It is vital to the health of your hair to seek a professional to relax your hair. And even though relaxed hair can be healthy and beautiful if taken care of properly, it does have it's challenges. It requires time, money, and effort to achieve and maintain your hair's health. It's never advisable to relax your own hair or have a non-professional to relax your hair.
Relaxers can take a toll on hair causing hair loss if a person is on medication (high blood pressure, birth control, diabetes, thyroid, etc), hormonal (menopausal), have sudden illness, sudden weight loss, surgeries and anesthesia, and vitamin deficiencies. A professional should be skilled enough to let you know when you are no longer a candidate for relaxed hair.
Here's a few tips to achieving and maintaining healthy relaxed hair:
It's best to have relaxed every 6-12 weeks depending on hair texture.
It should trimmed after every relaxer.
It requires shampooing and conditioning every 1-2 weeks depending on activity and lifestyle.
Heating tools like flat irons and curling irons should be used on clean hair only and limited to 1-2 times a week.
A Protein/Deep conditioning is needed once a month.
Hair should be wrapped gently before bedtime to prevent hair loss.
Hair should be moisturized with a light cream or light oil as needed to prevent dryness and breakage.
Hair shouldn't be relaxed if shampooed within 24 hours, or if your scalp is unhealthy or irritated.
Hair shouldn't be relaxed if on menstrual as it may cause burning or relaxer may not take as well.
Hair vitamins promote growth from within. They're also great if you don't eat a balanced diet or are experiencing hair breakage.
Beware of tight, pulling hair styles as they can cause hair loss---braids, weaves and ponytails.