So a few days ago I did something really dumb! This can be a common factor in my life because, I tend to be carefree at times. Anywho I picked up some nair and applied it to my underarm area and I'm wandering around my room and completely forgot that it was still on. You would think I would feel the mush between my underarm but I didn't lol. I didn't feel anything until I thought my tank top was causing some kind of discomfort, so I lifted up my arm and I was like OH CRAP only Misa!!! So I immediately started to rinse it off, and it was burning really bad, and up until now it still burns. It left a reddish mark under both of my armpits #ewwww but one is worst than the other. You can see that it was beginning to strip layers of my skin and, could have caused more damage if left on even longer...YIKESSS! Does this sound familiar? It does to me; when I use to get relaxers it was left on too long it burned and left scabs on my head! So I decided to check out the ingredients on the Nair I purchased and noticed two familiar ones potassium thioglycolate and sodium hydroxide. I am more familiar with the word THIO also know as thiogylcolate, because its also in perms (the products used to make hair wavy or curly) however, I am more aware of the ingredient ammonium thioglycolate. Ammonium thioglycolate is the active ingredient to allow the product to break down the disulfide bonds of the hair, which is also done with a relaxer but with sodium hydroxide. Although, the two are very similar; the relaxers ingredients make it more alkalined bringing the PH level between 12-14 and the perm Ph level to about 9. I can't emphasize enough how important it is to be careful of who you allow to perform these chemical services and how it is being done. Make sure if you continue to apply these chemicals to treat your hair well and bring the Ph back to its neutral state between 4.5-5.5. So besides my armpits being on fire lol I am glad that It happened, because it inspired me to write this post. Please don't take this as an attack but to inform the community to be careful of chemical applications.
I just realized today sodium hydroxide was an ingredient in nair. I was actually going to use an activated charcoal and coconut oil mixture to try and avoid the burning from the chemicals I experienced way after it had been removed the last time I tried to use it. I was shocked to see SH and after the 10 minute max I wiped it with a warm rag and applied neutralizing shampoo. As expected it turned pink to alert me the chemical was present! I repeated until the lather was white. No wonder my skin was burning and sore last time, I had perm sitting on my skin un-neutralized eating away at it! It also opened me eyes to relaxers being nair. I currently have a relaxer and had some damage due to over processing....perms stay on the hair for as long as 20 minutes where nair hits the max at 10 minutes to REMOVE hair....I understand the different concentrations in the formulas but no wonder some people end up with scabs...
ReplyDeletefascinating. this was helpful in researching nair/relaxer burns for my next film. Thanks for this!
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