hair relaxers; overall results with virgin or bleached hair?

I've never used dark & lovely, but I have used the Scott Cornwall brand of chemical hair straightener (same brand as colour b4) over previously bleached hair, and it came out fine.  The Scott cornwall brand does a variation for bleached hair which is gentler, and to be honest, it's a bit of a faff, but it does work, and it didn't noticeably damage my hair.  But, to be fair, I did wait quite a while between bleaching and straightening (about 6 weeks I think), and I did reconstruct afterwards with K-pak.

oooooh .. that's reassuring >.> a variation specifically for bleached hair? i hadn't realised there'd be such a thing, its very good to know, thank you! i'll probably look into that instead of the dark and lovely, as while they had a type for sensitive scalps the scott cornwall stuff is made with bleach in mind.

in your opinion, was the relaxer permanent and you needed to apply touch ups to new growth, or does it become less effective as the weeks go on? did humidity or rain/wind frazzle everything or did it appear to be unaffected for the most part? thank you!

For me, it was permanent, with the only touch ups required on new root growth.  It's a straightener that is designed to restructure the keratin alignment in your hair, so it should last through all wind/rain/humidity/etc.  It states 'lasts up to 3 months' on the box, but it also states that this is due to root regrowth needing straightening.  The variation you'd want is the 'extra conditioning' formula, which it states is suitable for hair that has had more than 60% (I think) of it bleached or highlighted.  My hair is almost afro curly naturally, and super thick, and I used this just on my fringe because I hate it that I straighten it with irons, but as soon as it gets wet, it goes straight back to curly.  I wouldn't say that it'll give you poker straight hair, if your hair is as curly as mine, you'll probably end up with a light wave, but for me on my fringe, it cuts down dramatically on the blow drying straight and then straightening with irons time, and ensures that the straightened bits stay straight no matter what the weather!  It's more expensive than the £4 you've said the dark & lovely costs (I think it's about £12), but as I'm only using it on my fringe when the regrowth comes in, it's lasting me ages, and it's a really good quality, so worth it to me!

oh gosh, if there's a bit of drizzle and a slight breeze (especially during the summer) my bangs end up looking like dark wads of cotton wool superglued to my forehead ;_; it really is annoying going through all that effort to have it undone in seconds! living up in scotland means every second day is full of rain, with only a little exaggeration. i've taken to wearing my hair slicked back underneath a bandanna on my way to work, but then i kind of have to deal with a straight fringe sticking up dragon ball z style for a time after, until it calms down.

and yeah, that is more expensive but if i had to choose between risking the cheaper product melting my hair to my scalp, and taking a pretested yet more expensive formula, i'd definitely go the more expensive route! no contest there XD the quality and longevity of it is very exciting i have to admit, it sounds like a miracle in a bottle, no lie!

Fascinating. I've never thought about only using it on my fringe because i have grown to love my curly/wavy hair. I used boots own hair straightener brand on my ex a few years ago and it didn't do a noticibly great job and it was a farce to mess around with.

Mindi, does the one box just last you ages as you use it and store it in small amounts?

I bought one box about three months ago, and have so far only used it the once (I'm due a retouch on the roots any day now), and only used about 1/6th of what was in there just using it on my fringe.  Since you don't actually have to mix any of the chemicals (it's all in separate resealable bottles), it's fine to just store what you haven't used in the box until next time.  I anticipate that my one lonely box will probably last me at least a year since I'm only using a little bit at a time, so even though it's more expensive, for me it's definitely cost effective!

Wow, I had no idea that there were such things 😀 I had a mad cowlink in my fringe area and it drives me mad even though I don't have a fringe. Cool!

One thing to beware of though is that it does strip colour out of your hair and you can't wash your hair for 72 hours afterwards, so best to time it so that you do the straightening when you're already faded and due a redye.  I do mine when I'm faded with bad roots, do the straightening, wait 72 hours, then do the root bleach and redye.

My fringe is luckily all virgin hair 🙂 so I will definately give this a go once I have some pennies 🙂 thank you

I've used relaxers for years as i have afro/caribbean hair. I've never seen Caucasian hair with relaxers on. as im not sure how much it would help. i'm sure it would help with frizzy hair but with mine i have to straighten it aswell and if it got slightly wet it would poof back out again. I've always read that mixing bleach and relaxer together is a no-no.. as bleach usual strips your hair and takes alot of frizzy out. with mine since iv started bleaching my hair it doesnt straightening as much, and havent relaxed it for years. Using afro relaxer may be to strong for Caucasian hair and make it weak. but im not an expert on Caucasian hair. Soo don't take my word for it lol 🙂