Have you ever wonderd why relaxers smell like Nair?

I can remember being about 7 years old sitting in a chair in my mothers kitchen while she mixed the ingredients of the relaxer.  I held the box, and inspected with my young naive eyes, the glory of marketing.  Amongst the pretty colors of the label and the picture of the pretty black girl around my age with long flowing hair, I saw it.  NO - LYE RELAXER. And so I did with any other 7 year old girl would do, I asked questions.  "Ma!" I called, "what do they mean when they say 'no lye?'"  And my mother, my poor, dear, mother didn't even flinch before answering "What? That just means they not lying. Now turn around straight in this chair so I can put this perm in" 
I knew that she was lying, even at the tender age of 7, I knew that she was lying to me.  So I sat there, like a good little girl, and endured the burning, endured the slaps on the hand when I tried to touch.  I endured the "stinky smell" as I stood on the kitchen chair to bend over the sink and wash it out.  I endured the second round of burning from the neutralizer shampoo.  I endured the tender scalp, and finally, I endured the scalp scabs.  I accepted it all as a way of life.  There was no alternatives! THIS, this pain, this is life.  This pain is beauty, and this pain is apart of the duty of being a black girl. 


Have you ever heard of the ingredients  calcium hydroxide and sodium hydroxide?  These are two key ingredients in the product Nair.  These are also 2 key ingredients in most relaxers.  Strange?  Well I think so.  I'm not here to be a scientist so I'm not going to go into details about about how the chemicals react to your hair.  I'll just ask this.... why does a product meant to remove hair and keep it from growing back share key ingredients with a product who's intent is the straighten and promote long, healthy hair?  Can't you see what the relaxers are really doing to you?  I'm going to wrap this post up with my favorite commercial from 1992, when I was just 7 years old.   Enjoy