Wednesday 12 February 2014

The other Side of Relaxer-stretching - Under-lapping

We all know the perils of overlapping, so we stretch our relaxers to prevent it. But what about 'under-lapping'? You don't know what that is? Yeah, I just made that up. But on a serious note, what I'm referring to is when you have lots of new growth and don't get to all of it when relaxing, leaving you with a tad bit of curly (natural) hair between your processed parts.

unprocessed bits shown on damp hair

Both times when I stretched for 7/ 8 months, there were parts of my hair, albeit not a lot, that remained natural because I didn't take the relaxer far enough down the strands. This can cause tangling and breakage if extreme care is not taken.

Prevention

On Relaxer Day:
  • Make haste slowly - I think a big reason for not getting all the new growth is that I was hurrying so as not to over-process or get bone-straight results. But we must be careful to ensure that all the new growth is reached by the relaxer with as equal as possible results.
  • On the contrary, being too careful can also hurt. I was trying so hard not to overlap, that I stayed clear of the line of demarcation, resulting in small bits of unprocessed hair along the strand.


Too much New Growth to Handle on Relaxer Day?
You have 2 options where this is concerned:
  1. Don't stretch as long (as I said I stretched for 7 & 8 months when this happened)
  2. Seek help - from either a professional or a trusted accomplice


Cure

If you have this situation going on in your head, you can either; a) do a corrective relaxer or b) decide to live with it.

A corrective relaxer is where you carry out your relaxer as you normally would, but during the last few minutes, you apply some of the product to the under/ unprocessed parts of your hair that you missed during your previous relaxer(s).

On the other hand, you can decide to keep the multiple textures. You must remember though, that where multiple textures exist, so does the possibility of breakage. Think of someone who is transitioning from relaxed to natural. They are most careful about breakage at the line of demarcation (where processed and unprocessed hair meet) since the natural texture is typically much stronger than the processed bits. They fortify with protein and moisture to strengthen and create balance. If you have multiple textures, you must take the same measures to prevent breakage.

Also, as manipulation is a major avenue for breakage, the utmost care must be taken when doing so. This is true at all times, but especially when you have the above situation on your hands... well, on your head.


Have you ever 'under-lapped'? How did you deal?


30 comments :

  1. My last relaxer was a hot mess of "under" lapping. So much so, that I can barely tell the difference in my texlaxed hair and completely un-processed hair. To prevent breakage, I've been focusing on adding a protein conditioner from the line of demarcation down on wash days and keeping things low manipulation.

    Thanks for sharing!

    KLP | SavingOurStrands

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    1. Oh no. Well at least the underlapping was preceeded by texlaxed hair. I think it's so much worse when you go from bone-straight into unprocessed.

      I agree, those two things should definitely prevent breakage.

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  2. This is an eye opener for me. I plan to do my own relaxer touch up. I will definitely be careful now to under-lap.

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    1. Yes ma'am. This issue is a real one! It's best to avoid it altogether.

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  3. This is SUCH a good hair term you made up and great post! Lately I have been getting touched up at the salon whenever I am home but this definitely has happened to me when self relaxing in the past, especially as you said after a long stretch.

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    1. Haha thenx! I can't for the time when I have hands other than mine in my head on touch-up day (for so many reasons)! lol

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  4. OMG I have a funny story. Bare with me - My last stretch was 31 weeks. On my last wash day I just couldnt deal anymore and i knew i HAD to end it. Went to Target got my just for me texturizer, added my castor, hemp and sunflower oil. greased my hair line and scalp and applied. 15 mins later and ABSOLUTELY NO CHANGE IN CURL PATTERN. Hmmm..left it 20 mins max and STILL NO CHANGE. I freaked out and washed it out bc I didn't know WTH kind of damage it was doing to my strands. I reached into the box for the neutralizing shampoo that comes with the kit and low and behold the ACTIVATOR is still in the freaking box. Talk about UNDER-processing!!!!!!!!!!! LMAO still.

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    1. hahaha OMG I would be so maddd! lol what a waste! I wonder if any damage was done and what you need to do or how long you have to wait before your 'next touch-up'. hmmm

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    2. I clarified and did a protein treatment and repeated the process WITH activator the next week. So far so good.

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    3. OK good stuff! I was a lil' worried there for a moment.

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  5. This happened to me after a 1 year stretch! With that amount of new growth, I had seriously underestimated how much growth I had achieved and didn't apply the relaxer far enough down the hair strands. Anyway, I waited until I'd normally relax after "underlapping" which was 20 weeks later. In the meantime, I wore protective styles exclusively and minimized heat usage to only twice in 20 weeks to keep from stressing the additional line of demarcation in the middle of my strands. I attempted to correct by applying relaxer to the unprocessed middle strands during the last few minutes of my relaxer, but this did not correct the problem and the hair was still quite a bit textured. At this point I decided to give up trying to correct it. Its been about 2 years now since the initial "underlapping" but my textures have evened out and I'd say the problem is now solved. With care, I continued to relax my hair every 17 weeks or so (without attempting to further correct), and with time, the relaxer run-off solved the problem without my having to (I didn't protect this section when relaxing, but did protect my ends/more processed sections with grease). So I'd definitely advise that letting the relaxer run-off solve the problem as a viable option for people in this situation. It may take a few relaxer sessions to work, but it's probably safer than trying to correct it.

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    1. I'm glad you were able to fix this issue. I think I am going to let mine gradually straighten as well, with relaxer run-off and not protecting that area. Thanks so much for sharing! Very valuable info.

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  6. I never had this problem but I will keep it in mind :)

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  7. So far I have not noticed this problem, but I would definitely corrective relaxer if I did, the breakage posibility would be too great!

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    1. It's good that you haven't experienced it. Breakage is definitely possible. I haven't decided if I should correct it or not. I just might though. So far I haven't had too much breakage as a result.

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  8. This was the downfall to my hair :((

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    1. Oh no!! What exactly happened??

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    2. I'm so late! The demarcation line in the back couldn't handle the difference.

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    3. Oh no! Sorry to hear. Did you protein treat, moisturize and baby it or did you realize too late? (Asking all dem questions lol sorry! Just curious.)

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    4. Perhaps I could of proteined sooner, but I just don't know. Babied my hair a lot. Guess I thought I had the right protein/moisture balance but I must have been wrong, once I relaxed, it sort of went down hill. But at the same time, only one part of my hair took to the relaxer really poorly. The other sections are healthy and strong. However hair is only as healthy as it's weakest strand though.

      notjustmyhair.blogspot.com

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    5. Thanks for sharing Aku. I will definitely watch this more closely now, having seen the damage that it has been causing with other ladies! Thanks again!

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  9. girl, this is exactly what happened to me last time i relaxed.
    i was so scared of over processing that i missed sections all together.
    black girl pain, i guess.
    :)
    vanessa

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    1. IKR! lol We have to get it perfectly right or else what? BREAKAGE!

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  10. I have had such great results with stretching, but now I have discovered that the problem you discussed in this post has happened to me. I couldn't figure out what was going on until months later after my hair had grown out and I started experiencing breakage mid-shaft. I've enjoyed my relaxed hair, but I am/was a dedicated stretcher. With this issue, I've decided to go ahead and slowly cut my hair and go natural. Thanks for the info.

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    1. I didn't realize that so many people had very serious problems with this issue. I'm so sorry to hear! Best wishes for your natural hair journey!

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  11. Ugh! Abbi, I just relaxed my hair after over 7 months and i definitely have this going on right now. I think I over-protected my hair because I'm still a little slow with texlaxing so i didnt want to over process. I feel like there's a good bit of curls in the back half of my hair. I dont know what I'm going to do. I hope I dont get any breakage. The fear of all this is making me wish that I kept going and transitioned to natural...sigh. Did you ever correct yours?

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    1. Oh no Andrea, the very same thing happened to me. But all is not lost, don't worry too much. I haven't experienced much breakage because of it. The important thing is to baby your hair when detangling or styling to ensure it doesn't break. It can be done. And then next relaxer you can either rerelax those areas or as a lovely reader above pointed out, you can let relaxer run-off correct it over time, which is what I plan to do. I really hope it works out for you and I think it will!

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  12. My hair is breaking off because of this. It goes to straight to curly to my straight ends.

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    1. My hair is like that but I have minimal breakage. Be patient when detangling or styling, it helps a lot.

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