I’m sorry, I don’t normally hate on relaxers, but this commercial warranted the side-eye. As far as I know, there is no relaxer on the face of God’s green earth that will make your hair stronger or stop it from breaking. Really, are you serious? Relaxer that will stop your hair from breaking? Where was that when I was relaxing my hair?
Of course, they talk about how this particular relaxer makes your hair stronger, more manageable, etc.
They had the audacity to say: “When you have healthy hair, you have good looking hair. When your hair looks good, you feel good.” After hearing that — and the actresses extol the virtues of ORS Olive Oil relaxer, I enjoyed the warning at the bottom of the commercial:
WARNING: Contains calcium hydroxide and guanidine carbonate. Follow directions carefully to avoid skin and scalp irritation, hair breakage, and ear or eye injury.
If you have to to warn me about the product potentially causing irritation AND hair breakage — although the woman in the ad just said she gets less breakage and healthier hair thanks to ORS Olive Oil relaxer — there is a problem. You’ll have hair that moves… when it drops out from the chemical burns that happen if you use the product incorrectly… or in my case, if you use it at all. Sigh.
I’m not knocking anyone who relaxes their hair. If you’ve read enough blogs or watched enough You.Tube videos, you know that there are people out there with gorgeous relaxed hair, but they are the exception, not the rule. I see too many woman with their hair in shambles because they have been convinced by advertisements like this that relaxers will give them strong hair that moves and doesn’t break. If that were the case, Black women around the globe who relax their hair would all have relaxed, waist length hair.
And we know that definitely ain’t the case.
Whatever.
The Accidental Natural 
The whole “hair that moves” thing bothers me. Why do people believe that to be a staple of superb hair? The way our hair grows isn’t meant to flow in the wind…and THAT IS OK!
Just before I went natural, I was using ORS relaxers and products, after changing from Motions. For a girl who loved her relaxers, it worked better than all the others I had used prior to it. My hair did feel healthier, and it stayed that way for a while. I also experienced little if any burning.
So, even though I’m not going back to relaxers, using it (in theory) wasn’t bad for me. To cause major problems with it, you would have to have been doing everything wrong. Plus my hair wasn’t porous so it was able to withstand it.
Oddly enough, my hair experienced major breakage in one spot which prompted me to go natural. It just happened again, which led me to shave it off and rock a Caesar. I have a scalp condition which itches, and is painful. Relaxers on top of all that is a death wish. So I don’t regret my decision to remain a natural.
Thanks for hearing the “other side” of the argument.
Thanks for leaving your comment! My issue — and it’s from my own experience relaxing for about 20 years — is that chemicals that change your hair’s structure really can’t make your hair any healthier. It can help your hair take on the appearance of health, but hair will be more apt to breakage with relaxers than without. At least my hair was more prone to breakage 🙂
I just hate these commercials! Just like the commercials for relaxers that have shea butter in them. And relaxers with a scalp condition? I have issues with my scalp as well, so I had to put the relaxer down as well. It is totally a death wish!
Yes, “healthier” hair while breaking it down with chemicals every 4-6 weeks is definitely an oxymoron. That is why I LOVE all of the natural hair blogs for educating sisters on the dangers of relaxing!
The shea butter relaxer commercials, and the argan oil relaxer commercials are really reprehensible. They are using healthy oils used in the natural hair community to make unsuspecting women feel like they’ve done something good for their hair. Deceptive advertising!!
THANK YOU! Seriously, products like this make me agree with their false claims. I hate greenwashing!
Oops! I meant “angry” not “agree”.