Ladies Who Went From Relaxed To Natural or Texturized

[Stormy]

Within the last three years...

What was your reason, and have you seen a dramatic improvement? If so in what way? If not, why do you think so? I am seriously planning to transition. I got my last relaxer last month. That's it for me. Let me just share this with you:

My Reasons for Considering to Wear My hair Natural
​

1. I'm tired of all the things I have to do to keep my relaxed hair healthy and looking good. It's becoming so time consuming. And I’m tired of my hair being under or over processed. No matter which salon I go to, the stylist always eventually takes it out.



2. I like seeing my natural hair (the little that I do see when I have quite a bit of new growth), but I don't like the two textures. I'd like to stretch my relaxers more beyond 8-10 weeks, but the two textures just don't work together.



3. I'd like to see what I would look like with a whole head of natural hair. I haven't seen this since I was 14! I'm 37 now.



4. I'd like to see if I wear my hair natural if it will thicken up some. It seems to always thicken up some when I wear braids. But, once the braids are out for a long length of time as it grows, and I keep getting it relaxed the ends start to thin out.



5. Over all, I'd like to see if wearing my hair natural would be healthier for my hair than wearing it relaxed. I think it will be stronger.



I remember when I was 14; my mother put a curl in my hair that didn't take. My aunt sent me to the beauty salon, and the stylist cut all of my hair down to a TWA. Every week she would just wash, condition, moisturize, then pick it. 6 months later my hair was past my ears! She finally pressed it one day and it was very pretty and thick! Now, I wonder what would have happened had I kept going that route.


I know the transition will be difficult, but my plan is to get about 3 months of new growth, then cut the rest of the relaxed hair off. I plan to wear braids off and on while letting it grow out.

So, talk to me ladies. Thanks!

 

[PittGirl06]

I am transitioning so I am not fully natural yet.

I decided to transition because I got tired of having to go for touch ups every so often. Especially since my mother decided I had "too much hair" and it wore her down to perm it (My hair was just to my shoulders) so I had to go to the salon to get it done and that could be $$. No as expensive back home (around 30 to 40) but at school perms are ridiculous (65-70 bucks).

I have not seen my natural hair since I was about 4. My mom got tired of doing my natural hair, so she permed it....said my and my sister's natural hair broke her down! My sis had a lot more hair than I did...always has....an her hair grows fast too.

Also, my hair does not grow well with a relaxer. It used to until one time I got my hair cut to my shoulders.....since then, it NEVER grew past the shoulders...it woul get there and just breka off no matter what. I want my long hair back!

I have noticed thicker, stronger hair and a lot more growth. I am almost one year post relaxer and I can currently stretch my hair (with all relaxed ends) to my collar bone....at least a section of it. If I got a perm today, my hair would be the longest it's been since I was about 9 years old. I am 21 now.

I also find that when I put products in my hair to keep it moisturized, they take better...that is, they actually keep my hair moisturized! Before, my hair would be moisturized for a bit but then dry up again. My hair tends to be dry but it stays particularly dry when I have a relaxer.

I am not sure if I will BC this summer or not...I get lots of tangles from the war between my relaxed ends and my new growth. I may have to chop sooner than anticipated (intended to do a 2 year transition with little chops int he second year). Been using braids...

 

[Stormy]

I also find that when I put products in my hair to keep it moisturized, they take better...that is, they actually keep my hair moisturized! Before, my hair would be moisturized for a bit but then dry up again. My hair tends to be dry but it stays particularly dry when I have a relaxer.

I go through that too! Unless I'm wearing it in a bun and keep spraying it with my Leisure curl spray everyday.

Thanks Pittgirl your hair is really thick!

 

[Porsche19]

I used to want to be fully relaxed, but nature stopped me from doing it (extremely resistant hair)

My texturized hair is as healthy as it's ever been, easier to handle than my natural hair (less tangling and it's softened) and it doesn't shrink as much plus I can go from curly to straight with no heat added if I want to.

So I'll never go back to wanting to be fully relaxed. Being completely natural is a maybe, but not anytime soon.

 

[Stormy]

My texturized hair is as healthy as it's ever been, easier to handle than my natural hair (less tangling and it's softened) and it doesn't shrink as much plus I can go from curly to straight with no heat added if I want to.

So I'll never go back to wanting to be fully relaxed. Being completely natural is a maybe, but not anytime soon.

Wow! If my hair starts getting too difficult to handle natural I may consider getting a texturizer too, but I don't think I'll ever go back to being fully relaxed again either.

Thanks!

 

[Netta1]

I decided to go natural because............


1. I just wanted to be me

2. I wanted my hair to be as healthy as possible

3. I was tired of feeling like I HAD to have a perm

4. I loved the way my new growth felt

5. I saw soooooo many beautiful pictures of nappy sisters on another site

Funny before I went natural I was looking at "natural relaxers" as a possiblity....BUT then I got educated (I found out there was no such thing as a natural relaxer), AND I continued on my quest to really be free.

Whats also funny is it took me a minute to get comfortable with my natural hair....BUT once I did OHHHHH man, nobody could tell me NOTHING! LOL

Nothing like having your husband call you queen, as you rock your afro. :0)

 

[SilkyandSmooth]

I'm 11 months into my transition from relaxed to natural and I couldn't be happier. I love love love the natural hair that I do have and can't wait to have a full head of it. I stopped relaxing b/c:

1. I was tired of my relaxed hair. It wasn't thick enough for me. I also didn't like the straightness of relaxed hair anymore.
2. I got tired of caring for relaxed hair. My natural hair is so much easier to take care of.
3. No more salons!

 

[caligirl]

I decided to transition because I wanted to give my natural hair a chance. I never knew that natural hair could be styled and beautiful, no matter what the texture. I thought the only options were pressed or an afro. Plus, I envy all of the women who can wear their hair natural and just let it be. They don't have to avoid water and pay someone else to "do" their hair every 2 weeks.
A lot of other women in this world wear their hair natural...why can't I?

 

[options]

I was natural for all but two years of my life. I am now texturized and have been for about six months. I am having a great time with my hair. When I was natural, I experienced a good deal of breakage because of the hair intertwining unto itself. Plus, I got tired of my length never showing.

Texturizing was the happiest medium for me. My hair has springy coils and curls without all the time and effort of twisting. Plus, I can straighten it easily and it will hold up until it's washed. And it looks natural unless I straigthen it.

The texture is not much different than my natural hair, but the change in texture has meant that I retain length more easily and my hair is less dried out, as it absorbs products much more easily.

 

[Kiadodie]

I'm going from relaxed to texturized because my hair is thinning out. I just started this last month. I started to relax it at home myself.

 

[jainygirl]

Hey Stormy !!! I'm just butting in to say that you are so cute and petite a twa would look gorgeous on you!! 3 months of new growth is a little more than i had when i B.C'ed. . When you saw me at the Atlanta meeting, i'm not sure if you can remember, i had just chopped 2 weeks before. Again i think you will look fabulous with natural hair girl. -- jainygirl

 

[Tonya]

I transitioned becuase i wanted natural hair BUT I was not patient enough to dela with the two textuires. My texturized hair is WAY thicker and healthier than when I was relaxed. I am seriously considering transitioning to natural...I jsut started my transition. I persoanlly think it will be easier this time becuas emy textures are so similar this go around.

 

[naptrl]

Hey stormy!!
I got tired of sitting in a salon every few weeks spendin my money to get relaxed over and over and over again!!

I spend much less money b/c even though I can be a PJ at times, it doesn't add up to what I was spending at salons!

I was jealous of white people who had hair that they could just wash and go. I thought, "why can't black people do that?" DUHH! Never realized WE COULD!!!

I started noticing that I had curly hair and thought it would be fun to be natural.

I'm lovin it! It's easier for me and I can't wait for it to get long enough for me to have a long curly ponytail!!

I love dispelling myths about natural 'black' hair!

I had a hard time at first, though, I must admit! I hate short hair, so as you know I was complaining to you all at the ATL meeting! But my hair grew a ton since then as you can see from my album! Now I couldn't imagine being relaxed again!

Be free! And enjoy the journey!

 

[nurseN98]

Hey Stormy, congratulations on your decision to go natural! It's a great thing

When I decided to go natural, it was a bit inadvertantly. In 2002 I had long, relaxed hair..almost brastrap. I moved to Massachusetts and my hair does not like the water here. It started falling out immediately. So originally while I tried to figure out what to do, I stopped relaxing my hair because I used to do it myself. That winter I wore it under a wrap for about 80% of the time. Not long after I found LHCF and another hair board. I'd had a few months of new growth by that time which seemed not to be as affected by the water, I just decided that I would grow out my hair and not relax anymore. I was just tired of the time it took to do it, tired of the smell and the awful feeling on my scalp no matter how much I based it before I put on the relaxer. I was just tired of it. I was inspired by the naturals on LHCF and other sites.

So I didn't really plan as much, my transitioning just started as a way to give my hair a break. My mother had transitioned a few years before (also inadvertantly) and today she has the thickest hair. My hair has also gotten thicker and the balding patches that developed when I first got here have grown in nicely. I don't regret it at all.

 

[Stormy]

You ladies have some beautiful hair! Netta I looove that natural weave that you used to wear. I love your hair now even more! It sure grew a lot Love the twists.

Tonya your hair grew a lot too! So fast! It's so pretty. See that's what I'm talking about. Everyone's hair looks so thick and healthy!

Yes Jainygirl I remember! I still can't belieeeeve that was only about four months ago. Pretty soon your hair will be down your back again! Thanks for the vote of confidence for the TWA. I'm soooo ready to just cut it now! I'm going to take it one step at a time just to be safe. But, if I get any more sick of it....it's GOT TA GO!

You ladies are so inspiring! Thank you so much! I never knew all of the styles that we can wear our natural hair in until now.

Keep 'em coming.

 

[ThursdayGirl]

I finally decided to do it because I haven't seen my texture in about 18 years.

I was tired (still am) of getting touch-ups and feeling like I had to get my hair touched up every so often

Tired of worrying about finding a new stylist and would they take my hair by over or underprocessing my hair.

It was expensive!

I am trying to move to Europe and heard its pretty hard to find someone good with chemicals and black hair there.

I think it would be cool to wear my hair extra curly and big for awhile

The rest of my family is either transitioning or has had natural hair most of their lives. I want to have that too.

Want to have a more natural/healthier approach to grooming.

All that being said... relaxing is a styling option. If being natural doesn't work out... maybe I will go to texturizing or relaxing again. One thing I have learned... at least with 2 textures... doing my hair was a lot faster when I was relaxed

 

[locabouthair]

well I went from relaxed to pressed to natural. With the relaxer I experienced a lot of breakage had 2 bald spots, I cut the damage parts and I still had breakage so I grew the perm out.While transitioning I wore braids off and on . I never did the BC I trimmed every now and then and when I wasn't wearing braids I was pressing the roots because the ends were permed. However now I am tired of pressing my hair because I always have to worry about it reverting and I think that I don't retain my length because of the constant heat. Plus I will be saving money if I do my natural hair myself. Even when I was pressing I was not seeing as much breakage as I had with the perm.I'll be honest if I didn't have problems with the perm I'd probably be relaxed today.

 

[Healthb4Length]

I think that I relaxed because of;
1. complete ignorance (straight hair=beauty)
2. Didn't know on better (kinky hair=hard to handle hair)
3. I wanted to fit in

On a whim 5 years ago I decided to go completely natural...I absolutely love it! My hair is thick so I got a lot of attention (both positive and negative) I felt so good. But as my hair started to grow (past shoulder lenght) I had a difficult time styling and controlling it (I didn't know about LHCF then!) so I caved into pressure and I texturized...my mother didn't like it so I had to take out the curls even more (my house my rules yada yada... ) I was completely straight but my hair would stay at one lenght and that was shoulder lenght and it was always dryerplexed . I got into an argument with a friend (caucasian) who said that blacks could never have long hair...I was P.O.ed and from that point I set out to prove her and many others wrong. And I have. I decided to texturize once again because I like the versatility of being semi-natural and then again rockin it straight...just because. I don't think that I could ever go back to being completely straight (too boring for me). What I love is nowadays there are so many style options for natural and semi natural hair.

 

[Tru_Mind]

[size=+1]Whew…I get to vent some more! [/size]

I missed the look and feel of my natural hair.

I love looking at my pre-relaxed hair pictures.

I fell in love with my new growth.

I begin to love the way my new growth felt.

Every time I would relax it would ruin all of my hard work and attention that I gave to my hair in between relaxing.

Relaxing change my hair texture.

Relaxing made my hair brittle and dry (I have fine and extremely soft hair...even when my relaxed hair was dry and brittle it still was extremely soft).

My hair never held moisture, so I washed every 3 days in order to put moisture back in. (I wanted to wash every 2 days, but that was pushing it).

No product seemed to be the best for my hair. I bought/ordered almost every product that sounded good for my hair.

I was a product junkie, because no product really worked.

Even going to stylist didn't make my relaxers come out better. It became even drier with them. They comb my relaxers though telling me that it would make my hair silkier. My hair being so soft and not thick couldn't take that. So, I relaxed my own hair.

After relaxing my own hair for years off and on I began to stretch my relaxers out, leave them in for a short period of time, and use only mild relaxers (I didn't even know that was called texturizing).

Texturizing enabled me to see the beauty of my natural hair, which really made me want to grow my relaxer out ASAP. Unfortunately, I used dyes in the very beginning of my transitioning period and ruined my ends and scalp so much that I thought that I was going to wake the next morning and see my hair lying on my pillow or in my scarf.

I transitioned for at least 7 months. Instead of cutting my relaxed ends off and being natural…I relaxed again. I wasn’t comfortable with extremely short hair, I had just grew my hair out of an extremely short hair cut and wasn’t ready for another. Also, I was too stressed with dealing with two textures. Now, my natural curl pattern is kind of loose, but it wasn’t then…especially when it dried in its natural state, because it was very dry. I knew that it was due to the fact that I had used permanent hair dyes, which I’ve never ever used before, and the fact that my scalp was damaged and on fire was the cause of my new growth growing in the way that it did. I didn’t know about scab hair or WGHO, so I relaxed in order to immediately relieve the stress of dealing with two textures.

As soon as I finished styling my freshly relaxed hair if felt as if my heart had been broken...all that hard work for nothing. In order to stop myself from crying I had to promised myself that I would try harder next time…and I did. I stayed on the net hours at a time searching for answers. I found nappturality.com, naturallycurly.com, and WGHO. All of them transitioning so much easier for me the second time around. Through nappturally.com I found LHCF. One of the nappturality.com ladies had LHCF listed as one of her favorite sites, so I visited...and I’ve been here ever since. I had already transitioned by the time I found LHCF.

The second time around was soooo much easier it didn’t even feel like I was transitioning. This is when I completely feel in love with my new growth. I only transitioned for 6/7 months with the help of WGHO (helped my hair grow at a much faster rate than ever before). I used my chin as my cutting line, and what ever grew past my chin I cut, because I was comfortable with chin length hair.

This is why I will NEVER take WGHO off of my product list.

 

[sharee]

Well I am not completely natural but I have been transitioning for 7 months. I was just tired of looking like a wet cat/dog...all that stringy greasy (I was trying to keep it from drying out) hair. I also went bald on the sides of my hair. I can say that in 7 months I have seen a tremendous improvement! I always complain that I want to go back to relaxed hair but everyday I transiton, I realize that it has been the best choice for me. I've attached a photo showing the difference (the first picture is a couple of days after my relaxer and the second is after blowdrying and wrapping hair).

 

[Phoenix]

I used to want to be fully relaxed, but nature stopped me from doing it (extremely resistant hair)

That's what happened to me. I went natural because I wanted something low maintenance. I had planned to keep a twa for a while but then I got engaged and decided that I wanted to do an updo for the wedding, so I started growing my hair out. Once my natural hair got longer it was just too much to control, so I decided to get it relaxed. No such luck. After being natural for 1 1/2 years my hair just REFUSED to relax. I relaxed my whole head 3 times (which was crazy) and the coils got looser each time, but nowhere near straight. So I decided to go with it. I really liked my hair texturized. My curls were very defined and it was much easier to manage than when I was all natural. The only problem is that I have different textures on my head. The front is more wavy than curly, the middle, back, and one side are curly and the other side is just nappy. I could never get the textures to match when I texturized. That was the only drawback to being texturized, in my opinion.

 

[honeisos]

I had been natural .. in my teens for a year... then in then in my very earlier 20's for a yr...

I "play" with my hair a lot... it has been every color and style that there is...
well about 2yrs ago my hair broke off from a bad dye job ...
my hair was a mess ... I had to get a short cut ... I loved my cut ... but when it started growing out ... my hair would not lay right ....
and ...I have big hair.... and during the summer's in NYC it gets very hot and humid... so every summer ... I wash and go and would not relax my hair during the summer... and this was before LHCF.. ..

last spring/summer ... I started my wash and go .... and decide to try to go natural... but I couldn't hold out and did a relaxer in aug... after 5 months of trans.
well my hair was big fat mess... it looked like a blown out afro...
that's when my sister told me to join LHCF and stick to trans.

Well i'm now in my 9th month( after relax in aug) ... my hair was at chin length when I started now it is shoulder length....
my hair is strong and beautiful... I love it... I alway get compliments on it have embraced my big full hair ....

 

[Mitre]

I think that I relaxed because of;
1. complete ignorance (straight hair=beauty)
2. Didn't know on better (kinky hair=hard to handle hair)
3. I wanted to fit in

On a whim 5 years ago I decided to go completely natural...I absolutely love it! My hair is thick so I got a lot of attention (both positive and negative) I felt so good. But as my hair started to grow (past shoulder lenght) I had a difficult time styling and controlling it (I didn't know about LHCF then!) so I caved into pressure and I texturized...my mother didn't like it so I had to take out the curls even more (my house my rules yada yada... ) I was completely straight but my hair would stay at one lenght and that was shoulder lenght and it was always dryerplexed . I got into an argument with a friend (caucasian) who said that blacks could never have long hair...I was P.O.ed and from that point I set out to prove her and many others wrong. And I have. I decided to texturize once again because I like the versatility of being semi-natural and then again rockin it straight...just because. I don't think that I could ever go back to being completely straight (too boring for me). What I love is nowadays there are so many style options for natural and semi natural hair.

You poor thing usually it is the other way around. mothers donot want you to relax your hair to soon

 

[Lee]

I started to transition because I started noticing thinning edges and bald spots in the front. I'm currently in braids. I plan on continuing the braids for 6 months cutting 1 to 2 inches in the interim. I'm excited about my transition because I have decided to put in sisterlocks in November. A treat for my birthday. Good luck to all that are in the transition phase.

 

[Victorian]

My hair was relaxed for most of my life--I just became fully natural a few weeks ago. My hair never really seemed to mind being relaxed. It's been fairly long for as long as I can remember. This is part of the reason why I transitioned for a year and a half. Plus I'm sort of style challenged and wanted to have enough to work with.

I decided to go natural because my mom had always done my relaxer and I knew once I moved out on my own eventually I'd either have to learn to do the relaxer myself, or pay to have it done at a salon. Since I've never had to pay more than about $7 for a relaxer (the cost of the box relaxer ) paying for a professional to do it each time seemed out of the question for me. I was apprehensive about relaxing my own hair.
And since I only really got touch ups about 3 or 4 times a year anyway, I felt I would probably be able to handle transitioning. I've never had to take care of my hair all natural before, so it has been a learning process but I think I'm doing fine so far.
I'm pretty low maintenence when it comes to hairstyles so even though I'm natural now I probably still won't be doing all sorts of fancy styles. I'll be wearing my hair in a ponytail most of the time once the front gets long enough to pull back all the way. I tried yesterday but still needed a barrette to keep the front pulled back--plus my puff is sort of anemic looking right now . In the meantime I'm wearing scarves and bandanas to hold the front down and I'm just leaving the back loose. I'll take a picture soon--it's cute .
Anyhow, once I get used to dealing with my natural hair when it has a bit more length, I doubt it will be much easier or harder than dealing with my relaxed hair. I just won't have to get touchups and stuff. Simple is good

 

[BLESSED1]

I transitioned for a year and have been natural for about a week now ( guess that makes me a "natural" I decided to go natural because I was just sick of putting relaxer chemicals in my hair, and I realized that I wanted to give my natural curls a chance to be in the spotlight you know? Plus I was inspired by the albums of all of the beautiful natural-haired ladies here, and my friends that are natural...

 

[Stormy]

Hey stormy!!
I got tired of sitting in a salon every few weeks spendin my money to get relaxed over and over and over again!!

I spend much less money b/c even though I can be a PJ at times, it doesn't add up to what I was spending at salons!

I was jealous of white people who had hair that they could just wash and go. I thought, "why can't black people do that?" DUHH! Never realized WE COULD!!!

I started noticing that I had curly hair and thought it would be fun to be natural.

I'm lovin it! It's easier for me and I can't wait for it to get long enough for me to have a long curly ponytail!!

I love dispelling myths about natural 'black' hair!

I had a hard time at first, though, I must admit! I hate short hair, so as you know I was complaining to you all at the ATL meeting! But my hair grew a ton since then as you can see from my album! Now I couldn't imagine being relaxed again!

Be free! And enjoy the journey!

Oh! Naptrl girl I didn't see that you posted before. We must have been typing at the same time or something. Anyway I NEVER would have thought your hair was that short!! From the meeting until now?! Wow! That's A LOT of growth! It's so pretty and curly too! It looks even better than the braids. I know you're glad you took them out.

 

[Stormy]

I like the venting ladies! It shows how strong you all are for sticking with your decision! That's encouraging especially since I just told my husband and my son that I want their barber to cut my hair when I'm ready. I've been telling my husband I'm going natural for about a week now, but he didn't believe me until I said I want my hair cut neat like his! I'm leaning more towards the big chop and starting off with a TWA. Anyway, my husband thinks something is wrong with me?! I'm laughing at him though! My poor son... he don't know no better talking about I'm not gonna look right. He'll be ok. I'm not even about to call my mother or sister or anybody else in my family because I know they'll start trippin' as hair hungry as they are. I've made up my mind. I'm gonna do it and that's that. Let 'em keep shaking their heads and looking crazy, I'll cut it right now!

So vent on ladies!

 

[balisi]

I decided to return to natural hair because:
I could have the best of both worlds (textured or straight) whenever I chose.
No more touchups, no more burns.
I found out that relaxed hair is not healthy hair, no matter how good it looks.
There is so much more support for natural hair these days, in the form of products, hairstyles, awareness, and respect.
I remembered my natural texture and wanted to experience it again, with the benefit of the supporting products and styles, etc.
No worries about getting my hair wet.
Ease.
I absolutely love my natural hair!

 

[hungry4info]

I decided to go natural because............

1. I just wanted to be me
2. I wanted my hair to be as healthy as possible
3. I was tired of feeling like I HAD to have a perm
4. I loved the way my new growth felt
5. I saw soooooo many beautiful pictures of nappy sisters on another site

Funny before I went natural I was looking at "natural relaxers" as a possiblity....BUT then I got educated (I found out there was no such thing as a natural relaxer), AND I continued on my quest to really be free.

Whats also funny is it took me a minute to get comfortable with my natural hair....BUT once I did OHHHHH man, nobody could tell me NOTHING! LOL

Ditto!

Let me add...

My sister is natural and she wears her natural hair WELL!
If I didn't get my hair "fixed", I didn't want to go out anywhere.
If I didn't have any money to get it "fixed", I "wouldn't" go anywhere.
That was too much control over my livelyhood and well-being.
Now when it rains, I walk to my car, unless it's cold.