describe your hair...relaxed/natural

[IMFOCSD]

Hello everyone

I have been doing a lot of research the past couple of days on natural hair....and i found some helpful information but i wanted to ask this question..

How would you describe your own hair?...if you were once relaxed and are now natural or vice versa....what's different about your hair now....ie is it softer, shinier, drier, thicker, etc.

 

[MsBoinglicious]

Ummm i'm texlaxed/relaxed. I was Natural for like 4 years. My hair is the same. Mainly because I treat my relaxed hair the same way I treated my Natural hair. The only difference is wash and detangle time is cut in half. And I have less shrinkage (which resulted in no more single strand knots)

I still have curls, shine, thickness, length etc as when I was natural.

 

[IMFOCSD]

Thanks for responding..your hair is very pretty

 

[kittenz]

I am natural and my hair is thicker, shorter (for now), more moisturized, healthier, and softer than my relaxed hair.

 

[Bun Mistress]

No difference. Although I was never natural I transitioned for over two years and textlaxed (only lightly) and I treat my hair like its natural.

 

[prettypithy]

Ummm i'm texlaxed/relaxed. I was Natural for like 4 years. My hair is the same. Mainly because I treat my relaxed hair the same way I treated my Natural hair. The only difference is wash and detangle time is cut in half. And I have less shrinkage (which resulted in no more single strand knots)

I still have curls, shine, thickness, length etc as when I was natural.

@MsBoinglicious Ummm, can we please learn more about your texlax regimen, brand of relaxer, etc. because your hair is STUNNING!

 

[Avaya]

Once relaxed, now natural. My hair is dryer, rougher, duller, and seems sparser (is that a word? ), womp, womp, womp...

 

[IMFOCSD]

lol @ avaya! Do you regret going natural?

Thanks for the responses everyone...I am only a little over six months into my transition but I notice that my newgrowth is different of course lol..its shinier and its a darker color than my relaxed/texlaxed hair which is dull and kinda rough so I dont think the roughness will change once im natural but I cant wait to find out.

 

[prettypithy]

My natural hair is definitely way darker than my relaxed hair. I've thought about dyeing it but fear the damage too much.

 

[IMFOCSD]

I always wanted my hair to be darker so im lovin that part lol!

 

[Avaya]

lol @ avaya! Do you regret going natural?

IMFOCSD Ironically enough, I don't regret going natural. The learning curve is just super steep for me. I'm considering adding heat to my regimen beginning this summer.

I will say I am very disappointed in my growth, very disappointed. My relaxed her was BSL. Here I am two years since my last relaxer and I can just stretch the front of my hair to my lips .

 

[IMFOCSD]

IMFOCSD Ironically enough, I don't regret going natural. The learning curve is just super steep for me. I'm considering adding heat to my regimen beginning this summer.

I will say I am very disappointed in my growth, very disappointed. My relaxed her was BSL. Here I am two years since my last relaxer and I can just stretch the front of my hair to my lips .

Have you ever had a pic of ur hair as ur avatar or siggy? It was in a ponytail...and the curls were so pretty and full...was that you lol?

The way you described ur natural hair is how my texlaxed hair is unless its flat ironed.

 

[FoxxyLocs]

My natural hair is thicker than my relaxed hair, although my relaxed true was pretty thick too. It's drier and less shiny, but I've been able to combat that by increasing my DCs ave using a daily (or as needed) leave in. My hair is also longer than it ever was when I was relaxed.

 

[LuvlyRain3]

most of the improvements in my hair i dont credit to the fact that i am natural. i give that credit to this forum. there are so many methods i never thought of using and so many products that i had never heard of before i found this forum. All the knowledge that i gained about haircare is the reason why my hair is thriving the way it is. there is no doubt in my mind that if i were relaxed my hair would still be in the healthy state that it is in now because i would still be on this forum.

i will admit that i dont think i would be that interested in my hairs potential if i was relaxed. im in love with my natural hair and i want to see it flourish. i didnt much care about my relaxed hair in that way. the only thing i cared about when i was relaxed was having healthy hair and swang.

 

[HairPleezeGrow]

My natural hair is way more thicker & drier than when I was relaxed!

 

[ms.blue]

My natural hair is definitely way darker than my relaxed hair. I've thought about dyeing it but fear the damage too much.

My hair is definitely darker than my relaxed hair. My natural hair only slightly thicker than my relaxed hair. I really don't suffer from dry dull looking natural hair so that is a benefit. I do prefer my natural hair to my relaxed hair just b/c I hated the feeling on the relaxer touching my scalp.

 

[whiteoleander91]

My natural hair is softer and darker than my relaxed hair. I would say I have a "satiny" (not quite what I would consider silky)/cottony blend of textures now, but when I was relaxed, it all had the same cottony texture. The "satiny" parts have a high sheen (not quite straight up shiny) and the cottony parts have more of a medium-ish sheen. My relaxed hair was all the same level of medium/low sheen. Lol, does that make sense...

Honestly, my hair is no thicker. I think the strands are a bit thicker, but overall thickness as in the amount of hairs on my head is pretty much the same. It does look more full when it's straight, though.

My natural hair is healthier than my relaxed hair. Other than no longer using harsh chemicals, I would say that's mostly because I'm taking better care of it now.

 

[prettypithy]

When people say their relaxed hair is/was shinier than their natural hair, do they mean after flat ironing? I feel like my relaxed hair was shinier fresh from the salon but after a few weeks or months it settled into a dull ashiness, probably due to dryness. My airdried natural hair is shinier than my airdried relaxed hair. Actually come to think of it, my presses are shinier, too.

 

[nisemac]

biggest difference for me is, when i was relaxed, my hair was all one texture. my natural hair has fine, medium, and coarse textures in various parts. and the color. my relaxed hair was a medium brown and there were lots of highlights (no color added). my natural hair is much darker, looks almost black, and the only highlights i notice are the grays coming in.

 

[Kn0ttyByNatur3]

My natural hair is definitely thicker and drier than my relaxed hair was, lolol.

 

[niqu92]

when i was natural i must admit my hair was much..much..MUCH thicker lol but it was also a lot drier the only thing that kept my hair moisturized was good ol DAX grease and l'uhille masketi
as a relaxed head my hair is still very thick although not as thick as it was when i was natural but its much softer and very shiny.also, i think relaxers have changed my hair color. my natural hair color used to be a deep black but now its a mixture of dark and light brown.

 

[MsBoinglicious]

@prettypithy

Thankies!

Yea it’s only been a year since I texlaxed my natural hair (May 7, 2011) so I am still learning. I stretch the relaxer out like every 4 months or so. I use ORS relaxer in normal (Lye in the green jar). I add oil to it (kind of eyeball like 1/2 cup of oil). I saturate my already relaxed hair with oil too and apply the relaxer with my fingers just kind of laying it on the roots. When I’m done with my whole head I "work it in" with my fingers and do my edges and nape last right before I am about to rinse it out.

I use Palmers Coconut oil deep condition protein pack. That's my sh*t! I love that stuff. I buy like 10 packs at once. I use that before I neutralize my hair. But after I rinse all the relaxer out with water.

I then neutralize it (Isoplus color code), deep condition (Elasta QP DPR-11) and use a cheap conditioner (like suave) to bun it or set a style.

That’s it I'm lazy. I do buns, pigtails and I wear it curly or braid out on the weekends if we hitting the clubs. I flatiron once a month with my heat pass.

Oh and I use the Palmers Coconut Pack one week before I relax and one week after I relax. And once every month until its time to touch up again.

 

[Raspberry]

prettypithy My relaxed hair is pretty shiny though I don't flat iron.. I attribute that to deep conditioning treatments and a daily moisturize/seal regimen.

 

[CaliiSwagg]

My natural hair is only drier than my relaxed.
My hair is definitely lighter natural than it was relaxed.

 

[Qtee]

My natural hair is less dry..other than that no difference..My hair is just as thick and shiny relaxed or natural..

 

[SEMO]

I've been natural for the last few years and I would say that my natural hair is thicker than when I was relaxed, but my hair seems to go through more fluctuations now. When I was relaxed I used the same products year round. But being natural, some things only work in certain seasons.

My hair is also the longest it's ever been. When I was relaxed my hair always stayed at a medium shoulder length.

One thing that's the same is the fact that I still struggle with scalp dryness (esp. in the winter).

 

[chrisanddonniesmommy]

I'm wondering if some LCHFers are confusing texture with dryness? I'm transitioning and I originally thought that my natural hair was dry; but, I realized that it's just my hair's natural texture.

My natural hair is definitely thicker and shinier than when I was relaxed.

 

[PinkSunshine77]

My hair was thick either way. I'm natural. Flat ironed is the only time it looked thin.

 

[divya]

I'm natural. My hair is darker and shinier now...love it. I've thought about using highlights but feel like I'll miss the darker color.

My hair isn't significantly thicker. It's been a little over 2 years, and I'm close to BSL when straightened, which was my relaxed length. We'll see if I feel like handling more than that...

 

[almond eyes]

My relaxed hair was wavy, over processed and underprocessed. My relaxed hair made my fine hair even finer and the colour was dark brown and took forever to dry.

In the past my natural hair was thicker and dryer. Hair was curly, spongy, coily etc. But I had a lot of single stranded knots.

My hair was shaved on May 22, this was a big departure from my usual transitioning where I would cut my hair off gradually. My hair is no longer dry because I wash and condition it daily and use no products except occasionally some gel to show my curl definition every now and then though the curls have not begun to clump yet. I can actually feel and see more uniformed curls and coils (in the sense that before when I would transition with the scab hair my hair would be very strange coily and then spongy in one strand and some 3c pieces that I could never be sure if it was left over permed hair or my own natural hair texture in some parts) but I have to see how it all grows up. My hair is off black in colour.

Best,
Almond Eyes