Question

Hydroxide chemical relaxers break disulfide bonds and convert them to _____ bonds.

Answer 1

Hydroxide chemical relaxers convert disulfide bonds in hair to lanthionine bonds, which results in permanently straightened hair until new hair grows out.

Step-by-step explanation:

Hydroxide chemical relaxers break disulfide bonds and convert them to lanthionine bonds. Disulfide bonds are strong covalent bonds that often occur in the tertiary structure of proteins, such as in the keratin of human hair, and dictate whether hair is straight or curly. When hydroxide relaxers are applied to hair, they chemically reduce the disulfide (-S-S-) bonds in keratin to single sulfhydryl (-SH) groups, which when reformed, become lanthionine bonds resulting in straightened hair. This process is used in permanent hair straightening treatments, which only alter the existing hair strands and do not affect new hair growth.

Answer 2

Hydroxide chemical relaxers break disulfide bonds and convert them to lanthionine bonds. These bonds involves a -SH and -OH that forms hydrogen bonding with the reduced disulfide. It is a bond that is weak and is deemed as a transitional state.