Hair Disaster
By Seema, age 14, California
I have always had really big curly hair and have been straightening my hair since the sixth grade. Now I am in 10th grade. That's four years of day-after-day slaving over a hot iron just to get decent looking hair. Over this summer I decided I'd had enough. So I went to Long's Drugs and bought hair relaxer. The box promised an anti-breakage system and said it was okay to use on dyed hair.
I had a friend apply the relaxer which smelled awful. We left it in for 30 minutes ... Bad idea. When I went to wash it out, I noticed chunks of my hair disappearing down the drain. I started freaking out and quickly washed out the relaxer. I was really afraid I was going to go bald.
Finally, with all the relaxer out, I decided to brush my hair ... Bad idea #2. I must have brushed out half of my hair. It was really disgusting. I could literally pull out my hair. What had I done? Three weeks before school and I'd decided to go bald! So I rushed to the internet to see what I could do. I really, really didn't want to lose all my hair.
Apparently I shouldn't have relaxed my hair, being so damaged, which was great to know considering I learned this after relaxing it. I found this hair repair called "hair mayo". Yes, it sounds really gross, I know, but it really helped. Every day for one week I left the "hair mayo" in my hair for 45 minutes even though it said five. I also used Dove Extreme Damage, which worked like a miracle for me. Now my hair is barely falling out and it is wavy! I really don't think I will ever relax my hair again unless I go to a salon.
What I learned: Never relax your hair if you have dyed, bleached, or damaged it in any way. And always go to a professional!
The hair mayo treatment is available at: http://www.recipezaar.com/129648
