Hey yall,
Recently, natural hair has become extremely popular. It has transformed into a fashion statement on the runway and a community. The natural hair community always gets new members embracing their natural afro, curls and kinks.
Whether you're relaxed, considering going natural, or already natural you might have heard of transitioning. Transitioning is the process of growing out your natural hair before cutting the processed or damaged hair off. It is an alternative to the notorious big chop. Depending on your hair growth and personal preference, transitioning may take a few months to a year or longer. The choice is all up to you, what makes you feel comfortable.
I am currently transitioning to natural myself. Honestly, I enjoyed my relaxed hair while it lasted. I was able to seamlessly put my hair in a ponytail, detangle faster and swing my hang-time. After a while, I got bored with my relaxed hair. I hated my hair being limp, stringy and the lack of thickness and volume. I decided to transition during my birthday month, April. I would be lying if I said it was a piece of cake. It was more of a Sour Patch candy, sweet and sour. Through my struggle, I found what worked for me. Below are ten tips for transitioning properly.
1) Stop using chemicals and heat
The first step to ensure a successful transition is to stop using any chemical straighteners, dyes and heat. This includes relaxers, keratin treatments and Japanese straighteners. If you have to use heat, keep it to a minimum.
2) Protective styling!
Trust me, this will definitely make your hair grow. Protective styling is a style that protects the ends of your hair and isn't loose. It is supposed to minimize tangles, breakage and shedding. This doesn't mean you won't experience any of these, but the amount is less compared to non protective styles. Examples of these styles are braids with or without extensions, buns, cornrows, twist, bantu knots, weaves and wigs. If you are wearing extensions, wigs or weaves be careful. Make sure your extensions aren't too tight and your edges are not in the braid. This can causes edges to break off and your hairline to recede. When wearing wigs, don't put the glue on or around your edges because when you remove your wig the edges are being ripped out. Additionally, do not put hair glue on your hair. Although it's called hair glue and featured in YouTube videos doesn't mean it's good for your hair. It can actually damage, burn and dry out your hair. Stay away from weave hair styles that require a leave out. Why? Well, a leave out requires your hair to be straightened using heat. To maintain this hairstyle, you must straighten your hair constantly. Overtime, this may result in heat damage. 📷
3)Take care of your hair! Have a regimen
When you wear protective styles, you must take care of your hair. Leaving your hair in a style for months without washing or moisturizing it isn't healthy for your hair. Create a weekly, biweekly or monthly regimen depending on how many times you wash your hair. Do not neglect your hair!
4) Moisturize!
Moisture is very essential to natural hair. Afro textured hair is dry. This is one of the causes of breakage. Dry hair snaps easily too. Therefore, moisture helps strands to become flexible. Now, there are so many different types of moisturizers: leave in conditioners, moisturizers, oils, hair lotions, yogurt (parfait), mayonnaise, smoothies, mask (masque) and creams (creme). As you can see, there are a lot of different options. but you need to find what works for you. Also, don't over do it. You do not need a bunch of products just to moisturize. Addition to moisturizing, you should have a sealant which locks in moisture. The ingredients in the most sealants do not allow it to absorb into the hair. So it sticks to the outside of your hair, which traps the moisture. Sealants include oils, hair butters and grease. When choosing any of these products don't overdo it. Find which one works best for your hair.
5) Do not start experimenting with products yet.
Have you ever watched a Youtube video about a product and were convinced you needed it? It is so tempting to buy that product. You would be spending moolah for stuff that may not work for you. Since your hair is still transitioning it may not work well. Your hair porosity might differ from relaxed to natural. Therefore, your hair absorption of a product will differ. A product may not agree with your hair, causing it to be break off, become dry, rough and brittle. This can lead to major setbacks in your transitioning journey. Also your curl pattern and texture will be different after you cut off the damaged ends so it's possible you will get different results.
6) If extreme breakage, cut it off!
In the words of O.T Genasis " cut it." During transitioning, you will experience breakage and sadly there's nothing you can do about it. During my journey, a lot of my damaged ends broke off. Extreme breakage is a whole other story. My mom refers it to as " when my hair eats out." Simply, pieces of your hair becomes extremely dry, coarse and loses a lot of length. This happened to me after using Wild Hair Growth Oil. I decided to be impatient during my transitioning journey so I bought a growth oil. I was ready to have long healthy hair and swing my future hangtime. Lucky for me, that wasn't the case. I used it for a month and the hair in middle and sides of my head broke off half of it's length, was so dry, and coarse. After I washed, conditioned, and moisturized it, the piece of hair reverted back. Yet, I was salty that I lost a lot of it's length. 📷
7)Detangle carefully
I'm not going to lie, detangaling is so annoying! During wash day, it is the most time consuming. If you had relaxed hair, you know detangaling didn't take that long. Now, it will take a long time. Although it's tiring, don't rush to untangle your hair. You must be careful, or else you will rip out your hair causing more damage. Also, detangle on wet hair, which is hair's most vulnerable state. Once again, be careful when detangaling hair.
8)Use a satin/silk: bonnet, scarf or pillowcase
Each of these protects your hair from friction, breakage and seals in moisture. Without it, your hair will be frizzy, dry and broken pieces. You definitely don't want that. Choose which one you like best. I use a silk bonnet but if I want my hair laid I wear a satin scarf overnight. 📷
9) Trim regularly
Trimming hair is essential to transitioning. It helps you get rid of the damaged, split ends. Trimming keeps your hair healthy throughout your hair journey. Also, this leads to less breakage.
10) Chop when you feel like it and be patient!
I follow a few transitioning hair pages on Instagram and I love their content. The only thing that I hate is the comments. There is always a handful of people commenting "she should just cut it off already." Those comments are so annoying. There is a reason why the person didn't cut her hair. Don't let anyone pressure you into cutting your hair. Do it when your comfortable with the new growth length. In addition, be patient! Transitioning will take a while, depending on your preference. 5 months may feel like 5 years. Each week you may not notice any growth, which will probably irk you. It will feel like forever but you will be happy later on.📷