Transitioning is not easy. It was not easy for me and it will not be easy for many women who are not quite sure how to proceed into this whole natural hair world.
I will say though that without a doubt, as you begin your journey, that the anxiety of it all passes very quickly and pretty soon you will gain your stride on how exactly to care for your hair.
While you transition there might be a few habits you may pick up that might hinder your journey to healthy hair. Let’s be real, at the end of the day when the relaxed hair is gone you want to be left with healthy natural hair, so here are top three things we often warn transitioners about when they are trying to have a healthy transitioning journey.
1. No heat
It is way easier to manage your hair when it is completely straight versus having two textures to deal with however heat damage is real.
Avoiding heat at all cost is the best thing for your hair when it is in such a fragile state. Remember you have your curly hair being weighed down by your relaxed ends which are significantly heavier.
The point at which your relaxed hair meets your natural hair is even more sensitive to heat and very prone to breakage especially with the use of heat. Try healthier ways to stretch your hair like, roller sets, curl formers, twist and curls sets, and braid and curl sets.
2. Trim often
These days we should not have any complaints from you all about trimming because everyone knows that trimming is essential to healthy hair (wink).
It is even more imperative that transitioners trim or cut their relaxed hair often to keep the ends healthy and to speed up the process of getting to your natural hair sooner.
It might be tempting to keep the ‘length’, just remember it isn’t real length if your hair is not healthy, and health always comes first.
3. Deep condition consistently
If you did not deep condition often when you were relaxed then start practicing now because your hair will need all the strength and moisture it can get with two different textures at play.
Find deep conditioners that work for you and get into the habit deep conditioning* weekly so that your hair can remain healthy through this stressful period.
At the end of the day, healthy hair takes work and if you are committed to it things will get easier. Make sure your transition journey is the best foundation for healthy curls and you can never go wrong with healthy!
I Love It!!#
The no heat didn’t work for us. So I gave it up and transitioning went quite smoothly after that.
Decided to transition my teen daughter. We would wash and condition. Lots of conditioner. Sometimes under a dryer. Most of the time just using a plastic cap. Then, oil the scalp and lots of heat protectant. Next, blow dry it with heat using a comb on the end. Blow dried it enough to loosen the curl pattern which made it blend a bit with the relaxed hair. Plait it up or sometimes loose braids – nothing tight ever. Sometimes the style is a half ponytail. Found a great trick on youtube to use stockings for hair ties. They really are better for the hair and no breakage. We do this every one to two weeks. So we end up using heat on her hair once a week at the most or once every two weeks. We have about 4 inches of relaxed hair left. The curl pattern is just lovely now. She is so full of herself. She just know she cute now. LOL.
I am kicking myself that I ever relaxed her. She came home and said she wanted her hair straight like her friends. So I took her to the salon and they relaxed her. Later, after having alot of discussions with her over years, I came to realize she only meant straight occasionally. I was like OMG we could have just used the hotcomb.
Make it easy, cut it off to your natural hair. Start from scratch & have beautiful natural hair. My hair is 14inches from scalp to ends in a year and a half.
I agree Alicia. I let it get to a “decent length” first then cut off all the relaxed ends. My hair is now almost 11 inches in about 15 months