When was the chemical relaxer invented

No lye relaxers are commonly associated to dryer hair due to calcium buildup. This can easily be addressed through the use of a clarifying shampoo to remove dull deposits and a deep conditioning treatment to add moisture back to the hair. A Low Lye relaxer has the lowest concentration of sodium hydroxide which is less than 2. It is equally as effective as other Sodium Hydroxide relaxers however much more mild due to the percentage of active ingredient.

The low lye relaxer gently loosens the bonds for increased manageability, while maintaining some level of texture in the hair. Often times Guanidine hydroxide relaxers and calcium hydroxide relaxers are recommended for clients who have a sensitive scalp. Those types of relaxers like Design Essentials Sensitive Scalp relaxer tend to be less irritating to sensitive clients. Why are there different relaxer strengths? The level of hydroxide used in relaxers determines the strength.

For example, super strength contains a higher concentration of sodium hydroxide than a regular strength relaxer. Although the result from a relaxer, irrespective of strength, is straighter more manageable hair, the strength of the relaxer used to achieve the result is very important.

The goal is to avoid hair and scalp damage based on the texture of the hair, so you should only use the highest strength for the most resistant healthy hair. The pH is a measure used to determine the acidity and alkalinity of a substance.

The scale is represented by numbers ranging from 0 to 14 where 7 is neutral. Greater than 7 on the pH scale is more alkaline and less than 7 is more acidic. Based in Tucson, Ariz. Richard has been writing since Regardless of how old we are, we never stop learning. Classroom is the educational resource for people of all ages. Based on the Word Net lexical database for the English Language.

See disclaimer. Explore this article Garret A. Morgan Association. When hair is treated or exposed to these relaxers for 15 to 20 min, primarily one third of the cystine bonds are transformed to lanthionine bonds, along with minor hydrolysis of peptide bonds, although the reaction mechanism is not fully understood.

So far, one possible mechanism has been present by Tolgyesi and Fang in Figure 2. The treatment of hair fibers with relaxer creams for a duration of 15 to 20 min leaves hair fibers considerably damaged, dry and rough in tactile feel. The damaging effects of relaxers are discussed below.

Most relaxer creams are comprised of active ingredients like sodium hydroxide, potassium hydroxide, lithium hydroxide or guanidine two-component system. During the process of relaxing, one-third of the cystine bonds are modified permanently to lanthionine bonds, which decrease the elasticity and tensile strength along with cuticular damage done to the surface of the hair.

The stress-strain curves show the degree of loss of elasticity and tensile strength in Figure 3 due to the treatment of relaxer creams. The damaging effects of hair relaxer creams are not limited to a significant loss in elasticity and tensile strength; they include other damages such as osmotic swelling.

Generally, this swelling is out of control. The hair ruptures and develops cracks both longitudinally and radially as shown in the electron micrograph in Figure 4. Over a period of time, these cracks are further prone to insult by the bristles of the styling brush or teeth of the styling comb. The removal of cuticles is not only seen by SEM micrographs but can also be quantified by using a modified technique of Sandhu et aI, where loss of cuticles is measured as hydrolyzed protein via the Lowry Spectrophotometric Assay.

Other damaging effects of relaxing creams are an increase in hair porosity, a decrease in the moisture content of hair and a rough, tactile feel of hair after the relaxing process. The elimination or alleviation of all the various damaging effects have been the objective of this study. The following techniques are employed to reduce these damaging effects. Here, a relaxer formula containing cationic polyamines of high molecular weight , to 1,, was compared to a control formula without the cationic polyamines.

The formulas are shown in Table 1. Twelve-inch long hair fibers of similar diameter microns were obtained from DeMeo Brothers, New York. Each fiber was then cut in half and crimped into 30mm sections using a crimp press. The hair section closest to the root was designated as the control,and the section downstream was used for the experimental relaxer.

The tensile strength of the treated fibers with control relaxer without cationic polyamine was determined under wet conditions using a tensile tester. The experimental group was treated with relaxer containing cationic polyamine. The tensile strength of these fibers was determined in exactly the same manner as in the control group.

The data for both groups of fibers is shown in Tables 2a and 2b. The swelling studies were done using a laser micrometer that measures the major and minor axis of the fiber simultaneously.

Again, Caucasian hair from DeMeo Brothers was used because of its relative uniformity compared to excessively curly hair, which tends to be highly irregular in its diameter as shown in previous studies by Syed et al. These fibers were then immersed in relaxer for 18 min. After 18 min, excess relaxer was gently removed, and the diameter measured again.

The diameter measurements were continued through the rinsing phase. Figure 5 shows a graph comparing hair fiber swelling in hair relaxer without any de-swelling ingredients vs. Hair fibers treated with the control relaxer without any deswelling ingredients exhibited a swelling of Hair fibers using cream relaxer with starch hydrolysates swelled to Therefore, hair fibers treated with relaxer containing starch hydrolysates and other de-swelling ingredients exhibited significantly less swelling compared to relaxer without de-swelling ingredients.

When cationic polyamines and starch hydrolysates are used together in hair relaxers, they leave hair visibly and measurably healthier. The tensile-strength results of hair treated with relaxer containing these ingredients vs a control without these ingredients are shown in Tables 4a and 4b. Figure 6 shows a scanning electron micrograph of a hair fiber treated with relaxer containing polyamine and hydrogenated starch hydrolysate.

The cuticles lay flat and there are no visible cracks in the upper surface of the hair due to de-swelling. Combing force: An exact amount 6 g of hair relaxer without cationic polyamine was applied to 2 g of hair for 18 min. The tress was next rinsed with water and tested for ease of wet combing using a combing device set at parameters described in Table 5. This tress was then shampooed using 1 ml of non-detangling, neutralizing shampoo and tested again for ease of wet combing using the combing device.

The area under the combing curve was calculated for determining the work done in Joules to comb hair in each ease. The above experiment was repeated for the experimental hair relaxer, which contained 1. The results of this experiment are shown in Table 6. The hair relaxer containing cationic polyamine makes hair combing easy, as evident from the percent decrease in comb work shown in the last column of the Table 6.

If it is chemically damaged, it absorbs more water as compared to healthy, undamaged hair. Many specialists of hair care equate the degree of damage with the magnitude of porosity of hair.

We will now be sending you a daily newsletter on news, entertainment and more. Also join us across all of our other channels - we love to be connected! Authors: Ntianu Obiora. September 16, AM. Hair relaxers: The harsh truth about using them. Recommended articles. Here is the harsh truth about relaxers. Keep reading to find out exactly why we should ditch the relaxers! Who invented relaxers?

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