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?
40 Responses
I realax my edges about 2x a year. I work out hard 5x a week but SWEAT in my head ALOT..Live in Texas and I was spending TONS of wasted money on edge tamers, gels, bees wax that didn’t work! The ol’ head scarf all night and on top of that I then opted to flat ironing my edges which made my hair fallout faaar worse than my 2x a year “edgeup!” So hay do what works for you, your workout routine and lifestyle! ?
SMH….sure, people can do what they want, blah blah–of course. But these are the same chicks crying when their edges go on strike permanently, lol. Personally I’ve never gotten the whole “laid edges” obsession among black folks. As a proud, undefined 4C who never had “baby hair” even as a baby, lol–I’ve never given my edges/hairline any thought past lightly brushing them back in the morning into whatever style–and kept it moving. Not all this “gel/toothbrush” f**kery. As usual, folks stay finding ways to do too much, LOL!
Stay safe though, thats the worst place to get relaxer scabs.
I don’t understand why folks would do this. What is the point of being natural if you’re still relaxing your hair?
When I was younger yep I did this. It was great until you got it too far back then you had one piece of straight hair when you wore it curly, then I had to deal with horrible breakage and constantly short edges. It’s not worth it
Whatever happened to just AVG (or something heavier) and a scarf?
Eh. Do you. I’ll pass. I know what it’s like to have to regrow edges and I don’t plan on going through that again.
I used 2 texlax…bc iwanted the layed edges look but istopped about 4yrs ago. Istarted 2research and found what really works for my hair. Ive found that a good hair care routine, well oiled hair in addition 2some edge control, water, gel and a head scarf lay my all natural edges just fine
I use to relax my leave out when I wore weaves. My hair grew everywhere except the leave out. 4 yrs later I do t relax my hair or wear weaves… te each her own
Hmmmm…old school styling..if you are natural…and want to stay natural with edges you are comfortable with…find the right product and lay them down with a scarf..otherwise..you’re doing more damage for a short term reward worth nothing close to a full head of natural hair front to back.
It is my belief that a lot of people are not only relaxing their edges but also texturing and saying they are natural and are just hiding it. I think it is good that this young lady was open and honest about it.
When I was growing up, very few people had “baby hairs”. You had to have a certain grade of hair. Now, almost everyone has them? I’m not buying it.
Next black “naturals” will be relaxing their ends to combat shrinkage. Oh no, I just gave them ideas.
It makes me sad that it has come to this. The natural hair has become totally different than the reason it started. This along with the constant worship of loosely curled hair is all so disappointing.
I have never heard of a person that is natural to perm their edges. When I started perking my hair that’s when my edges thinned out and now I’m back natural and my hair is more healthier than ever and I’m still trying to thicken up my edges and I have 3c hair type
People can do what they want with their heads.
This is fascinating! It’s interesting to me because I have no edges- no wispy baby hairs to style and I’m fine with that. Also this negative spin on beadies- I say brush some gel through them or let them be the cute coils that they are.
Your hair is beautiful relaxed edges and all girl!
I’m not sure how this plays out in the long run. Don’t the edges grow out? And as they get longer, don’t they still have a different texture from the rest of the hair? Or does all this “slayage” result in “breakage” of the edges?
Where y’all been? This has been my life lol. When I was little I had no say on the matter my mom relaxed my hair because it was unmanageable for her. I’ve always had a lot of long thick hair. If she didn’t relax the whole thing it was always my edges.
Now even as a young woman, I’ve gone about 3 or 4 years natural but I recently did my edges for the first time. I usually wear my hair in weaves because.. even though it’s as long as a 22″ weave it’s still hard to manage but i didn’t want to wear a lace front. I did notice though that straight edges is a hange up for my family though and less so for me when that relaxer started to wear off. Edge control only does so much. I don’t mind it but they do. I think you should do whatever makes you feel confident. Of course I admire the naturals with the baby hair but that’s not me and I know that.
This reminds me of texture discrimination and the video Jouelzy did about it and the backlash she received. It’s a real thing! We praise looser curl types so much we are willing to risk all kinds of damage to have “laid edges”. My extremely kinky hair cannot do that! Even I have a ways to go to accept what I’ve got but I know I’d never do that!
Exactly! Our hair naturally is never meant to be laid down.
I say do you. Your natural hair journey is your journey. Don’t allow others to set the pathway for you. Or make you feel less than. Seriously everyone has an opinion today about what other people do and now with social media we have the platforms to make it known, even when we shouldn’t. Do you and be happy!
What would the world be like if people didn’t have opinions? We wouldn’t learn anything. As long as you can give an opinion in a civil manner without tearing anyone down I don’t see what the problem is. Some people are going to be for what she does with her and some against, others will be indifferent. The lady in the second video gave a valid reason without being personal as to why it’s a bad idea to relax your edges. You can take or leave her advice. No one is forcing anything onto anyone.
Isn’t that an oxymoron? The point of natural hair journey is to stop chemically treating your hair.
So interesting. I guess the real question is do you feel the need to relax your edges because you see it as the status quo? Or is it simply a way to accessorize? Are you looking to streamline your appearance because you struggle to embrace feeling more confident as a woman with naturally tightly coiled edges? While I understand it is a personal choice and a personal preference I do caution those who relax there edges because they are ashamed of the hair that God has naturally given them to take pause. There’s nothing wrong with tightly coiled edges. There’s nothing wrong with smooth edges. We should all be proud of who we are and how God made us we should also be careful to condemn others who may choose to alter their natural hairs appearance to making them feel less than. But rather encourage and embrace others in love and light. Helping everyone to understand while as long as its done safely there is nothing inately wrong with smoothing your edges as long as you can embrace and appreciate the natural hair you have around your edges smooth or not.
Sidebar: Interestingly enough I personally sometimes try to enhance the individuality of my natural tightly coiled 4C edges by letting my hair roll up into little balls I think it’s rather cute letting my kinky texture can shine in all it’s glory! Nothing wrong with that either 🙂
Excellent point!! Well said…
I told y’all this obsession with laid edges and loosely curled hair lines would get out of hand. I said it, but I got dismissed. I said we need to stop getting our panties in a twist and fan-girling every time we see a girl with loosely curled hair and laid shiny edges on instagram and being all like “yasssss SLAY hunty you got laid edges you go girl!” But I got called a hater. I told y’all we need to stop complaining every time we see a natural girl who has the AUDACITY to do an updo without laying her edges. And now look, those of us with kinky edges that don’t lay with gel are being driven to perm and texturize them because we want the “look” that gets praised. I said it.
Oh my God girl. You stated that! Yas!
I havent done this as an adult but as a child this was my routine. Of course I had no say so over but this was my experience. I never had what seems to be a common experience of sitting in your kitchen or someone elses kitchen getting a press with burned ears lol .. No one in my family every touched my hair with anything except grease and water. My first experience and thus after until I was in highschool was going to my grandma’s salon and getting my edges relaxed and my hair pressed. Again I was a child so I dont know how my hair was actually doing health wise but growing up I had abundant edges and hair. Matter of fact this is one of the reasons this was my only childhood hair experience. No one wanted to do my hair ever. Not my grandmas, my mama wasnt around till i was 8 or so and she really didnt. All i heard was too thick, too much, dont know what to do, slap some water and grease and put it in some ponytails. Coincidentally when I started living with my mother when I was 8, that was when this experience started. I can only assume my mother wouldnt do anything with my hair and no longer living with my grandma but her living very close I guess she thought the best solution was for me to just go to the salon with her. By the time I was starting highschool I guess my mother became more aware of what was happening to my hair (again still abundant) (sidenote: my mother was like obsessed with my hair, she wouldnt let me cut it style it or anything. It was either down or in a ponytail. I never did my own hair how i wanted until i moved to college out of state.) anyway i guess she decided no more relaxed edges and i started just getting my hair pressed only
I just learned about this last year. I’d never do it personally since I like a kinky hair line. I kind of find it odd, but people do what they want I guess.
Everyone has a hair journey. I feel her pain. I have never done this. However, I live in NC where it could be hot and humid still in December. I have tried all types of edge control. But in the weather I often find my self looking sweaty by the time I get inside. The product has started to melt. Well I had to decide. I often opt for styles that allow less attention on my edges. I am in the process of growing my edges back due to years of tight cornrows and braids. I am using the ORS temple balm. I noticed the longer edges get the easier it’s to tame.
No, I never heard if it until today. At this stage of the game, for me, most women should do what’s best for them.
I like this thought… do you?
I REALLY do, Lisa…..it’s like fried chicken, you DON’T have to get it all the time. If you are going for a sleek look ok, lay the edges down if not, DON’T ….it’s cool EITHER way. What are your thoughts?
Oh lord. NO S***T! I just knew the entire comment section was gonna state the obvious ” you can do what you want” and be parrots about it.
It’s just a discussion! I hate it when people think they’re being profound by stating the obvious. Nobody said it wasn’t their hair. Nobody said they weren’t grown. Nobody said they couldn’t do what’s best for them.
We’re aware of that.
I saw a video of this and I thouvht it was quite strange, my haircare background has never included extensions, weaves, wigs or relaxers so I had no idea that this was so prevalent. What I would ask is whether there is something more the natural community could do to encourage a more positive self- image? Ideas I mean since I don’t know personally whether I haven’t felt this personally because I’m ignorant or that there’s something else I’m missing.
While there’s nothing wrong with some baby hairs 😉 , sometimes I feel that even though some folks wanna be down with the “natural club” they still have some hang-ups about their hair being “slick” and “presentable”. I wanna be clear I’m not condemning styling your hair or it being presentable but when your natural, your gonna have some kinks, that’s just the way it is. Relaxing your edges just seems like overkill.
Totally agree! I like the article they had awhile back about NOT sleek edges. …layed or NOT…love your natural hair including your edges!
It really is. I know a lot of people with 4c hair and they don’t relax their edges.
I wholeheartedly agree. My edges are natural.
So true !