I Want To Go Natural? So Clearly I'm Losing My Mind....

[Nightingale]

I want straight hair and want to work out 4-5 times a week. lol. Dassit. Imma get a wig when I want straight hair and move on with my life .

This is the best solution. No worries about reversion, heat damage, weather, or time to style. Just slap it on when you want that look, and go.

 

[Britt]

THIS!! Im transititoning but some of these natural styles sheeshhh! I could never go to work or generally walk in public like some of these naturals. I worked with a girl that no lie had the same exact hairstyle as ceily from the color purple and she would try to convince me daily to go natural. I was like heck no so I can look like that??? Im so glad I started seeing the lovely ladies here and on you tube cuz using her as a marker I would have never tried to transition.

LOL!!! I got a visual... that's exactly what I meant by know your hair looks lol... Know what you like and don't. That varies for many naturals. Know how you can style your hair at different lengths. Have go to styles. When I was transitioning I knew which styles I liked and which ones I didn't like for myself. What I didn't think about is how uniterested I'd be in styling my hair in say a big rod set, flexi rods to let dry, those types of styles that I LOVE on naturals but in reality I know I won't do.

Thank you so much! My hair grew so fast it was too expensive to maintain the cut and it never looked right in any style because it was so choppy and thick. Didnt do my research lol.

WOW! That cut looked so easy to maintain to me, prob just wrap at night and let it flow in the morning. Blunt ends on thick hair *love*. Shooot, if I had that right now you couldn't tell me ish I'd be swinging and moving.

 

[Chromia]

I stopped relaxing my hair in '07 and I cut off the last of the relaxed hair in '09. What a relief it was to finally get the transition overwith. I have never had any interest in going back to relaxed hair. I'm interested in eventually straightening with my flat iron again, but not relaxing.

On wash day I twist my hair, then I let it air dry for a day or 2. Then I do a twistout, and I don't do anything else to it until the next wash day. I don't retwist at night because I like the fuller, more voluminous look that I get with an older twistout.

When my hair was relaxed I went to a stylist for everything, but when I stopped relaxing I started doing everything myself.

For the final 8 months that I was relaxed I was doing rollersets at home - so draining and time consuming - and going to the salon only for touch-ups. Twisting my natural hair is easier than rollersetting my relaxed hair was.

 

[healthyhair2]

Natural hair, if you are any 4 hair type is NOT low maintenance. Speaking as someone who has been natural, relaxed and permed(curly). Once natural hair gets past 6 inches, it becomes time intensive. I don't know maybe others feel differently, but that's my 2 cents. If easy is what you want then I would stay relaxed. I mean..your hair looks beautiful!

 

[discodumpling]

Natural hair IS easy...after you put in the work. If you have been relaxed for a long time (I was relaxed for almost THIRTY years!) Realize that your natural hair and you need time to get to know each other! Natural hair requires the same basic hair process' as maintaining relaxed hair. Wash (or cowash) , consistent DT's or DC's, Leave-in conditioner and whatever else we do to our locs. The getting to know you process can be fun or it can be stressful. It involves acceptance, love and respect of whatever grows out of your scalp!

I do it for ME. I do it for my DD cause she will not get a perm until she leaves my care. I do it for my DS' so that they will (and they do) love Black nappy , kinky, coily, swirly curly hair on Black women. I do it for DH cause he was raised around light bright and almost white...he really didn't know what he was getting into with this Antiguan gyal . I do it for my ancestors, I mean those directly related to me by blood...most women in my family are natural, and have BEEN natural for all my life.

 

[guyaneseyankee]

I say do it!!
You can always go back.
I am of the mindset that it's just hair. I've worn relaxed, locs, natural hair for over 10 years. It's fun to play around. If it's not working out, you have other alternatives

Natural hair is not easy. My sister (head full of natural hair) keeps threatening to slap a relaxer back in her hair. Relaxed hair doesn't have to be unhealthy.
It is a lovely experience though I must say to see your natural hair grow from your head.

 

[I Am So Blessed]

. Y'all I haven't been natural since I was 7? I want lower maintenance hair but will that be the case?

I'm 100% sure I have 4 xyz hair however...

whatever it is, you can do it if you really want to, where there's a will there's a way... if you really want to be natural the texture won't matter.

I'm scared.

Scared of what?

ok so what styles do you wear? heat? No heat?

No heat for me, I wear mostly jumbo flat twists. There are so many flat twist styles that look so elegant. Actually all of them look elegant to me especially the undo's.

Discourage me, or encourage me tell me all about being natural .
I was fat once, I lost the weight I gained some confidence. I was relaxed once, went natural and I AM SO CONFIDENT, and pleased. When I had relaxed ends I could feel the difference between the relaxed hair and natural hair. The natural hair felt extremely soft, and the relaxed hair felt porous and limp. And relaxer "Run-off" is bad news no matter how much I coated previously relaxed ends I still had to end up trimming way more than with natural hair.

Can you tell that I'm all for natural hair? LOL
The only reason why I relaxed my hair in the first place was because I had WL hair and wanted it to hang down all the time so I can throw it around with pride, but pride is the devil. And God resists the proud so the relaxed hair started to brake off. My hair is almost MBL now and it shrinks (bows down in humility) to shoulder length.

It's growing way faster then when it was relaxed. It's not just hair to me.

 

[beingofserenity]

Relaxed is easier for me.

 

[Mai Tai]

I feel your pain OP. I've been transitioning for a year now with me slowly cutting my relaxed ends off and my new growth is very thick with about 3 different textures (4b at the nape & edges, 4a in the back and 3c at the crown). I've still been successfully and easily blowdrying and flat ironing ever 7-10 days because I like how my straight hair looks but my wash days have gotten a lot longer.

Before my full transition, my stylist had already started texlaxing my hair so that may be one of the largest reasons why things have been going so well but I will say that finding the right products has helped as well. I am finding that my hair LOVES moisturizing products and detangling with conditioner soaked hair then finger detangling as I rinse the conditioner out in sections, and drying in sections is the only way I'm able to maintain my sanity.

 

[MsSanz92]

Natural hair is a learning curve, but I don't see myself going back to relaxed hair. I've been natural for the last 5 years and have done 2 big chops due to damage. I am only now consistently wearing my hair in its natural state, so I'm also learning too. The more and longer I wear my hair in its natural state, the easier it has become because I know what my hair likes and dislikes. I'm also noticing that my hair is becoming "trained" in the sense that it's retaining moisture better, detangling is becoming easier, and it's holding styles better. This is also most likely a result of finding products that actually work for my hair. The one downside to natural hair is that as it gets longer, you will use significantly more products and will go through things much faster, which makes it expensive.

 

[YvetteWithJoy]

Natural hair is a learning curve, but I don't see myself going back to relaxed hair. I've been natural for the last 5 years and have done 2 big chops due to damage. I am only now consistently wearing my hair in its natural state, so I'm also learning too. The more and longer I wear my hair in its natural state, the easier it has become because I know what my hair likes and dislikes. I'm also noticing that my hair is becoming "trained" in the sense that it's retaining moisture better, detangling is becoming easier, and it's holding styles better. This is also most likely a result of finding products that actually work for my hair. The one downside to natural hair is that as it gets longer, you will use significantly more products and will go through things much faster, which makes it expensive.