Transitioning without BC'ing Support Thread

[bebezazueta]

Im rethinking this I do not like fuzzy hair.

Hey lady. It's ok if you do. These are the things that eliminated fuzzy hair for me: no sulfate poos, DCs, moisturizing new growth spray, seal new growth with Shea butter, low Ph products to seal cuticles.

Be encouraged sis.

 

[sharifeh]

Im rethinking this I do not like fuzzy hair.

SuchaLady

I am too
I had a rough hair weekend
If I like straight hair so much and I value seeing my length so much and I hate shrinkage so much then why am I doing this again? erplexed

Sent from my iPhone using LHCF

 

[Britt]

@SuchaLady

I am too
I had a rough hair weekend
If I like straight hair so much and I value seeing my length so much and I hate shrinkage so much then why am I doing this again? erplexed

Sent from my iPhone using LHCF

Same here... I know I want to be natural b/c I truly feel my hair is tired of relaxers. I've felt this way for the past 4 years before I even gave thought to going natural. I also don't see myself wearing a lot of the trendy/hipster/boho type natural styles. I think some of the styles look absolutely fab on others but I wouldn't want it for myself everyday, and I'm not under 25 and dress super trendy. I'm not quite sure where my natural hair journey will take me as I don't consider myself the standard transitioner and I'm honestly not even sure what I'll be working with when I'm fully natural and have some length.
I do know for the remainder of my transition, I will be using heat in some capacity to keep things more manageable for me. I plan to alternate between blow drying, twists outs/blow outs done on blow dryed hair, maybe wet bo/to occasionally, buns, a flat iron no more than once a month... I have to switch it up. When I am fully natural, I plan to be a versatile natural. I plan to eventually color my hair, I plan to get occasional flat irons (monthly perhaps, I'll see), I plan to blow dry my hair and work with that, I plan to wear big kinky hair when I want.
Also, do what you are most comfortably with. Perhaps you could look into becoming a heat trained natural. As taboo as that it in the 'hair community', there are plenty naturals in real life who always have their hair pressed and would never go back to relaxing. You have to really do what's best for you, your lifestyle, and your desired aesthetic. I find myself succumbing at times to the pressure, opinions and dictates of what constitutes natural hair and as I begin to keep it real with myself -- I realize that ultimately, I must do what's best for me -- as does everyone else does what's best for them and their hair. There are a lot of natural nazis out there and quite frankly -- it's off putting.

 

[SuchaLady]

I already do everything except the last two. I need to go look up some low Ph products. I appreciate it.

Hey lady. It's ok if you do. These are the things that eliminated fuzzy hair for me: no sulfate poos, DCs, moisturizing new growth spray, seal new growth with Shea butter, low Ph products to seal cuticles.

Be encouraged sis.

Ive had a horrible hair WEEK! Im out of town for my new job training and my hair looks a mess! I was so depressed because I think my new coworkers think I dont do anything to my hair everyday. Granted we are from all over the state and I will probably never see them again but still that is how they will remember me And to top it off, my trainers are one of my direct lines of contact if I ever want a promotion. My first impression shouldnt have been me dressed to the nines with a hair halo

SuchaLady

I am too
I had a rough hair weekend
If I like straight hair so much and I value seeing my length so much and I hate shrinkage so much then why am I doing this again? erplexed

Sent from my iPhone using LHCF

 

[Britt]

Washed my hair and let it air dry in 4 plaits, then did a twist out the following night.
The last is a twist out with about 8-10 flat twists on airdryed hair.

Sent from my iPhone using LHCF

 

[Napp]

pretty hair Brittster

 

[Amarilles]

The joys of multi-patterned hair :/ a mix of lazy and defined S's on one half, a mix of opened and tightly closed O's on the other.

I cut a ton of hair today. 20 months in!

 

[divachyk]

I applaud you all for your ability to deal with multi textures. Such lovely heads of hair.

 

[Champion13]

Today made 12 months post. I decided to chop and now I don't know what to do with hair. I'm DC'Ing now but I am so style challenged. I still have some relaxed ends here and there and I need a professional trim, but overall I am happy and I don't regret cutting. I will more than likely do a twist out Sent from my iPhone using LHCF I suck at taking photos, but I captured a few. Everything is different now with the relaxed ends gone and I didn't known hair was going to be sooo thick but I'm grateful

...... Double

 

[janaq2003]

I think I have tamed Sybil for now. The last couple of wash days have been pretty good. Detangling has been awesome as in its not taking 40 years to do so..now its 10-15 min or less thanks to mane and tail detangler and CON argan oil leave in. Im just tired of seeing these "strangs" hanging on my head!

 

[Ravenhairedbeauty]

I will be 12 wks post this Saturday and my ng is pretty tame I can't believe it. I don't know if my hair is growing slower therefore ng is not an issue or what. But I know when I was in my twenties if I went this long w/o a relaxer my hair would be a mess. I hope this transition will be as smooth as it is now.

 

[Mjon912]

Hey ladies... I'm still hanging around... Currently 16 months into my transition and I just did a semi major cut, cutting 2 inches and putting me at CBL! I HATE it =( this is exactly why I did not BC in the first place because I just do not like my hair short. The only positive I see with this cut is I won't need to do any small trims for a while and I should hopefully be fully natural by sept/oct next year. In the mean time I'm about to wash, blow dry and braid my hair and just focus on growth for now. I'm so mad at myself!

 

[beauti]

SuchaLady aww girl I'm sorry about your horrible work wee! although, I'm sure it probably wasn't even that bad. I have those days when I refuse to leave the house for work thinking my hair is an absolute nightmare! What I do is keep a few trusty wigs/half wigs around just for those instances where I feel like nothing looks good. Find a natural looking wig that you can take with you when situations like this arise. Shoot, sometimes you just need to slap something on and go! just make sure the wig is cute! If you have a plain one, use cute scarves and headbands to dress it up. Hth....

 

[trclemons]

I have been so busy that I almost missed my 1 year post relaxer anniversary today. This has been a year of learning proper hair care and learning the particulars of my hair, which I have co-washed & washed weekly. I have protected my ends all year through buns and various updo styles and I also fell prey to the dreaded product junkie syndrome.

But I will significantly reduce handling my hair by wigging it all next year. I plan to co-wash in braids biweekly and wash my hair loose once a month. I will continue to pre-poo before washes with ACV spritz and ayurvedic powders mixed in my conditioners, protein reconstructors after washes and inversions 7 days per month.

This year, I never experienced a growth spurt, so hopefully it will happen with my year 2 regimen. My natural hair is not what I expected and I can't wait to get more of it. This year has been a breeze thanks to each of you. Your posts have helped me truly enjoy my transition to natural hair journey.

Year 2, here I come...!!!

 

[mahogany_horizons]

I am coming all up in this thread. It's been a while since I've been on LHCF. I was working on length goals, but I had a set back with a relaxer. My Hair was MBL and touching waist length, and I had to cut back to BSL. Because I'm sick of the no lye relaxer set backs, I have decided to transition to natural. I'm still not sure if I'm going to be a heat straightened natural, or rock my natural coils. I'm going to try to stretch for a year, and I'll take it from there.

 

[Brwnbeauti]

I just co washed with joico moisture recovery, my hair is so soft

 

[EnExitStageLeft]

Going to do a braid and curl friday for a Christmas Luncheon with my coworkers.

Will detangle and rollerset Sunday and wear my set for a week and install curlformers the following week. I may let that fall and rock a ponytail for the third . I need a hair/EnjoyMyHair break

 

[Britt]

Did a braid out last night

 

[Mjon912]

Hey ladies... I still hate my hair cut =\ so I braided my hair in individual box braids with no fake hair added and will be keeping it like this until aug 2014 hopefully, that should be long enough time for my crown area to grow to a decent length that I can finally cut all of my relaxed ends off! I can't wait!!!

 

[Brwnbeauti]

I bought a relaxer today. This is really rough I'm tired of two textures, but don't want to cut my hair, and don't want braids, but don't want to let my curls n coils go.

 

[janaq2003]

Went down south to visit family and it was 73 degrees and humid. My braidout went to fredrerick douglass in 2.1 seconds..

 

[ScorpioLove]

i've been so busy w/ life its been like 3weeks since i washed my hair. i moisturized every couple days but still my hair doesn't like not being shampooed
I'm going to leave this DC (giovanni avocado DC) in for the rest of the day. its my first time trying it so i hope it helps my hair back into the shape it should be

 

[EnExitStageLeft]

So I just rebraided my hair in laziness last night and will push off my rollerset until tomorrow ....I know I need to do better, but

 

[naija24]

With the help of my sister who is bsL natural I think I will finally transition for real in 2014. The idea o transitioning for 1-2 years seems like a lot so I want to do it for 8 months and chop on my birthday on August 12. That should be about 4 inches of hair growth and I'd be a neck length natural.

Which method of chopping is preferred? Getting to your desired hair length and chopping all your relaxed ends at once? Or mini chopping an inch of relaxed hair for every inch of natural hair you gain?

 

[ScorpioLove]

naija24

Completely depends on what you are comfy with. Remember that 4inches natural is always going to look like less because of shrinkage. You don't have to make any concrete decisions now, but I would trim slowly to get used to shorter hair.

 

[naija24]

naija24 Completely depends on what you are comfy with. Remember that 4inches natural is always going to look like less because of shrinkage. You don't have to make any concrete decisions now, but I would trim slowly to get used to shorter hair.

I'm getting braids right now and will take them down in late march. I'll give my hair a nice 1-2 week break and then trim maybe an inch off of my relaxed hair and get back in braids. Repeat.

I love straight hair but now that I know that natural heads can get the same look then I rather go that route. I think getting braids three times between now and August I'll be able to retain all 4 inches of growth between now and then.

 

[Britt]

I was reading the instagram hair inspiration thread and I am LOVING moptopmaven/nikstarr hair on IG. I LOVE her hair pressed. I wish she were back on youtube and did pressing tutorials. She also has a natural pic of what looks like to be bantu knots or curls via a curling wand, that looks fab also.

 

[freckledface]

Who's transitioning on YouTube? Haven't really found anyone so far

 

[bebezazueta]

Who's transitioning on YouTube? Haven't really found anyone so far

Alexxxhes and she's 36 months post. Very inspirational

 

[almond eyes]

Deciding to join as well. Had a relaxer set back last week which took me from APL to collarbone. Was in denial about how bad my ends looked. Everytime I say no relaxer the creamy crack calls I think this time I have learned my lesson no more relaxers (cross fingers). Anyhow, will not do a BC cutting is too traumatic even though I also look good in short hair. I toyed with going texlaxed in the front and keeping the rest natural but now I will just go completely natural because my hair is too dense for that. I am excited to start off 2014 on a new note. I saw pictures of my natural hair three years ago and I really missed my hair. I had only put a relaxer in my hair because I had damage from colouring my hair as a natural and my hair dresser thought that my hair was too much work for her to do especially when I used to braid it. I think I am finally getting the wind of how to handle my hair now. I always said if I went back to natural, I would blow out my hair and then wear it in nice braided buns.

Best,
Almond Eyes