Reflection on Week 1 of being Natural


It's been one week since I have been natural. I have learnt so much about my natural hair but the biggest lesson is the vast difference between transitioning hair and natural hair.

Hair Typing
For all those transitioning ladies focusing on hair types, Ladies...wait until you big chop! When I was transitioning, my new growth had hair that looked like this:

Now, that same hair, post transitioning looks like this:

Hair Density
The first impression of my natural hair was that it was quite thick and dense compared to how thin it felt while transitioning. I think that the relaxed ends pulled compacted curls of the new growth downwards, giving it a looser/ thinner feel.

Hair Products
Currently, I am still using the same products that I used while transitioning. For those just starting off on their transitioning journey, I would advice to start treating your hair as if it were natural. This means doing away with hair products that work on relaxed hair more than on natural hair. This really helped me through out my transitioning journey, and even until now. I believe that my new growth got used to the products and after I did the big chop, it did not go into shock as others who have big chopped have experienced. My hair retained moisture and kept its luster.

What I did in the first week (click Style links for video tutorials and pictures)
Day 1: Big Chop
Day 2-3: Two strand Twist
  • Moisturized with Taliah Waajid Style and Shine
Day 4: Wash and Go
Day 5-6: Two strand Twist
  • Cowashed with Tresemme Natural Conditioner on Day 5
  • Styled with Generic Paul Mitchel The Conditioner and Eco Styler gel
  • Style: Twists and Twist out
Day 7: Two strand Twist
  • Twists with Giovanni Leave In Conditioner and oil mix
  • Style: Twists
 If you transitioned and have big chopped, what are the differences you noticed after the relaxed ends were cut off?

Comments

  1. UnknownNovember 26, 2012 at 1:47 AM

    Great post :) my new growth looks pretty much exactly lile urs in the new pic, i find it strange that the texture would change though, to me it looks like the same hair texture but the second one brushed out. Also in my old pics of fully natural hair the curls look pretty muc lh the same as my transitioning hait.. Anyway it probably varies :) take care xx

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. DiscoveringNaturalNovember 26, 2012 at 11:26 AM

      The second picture was taken right out of the shower similar to he transitioning one. All I did was pull on that section of hair. I guess it could vary, but I still think the relaxed ends do pull the curls somehow.

      Delete
  2. AnonymousNovember 26, 2012 at 1:03 PM

    How do you feel about big chopping at a year? Do you wish you had waiting for more growth or are you happy with your decision? Im also amazed at how much your hair texture changed. Im transitioning also and some areas are all natural no relaxer and it hasnt changed, I have noticed different products effect curls and coilys different.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. DiscoveringNaturalNovember 27, 2012 at 3:46 AM

      I am very happy about my decision to BC at one year. My hair was experiencing breakage and I believe if I had stuck in there longer just for the sake of longer hair, I would have caused more damage to my new growth. It's amazing how different products create different curls and coils. Here is a blog post I did a while back regarding that: http://discoveringnatural.blogspot.com/2012/06/thing-about-curl-defining-products.html

      Delete
  3. Kreamy KurlsNovember 27, 2012 at 8:20 PM

    lovely post :)

    ReplyDelete

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