Ingredient in some hair relaxers

The answer to “Ingredient in some hair relaxers” in the New York Times crossword is LYE — a 3-letter word. It most recently appeared in the New York Times crossword on September 20, 2026, a Sunday puzzle, at 38-Down. Below you'll find why that fill fits, every other answer we've recorded for this clue, and links into the puzzle it came from.

“Ingredient in some hair relaxers” answer

LYE (3 letters)

Reveal the solution one letter at a time with the tiles above if you'd rather nudge yourself toward it than see the whole word at once. Just want it outright? The answer is LYE.

What does LYE mean?

Reading the plain dictionary sense of LYE is often the fastest way to see why it answers this clue.

When else has “Ingredient in some hair relaxers” appeared?

New York Times reuses clues across dates, sometimes with a different answer depending on the grid. Here's where this exact clue has shown up, and what the answer was each time — handy when you're checking whether today's fill is the only one.

September 20, 2026 (most recent) → LYE. We haven't indexed another appearance of this exact clue yet.

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