There are a wide array of styles and textures available to today's salon clientele. With so many options, the ability to switch from one look to another has never been more important.
To answer the question--can relaxed hair be stripped?--it is necessary that we first understand the chemistry of the hair, as well as the lanthionization (relaxation) process.
When two or more polypeptides align themselves parallel to each other, and their cysteines (amino acid) combine with each other to form cystine or disulfide bonds across these polypeptides, a keratin fiber is created in the process.
Hair, or keratin according to chemical terminology, is made up of polypeptides. (Polypeptides are made up of amino acids -- the basic unit of protein.) Polypeptides are aligned in a parallel fashion and are cross linked with cystine bonds (also called disulfide bonds). Note that cystine bonds have two sulfur atoms.
When excessively curly hair is chemically straightened with hydroxide-based relaxers, (i.e., sodium, potassium, lithium, and guanidine hydroxide, etc.) approximately one-third of the cystine bonds are changed to lanthionine bonds. The lanthionine bond has only a single sulfur atom; one sulfur atom less than the cystine bond of virgin hair.
