Saturday 4 August 2012

In Pictures... My Hair: Relaxed To Natural


May 2010 - my last relaxer. 

 I grew my hair out for 19 months (also called transitioning) before I was comfortable cutting away the relaxed ends of my hair and becoming au naturale. 
Transitioning was a big thing for me,  before I relaxed my hair my Mum used to do my hair, so I couldn't quite recall what my natural hair was like, I didn't know what to expect, I didn't know whether I would be able to cope with it, or if I'd even like it! Lots of my friends couldn't understand why I wanted to do it as I had "nice, long hair which I was going to ruin". 
 But it was something I wanted to do, I wanted healthy hair and felt my hair would be much healthier sans relaxer. So, I gave myself 6 months to begin with, if I couldn't cope within that time I'd continue relaxing. What can I say... 6 months FLEW by.



I started taking pictures of my hair in June 2010 after deciding to take proper care of my hair. I started out with a new hair cut at a hair salon and ended up buying lots of the products my hairdresser reccommended - birth of a product junkie.





 June 2010 1 month post relaxer. 




New cut. I had a really nice sweepy fringe put it, it didn't last long as my hair grew but I loved it.


Loving how shiny my hair is in these pictures, I think my hairdresser used KeraCare Silken Seal Liquid Sheen. 







2 - 3 Months Post Relaxer

1st Sight of my curlies - I was so excited to see these :)
I think I harrassed my Mum so much after though: "Is this what my hair was like when I was little?" "Will all of my hair be like this?" "Will this be manageable?" "Is it a good idea?"





I think the picture on the left sums up why I decided relaxed was not for me - it was long enough, but so limp and scraggly. Even in the picture on the right where my hair is dry and straightened my hair is still looks very thin :(
 
I think my hair was too fine for a relaxer.






3 - 4 Months Post Relaxer

This is my 1st braidout before I even knew what braidout was. I plaited my hair into about 2 -4 plaits the night before and took them out in the morning.  Little did I know this would become one of my staple styles for the next 19 months! ha






6 Months Post Relaxer!!

Decided to straighten my hair - pleasantly surprised to see my roots straigtened out nice & easy (well 2 hours worth of "easy" but straight nonetheless).


So close to BSL
From here I decided to continue growing my hair out, I joined some hair boards (love the healthy hair community on the internet!!) and found it was possible to grow out my relaxer by just slowly trimming away the relaxed ends. I was SOLD.


 Yes. I will admit, for a while I was obsessed about my curl pattern. Like I said I think I drove my Mum mad!

Mini Curlies




9 Months Post Relaxer

This was my staple style. Twist to the front and pulled the sides back.
 
Probably not the best style ever, I think I used too much gel and slicked it back too tight as my edges started to break disappear. :( 

Damaged Edges :(


Best idea ever

When I went home, got my Mum to plait my hair up.  Single plaits = my saviour.
No more daily battles with my roots and ends. Loved it. 



Buns were another of my staple styles. You might be able to tell I'm not very creative & am very lazy with my styles ha.




 11 months post :)


I really do think that once I reached 11 months post my natural hair started to take over the relaxed hair



You might have noticed my hair texture looks different in some of the pictures? I seem to have quite a few different textures in this head... I believe the front is looser & frizzier whilst the back is curlier with the crown having a tighter curl pattern. Yes, it was difficult ha.





12 Months Post Relaxer :))


Straightened my hair to celebrate being a whole year relaxer free!

I hate that this picture makes me look slightly bald :(


I will reach BSL one day!!

Its really easy to see how much my hair has grown during the first 12 months of my transition. I trimmed my hair frequently - at least once per month, more when I was bored yet my hair still hovered around BSL (BraStrap Length).



14 Months Post Relaxer

Texture shots of my hair at 14 months post.






18 Months Post Relaxer


At this stage my hair was strictly in buns. I felt there was too much of a difference between my relaxed ends and natural hair to try and do any styles; my relaxed hair wouldn't really hold a curl and I didnt want to keep straightening to try to blend both textures.


I washed my hair in sections of at least 4 to avoid tangling


More frequent trims = almost natural!


I decided to let my hair dry LOOSE one day o_O. NOT a good idea. The result was a very tangled matted mess.
Ended up straightening my hair  - I promise I don't straighten as often as it seems - I just seem to take pictures when my hair is straight!




I had lots of problems with what I think was dryness and split ends. All the way through my transition, the areas where the natural hair and relaxed hair met was very very dry. You can see the pictures above, my roots were fine but towards the middle and ends were very very frizzy and rough. I Hated this. This was the last time I straightened my hair whilst transitioning, on the next wash I didn't trim, I cut!

...


BIG CHOP 
19 Months Post. 
End of December 2011

Little Chop
As I had been trimming away for 19 months there wasn't that much hair to "Big Chop". And I did it myself so it wasn't the greatest cut in the world ha!




I dont know whether this was an "OMG what have I done face" or not. I did have mixed feelings about cutting my hair as it was a shorter than I anticipated due to the shrinkage and could get very very dry. It was long enough for a ponytail ponypuff! :)

And there you have it, highlights of my transition. I'm veryy happy with my decision, my hair feels so much thicker and healthier and thats what I am aiming for
 

 
Hopefully that is useful to someone, let me know if you have any questions!

:)


3 comments:

  1. This is really cool I'm considering going natural.. thanks for sharing!

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  2. Good job :) It will be so much easier without the relaxed ends! HHJ

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  3. Glad you enjoyed it, & hope it was somewhat helpful :)
    Yuup, washing and detangling is SO much easier now. I'm in the process of updating my hair journey post big chop; I'll post that as soon as I'm done :)

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