My Transitioning Journey
I didn’t have the traditional big chop, but I started cutting about an inch or so every month once I hit about 15 months post relaxer. I was completely relaxer free by July 24, 2011, which was about 18 months post relaxer.
My Transition Routine
13-15 Post Relaxer
I washed and deep conditioned my hair once every two weeks. I shampooed my hair in about 8 sections using Shea Moisture’s moisturizing shampoo and deep conditioned my hair with bioinfusion deep conditioning treatment on my roots and a combo of the deep conditioner and aphogee 2 minute on my relaxed ends. I would leave the deep conditioner on for about 2 to 4 hours or overnight and wash it out. I moisturized my hair with Giovanni direct leave in and put my hair in about 12 twists with orange perm rods on the ends. I would wear a twist out, which I would put in a bun or wear a ponytail.
15-18 Post Relaxer
I started washing my hair every week again using the same products and technique. I started doing different styles such as donut buns, curlformers, and I straightened my hair from time to time.
Styles during my Transition
The first couple of months of my transition I did roller sets and wore head bands to blend the two textures. My natural hair eventually grew out of this after three months, so I started doing twist outs, braid outs and other curly styles to blend the textures. I used perm rods on the ends of my hair to help blend my relaxed and natural hair when I did braid and twist outs. During the last three months of my transition I started using curlformers and bunning. You can see pictures of these styles in my Natural Hair Journey: 18 month transition youtube video below.
Opposition faced during my transition
Initially, some of my friends and family were against it, because they didn’t really understand natural hair, I believe. After I was completely natural and showed them the versatility and beauty of natural hair, many of them had a change of heart. I think one of the best ways to help people understand the benefits of natural hair is to show them. I took the time to learn about natural hair through blogs, forums and youtube and that showed in how I took care of my hair.
My initial reactions after becoming fully natural
My hair was about three fourths natural by the time I chopped the rest off, so I had a pretty good Idea of what I was going to be working with. The first style I tried after becoming completely natural was a curlformers set which I had been doing the weeks up to my final big chop, so there was no big difference in styling at first. The curlformers set didn’t last too long, so I ended up washing my hair soon after and doing a twist out. I didn’t really like how the twist out came out so I ended up doing an updo the next week.By the third week, I learned how to do a puff, which became my go to style, and the rest was history. You can find some of my natural hair styles after I became natural in the video below
