Friday, May 4, 2012

Transitioning. Natural Hair Care vs Relaxed Hair Care: What's good for the Roots isn't always good for the Ends

Transitioning is a Very Personal, Very Hard Journey

It takes sooooo much patience to transition. It's easy to go completely natural if you have lots of new growth. Some days I really want to do a BC just because I find that my new growth is more managable and healthy than my relaxed ends... it can be so frustrating. But then I notice how long my hair is with the relaxed ends and I see the growth that has taken place and the lack of breakage and then... tada the light at the end of the tunnel that keeps me going. They say to treat your relaxed hair as you do your new growth aka natural roots when transitioning. I do this and my relaxed hair HATES it! I mean there is nothing I do to my hair that both parts love equally, however Shea Moisture Curl and Shine Moisture Milk is the One and ONLY product that makes both parts soft and keeps both my ends and roots moisturized and healthy.

When it comes to products you have to find what works for YOU not what works for the other 4b or 3c icon on your favorite blog or youtube channel. Not every hair type is cut and dry. I have several different hair types in my head, but that's a blog for another day. It's okay to try what others have tried, if it looks good on her it may look good on you too, however, you should not get discouraged if this is not true for you. Also when transitioning a lot of natural style can break and damage your relaxed ends so be very careful what you try, how you try it and how often you try it.

I tried the straw set using a method and products I saw in a youtube video for transitioning... it went well minus the fact that my relaxed ends DO NOT like styling gel, nor have they ever! Knowing this I tried it anyway and it was a major fail! There was hold and plenty of it and my hair looked A-M-A-Z-I-N-G!!! (see my youtube video for pics) BUT there was also the dry brittle crunchy feel to my hair, also in the video the woman I tried to imulate used Shea Butter Leave In Conditioner... another fail for me. My hair feels rough and fragile when in contact with that stuff. This once again is why I'm a product Junkie. I have to experiment constantly to find out what works for me.

I tried the straw curl with several other products since then, only test sections to see how it would turn out instead of the whole head and let me tell you; that particular style is too high maintanence for me, it just takes too long. I have tried plats, corn rows, flat twist, two strand twist, twist outs and braid outs. I have to say that none of these styles went without damaging my relaxed ends. These are/were the times when I felt like just Chopping it all off... down to the roots anyway. The only style that I like that I have not tried is Bantu Knots.

I have found products that pass and products that fail, transitioning styles that pass and styles that fail. I will eventually do a product review blog but for now I will tell you that my absolute favorite style, my signature style, my go to style is the Wash n Go. I love that style, there's not much manipulation involved in the style, it's simple, easy and it's a very Convertible style. As you can see from my last blog it can be turned into a fro-hawk, there are many other styles as well. The only pitfall to the wash in go for me anyway is that it is a Wash and go, meaning wash or co-wash to get the look and too much of that is not a good thing. I haven't yet figured out what I can do or use as a short cut to get the look without actually having to wash or co-wash my hair. Many say use a spray bottle with water and that may be fine for natural hair but relaxed ends hate it!

Next Blog Product Review

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