I don't know if you guys know much about hair relaxers. Anyhow...My wife has wavy-curly hair. She decided to try ORS no-lye hair relaxer. Most of the brands you buy for home use are no-lye. Though you can get a lye version from a beauty supply store. She tried the no-lye "regular" strength six months back or so and didn't work...followed the instructions to the letter. I helped her apply it so there wasn't too much time elapsed, to try and get even results. But while it appeared straight initially, after a few washes or so it reverted back to it's natural state. How could a product that chemically alters the structure of your hair, permanently, possibly revert at all? Unless it didn't penetrate enough or something to begin with, and just coated the outside of the hair. Then she tried it again a few weeks ago and the same results. She tried leaving it longer than the maximum recommended time labeled. She even tried using a baking soda rinse beforehand, and a deep conditioner...she read online they allegedly increase the hair's porosity thus making it more permeable to products. Do you think a lye version would work better, given the higher PH? I should mention that my wife is white, and most of these relaxer products are marketed toward black women. You'd think if it works on afro-texture hair, much curlier than my wife's, that it would easily work on hers.
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I've read that. Doesn't answer my questions.
It's not surprising that it starts out straight but slowly reverts. That just means the bonds were not permanently broken and neutralized. It was simply being straightened via hydrogen bonding (like when you use a flat iron to straighten hair).
method using a standard conditioner if I were in my teens though! Not that I would have needed it back then with naturally youthful locks… sigh
Old perm kits, according to my research, used the same ingredients they do now. I don't know how it could permanently alter your hair structure. Only a gene mutation could presumably do that.
That's what I meant...I doubt those chemicals, especially in a relatively short amount of time, could permanently do such a thing. They react differently with dead material (hair) than with living organisms (follicles). I'm sure the others here with a background in this field can answer more adequately.
https://patents.google.com/patent/US8413666B2/en
Well, yes, I'm aware of that. But the studies linked above have found other uses for it. It would be capable of denaturing hair keratin.
@ngarayeva001
Me too. With glyoxilyc acid the smell is horrible and the color fade to copperIn my experience, hormonal changes can make your hair curly.