Transitioning one's hair while expecting is a dilemma that so many black women face. For many of us, it's not even a question of whether or not we will continue to relax our hair when pregnant. Going natural while pregnant is one of the best things you can do for your scalp, you hair, and for your unborn baby's health.
Pregnancy is a time when many women are open to embracing a healthy diet and lifestyle, to protect and nurture their unborn baby while minimizing exposure to toxins. One of the most common fears women that pregnant women face is the fear of exposing their baby to harmful chemicals and toxic substances. Unfortunately our beauty and hair care products contain a fair amount of these toxic ingredients, particularly our hair-straightening products.
Hair relaxers contain a cocktail of harsh chemicals that can be absorbed through the skin of your vulnerable scalp, so for your sake and baby's, it's best to err on the side of caution and whip your hair back and forth au natural throughout your pregnancy. Yes, different kinds of relaxers exist, but they all contain strong toxic substances, don't get it twisted, "no-lye" doesn't mean no chemicals. The hair absorbs chemicals but the scalp passes them into the blood stream. What passes into the bloodstream can potentially pass through the blood-placental barrier to your baby. There has not been any conclusive research on the effects of repeat chemical exposure of this nature to mother and fetus, but just assume you're better off without the perm.
During pregnancy, the blood volume increases to protect and nourish the baby. As a result of increased blood flow, pregnant women can become ultra sensitive to chemicals. Some women start feeling nauseous and experience headaches directly after using these hair treatments. Some doctors as well as hair stylists discourage use of relaxers because they may not be effective on the hair during pregnancy. When a woman becomes pregnant often times the texture of the hair changes causing it to react differently to the chemicals, so it may not turn out straight after all.
Sodium Hydroxide is a dangerous chemical used in many chemical relaxers and it yields long lasting effects. This is the found in drain cleaners- so it's clearly a potent and highly reactive substance. It's referred to as "lye" relaxer. The strength varies from a ph factor of 10 to 14, (our hair is around ph 4.5 when wet) With higher ph, the faster the straightening solution will take hold, but the more potential the damage- it forms an exothermic solution with water which means it heats up and can burn through anything in its path...and we willingly sign up for this. As if that's not enough some of these products contain formaldehyde, petroleum and coal tar! It's no wonder that these ingredients cause hormonal disruption and other problems.
One of the amazing benefits of pregnancy is that many women experience an abundance of hair growth. The hormones secreted during pregnancy boost your hair growth and make it stronger, healthier, and shiny. Why not ride the wave and let your hair be chemical free.
Here are my top 5 products for natural hair care that are safe for both mom and baby and will keep your tresses looking easy, breezy, and bountiful:
Try these products to maintain your hair naturally during pregnancy and beyond.
Latham Thomas, founder of Mama Glow & author of forthcoming book, Mama Glow: A Hip Guide to Your Fabulous Abundant Pregnancy
Follow Latham Thomas on Twitter: www.twitter.com/@GlowMaven
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I have relaxed hair and I am sorry but if you maintain an excellent hair routine (which so many black women did not) then you are likely to not have all the problems that so many women had with a perm but most of it was due to hair neglect. Natural may be better, but the chemicals have had no major impact on my hair because I always did the type of hair routine most naturals are doing now. I made most of my own natural products and used high quality natural hair care products. If you are natural fine, but stop trying to denegrate ladies who still relax their hair as you did it yourself for a long time and it's not my fault you did not take care of your hair...you just did not know and education is power !!
I'm only saying, be wary of this article or any other efforts by whomever to control and manipulate your thoughts and actions based on their cultural beliefs. Even partial truths are no different than a full fledged lie when used to influence thoughts in a particular direction.
What other people you know as a rite of passage must try to make themselves look like another people? Don't you see the subtle and insidious nature of that to your self esteem? We do not even do that to dogs. Have you ever seen a Standard Poodle owner relaxing its curly hair so it will look long and silky like an Afghan Hound's fur? Yet we consider both dog's fur BEAUTIFUL. We consider them beautiful in their OWN breed. And consider them to be equally dogs.
Do you realize that we have never even gave ourselves the chance to be beautiful and show the world we are beautiful in OUR OWN RIGHT and they think we are only beautiful when we have Caucasian hair.
We are all equally human. We just have different breed characteristics. Embrace yours and you will discover pride, dignity, freedom and respect for your real beauty.
Black women and their hair is one of the touchiest subjects around. It can bring up all kinds of reponses and spiral into every single direction. Most of us never saw ourselves as beautiful and/or grown up until we got our hair relaxed. That was when you got, "Aww, you look so beautiful, so grown up. Your hair is so beautiful!" and hearing that as a girl, along with all the images you see in the media, it sinks down deep in your psyche.