NATURALS RELAXING AND TEXLAXING THEIR EDGES IS A THING I JUST FOUND OUT ABOUT by PORTIA •

Sleek edges and baby hair will probably never go out of style, and why should they? It’s a part of black culture and sometimes a laid hairline
completes a look. The majority of us have probably tried to lay down our edges for dear life at one point or another. We’ve also searched high and low, near and far for that holy grail product that would lay our edges to rest. Some have mastered it, some are still trying, and some have taken it to the next level.

One night while browsing Instagram I saw a clip of a young lady giving a tutorial on how to relax your edges while keeping the rest of your hair natural. Say what? I had to look twice because I had no idea that this was something that people did. Her tutorial wasn’t the best, but it piqued my interest. I then looked up other tutorials on YouTube and realized that relaxing your hair line while natural was a thing – a big thing.
There are so many reasons why women are relaxing their edges, but this vlog by YouTuber, Jai Marii, really stood out to me. She’s been natural for three years and decided to relax her edges in 2014 for her wedding day. She didn’t relax them again until last year, but she’s gotten a lot of criticism for doing it at all. Her reasons are simple: she wanted to feel more confident with her appearance after major life transitions, her edges wouldn’t behave, and she needed a change.

Like Jai Marii, other naturals are relaxing or texalaxing their hairlines for the same reasons. They would also rather relax their hairlines for the laid look they crave, than to flat iron their hair lines every day, which could be even more damaging than a relaxer. Jai Marii stated that she applies the relaxer to her hair line like she would gel, then rinses it out after 2 to 3 minutes.
The process sounds easy enough, but this licensed cosmetologist on the YouTube channel Amelia Salon, is skeptical that relaxer is only being applied to the hair line and then rinsed out. She’s also afraid that women are applying the relaxer wrong. According to her, you shouldn’t rub or put relaxer on your skin at all and everyone knows that  your hair line is practically on your skin. She further stated that applying relaxer solely on your edges can cause traction alopecia and chemical damage.

Have you tried relaxing or texlaxing your edges? What was your experience?