Anyone CURRENTLY uncertain about what direction you're going with your hair?

[Smiley79]

It got to the point that I had to take another "Hair Hiatus". I even shut down my hair blog. I feel that I was getting too absorbed in chasing "beautiful" hair yet in reality I still have no idea what I want to do with my hair. I just needed a break and I've been taking it. My hair is in a sew in so that's perfect for now. I feel guilty when I relax my hair and confused and hesitant when I attempt to go natural and believe it or not, I don't even like having the weave in my head anymore. I used to love weaves, now I'm anxious to get this thing out my head and feel MYYYY hair. ENOUGH already, dunno what I'm doing! lol

sorry peeps, just felt like ranting...I haven't been on the forum in a minute and I miss you all so much.... I had to vent for a minute though. I think my personal life (that has been very testing this past year) is playing a major factor in my loss of enthusiasm and direction with my hair plans and so forth. I used to be so overjoyed with anything about hair, now I'm like "ehh".erplexed

 

[Eluv]

While natural I learned so much from LHFC and I wished I have never chopped off all my hair before learning how to take better care of relaxed hair. Now I’m texlaxed and I wonder why I didn’t try using a little heat to avoid SSK before relaxing considering I still wear PS 99% of the time.

So yeah I’m confused

I was Natural for a little over three years and I texlaxed on 2/9/10. I loved my hair natural but despised ruining my progress by constantly cutting out SSK. I also love my texlaxed hair because I have texture without major shrinkage and SSK.


Now at 5 months post and I'm not sure if or when I will relax again. The only thing I know for sure is I refuse to BC to a TWA ever again, so if I'm able to do a long term transition to APL without breakage I will, if not I will definitely relax.

 

[JinaRicci]

I love my natural hair, love the curls but not the shrinkage
I love daily wash n gos but still the shrinkage
I think texlaxing might help but I don't want relaxer chemicals and I'm scared to end up with straight hair

If there was another way to do this that would be great. Why isn't there?

In the meantime I just have to decide. Is not dealing with shrinkage really worth it?

 

[carolinetwin]

While natural I learned so much from LHFC and I wished I have never chopped off all my hair before learning how to take better care of relaxed hair. Now I’m texlaxed and I wonder why I didn’t try using a little heat to avoid SSK before relaxing considering I still wear PS 99% of the time.

So yeah I’m confused

I was Natural for a little over three years and I texlaxed on 2/9/10. I loved my hair natural but despised ruining my progress by constantly cutting out SSK. I also love my texlaxed hair because I have texture without major shrinkage and SSK.


Now at 5 months post and I'm not sure if or when I will relax again. The only thing I know for sure is I refuse to BC to a TWA ever again, so if I'm able to do a long term transition to APL without breakage I will, if not I will definitely relax.

Are you saying you regret texlaxing?

 

[Smiley79]

My other issue is that I didn't look "pretty" with the way my hair looked when I was attempting to transition. I even had some friends who said it not flatter my face. Did any of you ever go through those feelings when transitioning?

 

[me-T]

the problem i'm having is getting past this bsl slump. it's been goin on for several months now, and will continue cause i need to trim an inch (curly style setback)
plus i need some styling ideas. i want something different from the usual braidout. knot out and bun

 

[Maracujá]

My hair is a mess right now, there`s no other way to describe it and I`m considering relaxing it - it`s not the first time though - but I am really not sure. We`ll see what happens.

 

[brucebettye]

I am in the same boat. I have no idea what I want to do to my hair. Sometimes I want to cut if off, go natural, or keep texlaxing. So for now I am just bunning my hair and stretching my relaxer until I make up my mind. I am giving myself until December of this year to make up my mind. So if I want to go natural I will have lots of new growth and this will satisfy me cutting my hair off.

 

[Janet']

My other issue is that I didn't look "pretty" with the way my hair looked when I was attempting to transition. I even had some friends who said it not flatter my face. Did any of you ever go through those feelings when transitioning?

I definitely did! When transitioning for over 2 years, you have many of those days. I just tried to keep the end in mind because my ultimate goal was retaining as much length as possible once I became completely natural.

I must say too, there were days when I had a relaxer when I didn't feel "pretty" and there have been days as a natural when I have felt the same way...

 

[SignatureBeauty]

I had texturized my natural hair, and sometimes I wanna transition, but right now I like being texturized, my hair seems to have taken off in growth, I still have my curls, but great softness, maybe one day in the future I will go back natural, but for now I am fixing to enjoy Life and my Texturized hair, sometimes I get so caught up in hair, I forget about that there are other things that matter LOL!! I have a goal of getting shoulder length texturized hair and making a Bun, that is all I want, I am trying to make this goal this time next summer!!!

 

[blueberryd]

GODDDDDDDDDDDDDDD YESSSSSS! I'm at like 14 months post and i don't know how much more i can take!!!!!! Do i continue to stretch? Do I get a sew in ? Do I texlax--like dlewis--luv her hair!! or DO i relax bone straight like sylver--beautiful hair also... i just don't know ughhhhhh!
THANKS FOR THIS THREAD!!!

 

[Imani]

My other issue is that I didn't look "pretty" with the way my hair looked when I was attempting to transition. I even had some friends who said it not flatter my face. Did any of you ever go through those feelings when transitioning?

Smiley, are you still transitioning?

I have used heat weekly through my entire transition, so no one could even tell I wasn't getting relaxers anymore. I am not fond of braids or weaves and my hair is really short so I couldn't think of anything else to do to it. Now I'm finally tired of dealing w/ my hair and as it grows out more, I am going to start taking breaks from the heat and doing braids occasionally. And once I get more length, I can experiment with twist outs and stuff like that.

I don't think short, off the face type styles flatter my face. If I hadn't started out using heat, I probably would've gotten frustrated and ended my transition

 

[Eluv]

Are you saying you regret texlaxing?

Maybe a little because I don't know what I want yet.

 

[ThickRoot]

This is me right now. I'm in braids protecting my hair and keeping it out of sight until I figure out what I'm doing. I started this stretch because my hair was breaking and I needed to stop it before I thought about another relaxer. That was almost 7 months ago. When I started seeing my new growth I was like wow that looks pretty cool. So I've been taking care of my hair like I'm transitioning. But, I wouldn't be surprised if I took these braids out and put in a Mizani. It's me who knows what I'll do next.

 

[SimpleKomplexity]

I don't know what direction I'm going in at all. I don't know if I'm transitioning. I'm 11 weeks post and my newgrowth is a mess. I just don't know what to do with it. So I put my hair in braids, and usually by this time I would be begging for my real hair back, but I could actually care less. I'm just...here right now in terms of hair. I DO know I don't plan on trimming for awhile but that's about it. I'm in the process of changing around my regimen alittle too,so..the sky's the limit with my hair

 

[Smiley79]

Smiley, are you still transitioning?

I have used heat weekly through my entire transition, so no one could even tell I wasn't getting relaxers anymore. I am not fond of braids or weaves and my hair is really short so I couldn't think of anything else to do to it. Now I'm finally tired of dealing w/ my hair and as it grows out more, I am going to start taking breaks from the heat and doing braids occasionally. And once I get more length, I can experiment with twist outs and stuff like that.

I don't think short, off the face type styles flatter my face. If I hadn't started out using heat, I probably would've gotten frustrated and ended my transition

Imani, I don't know what I'm doing. The siggy pic is a relaxer that I had recently after a long term stretch. That would be my best category description right now: I'm a long term stretcher. Since I can't commit to transitioning 100% for now, I'm choosing to relax my hair no more than three times a year if possible. I want healthy that hair that I can ENJOY yet not be depedent on any one thing (weaves, relaxers, etc). When I was attempting the BC without Transitioning Challenge I found myself not enjoying my hair and getting in over my head with the process; so I chickened out and relaxed my hair. I hated not follwing through with my goal and thus leads me to creating this thread about being downright confused. what I need to stop doing is stop having hair envy each time I see a successful member on the forum who is either Relaxed, Natural or in between. That hair envy is clouding my vision of figuring out what I really want and can achieve. So that's where I am now; I had even taken a little break from the board for a while, lol.

 

[Smiley79]

I guess I would fall into the Sylvers2 Challenge type of category. Her hair looks like a natural and a relaxed head all in one, lol. I'm just stretching relaxers while I figure out what I want.

 

[simplyhair]

Subscribing...I knew I wasn't alone in how I was feeling

 

[Smiley79]

Now I'm itching to give transitioning a shot again. I find that "relaxed" hair suits my face better, but I love the fullness that I had with my natural hair. (the downside is I was told it didn't flatter my face/it aged me, lol, oh well)

Anyone thinking out giving transitioning a try again?

 

[Boujoichic]

Im in the Weave it up challenge until December but I have no Idea how Im gonna be wearing my hair after that. Im natural now ( I transitioned in weaves) but wearing my hair curly I believe I would need to wet it frequently which I dont wanna do in the winter I need a plan. I was considering modifying a wig or half wig but Im tired of hiding my hair. Hopefully something occurs to me between now and then. I do know I wont be relaxing though.

 

[lovelexi]

I have no idea...i am going to attempt a long term stretch and just go with the flow.

 

[ckisland]

I've definitely jumped in the boat with the rest of y'all . For me it's not a relax vs. staying natural thing. A new semester of school just started and I want to revamp my image and I think I want to become a rollersetter. I even found this great salon (all Hispanic actually) that did a great job on my hair for only $20. The problem is that I don't know if I want to rollerset every 2 weeks at the salon and do one myself in between, or find some other style (possibly KCCC wash n'go) for that week gap. Also, I still haven't figured out how to make my rollersets last more than a day. Then there's the potential issue with using this much heat on a regular basis and retaining length.

Trying to look good is hard y'all .

 

[Smiley79]

lol. And you brought up a good point...I can agree with you about just wanting an overall change; and that's what I enjoyed about the transitioning. As I mentioned before, when I was transitioning I got a lot of criticism that it didn't suit my face (and I actually thought the same beforehand), so that got me into a state of not enjoyng the transition any longer. And keep in mind that unflattering look was not even the "official" big chop which would leave me with a TWA. So before I attempt any transitioning goals, I want to fully know what my styling options will be beforehand and that could make it a whole lot easier for me.

 

[newbeginnings2010]

Feeling the same way right about now. I want natural hair, but I enjoy seeing the length of my hair, but I don't want to be heat-trained for fear of really damaging my hair. I'm thinking about updating my siggy to say "long-term stretching" instead of transitioning. I'm really enjoying my natural hair texture, but I still enjoy wearing my hair straight! Woe is me...and all of us!

 

[Imani]

Well, when i first posted I was unsure about whether to continue to wear straight all the time or start wearing braids or weaves etc. I"m transitioning w/o bcing- that I definitely know. My hair is all natural in the back half and about 70% in the top.

I got some kinky twists extensions in July and I really loved them style and maintenance-wise. However, I think they were too rough putting them in and used a really hard/cheap brand of hair. I experienced some tangles taking them out, not my real hair tangling on itself but with the hard extensions hair. So, I want to give braids another shot, this time going to a different braider who says she specializes in gentle braiding and also use a softer better brand of hair.

The plan is to rotate in and out of braids. 6 weeks with the braids and then 4 to 6 weeks straight. And trim every 4 months. I was thinking that I should try to incorporate some natural styles like twist outs into the rotation. But, they require so much manipulation, also my hair is still pretty short, and then having to deal with the relaxed ends tryign to cooperate- Ive just decided that I will probably wait until I get more hair and all natural to try these styles.