Sodium hydroxide relaxers are commonly called

• A. Buffered relaxers
• B. No-lye relaxers
• C. Lye relaxers
• D. Ammonia-free relaxers

Answer: (C)

Sodium hydroxide relaxers are commonly called lye relaxers because “lye” is the traditional name for sodium hydroxide, the strong base used as the active ingredient. When the relaxer’s chemistry centers on sodium hydroxide, practitioners refer to it as a lye relaxer. This name distinguishes it from no-lye systems, which use different bases, and from other labeled variants like buffered or ammonia-free products that describe how the formula is made gentler or what additives it includes, rather than the primary active alkali. The key idea is that the descriptor lye directly reflects the chemical doing the work of breaking and reforming bonds in the hair to achieve the relaxed result.