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Did You Retain More/better As A Relaxed Head As Opposed To Natural?

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sharifeh said:
yeah all the straightening I have to do is killing my hair and I'm entering another running season with high goals and hopes and plans of 40-60 miles per week and keeping my natural hair straight is an exercise in futility

as for considering non-straight styles, well, it's not that I dont like them I do like them, it's just that it's more work
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This is why I relaxed the last time...running. And I like wearing my hair straight.
 
I feel like as long you have a trusted person to apply your relaxer (whether that's yourself, family, stylists), maintain healthy hair practices, and you don't have any scalp problems or reactions then it might be better in the long run to relax, since you prefer to wear your hair straight anyway and you have such an active lifestyle
 
Curls&Justice417 said:
I feel like as long you have a trusted person to apply your relaxer (whether that's yourself, family, stylists), maintain healthy hair practices, and you don't have any scalp problems or reactions then it might be better in the long run to relax, since you prefer to wear your hair straight anyway and you have such an active lifestyle
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That trusted person is myself. It was through trail and error (risk is worth the reward) and a lot of patience but I've gotten the relaxer process down. I improve with every application
 
sharifeh said:
don't be discouraged- so many people are very successful at the straight haired natural thing,

check out posts by @Prettymetty in the straight hair natural thread

i love being a straight hair natural but I also love cardio and I don't love extensions or wigs so all of that combined....not a great outcome for me, also my individual strands are not thick, they are not really fine but they are not thick either

it seems like the people who are successful at it , can straighten their hair themselves, get professional blowouts maybe once a month and they also combine straightening with hiding their hair etc... they can make blowouts last for 2 weeks or more....

I do know a unicorn that can straighten weekly and retain and maintain really long hair but...
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This is also another problem. And i don't have a lot of hair on my head. :cry3:
 
11228 said:
I retain the most as relaxed. My hair is at its healthiest the first 8 weeks after a retouch. It is simple for me. The easier I can manage my hair, the healthier I can maintain it.

I tried the "natural" route a couple of years ago. I turned to BKT by month 6 and totally discarded the idea before I made it one year. I hated everything about "natual" hair.

My hair became a chore to deal with instead of a day of pampering. I hated the nappy look when I've gone 3 weeks without straightening. And BKT is made expensive and damaging due to the massive heat used to seal it in.

My hair broke off and looked unhealthy due to the tangles.

I conceded that relaxer is essential to my life.
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I really appreciate your honesty! :yep:

To answer OP, my hair retains the same moisture level. I don't put a lot of product in my natural hair.
 
sharifeh said:
hmm we have a lot of similarities, i liked how simple my relaxed hair was because i didn't do much to it
the one thing i hated was new growth and the actual relaxer process...
bkt was sort of a disaster for me too- it's like a relaxer that 3x the price
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Girl, go ahead and relax your strands and don't feel bad for it. I know you've been struggling with your hair for a while now. Natural hair isn't for everyone and it's just not a one size fits all type of deal. There are plenty straight hair naturals and I see why, not everyone wants to be bothered with their hair like that or knows how to manage it. If relaxing worked out for you and you had a good regimen maybe that's better for your hair and lifestyle.
 
TwoSnapsUp said:
Any straight naturals who went back to the relaxer? Did you have a lot of damage from the heat? Did you have to cut off a lot of hair after the relaxer? Thanks!
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thats a good question, if i relax soon, theres a heat damaged section in the front that id have to completely skip and not apply any chemical to because its's already straight
 
Curls&Justice417 said:
I feel like as long you have a trusted person to apply your relaxer (whether that's yourself, family, stylists), maintain healthy hair practices, and you don't have any scalp problems or reactions then it might be better in the long run to relax, since you prefer to wear your hair straight anyway and you have such an active lifestyle
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Thanks! I'd definitely be better off finding a trusted stylist to relax my hair, luckily I have a few that I go to for silk presses now.
One of the things that made me transition was a horrendous attempt at self relaxing. Self relaxing is something I should never try again. That was bad :look:
 
Britt said:
Girl, go ahead and relax your strands and don't feel bad for it. I know you've been struggling with your hair for a while now. Natural hair isn't for everyone and it's just not a one size fits all type of deal. There are plenty straight hair naturals and I see why, not everyone wants to be bothered with their hair like that or knows how to manage it. If relaxing worked out for you and you had a good regimen maybe that's better for your hair and lifestyle.
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thanks :bighug:
 
I retained more hair as a relaxed head than as a natural. I've been stuck for 2 years at apl with my natural hair. I was finally seeing progress with bkt but curiosity killed the cat and I messed up trying a new bkt.

I just did an olaplex treatment and my hair is so tightly coiled and shrunken. I forgot what my "natural" hair is like and it reminded me of why I like BKT so much. Sorry (not sorry) :look:
 
I retain better natural. I made it to almost MBL hen relaxed, but that was with doing weekly roller wraps with a hooded dryer. When my dryer broke, I started blow drying and flat ironing every week or two, which killed retention. I almost never use heat on my natural hair because I have too much hair, and I have retained the most being a lazy natural and mostly wearing my thick, heavy hair in a bun. I'm at WL as a natural now.
 
I probably get more split ends as a natural but it definitely takes less effort for it to grow long and full than relaxed. I felt like i had to constantly give my relaxed hair attention. One bad move would ruin everything. If i over conditioned, over protein, slept without a scarf for a week, etc...it would break. My natural hair isnt that finicky.
 
Relaxed or natural retention was about the same - made it to WL as a relaxed head and just about WL now as a natural. When I didn't retain much length was when I became a straight-haired natural for 2.5 years and used way too much heat either at home or going to Dominican salons. If relaxing is what will fit your lifestyle and give you the most enjoyment then go for it!
 
Back in the days when I used to relax bone straight, my hair was thin, fragile and quite damaged. My hair would not grow past my shoulders no matter how many deep conditioners I did etc. I transitioned to texlaxing my hair and still on that road. My hair is thick,with volume and quite healthy for a chemically treated hair. Really tempted to transition to natural...really tempted.

I just made a video on how I texlax my hair. I hope it helps someone out there:
 
Britt said:
You're welcome! Keep us posted! :yep:
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I will. I'm trying my best to remember all of the negative parts about being relaxed too because right now I'm only remembering the good parts. :lol:
My natural hair can be a lot of fun its just really hard to take care of and time consuming for me.
I'm trying to think this through really thoroughly because transitioning was so traumatic and I dont want to do that again anytime soon.
 
I think my retention is the same either way. I got lucky with my relaxed hair because I was a self relaxer and my hair was in pretty good shape until I had a miscue with a relaxer switch which resulted in a major setback. This actually started my transition but I didn't know it at the time. When I big chopped, I thought my hair would never be my version of long (touching bsl). My hair has proven me wrong. It hasn't been easy but I'm having more good hair days than bad now and my hair is thriving. My 4-something hair and I are learning to be friends.
 
The longest I was as a relaxed-head was BSL but my hair was limp, with breakage. The more I relaxed the more I had to trim my ends. My hair was thinning even though I would relax every 12 weeks. I came to LHCF in 2004 and followed the recommendations - stretched relaxers, protein treatmemts, DC's ( back then Alter Ego Garlic Treatment, Salerm Wheat Germ, Silicon Mix, and Surge 14 were considered holy grails). I used them all, but couldn't maintain thickness or retain length.

I blame it on the chemicals because I hardly used heat given all the stretching I would do. I maintained my hair by wrapping it ever so often, but I mostly air dried and did braid outs with curlers. Hardly used any heat, even stopped going to the Dominicans for relaxers and doobies.

Then a member by the name of "Isis" opened up the world of natural hair for me. She used to texlax, and did a full transition to natural using no heat. Her hair was lush, long and thick!

All this to say I retained my most length as a natural and have voluminous hair now. I am now low MBL, about 6 inches from waist. And more importantly, my hair is strong and healthy.
 
sharifeh said:
I will. I'm trying my best to remember all of the negative parts about being relaxed too because right now I'm only remembering the good parts. :lol:
My natural hair can be a lot of fun its just really hard to take care of and time consuming for me.
I'm trying to think this through really thoroughly because transitioning was so traumatic and I dont want to do that again anytime soon.
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Awwww, i remember transitioning being rough for you. Just weigh your pros and cons, I know you'll do what's best for you and your hair.
 
I don't know. Natural is less complicated as long as my hair is stretched. Deep conditioning is a must. It makes a huge difference. I think I could probably retain either way. Relaxing my hair would probably require another learning curve and I'm just getting to a place where I feel I have a handle on my natural hair.
 
I retain much more as a natural. While relaxed my hair was kinda dry. I was paranoid about jagged ends so I trimmed a lot unnecessarily. My hair would only have body with Bantu knot-outs or some other set styles. It had no elasticity. It looked great though lol. It looked like a weave.


Now it's the opposite with natural hair. Always soft, hardly have to trim. I only trimmed 1/2" in two whole years. The ends curl right up. Gets longer faster since being natural.

If I was still relaxed: In two years I would have relaxed my hair 10 or 11 times already. 2015-2017
 
Natural.
When natural I was moisture heavy and I retained better even with weekly blowdrying. Now im relaxed and still retain but have to do more in terms of moisture protein balance and lines of demarcation but overall its simpler for me and I still retain because of simpler wash days, detangling and styling because of the straighter texture.

However having said all of that ...when I was relaxed no lye I had to do the absolute most to keep the hair on my head. Lye relaxers changed my hair life for the better in terms of hair health and retention!
 
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