Oh don't worry about me, my hair doesn't damage that easily!

[MAMATO]

IMHO, I had more damages with my natural hair than the relaxed one. My 4a hair tangles a lot and I had to wear protective styles all the time in order to keep some hair on my head. No puffs for me, the air would dry my hair so bad that I'd end up cutting a few inches. That happened once and I was like 6 or 8.
Tangles are a very personal traumatizing experience, you never know what they are unless you personally have to deal with them. When I was young, it basically took 3 people to comb my hair, one to hold my back tight on the chair, one to comb, and one in front of me with a back of candies for motivation and the knotting was so bad that I'd end up with two hands full of broken hair on top of that. My hair is very thick and my Mom used to say "God gives you a lot of hair, let him take some back from time to time in order to give it to somebody else". WTH, did I need to suffer for that, I am generous but

Well, it is different for everybody, my other sisters never had this problem. Good for them. So, after years of damaging and alterating my natural hair with pressing combs, I finally convinced my father -who is so against any kinds of relaxers - to relax my hair. I was 18 though and that's when I really started to enjoy my hair.

Good luck with your decision and I am sure whether you go natural or stay relaxed, your hair will be gorgeous.

 

[cmesweet]

This thread is lovely. Those were some of the questions I asked myself before I transitioned. Growing the 2 textures out wasn't hard for me because I didn't care to relax half of the time, so I would relax once every 3 to 4 months. However, caring about what other people thought and would say did make me hesitate. THat is why, after the third time I decided to grow for 4 months and instead of touchinng up, just cut it off.