As a newly natural (last relaxer March 17th, 2009), having transitioned for 1 yr prior to my BC. I have experienced the trials and triumphs of transitioning. I was asked to share with you some of my tips and tricks on surviving through the transitioning phase to help ease your journey to embracing and unlocking the beautiful curls hidden under the "creamy crack (aka perms/relaxers/texturizers)." Through a dear friend, that was also natural, as my only support in the beginning and my determination to become a naturalista, I began to explore this new subject matter of natural curly hair. It is really important to think about the reasons you want to go natural. These same reasons will help you in the difficult times when you may want to reach for that box of relaxer.
There are 2 ways to become completely natural. Big Chop (BC) right away at the length of your naturally curly hair or transition and gradually cut the relaxed ends off.>My decision, to transition instead of BC right away, came from taking a simple 4 question transitional quiz that helped me take a realistic approach of how to start my journey as a nautralista.
Here is the link:
http://www.nappturality.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=64&Itemid=67
There is short term and long term transitioning. The success of long term transitioning (greater than 3 months) depends on how resilient your hair strands are. It is possible to minimize damage with the use of correct products and techniques.
In my opinion, I find the transitioning phase to be the most difficult phase in the natural journey, because it's the beginning. During this phase, you are experimenting with 2 different textures of your hair, with products, treatments, and hairstyle techniques to see what works for you. Trying to get to know your hair, it's likes and dislikes, as well as trying to make both textures blend well. However, you are also experiencing a myriad of emotions, fear to frustration, excitement to elation. You may struggle with long held beliefs about your hair and beauty. You may even have family, friends, and coworkers chiming in positively or negatively about YOUR decision. As your hair begins to grow and change, your way of thinking will (and must) change as well. The transitioning phase is more a transitioning of the way you think and view your own beauty than a manipulation of the hair, as we will soon explore. There will be a point during your transition that you feel a sense a freedom, things will make sense and follow easier for you, that came during my 4th or 5th month. Then during my 8th and 9th month, I would start staring at the scissors to cut those relaxed ends off...….lol. But it is very important to BC when you are ready. And I really wasn't mentally ready so I continued for a few more months.
Also let me point out that there are several ways to transition. I transitioned without heat (air dried), salon help or added hair. However, one can transition with braids, wigs, weaves, or with salon help. It is just important to keep in mind to treat your new growth well and keep it healthy whatever method you use.
Six Weeks Post Relaxer
Before we dive in this business of transitioning in more detail. I would like to share with you some very helpful tips.
--First, please erase everything from your mind that you have ever learned about treating chemically processed hair. Caring for naturally curly hair is a totally different approach, as you will soon see. Everything from the way you use a comb and brush, shampooing, styling, and products must be erased.
--Second, get hold of a good camera and a journey notebook (or join fotki). This is important in keeping clear and accurate accounts of the products, hairstyles, techniques and treatments that work and doesn't work for your hair. The camera is for you to see your progress and growth over time. Hopefully, you will only go through this once in your life. So keeping a pictorial journal is a treasure. (www.fotki.com/intelligentbeauty is where you will find my pictorial journey)
--Third, you must NOT judge your natural hair as it begins to grow. Resist the urge to classify it into a curl category, or type it as a specific curl pattern or texture. Naturally curly hair is unique and varies from person to person. You will not be able to get a true typing on your hair until you cut it off, because sometimes it can look totally different once the relaxed ends are off. So just leave it alone and let it grow!!! Concentrate on hair health and hair response to what you are doing to it. The hair that is growing out of your scalp is what God gave you. So concentrate on your hair, and not your neighbors!!
--Lastly, HAVE PATIENCE AND BE CONSISTENT. If you are able to endure this transition process, you will be so happy to have a full healthy head of curls. So you read in the link above, all hair grows so we must be patient with this transition process. The consistency in regimens (like deep conditioning (DC) weekly) and sticking with products that work are important as well. Product junkism(Pjism), hopping from product to product line looking for a miracle product, is wasteful and can potentially cause more harm than good.
Ok, so let's begin with natural hair 101. The basic knowledge of hair, then more specifically curly hair. This is where I began in my journey to get a clear understanding of the cycle that ALL types of hair goes through.
Here is the link: http://www.pgbeautygroomingscience.com/the-hair-growth-cycle.html/
Now, more specifically curly hair during transitioning. As your hair grows out you may see a clear difference (depending on how loose your natural curl pattern is) between your natural hair and your relaxed hair. This is called the LINE OF DEMARCATION. This is important because this is the weakest part of the hair strand and will break easily if not handled carefully. You must handle your hair like silk.
The use of heat in transitioning should be to cut to a minimum if a must. Heat could potentially damage new growth. And this damage, like a relaxer, is permanent. You would have to cut it off again. So be very careful with your blow dryers and fat irons. At this point you should be focusing more on curly styles: roller sets, 2 strand twist and twist outs, etc. We will get into those later.
Next time, we will discuss products/ingredients, regimens and styling techniques
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