Hair
is a way to express our individuality. In our generation today girls have
gotten in the trend of sew-ins with unusual hair colors like pink, blue,
purple, and even white. Underneath the sew-in though, more and more girls
have “natural hair.” When I think of natural hair I think of big afros
and boy cuts. While you can have those styles with your natural hair, the
term “natural hair” refers to hair without chemicals.
For the past 6 months I’ve been going back and forth with officially going
natural. I am too scared to start going natural. The closest I’ve
gotten to going natural is cutting down to only getting one to two relaxers a
year. My friends and stylist try to convince me every time I get my hair to go though with the transformation.
I just refuse to do the “big chop” and lose all my hair! Every time I
make that statement my stylist goes on and on about the benefits of going
natural.
My
stylist in the past would stress to me that relaxers damage our scalps more
than we can imagine. Sodium hydroxide
is a chemical that can be found in a relaxer.
Sodium hydroxide can also be found in common drain cleaners. Sodium hydroxide
with a mixture of other chemicals can cause your hair to start thinning and eventually
could even have permanent hair loss.
Another chemical used in relaxers is Potassium hydroxide. Potassium
hydroxide is a chemical where if you inhale it can cause future breathing
problems.
Next time
your scalp burns because a relaxer is left on too long think about the
chemicals. Remember that if chemicals
like sodium hydroxide is strong enough to clean drains it’s strong enough to
damage to your scalp. And if potassium hydroxide
is dangerous by even inhaling then imagine what we can't see that it's doing to our scalp. After knowing all that I still personally rather
take my chance with fate and continue with my relaxers! The choice is yours though.
