Going Natural the straight way.

[cminter]

I would like to hear from all ladies who went natural without completely removing all relaxed ends. Were you successful at blow drying and flat ironing and still retaining length while carrying relaxed and natural hair? Please state your natural hair texture, and your experience.

I am looking to use an FHI iron and blow dryer to blow my roots straight.

How did this work for you?

 

[MsSharee06]

Bump, Bump I wanna know too

 

[Candycane044]

I've been natural for about 2 years and 6 months and I did not do a big chop or a small chop either. This was not wise at all. I never cut the relaxed ends off of my hair which resulted in breakage. IMO it is important to eventually cut these ends off. You don't necessarily have to do a big chop but I think the sooner you cut them off the better. There are many ladies on here who successfully managed growing out their natural hair w/o the big chop but they usually eventually cut off those ends and are great at maintaing two textures.

I thought I knew how to manage my 4a/b hair combined with the relaxed ends but I was wrong. I tried to transition using braidouts, braids, flatironing and buns. Unfortunately, those relaxed ends did break off. Flatironing worked the best I'd say because I simply wrapped the hair and did very little manipulation. You still have to be careful though..On a happier note, it can be done successfully you just have to be extrememly careful and pay attention to the different needs of the two textures.

 

[Irresistible]

Yeah I'm thinking possibly for some , wearing your hair out and straight all the time there is a chance you might have more breakage of the relaxed hair faster then transitioning with protective styles

but every head of hair is different

 

[sweetsuccess]

i was transitioning and i thought i was doing well with maintaining the two textures.... but im definitly going to go back relaxed after i take these sew ins out ..... my last relaxer was january 11, 2008... and i had my first sew in in april.... took it out for about a week in june... and put one back in (my current one)... and after i take thsi out in two weeks, i plan to wait a week than put another in for another 4-5weeks... and once that comes out.. i plan to get a relaxer...

am i breaking my hair this way?~! for the fact that if i were going natural i wouldve had to cut some relaxed ends by now... i havent put a scissors to my head since january 1st.

so we can consider this a 8 month stretch!? with no trims... is that bad
?!? plz let me know... otheriwse il just get a relaxer when i take this one out in two weeks.....

tia

 

[sweetsuccess]

also,
i plan to use a kiddy perm.... are those bad?!

i use to use just for me... that might be my first choice... does anyone use those?!

they are suppose to be light on the hair right... id get mild.. i dont want my hair bone straight... but i do want a relaxer.....

tia

 

[cminter]

Thank you ladies for your responses so far. Ideally, I would love for this to work. Relaxed hair can be very frustrating. I currently use the PhytoSpecific relaxer (Index 2) which leaves a little curl pattern. It would be nice to eventually be relaxer free.