wood ashes? homemade lye?

Lye:The liquid obtained by leaching wood ashes.  From www.dictionary.com

So, does that mean you can go to your fireplace if you have a wood stove and get the ashes? But it only seems to relax a little, and lye is the strongest relaxer, so what do you have to mix it with to make it as effective as a store boughten one? Or is there one in the store that you know of, lye? I know it requires one or two things cuz I left it in there for like an hour with some lotion to hold the ashes, but it didn't break, which means it wasn't working, it needed something else..

Oh my... I would only try homemade relaxer if I had short hair that I could cut off if I messed up. However this sounds like an interesting experiment. Let us know what substance turns up.

Anais