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?