Pregnant! Any Relaxed/Transitioning/Natural Moms?

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Nyambura

surfer girl
My dh and I have been blessed with a little bun in the oven, our first. /images/graemlins/trampoline.gif I've been wondering whether there are any women here who continued to relax during pregnancy - and if so, did you take any extra precautions, such as reducing the number of touch-ups, extra-basing, etc.? And for those who didn't relax during pregnancy, either natural or transitioning - did you wear braids, cornrows or other protective styles as the pregnancy progressed? How did you maintain your hair daily? Did you have to alter your regular hair regimen? I'm asking because I'm exhausted all the time but I know I can't go to work looking like "who thought it." /images/graemlins/smirk.gif

Thank you in advance, ladies, for your help. It will be much appreciated. /images/graemlins/kiss.gif
 
first of all, CONGRATULATIOPNS!!!!!


as far as i know (and i admit i dont know that much about it) relaxing your hair is a very bad idea....for the same reason why pregnant women are told not to dye their hair while pregnant...chemicals is chemicals and they certainly cant HELP the baby!
 
Congratulations /images/graemlins/clap.gif
I relaxed only once when I was 5 months pregnant. I heard it is not good to relax till you are in your second trimester for the baby's safety.
I wore braids and my hair grew like wild grass unfortunately I cut it all off as soon as I delivered the baby.
 
Congratulations! I would try to relax once somewhere in the 2nd trimester (say around 15-20 weeks) and then try to hold off until just before the babys born or right after. I know for me freshly relaxed hair is just easier to deal with when you have a new baby in the house. No detangling and dealing with a bush of new growth.
 
[ QUOTE ]
My dh and I have been blessed with a little bun in the oven, our first. /images/graemlins/trampoline.gif I've been wondering whether there are any women here who continued to relax during pregnancy - and if so, did you take any extra precautions, such as reducing the number of touch-ups, extra-basing, etc.? And for those who didn't relax during pregnancy, either natural or transitioning - did you wear braids, cornrows or other protective styles as the pregnancy progressed? How did you maintain your hair daily? Did you have to alter your regular hair regimen? I'm asking because I'm exhausted all the time but I know I can't go to work looking like "who thought it." /images/graemlins/smirk.gif

Thank you in advance, ladies, for your help. It will be much appreciated. /images/graemlins/kiss.gif

[/ QUOTE ]


Congratulations /images/graemlins/baby2.gif I just had my 4th child 2 months ago and I relaxed during my whole pregnancy. I use to color my hair prior to pregnancy, but once DH and I found out I only relaxed my hair. I didn't change my hair route I had to stop using rosemary oil that was it. It didn't give me any problems at all, but since this is your 1st talk to your ob-gyn.
 
Thank you ladies for your warm blessings. /images/graemlins/smile.gif If I relax, I will definitely wait until my second trimester. I wish I could ask my ob-gyn but he's a Caucasian guy who knows little about relaxers or AA hair in general (welcome to Minnesota, lol). /images/graemlins/smirk.gif
Bumping for more responses....
 
You are truly blessed!

For your hair: Dr. Susan Taylor's book, "Brown Skin; Dr. Susan Taylor's Prescription for Flawless Skin, Hair, and Nails," states the following: during pregnancy you can "Style your hair as you would normally but avoid relaxers and other chemicals (hair coloring) during the first trimester" (since that's the stage when the baby's organs are still forming).

She also goes on to say, "If you do decide to relax your hair, I suggest only one chemical treatment during the second or third trimester of your pregnancy."

Hope this helps and may God bless you all with a healthy, beautiful baby and an easy pregnancy! /images/graemlins/smile.gif
 
Congratulations! It will be an experience you will never forget.

I didn't relax and just did a whole lot of condition washes and deep conditioning. I wore my hair up in french twists and updo's and buns.
 
Congratulations!!!!!! I'm so happy for you! Babies are a blessing and I can't wait to have one of my own.
I second what the other ladies said about not relaxing until the second trimester. You could try braiding to avoid manipulating the hair with 2 textures and to make it hassle free.
 
Congratulations! I also can't wait till I'm able to have a little one of my own. I would hold out until the second trimester. A lady in my office is pregnant, and she usually colors and perms (not relaxes she's Italian), she hasn't done it since she found out she was preggo.

Just think of it as stretching out your relaxer for 14-15 weeks (I don't remember actually how long the first trimester is, so I overestimated for safety).
 
[ QUOTE ]
You are truly blessed!

For your hair: Dr. Susan Taylor's book, "Brown Skin; Dr. Susan Taylor's Prescription for Flawless Skin, Hair, and Nails," states the following: during pregnancy you can "Style your hair as you would normally but avoid relaxers and other chemicals (hair coloring) during the first trimester" (since that's the stage when the baby's organs are still forming).

She also goes on to say, "If you do decide to relax your hair, I suggest only one chemical treatment during the second or third trimester of your pregnancy."

Hope this helps and may God bless you all with a healthy, beautiful baby and an easy pregnancy! /images/graemlins/smile.gif

[/ QUOTE ]

From your mouth to God's ear! Thanks for the book rec too.
 
[ QUOTE ]
Congratulations! It will be an experience you will never forget.

I didn't relax and just did a whole lot of condition washes and deep conditioning. I wore my hair up in french twists and updo's and buns.

[/ QUOTE ]

Thanks for the congratulations. What you did seems like the path of least resistance /images/graemlins/up.gif while still maintaining an attractive style. /images/graemlins/up.gif This seems like the most likely route I will follow.
 
Thanks, skegeesmb. I've since read your post about whose cute baby that is in your avatar, so please feel free to disregard my PM, lol.
 
Jeez your baby, my godbaby, and GMMP's baby are all due at about the same time. What a coincidence. Mines is May 30th Congrats /images/graemlins/clap.gif
 
I just stopped in to say ~

Congratulations Nyambura! /images/graemlins/party.gif

Wishing you the very best /images/graemlins/Rose.gif
 
Congratulations, how far are you? I'm 8 weeks myself. I relaxed with my last two pregnancies and had no problems. You don't want to use any thio based chemicals which are found in perms, not relaxers. I'm not sure if the are found in hair dye or not. If you have any reservations talk to your doctor.
 
Congratulations! /images/graemlins/clap.gif

I relaxed my hair throught my pregnancy also, but that really only amounted to like twice. I didn't know about it being harmful at the time though. /images/graemlins/confused.gif
 
Congrats!!!
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congrats !!!

My sister never relaxed her hair when she was pregnant. She is not a big hair person and I think she just basically wore it pulled back. It really grew !!
 
How exciting, Nyambura! /images/graemlins/trampoline.gif Congratulations! Sorry didn't have any advice on the question at hand; just wanted to share my thrill at the good news.
 
Congratulations Nyambura! Children are such a wonderful blessing. I agree with the other ladies. I relaxed during both my pregnancies but stretched them out more than I normally would. And I didn't do it during the first trimester. I have a friend here in Minnesota who is an African American midwife. I'd be happy to ask her about relaxing if you like. Just PM me.
 
The first trimester is when the risk of birth defects is highest. Therefore, everyone errs on the side of caution when telling you not to do anything for the first 13 weeks and 2 1/2 days. That's how long a trimester is.

If you DO decide to relax during your 2nd or 3rd trimester, have a strand test done. Take it out of your head to do it. I had a relaxer put in during my 2nd trimester with my daughter and it didn't take at all. The pH level in my hair had obviously decreased which basically nullified the high pH level in the relaxer. It didn't even texturize my hair. There's no sense in putting a chemical in your head if you have to let it stay on longer just to relax it or if it's not going to relax anyway. Since I wasn't a hair person anyway, I didn't do much then. But this time, I was already transitioning to natural and had passed the year mark without a relaxer when I found out I was pregnant this time. I wear my hair the same way every day - pulled back. That was my signature style with a perm and my signature style for the rest of my life probably.

Now I'm more of a hair person so I at least do take care of it better. With my daughter, I barely touched my hair. I certainly didn't wash it that often. I thought about braids, but I just never got it done.

Congratulations!!!
 
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<font color="purple"> Congratulations!!! </font>

The only thing I'd recommend is that whenever you do relax you make sure to do a spot test first. My mom got 2nd degree burns from a relaxer when she was pregnancy because pregnancy can change your skin chemistry quite a bit and make it more sensitive.

I'm pregnant with baby #2 and have taken supplements with both- MSM for joint strength (I get severe pain in my hips without it), prenatal (of course), biotin (naturopathic OB okayed it since many pregnant women wind up with biotin defeciency), and later in the pregnancy I'll take Evening Primrose Oil which is good for regulating hormones and ripening the cervix.
 
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