DozenRoses99
New Member
I'm not sure if there is already a thread on here with advice specifically for long term transitioning to natural hair, but I thought that it would be helpful to start one. I know that there are a lot of people who are amazed that we could transition for 12+ months without major breakage. Before reading hair books and finding this website, I was one of those people who thought that it was mandatory to get a relaxer retouch at least every 2 months or all my hair would fall out. Below are some of the things that I have found which helped me transition for 20 months so far :
1) Conditioner washes once or twice a week (or more) - this has helped my hair to not be dry and to retain moisture
2) Limit the use of shampoos with sulfate - I believe sulfates really dried out my hair and caused breakage
3) Avoid products with cones and mineral oil - these ingredients seemed to make my hair more dry
4) Learning which products worked for me and which didn't - it took a few attempts but I was able to find the products (mainly based on ingredients) that didn't cause breakage
5) Limit use of products with heavy protein - I'm not sure why, but for some reason proteins didn't agree with my hair during my transition
6) Low maintenance hairstyles - rollersets, buns, and braidouts mainly
7) Mini-chops every 3 to 4 months keeping hair at APL - not sure if this really helped, but I wanted to throw this in here. I mainly did the mini-chops because I didn't want to tempt myself to relax after seeing all the growth.
If I think of any other things, I will add them to this thread. I'm hoping that my fellow long term transitioners will add helpful hints, also.
1) Conditioner washes once or twice a week (or more) - this has helped my hair to not be dry and to retain moisture
2) Limit the use of shampoos with sulfate - I believe sulfates really dried out my hair and caused breakage
3) Avoid products with cones and mineral oil - these ingredients seemed to make my hair more dry
4) Learning which products worked for me and which didn't - it took a few attempts but I was able to find the products (mainly based on ingredients) that didn't cause breakage
5) Limit use of products with heavy protein - I'm not sure why, but for some reason proteins didn't agree with my hair during my transition
6) Low maintenance hairstyles - rollersets, buns, and braidouts mainly
7) Mini-chops every 3 to 4 months keeping hair at APL - not sure if this really helped, but I wanted to throw this in here. I mainly did the mini-chops because I didn't want to tempt myself to relax after seeing all the growth.
If I think of any other things, I will add them to this thread. I'm hoping that my fellow long term transitioners will add helpful hints, also.
