Hair relaxing is mainly Afro thing, which over the years has evolved as the method of choice by other cultures to release natural curls and kinks. The methods and product formulas vary, but the end results are basically all the same.
The research shows that the hair relaxing began in Africa long before slavery in the United States of America. There were no chemicals involved. It was done with mud and clay, using the shear weight of the mud or clay to straighten the hair until rinsed out. This was generally performed as part of a ceremony or other special occasions. It was also used as a way to distinguish one tribe from another. The French also straightened hair by doing the similar thing with heavy petrolatum until the invention of the first flat and curling iron by the French inventor Marcel.
In America, it was during the time of slavery that chemical hair relaxing began. No one has the credit for the invention of hair relaxing. It evolved over the time. Chemical hair relaxing began with the old fashion LYE SOAP that was used primarily to wash clothes. It was made from lard with crystallised lye added, blended by heating and stirring, and then cut into cakes when cool. This formula was ideal at the time for getting ground in dirt and grease out of work clothes. By coincidence, the slaves tried washing heavy grime from their hair with the lye soap and discovered that it left the hair straighter than before.
They then found that by combining the suds through the hair that this further enhanced the straightening. The problem was that they had no knowledge of neutralisation. Therefore the results were sometimes disastrous. The hair would turn red, fall out, and scalp sores developed. Later they accidentally found that by rinsing the hair with lemon juice or vinegar greatly reduced these side effects (neutralising). Later mash potatoes replaced the lard as the relaxer base ingredient.
It was not until the mid 1940s that a commercially manufactured relaxer was marketed. Lard and mash potatoes were replaced with petrolatum and emulsifiers for a smoother application. It was used mainly in African American barber shops and was nick named THE KONK because the trade name of the products was KING KONK-KO-LINE. It was also known as THE DO or PROCESS. African American celebrities of the time were the catalyst that gave rise to its recognition and popularity. The neutralising ingredients were added to a shampoo and a black rinse was added to the system to overcome a red condition caused by the active ingredient in the relaxer, lifting natural colour from the hair. A pretreatment petrolatum (base oil) was added to reduce scalp burning since that time.
Hair relaxing has evolved and is now more popular in beauty salons then in barber shops. The reason that is started commercially in barber shops was because men wore their hair shorter and was in better condition to accept the harsh chemicals. The hair of African American women was more likely to become damaged by relaxers because they were pressing and curling their hair, and the longer it was the weaker it was from the constant heat treatment usually done every two weeks or less.
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