Your reasons for transitioning

[Piscesgirl718]

Hey ladies! I know that many of us on the forum are transitioning and I was wondering what everyone else's reasons were. For me personally, there are quite a few reasons.

1. I'm curious about my natural hair type. So far I am 6 weeks post and I see more and more curls/spirals developing that I never even knew I had.

2. I'm tired of relaxers. My last touch up burned my scalp. That was the first time I ever experienced scalp irritation like that. I don't want to pay $65 for that anymore.

3. I LOVE washing my hair! I'd wash my hair everyday if I could. However, with relaxed hair, I have to use some type of heat on it afterwards to get it straight. Wash n goes are a no no for me because my hair ends up looking like a mess. If my hair was natural I would be able to wash my hair as much as I wanted.

4. My hair is meant to be 4a. I shouldn't have to straighten just to fit in with American standards of beauty. Every time I turn on the t.v., I see blonde women with corn silk hair. I'm so SICK of it! I want to show the world that black women are beautiful and so is our natural hair!

5. In the future if I have a daughter, I want to be able to take care of her hair and teach her how to care for it. I think the best way to do that, is it acquire some first-hand knowledge.

 

[Andy1979]

Reasons I transitioned:

1. Stylist was always late for my appointments, and when she did get started it was an all-afternoon ordeal.
2. Stylist would rake through my hair with one of those teeny tiny combs.
3. It was a 4 hour process from start to finish whenever I washed my hair (washing conditioning, blowdrying, flat ironing, bumping the ends...etc etc.)
4. Tired of wearing my hair the same way.
5. Cost of getting a perm
6. Tired of being afraid of humidity, pools, rain, etc.

That's all I can think of right now.

 

[Aviah]

1)Thin hair (naturally made worse by relaxing)
2)Bored with straight hair
3) Went natural once before but didn't know how to style it, then got info here on how to and I was sold!

 

[FindingMe]

1. I have a son, 9 years, and a daughter, 19 mos, and I want them both to appreciate a different standard of beauty. Natural kinks and coils should be considered beautiful in our society.
2. I've had my hair natural for over 2 years before, but had NO IDEA how to take care of it. I tried to treat it like I did when my hair was relaxed and now I think that was just plain silly. My hair had different needs. With the help from this site and others, I am now confident I can make my natural hair glorious. DH has no objections, so I'm set...
3. I am moving to a more earth friendly approach to living. I am becoming more green. I'd like to eventually find more natural ways of taking care of my hair, skin and body and use those in my whole household.
4. I would love to be able to master a wash and go, so that I can work out and come home and wash my hair. I sweat a lot, so my hair gets stinky after 2 days when I work out. To do a roller set every other day is not practical for me. I'd like to get back in shape.

 

[loulou82]

1. My last relaxer appointment frustrated me so much that I couldn't imagine putting up sub par service and attitude again

2. My hair was only 5-6 inches long so I thought "why not transition now?"

3. My new growth felt so nice and soft that I didn't want to lose it

4. I wanted thickness (my hair was always fine and without body with a relaxer)

 

[Rapunzel*]

i love the way natural hair looks
i was tired of it being damaged
i wasn't born with straight hair, so im going to appreciate my thick transitioning hair
i was tired of my hair being uneven
wrapping my hair every night when the new growth is coming on strong
i want a new head of thick fuller longer healthier hair
im tired of being the same
and i didnt know how to take care of my natural hair but while im transitioning i do

 

[naturalmanenyc]

My decision happened in several steps.

Step One - I had used a stylist every 2 weeks since age 13 when my parents divorced and I stayed with my father. I had no idea how to do my own hair and had been weaving for the last few years. My long time NYC stylist retired and moved out of state in May 2007 to become a full-time real estate salesperson.

Step Two - I could not find a new stylist that I was comfortable enough with to relax my hair. It had taken me about two years to find my stylist who retired & moved and I did not want to start the search again. I ended up having my sister put in a mild relaxer in August 2007 when I was in town visiting. I had been rocking half wigs and drawstring ponytails for months and I really needed to have my hair done but I did not trust just any stylist.

Step Three & beyond:

I found LHCF through RabiaElaine and started to read up on proper hair care.

I got a partial sew-in weave in September 2007 that could have been a disaster if left in longer than the 4 weeks I planned. The braids were not tacked down properly and my hair had begun to matte a little. Fortunately, RabiaElaine did my take down and I lost none of my length.

I then got a full weave for about 6 weeks with a cornrow base - something I had never done before then. My husband helped me take down the weave. This was after a stretch from August through early December with relaxer. RabiaElaine had told me to NOT relax right after the weave take down (which my stylist had ALWAYS done) so I had to manage my own hair for a few weeks. I did it with braid outs and curly styles. I had never seen my natural curly hair....or at least I had not remebered it being curly since mom relaxed me around age 10.

I decided to texlax instead of get a bone straight relaxer in December 2007 in an attempt to have fuller hair. My intent was to get another full weave in a few weeks but plans changed. After my husband saw my texlaxed hair on 12/30/07 and the length (APL) he asked me to stop weaving. DH thinks that APL is long (and I did too back then).

After that I made the choice to grow out my own hair and for me personally to have thicker hair means not relaxing at all. Some ladies can maintain thickness with relaxers but after relaxing since age 10, I know that all relaxers make my hair thinner.

Over the last 4 months I have seen a definite increase in the thickness of my hair. The only bad part about that is I agreed to not cut my hair until I reach BSL, so I will have thin ends for a while. Luckily I keep my hair pinned up 95% of the time so only me and DH know about the thin ends (and of course those who check my siggy and my fotki).

 

[ChrissyB]

1. My hair was damaged and brittle. It would only look good every once in a while. After relaxing, I STILL had to blowdry, flat iron, flat iron again, and wrap. Way too much manipulation and heat for damaged hair.

2. I got bored with wearing my hair straight all the time. I tried to do wash and go's to get bigger fuller hair but it always looked raggedy after one day.

3. I have never really felt like I needed a relaxer. Back in the day before I found this forum, I would stretch my relaxer for long periods of time, until my mom would tell me enough was enough, time for a perm. I hadn't thought about going natural though, I just wanted to use heat to straighten my new growth instead of relaxing.

4. Vitamins sped up my hair growth (which used to be very slow) and showed me my cute springy coils. I could have a killer wash and go with these babies!

5. As a personal challenge to myself. Transitioning is a difficult, long, and trying process. If I can do this, I can do anything!

 

[Piscesgirl718]

1. My hair was damaged and brittle. It would only look good every once in a while. After relaxing, I STILL had to blowdry, flat iron, flat iron again, and wrap. Way too much manipulation and heat for damaged hair.

My hair is the same way! I have to do all of that to get my hair straight again after I wash it. I figure, what's the point of relaxing my hair straight if it doesn't even stay straight?

 

[The Girl]

Hmm:
1. I managed to stretch for 6 months a few times. Then I was going to change that to every 12 months...I just said forget it.
2. Wanted to join Lauren450 when she did hers but chickened out
3. My sister has really long hair and is natural (and abuses her poor tresses). Hopefully I have the same luck.
4. I am trying to be more "green" and ridding myself of the creamy crack was just another step for me.
5. Couldn't think of any reason not to...besides fear of perception and yea later for that (little by little that is).
6. Thought you HAD to BC...wasn't doing that at all.

 

[Rapunzel*]

My hair is the same way! I have to do all of that to get my hair straight again after I wash it. I figure, what's the point of relaxing my hair straight if it doesn't even stay straight?

your right

when i were younger in the summertime it was a hot *** day
my sis sweat out her relaxer

 

[AtlantaJJ]

1. My last relaxer appointment frustrated me so much that I couldn't imagine putting up sub par service and attitude again

2. My hair was only 5-6 inches long so I thought "why not transition now?"

3. My new growth felt so nice and soft that I didn't want to lose it

4. I wanted thickness (my hair was always fine and without body with a relaxer)

What she said AND The last relaxer I got the stylist went against my specific request, I asked for an Afrim Fiberguard LYE and she gave me NO-LYE and it was the death of my hair...it was a gift from God because now I am enjoying the natural life! That was the only way He could get my attention

 

[beautifulisaunderstatment]

1. Laziness (didnt want to go to the shop)
2. Lack of funds ($65 for a touch up? WTF?)
3. Bad stylists (didnt value my time or money or thoughts)
4. Never had hair that was processed enough (hai rnever got straight enough, ened up having to still blow dry and flat iron for straight looks)
5. A challenge (always up for a challenge)
6. Thought I was gonna have 4a/b hair (pro-black stage of life)
7. Healthier (pro-health stage of life, also stopped eating beef)

 

[Mynappturalme]

I had several reasons for transitioning.

1. Why should I keep killing my hair with the creamy crack to make the white folks feel more at ease.
2. God gave me this beautiful hair why not wear it.
3. It's more versatile, if I want it straight I can wear it strait. If I want it curly I can wear it curly.
4. I got tired of paying all of that money to get my hair done
I did have it texlaxed not long ago. regretted that decision and had to cut that off.
5. Found out I had lupus and that was it! no more creamy crack for me!

 

[♦K.O♦]

I've been texlaxing for over two years and for the past 9 months or so, the effects of the texlaxing have been minimal. Some parts of my hair's texture are completely unchanged.

 

[drasgrl]

I'm not transitioning now but I will do it in the near future. I want to do it because I don't want to keep using harmful chemicals that destroy my hair. I want my hair to be healthy.

 

[Platinum]

I want to have healthy hair. I spent so many time and money searching for the perfect style and bone straight hair. Why? I wasn't born with bone straight hair. Here are some of my reasons:

-I'm tired of scalp burns and severe damage!
-I'm tired of spending so much money on my hair just so someone can ruin it with chemicals and excessive heat.
-My hair never seemed to grow past SL, no matter what I did. I see many sisters on this forum with the same texture as mine with beautiful hair. Why can't I try what they're doing? So far, nothing else I tried seemed to get me APL, MBL, or WL hair.
-I'm curious to see what my natural hair will be like. I haven't worn my hair natural in over 25 years (I got my first relaxer when I was 9).

I've learned more about hair care on this site in a few months than years of reading "phony hair care mags" like Sophisticates Black Hair. Many of the so-called "professional" stylists have taught me how to spend more money to damage my hair and continue coming back to them.It's a vicious cycle that never seems to end. Therefore, I will always be depending on weaves`UNLESS I learn more about to how to care for my natural hair.

 

[tada1]

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH *get me outta herrrrreee*
i KNEW is shouldn't have clicked on this thread

I've been going back and forth on transitioning. to tell the truth, my hair is just a little past shoulder length and weak as crap from all the relaxer run off (in sure y'all know the drill). so i dont have too much to loose by transitioning.

I am such a definite 4b and i am TERRIFIED of going natural--i dont really know why. I guess part of it is because i have 2 arches in my hairline (like the ones most guys have) i feel like my natural hair wont hide them as well as my relaxed hair (talk about the dumbest reason for not rocking my napps )

alright, y'all can keep the conversation going now--sorry to digress

 

[halee_J]

1. Got reaaaaaaally tired of wasting the whole day at the salon.
2. Was curious about my natural texture
3. Tired of getting burned
4. Wanted to rock my natural beauty.

 

[Likeyouneverseenme]

I was natural up until a year ago. I moved to the U.S and everyone was wearing weaves..idk but for some retarded reason I wanted to try it too. So I went ahead and relaxed my hair, had the weave sown in, and to keep the frizz down, I had to flatiron my hair nearly every day. I guess that should have been a sign that my hair wasn't supposed to be bone straight.
I just want my natural hair back.I have very sensitive skin, needless to say the relaxer and my poor scalp didn't get along very well..

I'm not jumping on anymore banwagons and I really doen't have the patience to keep up a certain hair-do, that is the whole reason why I've always been natural in the first place.

 

[LynnieB]

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH *get me outta herrrrreee*
i KNEW is shouldn't have clicked on this thread

I've been going back and forth on transitioning. to tell the truth, my hair is just a little past shoulder length and weak as crap from all the relaxer run off (in sure y'all know the drill). so i dont have too much to loose by transitioning.

I am such a definite 4b and i am TERRIFIED of going natural--i dont really know why. I guess part of it is because i have 2 arches in my hairline (like the ones most guys have) i feel like my natural hair wont hide them as well as my relaxed hair (talk about the dumbest reason for not rocking my napps )

alright, y'all can keep the conversation going now--sorry to digress

guuuuuuuuurl watcha talkin bout right here LOL!!

with nappy hurrrr, you can fluff it down, around and over those spots you don't like (just need a teeny bit of length/height to do it) and guess what else?

you won't have to worry about break outs from oily skin - cause ya know when how we have dem bangs laying on our fo-heads will be having us reachin for a bottle of clearasil in a hummingbird's heartbeat

just think about it, thinking doesn't cost ya nuttin

 

[discobiscuits]

my reason(s):

1. one day, when i was sitting in my stylists chair for a touch up, he told me that my natural hair texture was such that it would straighten with only a flatiron. that was the day i began transitioning to natural. about 14 months later i was 100% natural. [then i had a brain fart and texturized] so now i'm transitioning back i'm about 50%. if it were not for my honest and totally adored stylist i'd probably still be relaxed.

2. i really like the health of my natural hair. it is stronger and the texture is really pretty when it's wet.

 

[tada1]

guuuuuuuuurl watcha talkin bout right here LOL!!

with nappy hurrrr, you can fluff it down, around and over those spots you don't like (just need a teeny bit of length/height to do it) and guess what else?

you won't have to worry about break outs from oily skin - cause ya know when how we have dem bangs laying on our fo-heads will be having us reachin for a bottle of clearasil in a hummingbird's heartbeat

just think about it, thinking doesn't cost ya nuttin

LynnieB!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! how could you do this to me??????

hi everyone, my name is tada1, and im transitioning because LynnieB finally tipped me over the edge...lol...
Im serious though, im laying off the relaxers till further notice. thanks girl-I needed that

 

[bluediamond0829]

My reasons for transitioning:

I wanted to have my hair to actually grow(length and thickness but mosly importanta is thickness)

I wanted to see what my natural hair would look like

I wanted to do some of those beautiful natural hairstyles

I was really tired of these hairstylists that was trying to bleed me of money.

I want to have healthy hair.

I always liked the feel of my hair when it was growing out.

 

[DarkAngell]

I transitioned because:

-MAIN REASON: my hair was falling out.
-wanted something different
-i always loved straight hair...but towards the end i felt like relaxer was something i was hiding behind. I looked at myself in the mirror and said to myself "how could i have NO CLUE about something I was naturally given?!"
-Water and humidity are now my best friends.

 

[vestaluv1]

• I want healthier hair
• I want thicker hair
• I do not want ANYMORE chemical damage and breakage
• I'm not so sure that it is a good idea to be putting chemicals on my hair or scalp...and you are going to get chemicals on your scalp.
• I do believe I will be more succesful in trying to grow my hair if I stop applying relaxers
• I want my natural texture back and I then have the choice to wear textured hair or straight hair
• I realised that even though relaxing makes my hair more manageable, I was relaxing to 'fit in' with certain stereotypes about what is beautiful hair.
• I am recovering from traction alopecia around my the back of my hair / nape and it would be a to carry on relaxing.
• :realitycheck:, there's nothing wrong with my texture.

 

[dimpalz]

My reasons are like most of yours, I came to this forum to grow my hair long but I have fine hair; loads of strands but fine strands. But I was cool with that and I started to grow my hair long. Then one day I saw a picture of a lady with hair passed APL that was fine like mine. It looked awful. I'm not even being mean and I'm not going to say where I saw it but it just made me realise that my hair will never be like DLewis' or Sareca's or Lauren's because I just don't have hair that thick or even that many strands. So I figured I could grown it long and afro and it's be big a beautiful and thick and luscious and it'd be great. So that's what I'm doing.

That coupled with the fact I found myself sweating and running down a long arse road to my salon to get my hair relaxed at 9 on a Saturday morning for my goddaughters christening and I suddenly realised it just wasn't worth it any more. Who wants to wake up at like 7:30 on saturday to get to the salon early so you don't have to spend all day there? Then next time you wash your hair you gotta do it on Sunday cos it takes the whole day. It wasn't worth it any more.

 

[OneInAMillion]

What she said AND The last relaxer I got the stylist went against my specific request, I asked for an Afrim Fiberguard LYE and she gave me NO-LYE and it was the death of my hair...it was a gift from God because now I am enjoying the natural life! That was the only way He could get my attention

That was the death of my hair back in 2004. Worst thing possibly for fine hair. AND it was mild!

But I'm thinking about transitioning (I always feel like this ). There are a couple of reasons.

1.) My hair is fine--I've come to deal with it. It's very thick when texturized and I'm currently happy with the health, but I worry that just one bad touch up and all my hard word will go down the drain. I watching a hairdresser (at a salon I frequent) apply a relaxer to another woman, root to tip, for 30+ min. The womans hair looked so thick before, but when she was done it was limp. I don't ever want to go through that again.
2.) I don't want to self-relax. I just don't want that to be an option.
3.) Everyone else in my family is natural, so I feel like I should follow suit. Besides, I don't want my younger sister to relax her hair because I think she's too careless right now to deal with a relaxer, so I want to do this with her.
4.) I've work a press before, and they're starting to look just as good as blowouts so I'm for that.
5.) I have nothing against relaxers, I use one and I like the results. I think they're less damaging for coarse hair. I just worry about putting it on my scalp so much.

Sorry for rambling, these things have just been running across my mind for the past couple of months.

 

[*Luscious*Locked*Doc]

I'm transitioning for so many of the reasons mentioned above:

1. Relaxers caused me to have a dermatological bad reaction - I developed mini-scabs and blisters all over my scalp that I have never seen in my life. As a result I had to go to the dermatologist and seek medical treatment. Stupidly, I thought it was "the type of relaxer used". So I relaxed again - same thing happened sigh.

2. I found out my hair was so thin and had stopped producing sebum because I wasn't properly caring for it - this also aggravated my scalp situation.

3. I found out my hair is fine - sigh it just never stops and would tangle if I blinked at it. Relaxing only made this situation worse

4. I wanted thick healthy hair that wasn't damaged and wouldn't result in me seeking medical attention for the horrible things I did to it to conform (note: I really was trying to conform b/c of the environment that I work in where there doesn't seem to be one natural head up in the place)

5. I got tired of spending all d*mn day in somebody's salon and paying some ridiculous fee and tip for a day of slow, sad service. My last relaxer was underprocessed in some areas and would have required a corrective. I started feeling like I was .

6. I started falling in love with other naturals I saw around - in music videos, in fotkis, on the streets. I would stop and stare and I didn't even realize I was doing it. This was especially embarrassing on the street.

7. Finally I love my own natural texture - 4a spirals and loose 3c patches and best of all it's thick, versatile, grateful for simple attention (which my relaxed hair never was), and happy to do it's thing while I grow it out. :creatures

8. Also I can sweat like a beast at the gym and all I have to do is run home and do a co-wash and I'm back to fresh and clean - could never do that with my relaxed hair! Let the quest for natural, green hair care begin

 

[cinnamin316]

1) I'm tired of getting burned by relaxers. I can not remember one time where i did not have scabs in my hair. The immediate burning upon applying relaxer didnt help either. I just got tired of it.

2) I've always wanted to go natural. I remember when i was 13 my stylist was blowing my roots and it came out straight like i had a perm. So i figured i wouldnt have to get a relaxer anymore if my hair can get straight with a blowdryer. But the stylist said i needed a relaxer (BTW I begged my mom for a relaxer at 10 years old. She got tired of my whining and just did it. So all of this is my fault)

3) I've always had some length but it was really thin. My ponytails looked weak. Everyone thought my hair looked nice because it was "long" but i was not satisfied with it.