Hello ‘Tianaspace’ Readers, today i would like to talk about my natural hair journey and how i transitioned from having Relaxed hair.
Before i proceed further, i would like to highlight the differences between relaxed and Natural hair for the benefit of those that may be struggling to understand them.
RELAXED HAIR:
“Relaxed hair” refers to hair that has undergone a chemical process known as hair relaxing or hair straightening. This process involves the use of relaxer products containing strong chemicals, such as lye or no-lye relaxers, to break down the protein structure of the hair and permanently alter its natural texture.
NATURAL HAIR:
“Natural hair” on the other hand refers to hair that has not undergone any chemical treatments or alterations to its natural texture. It is hair that grows in its original state, unaffected by relaxers, texturizers, or other chemical processes that permanently change the hair’s structure.
Natural hair can come in a variety of textures, ranging from straight to wavy, curly, or tightly coiled. The specific texture and pattern of natural hair are determined by an individual’s genetic makeup, ethnicity, and other factors.
My natural hair after transitioning
MY NATURAL HAIR TRANSITIONING JOURNEY
What does Natural hair transitioning mean?
Natural hair transitioning refers to the process of gradually growing out and transitioning from chemically relaxed or straightened hair to your natural hair texture. It is a journey where individuals decide to embrace and work with their natural hair instead of continuing to chemically alter it.
During the transition, you allow your natural hair to grow while gradually trimming off the relaxed or chemically treated ends. This process can take several months or even years, depending on the length of your hair and how fast it grows.
I had stopped applying relaxer at this point. You can see there are two hair textures
I started transitioning to natural hair in the year 2019. I have always had long, healthy hair even when i used to relax the hair. I know you may be wondering why i had to transition to natural hair despite that. Well, as long, beautiful, and healthy my relaxed hair was, i just didn’t like the idea of applying relaxer on my hair and having to deal with the discomfort that came with my scalp getting burnt sometimes from waiting for my hair to absorb the relaxer. I was also curious to know what my natural hair looked or felt like because i couldn’t recall what it was like before the relaxer.
I knew i had to go natural but i didn’t know how to go about it, couldn’t gather the courage to chop off large portion of my hair, fear of the unknown, and many more worries. So i kept procrastinating the process.
It was difficult to maintain the hair at this point because i was dealing with two textures.
THE PROCESS
I normally would relax my hair about four(4) times in a year. I gradually reduced it to twice in a year in the previous year(2017/2018) and then to once a year. I then decided to completely stop applying relaxer. This was early part of 2019.
I let my natural hair grow out to a certain length, but was still not confident in chopping off the relaxed ends which was a lot of hair still😫
Anyway, something unfortunate happened to me in that year 2019 which finally gave me the courage to chop off and go fully natural.
I would be sharing more on that in the next post. Kindly share your natural hair journey with us in the comment section, i would love to hear from you😍.
