Calling all naturalistas: Do you have urgent tress questions? If so, you’re in luck. Every Thursday, top natural hair stylists and bloggers will be solving your curly hair conundrums!
This week, Miss Jessie’s Salon and haircare founders, Titi and Miko, explain what a texturizer really does to your natural tresses.
READER QUESTION
“I have natural hair but my stylist keeps trying to give me a texturizer. What is it and what will it do to virgin natural hair that has never been permed?” – Iron Flower Zee
TITI & MIKO’S ANSWER
Quite simply, a texturizer (sometimes referred to as a mild relaxer) is a chemical-based product that is intended to be quickly applied and washed out. Historically, for anything other than a short barber cut, the common purpose of a texturizer was to mildly relax hair so that it would have more volume when worn straight. A texturizer differs from a full-out relaxer, which strips the hair of all natural kink or curl.
Be careful. A texturizer will permanently alter the texture of your hair. Don’t be fooled by some stylists who wrongly insist that by simply limiting the amount of time that a texturizer is left in your hair that your hair won’t become straight – only loosened. To be clear, texturizers are designed to mildly straighten or relax hair. If your stylist is using a texturizer for any other purpose, then your stylist is misleading you and misusing the texturizer. Period.
At Miss Jessie’s Salon, we don’t texturize hair. Instead, we work to re-define and stretch out hair by transforming a kink to a curl or a curl to a wave. We achieve these desired results with our Silkener® process — a chemical-based treatment that, unlike a texturizer or relaxer, is designed to stretch out (not mildly straighten) kinks and curls.
An added benefit of the Silkener® process is that you have two styling options. You can wear your hair straight with more volume or just plain curly – options you don’t have when you texturize your hair.
In short, if you want to “straight style” your hair, then a texturizer is one solution. If, however, you are hoping to make your natural hair more manageable or to re-define your curls, kinks and waves, then a texturizer might only disappoint you.