WHAT MADE YOU DECIDE TO GO NATURAL?

Originally posted by BklynHeart
When my mom passed away last year I put my hair in braids because I was in mourning. By then it was almost a year since I was in braids. I decided to go natural to remove all of the relaxed hair that was part of the pain and hurt watching her suffer.
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How sweet...what a beautiful reason to go natural!:Rose:
 
Well I am not natural yet but i am transitioning. I am very early on in the transition 15 weeks, but i am finishing it.

The first time i went natural, it was by accident. I always wanted to wear braids and i started wearing them. I wore them for one year straight then one day, i took them down and cut off my relaxed ends.. I was natural

Unfortunately I had no clue what to do with it. I wore braid outs most of the time, but I was never really good with taking care of my hair so I ended up relaxing again:wallbash:

I regret that descision.:perplexed

The relaxed hair hasn't really been going very well. My hair is very fine and this relaxing deal isnt gonna do. I am tired of the breakage, the weakness and the very limp strands. My hair is natrually fine and soft, so anything to strong and my hair just rejects it. Add to this thinning edges and very little lenght retention, it is enough to make you throw in the towel and give the relaxers the old heave ho.

Since i began here I started DC and noticed some curl to my hair. I am pretty excited to see that curly at longer lenghts. I am longing for the day i can do my wild natural braid out again, but until then i am gonna hit up the braids.
 
I went to the salon one day, waited an hour on the stylist because she was LATE (but I hadn't had a relaxer in 5 months, so, you know...). She slapped it in so fast and was ready to rinse me out so fast, I was kind of pissed at how little time she allowed for it to relax my hair. Well, while the shampoo girl rinsed out my hair, she asked me, does your hair normally shed this much??? I said no, the stylist came over and noticed that my hair was coming out right there in the bowl. She did all kinds of aphogee treatments and conditioner treatments, but the damage was done. By the time I BC'ed (two months later), my entire crown was less than an inch long. I saw a trichologist who confirmed that the damage was due to a chemical process and was that my hair was breaking under my scalp. That was it for me and relaxers.

It ended up being a blessing in disguise.
 
I'm not fully natural but I'm on my way after 7 months of transitioning. I was natural for 4 years and didn't know it because my hair stayed in microbraids. During that time I never washed it really, moisturized or took care of it. My hair was short and dry as you know what! When I came to medical school I took them out and texlaxed although I didn't really know thats what I did. I still didn't know how to take care of my hair and it started to break and break and break. Also when I relaxed I got all these bumps and scabs all over my hair. Well I found the board and decided it was time to cut it and start again with all healthy hair. Shoot that woman underprocessed and overprocessed in some places and I got the bumps again!! The cut was banging but it was also expensive. I then decided I would wash and care for my own hair at home until June when I would relax again. Well the longer I stretched the more scared I became of having someone else in my hair and also of ruining my progress at the same time. Well by the time I got over that I noticed all the coils coils coils and I was in love...I haven't looked back since and I'd never seen my natural texture before. Plus I've seen what the ladies on this board can do with a straightening iron and some curlformers if I ever wanted straight hair. :yep:
 
just want to thank you ladies for all you straight forward in depth answers , and particaption on both threads!

I enjoyed hearing what you all had to say and all the stories!!!
 
I have been natrual since Nov. 1998..... And It did not feel like a trend at all back in the day......
I felt out of place..... But - I could not do relaxers anymore... and I will never do them again.
 
Sorry for your lost!! Very touching indeed!

BklynHeart said:
When my mom passed away last year I put my hair in braids because I was in mourning. By then it was almost a year since I was in braids. I decided to go natural to remove all of the relaxed hair that was part of the pain and hurt watching her suffer.
Click to expand...
 
I really went natural because I adopted a healthier way of lifestyle in all areas. I felt like a hypocrite (sp) living a greener way of life and still putting a chemical on my head. Still trying to figure out/relate to and master my natural hair :drunk::spinning::rolleyes:
 
I just made the decision about a month ago to transition to natural hair. My main reason is that I want to be an example to my daughters. When they are of school age, I want them to remain natural and I wouldn't feel right saying no relaxers to them and I'm walking around with a relaxed head. :grin: Plus, I have had relaxers for a long time and although I have no problems with relaxing, I just want to see how life is being natural.
 
I always wanted to do it. I really admired people who had natural hair, but I was always too scared to do it myself. Once I had my son and saw how beautiful his hair was. I had to see what mine looked like.
 
I was never a real regular relaxer- I would relax maybe twice a year- but sometimes I would get my whole head done (crazy, I know) but in 2005 I got blond highlights done on my relaxed hair. It looked cute, but I noticed when I washed that my highlighted strands were melting- they were so soft and mushy.

Unfortunately I liked the blond highlights and lots of other people did too so, a few months later I decided to do permanent color myself to lighten my hair. It was a disaster- most of my hair was orange and unhealthy, but the couple inches of natural roots were still pretty healthy and the color looked nice. I got a trim, weaved it up and learned my lesson. Color & relaxers don't mix for me and I liked color so I decided to grow out my relaxer. For more than a year I wore half wigs and phony pony buns then in Oct 06 I cut off all of my relaxed ends.

I love being natural:grin: (But now I'm scared to color because I have length goals I'm trying to achieve:rolleyes:)
 
When I first went Natural in 2003 it was a Lady at my daughters school who had beautiful Shoulder length DreadLocks, and we struck up a conversation about hair, and she really inspired me so that night I had done BC and when I saw her the next day I had it covered up and she asked why was I covering it, and I was like I have never had hair this short I had a fade I guess you could say a bald fade:ohwell:. Anyway, I took that scarf off and felt so proud and free, I mean I thought I was the Sh*t, then I found NP which really encouraged me alot. Then I found LHCF which really inspired me alot for Relaxed hair:grin:.

But since then I have BC so many times, I want Natural hair, but The Twa is something I can't do anymore, I wanna try to Transition, until December, But with how short my hair is now I will say about 4 months I will have a Twa and will have to cut the short relaxed ends.

Anyway Ladies you do inspire others so keep that in mind!
 
I decided after living in Tampa for a year it just wasn't worth relaxing anymore. I moved here frome NJ/Philly area and there was much less humidity. In FL it's hot all year and my hair would just frizz and curl back up after stepping out of the salon :nono:. So I just stopped going to get touch ups and after seeing my new growth I was like :rolleyes: Hey I kinda like how my natural hair looks anyway. So I grew out for 6 months then big chopped. Now I wish I would of did it sooner, I save so much money and my hair is so much healthier. Now when it's 95 degrees outside with 90% humdity I don't have care in the world :beach:
 
First and foremost, my natural hair grows much more healthy and long.

Secondly, I have never paid for a texlax/texturizer b/c my uncle had always done my hair. Now that he has a family and is a full time psychiatrist, there isn't so much time to do family members hair. I don't trust anyone else to do my hair. So natural it is!
 
What made me decide was seeing all the natural sisters here on LHCF - they really made me believe that I could go natural also and still look and feel good about my hair. Learning about their regimes has also helped. I did the BC in April 08 and attacked the straight hair stragglers in May 08 so looking forward to June 08 and beyond to start focusing on healthy natural hair and growth.
 
For me, I wanted big hair and I couldnt get that with a relaxer. Also, I hated going to the salon(dominican) and all that heat. My scalp would be on fire when the used the blow dryer and that damn hard brush:burning:
 
Irresistible said:
With the 'what seems' to be the new natural craze these days

Just wondering what your reasons were to decide to go natural?

no reason too big, too small, or bad, or better


This is just for curiosity sake
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You! Seriously, I had been thinking about it when I joined in 2004 when I saw your album. I was tired of the expense, the smell, the burns (although my "new" stylist was good and I hadn't been burned in about 2 years), etc. associated with relaxing. At the time you and Saddity were the only two type 3 naturals I remember seeing on LHCF, and I thought my hair is like yours. Then the rest as they say is history. My last relaxer was in July 2005.
 
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