"Im natural, I relax once per year."

[spelmanlocks]

I believe any chemical process be it relaxer, BKT, texlax, means you are not natural. But that is my opinion. But really if you hot comb your hair frequently overtime your hair texture will change permanently too, I know this from experience as a natural.

I can see how she might think she is natural though because she probably just uses the relaxer to loosen her curl, but her hair isn't straight like you'd expect to see on most relaxed heads.

 

[Ramya]

When I was natural I had a period when I had a chin length bob with bangs. After 2 times getting my hair pressed, it was loosely curly. I mean LOOSELY curly, i.e. heat damaged. Now, I've had 2 texturizers in the last 10 months. My hair is nappier, coilier, kinkier now than it ever was when I pressed or blow dried straight, even if it was just once. I basically couldn't press my hair when I was natural (18 years) because it wouldn't ever fully revert no matter what I put on it and I'd have to grow it out and cut off the curly ends. The natural/not natural divide can be a complicated fine line.

I'm in the limbo of heat damaged or "trained" hair according to my stylist. the loosening is not really significant as I don't have any straight pieces but we can tell that it's looser. I still consider myself natural as we didn't relax, texlax nor BKT it. Some people (ONLY HAIR BOARDS) won't consider my hair natural anymore but umm I'm not asking them for permission.

 

[fyb87]

Hysterical. That is the funniest thing I have ever heard!!

 

[Vshanell]

Okay Ladies, I'm at a party, and I have to post this. I'm talking to a young lady who is in hair school and she tells me that she is natural, yet she relaxs her hair once per year.

Wth? Has anyone heard this? What gives?

Ha Ha....I was gonna post a thread like this in my blog!!!!!

I was talking to a lady and she said she put a perm in her hair and that's why it looked longer. I said, oh...so you didn't care for it natural? She said "It is natural...I just put a perm in it sometimes".

She went on to say that she uses a kiddie perm once in awhile to smooth it out. All I could say was "Oh".

 

[crazydaze911]

yeah, i've heard that before. 'my hair is natural, i just do the roots' - umm.. so after years of doing 'the roots' isnt ur whole head relaxed since it grows out? hmm.... lol

 

[mscocoface]

The best I could do with this is say she has a mixture of relaxed and natural but she isn't natural by a country mile.

 

[HeavenlySkies]

Question to the people that believe if you have BKT'd then you are no longer natural. Do you guys feel the same way about the coconut and lime treatment as well. Because that TEMPORARILY loosens the curls also. And as far as chemicals not all BKT's contain formaldehyde. Just wondering...​

 

[JustKiya]

Bwah, folks get tender when BKT is brought up, don't they?

If you can wash your hair 3-4 times, and it remains a different texture from what naturally (ah, there is the key word) grows out of your head, sorry sweetie, but your hair isn't its natural texture. And usually, when we are talking about folks having natural hair, it's referring to their texture. When it wears off in 3-4 months and your hair returns to its natural (as in, what comes out of your follicles) texture, then you are again natural at that point, without having to big chop your hair.

People who use heat are still natural because when they wash their hair - poof! - it returns to it's natural texture.

ETA: Assuming it's not damaged, that is, just to be clear. I don't consider heat-damaged natural hair to be no longer natural, just like I don't consider relaxer-damaged hair ends that is three shades lighter than your roots to be colored.

 

[Charz]

Question to the people that believe if you have BKT'd then you are no longer natural. Do you guys feel the same way about the coconut and lime treatment as well. Because that TEMPORARILY loosens the curls also. And as far as chemicals not all BKT's contain formaldehyde. Just wondering...​

First of all, that is not a good analogy. Are you just playing devil's advocate, or are you serious?

Second of all, from what I have read, some of these so-called "formaldehyde free" really do have formaldehyde or some other unnatural chemical. Yes, there are other chemicals other then formaldehyde.....

Last time I checked, coconuts and limes didn't have unnatural chemicals.......

Disclaimer
Not that I care if someone who has BKT says that they are natural. I just know I never would. And thats all that matters to me.

 

[Mook's hair]

...I told her I was mostly natural; I hadn't had a relaxer in 3+ years. Her statement was, "you can be natural and have a relaxer. I'm natural, I relax my hair once per year." The conversation went down hill from there.

:crossfingers:
And that's it right there! And she said it like she was telling you something.


I would have had a plethora of questions for her.

 

[JayAnn0513]

Isn it the chemical reaction between the citric acid in the lime and the coconut protein that cause the curl in your hair to temporarily straighten?

 

[melodies815]

LOL, I just had that EXACT SAME argument w/ my friend about 3 days ago. I told her, I accidentally transitioned for about a year and my hair was all natural by the time I cut it. Then she goes " Oh yea, I know what you're talking bout, when I took out my braids for school, my hair kept frizzing up because it TURNED natural". THAT, THAT RIGHT THERE, triggered the argument on the train (LIRR for New Yorkers). It came to the point that I was like -______- alright, alright, you're right, your hair just happened to turn back to its REAL texture, because only you (insert name here), have magic hair.

AFTER THAT EVERYONE AROUND US STARTED LAUGHING...LOL.

I can hear your sarcasm. Great line!!! Did you emphasize the words "magic hair" with a weird voice?


I talked to a woman at a picnic Saturday, and she said that she liked my hair and asked how she could do her daughter's hair like I had mine styled. I asked, "Is she natural or relaxed?"

She answered, "I haven't relaxed her hair in 6 months, so yes, she's natural."

????

cj

 

[melodies815]

Wow. She sounds like the type of person that thinks you can wash out a perm with detergent. I hope she gets educated on this soo b/c she doesn't need to spread this ignorance to her future clients.

Don't laugh, but I once washed my hair with vinegar only every day for a week thinking I was washing out my relaxer. I was 22 years old. Some of us really are that ignorant. (BTW, I don't think that anymore.)

cj

 

[ROZELIDA_80]

Can someone give me the definition of "natural", without using the words BKT or relaxer, i.e. is natural hair ONLY unaltered hair?

 

[BlackMasterPiece]

Okay here's the BlackMasterPiece definition of natural: Natural hair is hair that has been allowed to maintain its initial characteristics in terms of its fundamental structure. Natural hair is hair that has not been put through chemical processes that permanently change the fundamental structure and/or texture of the hair.

 

[JerriBlank]

I stopped seeing a new stylist because she duped me into believing she was naturalohwell:

My second time i went to see her,i confided to her that i wanted to transition to natural.I told her because she toldme that herself,and another client that had a weave sewn in were naturals.
She seemed very educated on healthy hair care practices,until she mentioned that she texturizes,but is still natural
She said that my new growth was really kicking in(i was about two months post) and that we should go ahead and do the texturizer so i could stop relaxing.
I was sooo disappointed you guys.
I was in love with the dreams she was selling me

 

[BlackMasterPiece]

^^^WHAT a mess....the most trusted stylist is yourself @ the end of the day After you get the hang of things you'll have the stylists askin you for tips on the blue moon you go in for a trim like me

Plus when your hair gets really long natural you'd have to be lil' miss moneybags to afford getting it done at a certain point

Oh well my hair has thrived beyond my wildest dreams using me myself and I best stylist eva!!

 

[JerriBlank]

^^^WHAT a mess....the most trusted stylist is yourself @ the end of the day After you get the hang of things you'll have the stylists askin you for tips on the blue moon you go in for a trim like me

Plus when your hair gets really long natural you'd have to be lil' miss moneybags to afford getting it done at a certain point

Oh well my hair has thrived beyond my wildest dreams using me myself and I best stylist eva!!

Girl that's exactly what the heck i plan on doing
Now that i've bc'ed,i don't see myself going to a stylist for anything.
I'm positive my hair will be butchered.I know you do all that purty hair by yourself right?
Time to invest in a bomb diggity flat iron!

 

[JayAnn0513]

Can someone give me the definition of "natural", without using the words BKT or relaxer, i.e. is natural hair ONLY unaltered hair?

Hair that has not be permanently change by chemicals, in color or texture. Once I cut off all my relaxed/texlaxed ends I'll refer to my own hair as unrelaxed.

 

[sharifeh]

Who made the definition for AA women's hair that natural = curly, coily or kinky? Answer me that. I said who? You know what it doesn't even matter.

Once I cut off all my relaxed/texlaxed ends I'll refer to my own hair as unrelaxed.

Honestly, I don't see the big deal. This terminology only exists in certain places, like online lol, unless I'm wrong, but I've only heard of this terminology.
IRL, i say unrelaxed, or without a relaxer or curly or something. But I don't use the word "natural."

Honestly, I've never had a weave or a wig so if someone asked me if my hair was natural before the hair boards I would have said yes. I would have had no idea, what the word natural meant in that context. I would have thought they were talking about a weave or something?? Now I know what somebody might mean if they use that word. But I don't use it, only on the boards I do.

It's really just semantic games.
Everyone has their own personal definitions for some words
For me, natural was always alluding to whether you had a weave or not. Just in my silly little head. Now I know what it means in terms of being the opposite of relaxed (when I'm online).

I would call someone with a bkt "natural" as well since it is semi permanent (shrug)
Not that I know that much about it.

I wonder if some people think that someone with "natural" hair and a weave is still natural. To me that's ridiculous. But to others it's ridiculous to call someone with a BKT, or color "natural."

It's all semantics...
Nothing worthy of an argument...

But back to the OP, I wouldn't expect people to be on top of the hair fanatic terminology.
BUT, the story is still funny.