IS IT POSSIBLE TO TRANSITION WITHOUT BREAKAGE???

[Likeyouneverseenme]

I'm going on the 47th week of my transition and so far so good.
For a long time I though I didn't have any breakage but I've noticed that my hair is growing .5-.75" a month, so if i have 6-7" of new growth on my head, should not my hair be equally longer?

I definitely think it is the relaxed ends i have are so damaged that they just whither away, because I take really good care of my hair; I wear protective styles 99% of the time, no heat, co-wash every day, deep con or protein when needed, and in general I leave my hair alone.

Any of the transitioning ladies experienced the same or if not; what did you do to avoid breakage?

 

[Creatividual]

I'm 17 weeks into my transition and I experience very little breakage. I think as long as you maintain your moisture-protein balance you are good to go. I baby my ends like a mutha though. LOL. I'm going to get some more shea butter and seal my ends nightly with that. I am interested to see what the other ladies have to say.

 

[Napp]

i would love to transition with out breakage but my hair will always break around my edges. the rest of it will grow in evenly. i treat the rest of my hair rougher than my edges and all the hair is the same length root to tip. but my edges have broken all the way down to the NG

 

[jerjer29]

a lot of women who have transitioned for a long time but ended up getting relaxers also say that when they decided to go back to relaxers it was like they had gained no length at all from transitioning for over 6 months. While some transitioners say that the shrinkage from your natural hair growing in will make your relaxed hair appear as if it's not growing. Some women on this board have stretched relaxers for over 6 months and retained length. i've been transitioning for 4 months and i'd say my hair has grown 2 inches, though i did have trim about half an inch off.

 

[Chromia]

I don't have breakage, or I have a lot less breakage, if I use the right DC. The 2 that have worked for me recently are Pantene Pro-V Restoratives Time Renewal Replenishing Mask and Pantene Relaxed & Natural Breakage Defense Deep Conditioning Mask. When I detangled with those I didn't lose as much hair as I did with ORS Replenishing Conditioner (which used to work well earlier in my transition) and Redken Real Control Intense Renewal Mask.

 

[RedVelvet310]

I think it really depends on the person (because each head of hair is different) and also the condition the hair was/is in relaxed. I for example had damaged..weak.. breaking relaxed hair, I tried to transition to natural without BC-ing but my relaxed ends were breaking off anyway so I just gave up and cut it all off, my relaxed hair was simply not strong enough. If your relaxed hair is strong and healthy, I don't see a problem as to why you couldn't transition w/o a BC until you're at your goal natural length, the only real obstacle is being aware that there are two very different textures in your hair, and they both have to be cared for. One can't be ignored or your entire head of hair will suffer.

 

[BostonMaria]

I avoided breakage by getting my relaxed hair trimmed. It definitely helped! My hair was very healthy.
I also did Aphogee protein treatments every 4-6 weeks and it made my hair very manageable.
I had to rollerset every week to blend the two textures, otherwise it was a nightmare and tons of frizz.

Do you think that maybe you need to do the big chop? Not that you should do that if you're not ready. If I were you I would at least trim a 1/2 inch of the relaxed ends to see if that helps. HTH!

 

[TaraDyan]

I'm going on the 47th week of my transition and so far so good.
For a long time I though I didn't have any breakage but I've noticed that my hair is growing .5-.75" a month, so if i have 6-7" of new growth on my head, should not my hair be equally longer?

I definitely think it is the relaxed ends i have are so damaged that they just whither away, because I take really good care of my hair; I wear protective styles 99% of the time, no heat, co-wash every day, deep con or protein when needed, and in general I leave my hair alone.

Any of the transitioning ladies experienced the same or if not; what did you do to avoid breakage?

Hiya, Miss Norway!

The bolded paragraph is exactly what I did during my transition too ... all except that last sentence about leaving my hair alone. See ... I didn't do that. For me, it was Manipulation City. Trust and believe that I had my protein/moisture balance on lock, but we're talking about my strong natural hair that was fighting my chemically weakened hair. And what was I doing ... manhandling them like they were equals. My ends tried to fight the good fight, but most of them eventually gave up and went home.

Some people absolutely can transition without breakage ... and many have done so successfully (look at MissMarie for example). But I'd be willing to bet they kept their hands out of their hair most of the time.

I think just as long as you don't overmanipulate your locks and keep your moisture and protein in balance, you should be fine.

 

[Likeyouneverseenme]

 

[Ms_Ann]

I think it really depends on the person (because each head of hair is different) and also the condition the hair was/is in relaxed. I for example had damaged..weak.. breaking relaxed hair, I tried to transition to natural without BC-ing but my relaxed ends were breaking off anyway so I just gave up and cut it all off, my relaxed hair was simply not strong enough. If your relaxed hair is strong and healthy, I don't see a problem as to why you couldn't transition w/o a BC until you're at your goal natural length, the only real obstacle is being aware that there are two very different textures in your hair, and they both have to be cared for. One can't be ignored or your entire head of hair will suffer.

My heart sank when I read the bold sentence. I think I'm having the same problem and will have to go ahead and BC within the next few weeks. I co-washed again this morning and my hair was STILL breaking out while I attempted to detangle. I can say I'm losing the same amount of hair after each co-wash. Is that a good sign?

 

[chebaby]

im gonna go ahead and say yes you can transition without breakage. with that said i have been transitioning for 11 months and i have just started getting a lot of shedding and breakage. everytime i comb my hair there are long strands everywhere. so what i plan to do is baby my hair and shampoo and condition my hair with aphogee. i will also always pree poo and deep condition my hair.