2. Thinning
In addition to the breakage, you might experience a lot of thinning because your hair starts to taper off which can be a bit scary.
You do not want your hair to thin too much, so it makes sense to save your hair before it gets much worse.
3. You are at your wits end
If you send an email asking for help that ends with the words “Nothing is working, I can’t deal, please help” then it might be a sign that it is time to cut your relaxed hair off.
Transitioning needs patience and lots of it, it makes no sense to think at the point of being the most frustrated you have ever been in your journey that suddenly you will have the patience for even one more set back.
Sometimes we are more ready to get rid of those ends than we think. It might be just fear that is holding us back and deep down we know its time to just get rid of those relaxed ends.
4. You want to take advantage of more natural styles
You might find that you are doing more braid outs, twist outs, bantu knot outs and wash and go’s because the majority of your hair is natural anyway and those styles just work.
The problem is as your hair gets longer these styles start to look odd, and you might find yourself wanted to put your hair away under box braids and twists just to avoid it all together.
If you really want to take advantage of natural styles and find yourself compromising because of the way your hair looks, then it might be time to just take the plunge.
You are already treating your hair as if it is natural, why not take it all the way?
5. You are not as scared as your used to be
Obviously, if you have been transitioning and growing your hair out, you have a pretty good idea of how your hair will look when it is fully natural.
For many of us, this is the source of our fear, and we want to get our hair long enough to garner some comfort from the length, and just the time we have spent dealing with our natural hair.
Once the fear has subsided it is easier for you to do the big chop finally, and start your natural hair journey to the fullest – free of your relaxer.
What was it that told you it was time to big chop? Comment below.
TWA isn’t for me…
At 15 months post, I just didn’t want to deal with the two textures anymore. Once I decided the health of my hair is more important the length.After all I can get the length again. I had no issues with cutting it and do not regret it one bit.
No big chop for me either been natural for two yrs now
Hmmmm I’m not sure about the big chop Deborah P Almada
After 11 months of transitioning, I knew it was time. I had had some Senegalese twists installed a week before my college graduation and I kept them in for 2-2.5 months. When I took them down and washed my hair, my relaxed ends were popping off left and right. The next day, I big chopped. It will be 2 years in July that I’ve been natural and 3 years in August since I’ve had a relaxer.
I think I’m ready for the big chop. Mainly because after washing the relaxed hair Tangles badly and very hard to manage. But that’s my only real issues so far, because I have been doing crochet protective styles on my hair since I started my journey.
My hair was breaking off, my hair would not curl or hold any kind of style, so I chop it off.
All my hair was falling out, my hair would not hold any hair style.