Obsessed with new growth---but not transitioning

[serena]

My hair's behaviour isn't a problem at all. I was natural until somewhere in my late teens/early twenties (been so long now, I don't remember), and I know my hair is very easy to manage. Even if I have problems managing two textures while I'm transitioning, my all natural hair should be fine. My problem is having to wait until my natural hair attains a length I like. Vanity, thy name is Serena!

 

[26INCHHAIR]

Me too all the time. I love looking and touching my new growth. Im getting really proud. It is thick and beatiful

 

[inthepink]

jainygirl,

I was set to transition no matter how my hair behaved. A relaxer broke my hair off...that was enough of a scare for me. There are so many styles that you can wear while transitioning as well as with natural hair. So much variation! There is a thread on natural hair albums.

 

[Chichi]

Serena, why would transitioning delay your goal? I hoping that it will go like this for me. Say my goal is brastrap, I will continue my hair regimen to grow my hair with no relaxers

. I will continue to manage the two textures until I reach my goal. While transitioning, if I want a really straight look, I will just flatiron the roots.

When I do reach my goal, I will start cutting off the relaxed ends every three months or so (equivalent to the time when I would have a touchup).

i think most of us here who want to transition, do not want to do the BIG CHOP. We have already worked hard to attain the tresses that we have, so we want to hold onto them for as long as possible

.

My sister transitioned successfully with no big chop whatsoever.

Chichi

 

[serena]

Chichi, I wouldn't do a big chop either. But if I transition, I'd probably be trimming my relaxed hair off gradually, which would put a damper on retaining any extra length. As much as I'd like to hold on to all my hair, I think there'd probably come a time when I'd lose patience and be itching to have all natural hair, whether or not it was at my goal length. I doubt very much that I could wait until my natural hair is the length my relaxed hair currently is before I got rid of the relaxed hair.

 

[gvsugirl]

I thought I was the only one! To transition or not to transition. I cant decide!!

 

[Nay]

Move over, cause I'm in love too -- with my hair!!

I'm a natural, and in the past, my hair was okay, but I didn't remember especially "loving" it. It just seemed like a lot of work to press it, and I had to avoid humidity, couldn't workout, et cetera.

But for the past five months or so, I've been mostly wearing it in natural, unpressed styles, and that's when the love affair began!

Just this Sunday I washed my hair and was applying my various ointments as I twisted my hair, and I was just so happy and serene with my hair. Nowadays doing my hair is almost therapeutic. I'm really diggin' on it!

Yup, me and my hair are in LOVE!! Now excuse me while I go gaze in the mirror at it

 

[inthepink]

One reason I am glad be transitioning is that I can workout! I can workout and wash/rinse my hair afterwards and my hair can look just as good the very next day! Of course, this would mean I'd have to "start" working out...

 

[serena]

Nay, did you press with a flat iron or a pressing comb?

 

[Chichi]

One reason why I want to transition is to have more body in my hair. I had a small taste of this when I once went without a relaxer for ten months. When I did relax, my hair was soooo bouncy. I mean, the bounce was measured on the Richter scale. When I looked in the mirror, my hair had body like you would not believe. It was long and full. And why? It was because my hair was natural for 10 months. My hair never had that fullness and body when I relaxed continuously. It is full when relaxed but not as full.

I am hoping to get this really full look once I fully transition to a natural and use a flatiron for a straight style

.

Chichi

 

[inthepink]

me, too Chichi! I am so looking forward to the fullness again!

 

[AKAngel904]

You dont have to cut your relaxed hari. When I started transiting my relaxed hair was down to my bar strap. Im not cutting it because I love long hair, but I do keep it trimmed. But I also love mhy new growth its a nice wavy texture. I have my hiar twisted like Jill Scott and I still play wuth my new growith. I will say that the process is a love/hate one, but im still going 8 months strong!!!!!!!!!!

 

[BronzeBrown]

[ QUOTE ]
Nay said:
Nowadays doing my hair is almost therapeutic. I'm really diggin' on it!

[/ QUOTE ]

That's exactly how I feel with my [natural] hair as well. I love washing it in the shower, coming out when it's sooo soft and moist. Then I get to spray a delicious-smelling homemade mix on it or rub in a great moisturizer and it stays so touchable all day. I have to say that I went natural predominately for length - I wanted to get long hair. But now I'm at the point where I just love my texture so much, and my hair's softness, that it doesn't matter that it isn't yet my desired 11-14". In five minutes I can create a very full, chunky afro puff that gets admiring glances from men and women, black and non-black, when I wear it out(and this is a common experience for natural ladies!). I've begun to completely enjoy the here and now. You guys may find that as well, take the chance.

 

[felicia]

Thanks for posting this, I thought I was alone! I recently extended my relaxer, only by a few weeks, and I noticed how nice my new growth is. Its just like yours. It makes me wish my mother never put a relaxer in my head. I love playing with it. Like some of the other ladies here, I don't think I could transition. My hair is too long and I'd have a nervous breakdown if I decied to cut it all off.

 

[Nay]

"Nay, did you press with a flat iron or a pressing comb?"
---------
Serena, when I do press my hair, it is still the old-fashioned way -- with a pressing comb. I haven't tried the flat iron method yet.

But I try to jog every other day, and when I do, about a fist size area right behind my ear gets all sweated out. But I don't really worry about that when I'm rockin my twist-outs!

 

[soulchild]

I'm happy to see so many considering going natural.

Just remember, if you're scared, you don't have to be! You can always go back to relaxing at any time, it's not permanent if you don't want it to be.

Good luck ladies.

 

[aikaa71]

[ QUOTE ]
soulchild said:


Just remember, if you're scared, you don't have to be! You can always go back to relaxing at any time, it's not permanent if you don't want it to be.

Good luck ladies.

[/ QUOTE ]

Thats so true.

I was transitioning(made it to 17 weeks). im back to relaxing now.

 

[GodMadeMePretty]

I'm on the hump too. My hair is extremely thick and my strands are thick too. I feel my new growth all the time. I have hand-in-hair-itis. That's why my semi-buns look horrible. I'm always underneath that top layer feeling the new growth. It's soft and silky and wavy. I guess I'm in the 4s but I don't have any coils, there's a definite wave, but it's so thick that it won't lay down completely flat (like a relaxer) without some help from a scarf.

And at first, I was thinking, what is up with the temple edges of my hair? Now that's super curly, unlike the rest of my hair. It won't lay down for very long. Then I had an epiphany. I frenchbraided the edges. Two thin strands. Voila'. Much better. Now it looks like the rest. So now my braidout today doesn't look fuzzy around the edges. It looks like the rest of it. French-braid outs are the only thing that blends all my hair. I found that the plaits weren't really enough for the roots. THe first person I saw this morning before I had a chance to say good morning told me that my hair looked very nice. She knows that I'm thinking about transitioning and she is very encouraging (sistah) even though she is relaxed. She says that she thinks that I would look cute with a TWA locked or twisted.

Uh, nuh. I don't think so. My hair has never been less than chin length (and then only after a stylist "trimmed" me and cut off about 3-4 inches and in the process burned my scalp horribly and made my scalp sensitive from that point on. That was when RIO came out and I almost went for that, ya'll. But their customer service was so bad that I cancelled the order before they even shipped it to me. Glad I avoided that. Whew!! I had a friend who did try it and her hair started shedding like crazy.) But I digress.

I'm trying to decide and so far my natural hair is winning. When I start back working out, I'll see. When I do work out, I'm fanatical about it, doing it about 5-6 days per week.

 

[brittanynic16]

OMG!! I have been thiking about the same thing. But, the am afraid because I do not know how to manage natural hair.

 

[skegeesmb]

I liked being natural. I did a huge cut the first time. The next time I go natural I will transition. I will cut my hair slowly. The last time I transitioned was when I was 12. Since I've done it both ways, I feel more comfortable this time with a decision to transition rather than cut. And since I know what my hair is like, I'm not all excited this time around.

But two years ago, I was so excited I cut after 4 months.

 

[sassygirl125]

[ QUOTE ]
hairlove said:
I can workout and wash/rinse my hair afterwards and my hair can look just as good the very next day! Of course, this would mean I'd have to "start" working out...

[/ QUOTE ]

 

[pookeylou]

I had to chime in...I had serious hand in fro disease when I was a permie...but when I transitioned it was out of control...now that I am natural....

Lets just say that...I condition washed my hair last night...and one of my coils...well...(I'm getting verclempt) actually stood up on its own! My husband said when he pulled it...he heard it go "BOING"!!! I HAD TO TAKE A PICTURE OF IT!!!!

I LOVE THIS STUFF....I am finding more and more as I play in it...it is getting out of control...and because the shea butter makes it so soft...I feel like I have an angora bunny on my head...

Ladies...for those of you on the fence about transitioning...I feel your aprehension...I transitioned for 7 months before I did the chop...I know MANY that did it longer...I am glad I took that time...It was what I needed to get to know my hair again...I have not regretted a moment of it...and now that my hair is 100% natural...I know I did the right thing...

The fact that I can wear my hair straight one day (by pressing or flat ironing) and then curly the next...the fact that I dont worry about humidity any more cause it just makes my hair bounce even better...the fact that, when it gets longer...I can blow people away with the decieving length that it will have (shoulder length natural hair + blow drying and flat ironing = DOUBLE THE LENGTH) when I wear my hair straight...I think that is what makes natural hair so wonderful...it is the most VERSITILE HAIR on the planet.

Just like many are learning how to handle permed hair...we can learn how to handle natural hair too.

 

[jainygirl]

i LOVE your hair pookey

It's so thick and pretty.

 

[pookeylou]

[ QUOTE ]
jainygirl said:
i LOVE your hair pookey

It's so thick and pretty.

[/ QUOTE ]


Thank you so much...and trust me...it was NEVAH that thick when I permed...

 

[jainygirl]

okay, i took a small lock of my hair and cut it from the middle of my new growth

i'm gonna monitor this little patch as i use my Sta Sof Fro and other products to see how it likes or dislikes different things. Also i get to see it without all the relaxed hair pulling it down so i can see how it REALLY looks

--yeah, yeah--i'm a cheater...so what

This stretching out my relaxer is getting pretty interesting

 

[CocoaCure]

Sassygirl I LOVE your Avatar!!!! THat is my fantasy hair, just waist length!!! LOVE IT!! I'm relaxed, but when I was natural I did the Big Chop!! Actually I had one of my best friends do it but she was scared and trying not to take too much (bless her), so I grabbed the scissors and just took a huge chunk out of the front of my head and she almost fainted!! Hahahahaha! So then she HAD to cut the rest to even me up! AFter that drama, I simply wet it, worked in a little gel and voila! I had this super cute curly short due! I can't really call it a TWA, but it was a curly/wavy TWA!! But I really LOVED it when it grew out long! My hair is sooooooooooooooo super thick that the transitioning process last time was just bugging the *&%(^% out of me, so that's why I made the decision to just Chop it! But now that I belong to this board, I wouldn't be so alone in my journey and I'd be able to talk with lots of you guys who are doing the same thing. Plus, I just know so much more about haircare now than I did back then! So I don't know...........once I reach brastrap length, I just may have to join the transitioners club!!