Why did you choose to be natural?

I always hated having relaxed hair. Granted, if my caretakers knew then what they know now about relaxing hair, I am sure I would have had a better experience!

I thought caring for my hair was ridiculous (again, because our 'knowledge' and practices were not the healthiest and we depended on stylists who perpetuated unhealthy practices) and I had always been told natural hair, though not desirable 'cause it wasn't the '70s anymore, required little to no upkeep. I could use any product I wanted, including dye, and I didn't even have to worry when it rained!

And I always loved afros. :grin:

So when I was eighteen, I had my hair, still mostly relaxed, cut into an afro shape and then curled up. The first time I realised I did not have to go get it straightened, I fell in love with it.

Of course, it is not that my natural hair needs "little to no upkeep", nor that I can use any product I wanted, or that dyeing is now a carefree option. It was not until LHCF that I realised how much potential my hair has--my hair is much prettier than anyone in my family, including myself, knew! And I can wash it without losing enough hair to make a decorative rug! Now I enjoy the sheer versatility of natural hair; I like that straightening it is an option that can easily be reversed, if that makes sense. I am not saying I will never relax my hair again, but that I see myself preferring my hair natural for a long, long, LONG time.
 
I think of it as "I chose to stop relaxing my hair," not I chose to be natural. I was only relaxing out of habit.
 
I chose to be natural because my hair decided it would only deal with one chemical process colour or relaxer, I chose colour:grin:
 
Allergies. It seems that my body decided it wanted to start being allergic to everything and in turn my relaxer became one of the many things that irritated my skin. After suffering for the last 2 years I relaxed, I just decided I would try to transition, then made my mind up that I should just cut the relaxed ends off, and stay natural. So thats why I became natural
 
Thank you OP, for starting this thread. I'm on the fence as to whether to keep this as a long stretch or just transition. I mean its been close to 6 months. Do I really want to keep relaxing? I mean I thought I prefer straight styles, but I'm a simple kinda gal. I wear alot of wash n go's and more recently buns, now that I have the length. I think I prefer straight styles because they are easier to manage. In the end though, I thnk I just want my hair to be soft, manageable and shiny. Being a member of this board has opened up my eyes to all the beautiful styles that can be done with natural hair, and the ability to have a silky straight look with no/low direct heat.

For now I'm calling it a stretch because saying transition feels more like starting over...again. I just really want to see more length too,so I am in no rush to get rid of the relaxed hair.
 
I chose to start my transition to natural because I realized my hair would NEVER be healthy and full with a relaxer. After I had MAJOR breakage with a stylist-applied relaxer in May 2009, I tried to baby my hair before relaxing again in October 2009. That last time I relaxed I knew it was over. For my hair, no matter how wonderful the products I used, I could not keep healthy,long , moist hair with relaxers. The odd thing is, I had a beautiful head of texlaxed hair before January of that same year, but tangling got me down so I went bone straight! I only had six months of nice hair until it was damaged. I will do all I can now to take care of my hair myself . I'm on a two year transition mission now and I'm 7 months in :)
 
MzV I wish you much love, peace, and light on your natural journey.

Many of the things we let limit us are of our own making. We hear our hair is too nappy to be professional, our names are too ghetto to be professional....but we don't have to accept that and we have many examples of people who did not let this BS stop them from achieving anything in life. We were all uniquely designed to experience life in unique and different ways. And as the old saying goes, why spend so much energy trying to fit in when you were born to stand out!

I BC'd in May 09 for my birthday to force myself to stay natural. As long as I had 2 textures I kept finding reasons to relax after long transition periods. So after much thought I decided I didn't want to look like everybody else, and I couldn't justify shopping for food at organic markets, buying vitamins and such while I'm putting chemi-kills on my head. How much sense did it make to watch what I eat, but blindly poison on my head?

And how could I keep telling my 3 year old, who at the time wanted BLOND HAIR, that she is beautiful the way she is while I'm obviously not telling myself the same thing as I apply 'creamy crack' to my head?
 
OP: I just decided to transition, my last relaxer was in March. This past Saturday, after having my hair rollerset, my Dominican stylist told me my hair was "nappy" when she went to blow out the roots. I gave her the mean side-eye - my hair isn't nappy and even if it was, so what?! (Sidenote: I realize Dominicans have a hard time accepting their African roots).

I decided to get back to my natural hair because it is beautiful and I didn't appreciate the beauty of my hair. I relaxed 9 years ago and since then, my hair has thinned and shedded a great deal. I know a lot of women that are relaxed that have healthy hair, but I accepted that relaxing isn't for me. I'm excited about embracing my new journey.

No one can make me relax again :nono:, they can say whatever they want about my hair. As long as I see the beauty, that's all that really matters. Do what makes you feel beautiful. And tell your sister to go kick rocks. :yep:
 
I'm lucky that my family and friends have been so acceptive and supportive. You know, times are changing and so are a lot of people's mentality about our beauty. But I chose to go natural because I was tired of burning my scalp every two months and tired of my fine hair breaking. It was time for a change and I'm loving it. Some days are bad but in general I enjoy rediscovering my hair. I know it's going to take weeks and months before I get all the techniques and products down, but I'm excited.

At the end of the day though, you should do what makes you happy and what makes you feel good, relaxed, texlaxed, natural, whatever, don't let other dictate your selfworth, seriously!
 
For me it was all about riding myself of chemicals. I wanted to be a little more natural in my life. If that was to happen, I need to get rid of the relaxers. There was no need for it also my hair would always curl up, it was like with every relaxer my hair would think it was curly not straight.
 
i'm transitioning cause i know one day i'll get tired of straight hair, and i miss my 2 strand twists i used to do.
don't tell my DF, but sometimes i just wanna let this bkt wear off & bc. i only have like 4 stretched inches of natural hair, lol. seeing all these pretty natural heads get to me
 
Simple reason: I like the way that my natural hair looks and I miss it. :yep:

Vanity reason: I loved all of the attention I got with my humongous hair:look:
 
MzV1991 said:
Im stressing over hair...My hair is shedding and......

My ends are brittle and dry and i dont know if i lack protein or moisture.

I just had to vent!!!
Click to expand...

Moisturize and seal with oil every night and bag those ends. Also alternate using a hair serum like John Frieda Frizz-Ease Serum Overnight repair. When I use the serum I found best if I moisturized with a leave-in, then sealed with an oil and used the serum and then sealed with an oil worked wonders on my ends.

Good luck. I am not natural, but just chipping in to advise you on your ends. It will get better, trust me. Just keep moisturizing!
 
1. My then boyfriend (who's a white man from Finland)...said "I thought black girls had curly hair?" I said well I straighten my hair. He stated clearly that I looked ridiculous to him because why would I want straight hair, when I could have a "nice beautiful curly afro". LOL, His words not mine...

2.My DD (our child whos biracial) Has beautiful loose 2c-3a curls...yet she sees mama straighting and wonders why her hair cant look like mine...:nono:

3. The natural ladies on LHCF :)

4. And all the frikin' hair porn walking up and down the streets of NYC! OMG every time I go the ladies make me want to BC soooo bad....

I'm loving my NG and taking it for what it is...it will NOT act like my relaxed hair...nor look like it.

I need to love my hair...and seeing that this is a big deal because ladies of other race don't embrace theres either...so its a "accepting me...as I am kind of thing"

Ready to love and baby my curls...and my DD's too!:afro:
 
I just couldn't explain to myself WHY I wanted a relaxer anymore.

When I was younger, I was super self-concious. I grew up in an ALL CAUCASIAN suburb of Philly, and I now know the reason why I begged and pleaded with my mom to let me relax my hair in the first place is because I subconciously thought the kids would like me better. My hair was BEAUTIFUL before I relaxed. But, because of who I was around and the things said to me, I just couldn't see it.

Cut to 2009...I'd been living in Baltimore since 2003, when I left home to go to school. My confidence had increased tremendously...and I literally woke up one day and could not find one reason to continue to relax my hair. It was time consuming, expensive, and not very easy to maintain (I used heat every week). I'd never dyed my hair, don't have any tattoos (not throwing shade on anyone), and pretty much only drink water unless I'm at the bar :drunk: so why couldn't I be happy with an ENTIRELY natural me?

The funny thing is, white guys seem to LOOOVE the natural down here...
 
It was a choice but I looked at it the same way as choosing to relax or curly perm. It's style and fashion. But saying that, today I do understand more about straightening chemicals and they are definitely not healthy and I"m trying hard to be more healthy. Plus a few years ago some of my hair fell out after using dark and lovely relaxer. Anyhow I do love my natural hair the best. It's Me.
 
Because I love natural hair. I love the waves in the front, love how every head of hair is different, love how versatile it is, love the freedom of natural hair. Pools and rain no longer are evil to me LOL my hair is long and healthy now. My DD's and I are natural and I'm so glad I taught them how to love their natural hair.

I hate the way relaxers look on me, hate the smell of freshly relaxed hair, my hair never retained length, and I got tired of spending hours at the salon and running from the rain.
 
I went natural because my hair was so unhealthy and I do believe it was from the chemicals. I've never had hair past my shoulders. I was just ready to embrace my natural hair and grow long healthy hair! If you make the decision to go natural again...hang in there! Natural hair is beatiful and once you believe that you will feel fab and nobody can tell you nothin! Lol!
 
I didn't really choose to be natural. I was relaxed, but incredibly lazy so I stayed braided up. I remembered in a HS summer program a girl who only relaxed the hair outside and just braided up her hair without relaxing it for the tracks... so I stopped perming my hair in college once I started wearing my hair braided and ended up with a whole new set of hair.

I was kind of amazed and so I bucked my mom's advice and ended up cutting the rest of the relaxed hair even though it was MBL at the time.

I'm officially "out of the closet" natural now for about a year and I gotta say, it's been hell for a lazy girl like me! I had to figure out what products my hair could respond well with and I'm only finding out about it now. I also have tons of split ends and some breakage due to stress, but I'm going to be patient and try to trim my hair.

I've had the urge to relax time and time again for various reasons (length, SSKs, just wanting straight hair flapping in the wind), but considering how long it's taken me to get to here? MAN, I'd be bald within 2 months trying to figure out relaxed hair, lol
 
I want to experience my natural hair I was relaxed pretty young around 7 yrs old. My hair always still wanted to curl even with a relaxer like it was protesting lol. I want to be able to wear my hair big and curly and have the option of straight as well. Im transitioning and not totally natural yet but I have about 12 mos of growth of my natural hair and Im so excited I love the curls that I can see Im fascinated by them and how they react to different products I cant wait to be totally natural.
 
I became natural out of curiosity and necessity.

When I discovered LHCF in 2003, I just wanted to grow my hair out. I cut my APL relaxed hair to ear length and in two years I had BSL healthy relaxed hair. At that point I had become curious about natural hair since so many naturals would post with beautiful pictures.
I left Africa and I could not find anyone to relax my hair nor did I want to do it myself. I cut it all af 6 months after my last relaxer. I could have relaxed once a year but I really wanted to live with my natural hair.
 
1) for casual circumstances
2) because I discovered longhaircareforum and other websites, which allowed me to transition
3) because I wanted to save money
4) because I then discovered that I could grow my hair
5) because now I am confident I can have long hair
6) because my boyfriend encouraged me.

It has been a lot of work and I am starting to feel confident with it only 3 years later, but it is a satisfaction and it has taught me a method that I can apply to other areas of my life. Many women with relaxed hair already have this discipline, I had absolutely no clue. Now I happen to like my natural texture, otherwise I would not force myself to keep it, BUT I would definitely want to be able to learn to do everything by myself. I didn't like the idea of being addicted to my hairdresser anymore.
 
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The short answer is that I wanted a change...I knew that I would be a serial hair color-er, so I made a choice.
 
My mom used to give me relaxers back when I was young... I remember the burning pain and she would make me leave it on for as long as I could.. I would be crying and she would just slather more on...

So around the 7th grade (I graduated high school in 05) She stopped and eventually that hair grew out and broke off. I never remember my texture being different back when she used to relax me, so I never saw a point in doing it again once I was "allowed" to do my own hair. My hair strands are crazy fine and I don't see how it would survive a perm. Anywho, I like my curls and if I want it straight I can flat iron... But not until the fall... its almost 90degrees F out side and its raining every other day.
 
i started relaxing at 11 because i wanted to be a 'big girl'
by the time i was 20 i really wanted to have a fade ( i used braids mostly at this point relaxed 3 times a year), so my last year at uni i had my best friend bleach my hair (it was cornsilk yellow) then i went for a touch up 6 months later.
when the stylist washed the relaxer out my hair was coming off in clumps (like when you use hair removal cream), so the senior stylist suggested cutting and told him to give me a fade.
I then just let my hair grow as it will ever since, until recently cutting everytime my tips were too dry because i equated this with damaged ends :wallbash:
but all this time i always received compliments, i'm happier with natural hair ( i find it easier to care for) than i ever was with relaxers
 
FREEDOM!!!!, its a nice change where I live there's one natural head to every 40 relaxed so it feels nice to stand out, and for some reason I look 100 times better in photos!!!!:grin:


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MzV1991 said:
Im stressing over hair...My hair is shedding and......

I want to know why did you choose to be natural...??

I transitioned for a year and 2 months and was excited to BC...I was doing good regardless of my sister and mother reminding me how nappy headed i was. My sister more than everyone reminded me how i wasnt born with that "good hair". Every morning after drooling over my huge puff:lick: with my hair in one. My sister would know i just fixed my hair and burst out laughing and say something like" you look like you need to do your hair" and i became self concious and sadly i was tired of the cruel jokes and lost my hair battle and April 16 i got my perm. At first i felt normal...accepted.....normallll and then the next morning i felt like i betrayed my hair. Now im on my relaxed hair journey. Currently 3 inches below my shoulder. I want to be mbl but im feeling sad right now and need some motivation. It makes me mad just looking at my hair. My ends are brittle and dry and i dont know if i lack protein or moisture.

I just had to vent!!!
Click to expand...
 
Half the reasons I went natural were based on fear. I started trying to do the healthy thing with eating habits and exercise. And then I started thinking one day in a salon chair while my scalp felt as if it was on fire, "Well this stuff (the relaxer) can't be very healthy for me." Could a thin layer of grease really be preventing these caustic and poisonous chemicals from travelling into my blood stream through my hair follicles? The answer, unfortunately, was NO.

And then there were the other, smaller, reasons. Like how my hair was always constantly breaking off at an alarming rate. And that darn relaxer never got my hair straight enough anyway, so what was the point? And the way my hair always smelled weird...like chemicals, when it was wet. And women on the street and in my family with hacked up, overprocessed ends and alopecia running rampant!

I just didn't feel--right about it anymore. So I quit that stuff cold turkey and 7 years later I haven't looked back. You couldn't pay me to put that stuff in my hair again!!!
 
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