Ladies, there are two ways of becoming a natural. You could big chop or long term transition to become natural through the use of protective styles. I opted to go natural through the use of protective styles while gradually cutting my hair. I won't lie, the first serious chops I did on my own by using hair sheers that I bought from Walgreens. I felt as if cutting the hair on my own gave me a sense of control and it wasn't as traumatizing. I no longer went to the hair salon once I decided to transition and again, I did this because I wanted control. I stayed away from straightening, I washed my hair weekly, and I gradually cut my more straighter ends off. I used box braids, crochet braids, and buns to transition. I've been transitioning for about two years now and I finally got rid of my texlaxed hair. The pictures currently show where my hair is and I more recently got a professional trim.
Pros of Long Term Transitioning:
- You get used to working with your hair and understanding what it loves/hates.
- You can wear styles (like flexi rods/perm rods) to blend your different textures.
- You have hair to work with for other protective styles such as box braids/crochet braids/bunning with or without a hairpiece (phonypony).
- You ease yourself into the idea of becoming natural instead of... (chop-pity chop....ALL GONE!)
- You can transition until you get your hair to a length that you are more comfortable with wearing out.
I said all that to say ....I love being natural. People had all kinds of opinions about me going this route. My mom even hinted at my natural hair making me less attractive, but this is MY HAIR. If someone can't love me because of the hair coming out of my scalp then f*ck em. The funny thing is though, as my hair thickened up, my mom began asking for pointers *insert eye roll*
I'll go more into the opinions of others in another post, but ladies love your sh*t. If you don't, then nobody else will. 4A, 4B, 4Q, 4Z.... rock the hell out of your hair and make apologies to not a soul!
