hot comb (and I didn’t trust the electric ones).

She used Soft & Beautiful No-Lye and was only able to apply it to the two back quarters of my hair before I demanded that it be washed out. It took a lot of energy and creativity to blend the relaxed half of my hair with the rest of it to create a decent style.

 

[Aviah]

9 years old...

 

[lamaria211]

13 yrs old. My mom is a world A class braider

 

[ATLcutey20]

I was 11 yrs old. I got a Just For Me relaxer for my 6th grade graduation. My hair was very under processed so I just wore a bun on top my head.

 

[TheNDofUO]

I first relaxed about 11 I thinly.

I used to cry so much from the detangling process that straight hair was welcome for me.

I don't think I lost too much length being relaxed. While I did go from APL to SL I grew taller and so those measurements don't really apply.

My hair did suffer in quality. It was relaxed but it was bushy, tangly and hard to control without heat and my mum didn't let me use heat except for a special occasion. My hair looked more like natural hair blown out.

I think those issues are not because of the relaxer, there are because of: no neutraliser, no protein treatment, improper combing, rare conditioning. My mum somehow managed to maintain her hair at APL and BSL doing those things but not me. I used to keep my hair in braids and weaves anyway

Relaxer were only for detangling. I always wished I could have that swang though

 

[sweetypoo705]

On my 14th b-day at the Jcpenny Salon! I was going to the 9th grade- high school.

Sent from my iPad using LHCF

 

[HighAspirations]

I was like five ....

 

[HighAspirations]

I was 4. Too, too young . Now I know better, I stopped relaxing last year at 17, and am currently transitioning to natural

This seems to be a popular age for transitioning. I'm turning seventeen in two weeks and I bc'd two weeks ago. And my friend BC a week before me and turned 17 in January

 

[LivingInPeace]

I think I was in the fourth grade.(don't know what age that is)(and it was a loooooooong time ago). Anywho, my cousin recently reminded me of how I begged my mother to let me have a relaxer and how reluctant she was. I thought I could grow my hair really long just by having it. Of course I didn't take care of it and my hair broke off and got thinner through the years. But I wanted to be like all the other girls. I've been completely natural for about a year and I love it!

 

[jazzybklyn]

12...I used gentle treatment for years but it used to burn my scalp. It would look good though... My hair was the longest in my class and my friends were like " omg your hair is so long an nice" (petting me) lol I didn't really care about long hair at the time

 

[shasha8685]

12 years and 8 months...mom took me to a salon. That chick took one look at my hair and used a super strength relaxer on my virgin hair. It wasn't even on a good 5 min before it started to burn.Then the chick tried to make me sit through the burning.

Yeah my hair came out straight all right....then broke off. My mom was not pleased....

 

[thehappyserver]

I had my first relaxer when I was about 8 or 9. When I was one years old, I was adopted into an all Italian family. My mother tried really hard to take care of my hair but she didn't have a clue. She would take me to her hair stylist, who eventually suggested trying a relaxer to make my hair more manageable. At the time I was all for it, I was willing to try anything to put an end to the marathon detangling sessions every week!

 

[Kn0ttyByNatur3]

I was like 14. My dad took me to get it done one day during the summer behind my mom's back.


She was so pi$$ed.

 

[Honi]

I was my daughters age...9. The relaxer I got was called French Perm. I don't even think you can find it anymore

 

[irisak]

I was 13 and my parents had told me I couldn't have one all my life. I hated that my hair curled and everyone else around me had silky hair that stayed straight. Now that I look at others with the texture that I used to have I wish I had never relaxed but at the same time I am relaxer dependent and can't imagine having to fuss with that shock of wild curly hair every morning.

 

[BostonMaria]

I was 10 when I got my first relaxer. After 26 years of chewed up, see through, thin SL hair I transitioned and BC'd at 36 years old.

 

[chelleyrock]

I think I was 6 years old.

 

[LiftedUp]

14

I begged and begged and begged. I havent regretted it since.